Intertwined Bistro & Wine Bar

Been here a few times for wine and appetizers. This is such a great place to come if you are local and do not want to drive far. Intertwined is right in the heart of downtown Escondido. My fiancé’ and I tend to come here on Saturdays night if we do not want to drive far and stay locally. We’ve always have had a great experience coming to this restaurant. Moderately busy on a Saturday night. Has a nice dining area and small but intimate wine bar (with TV’s).
Appetizers tried.
–Flat bread Goat Cheese & Arugula
–it was ok. kinda looked like more of a salad with the pile of arugula. as far as the bread it was thick and not thin/​crisp like most flat breads
–Brussel Sprouts and Bacon
–these are must try if you like brussel sprouts. Cooked perfectly with a nice crunch and flavor.
Wine
–Peachy Incredible
–Conch Toro Sauvignon
–El Libre Rose’
–Station Pinot Noir
Overall:
A fan of this place. A nice selection of wine. Good service. And nice setting and ambiance for any occasion.

I went to this restaurant last Saturday night for restaurant week and a special dinner for my sister-​in-​law. I had passed by it a few times in the past so was excited to check it out. I really had higher expectations for this rather «so-​so» experience.
Upon entry, I loved it. The Moroccan lanterns in the back are just beautiful. We arrived about 10 minutes early and were warmly greeted and seated in the back bar as we waited for our table. They had a great wine list, and we had time to browse the menu. We were taken care of back there, drank some great wine, and staff made some menu suggestions for us.
We were then seated at a table in the busy dining room, but, unfortunately, our great service ended there. The server was polite and food came out at a timely fashion. However, my wine glass and water glass were dry for a while before our server returned, and later the water glass was dry again. I realized that no one was checking on us until it was time for the next course. Honestly, it felt a little like a factory… no personal touch, and we were just being pushed through. It just was not an enjoyable experience.
The food was pretty good for the most part. I actually really liked the pork belly appetizer I chose. The pear sauce was imaginative and flavorful. They were nicely able to substitute the vegetable for me with my goat cheese chicken. The chicken was fine, except that there was very little goat cheese in my piece. In fact, it wasn’t until my last few bites that I found any at all. The mashed potatoes were terrible… flavorless and heavy and stayed on my plate.
I chose the chocolate bread pudding for dessert. It was ok, but just not really decadent.
The part that was most disappointing to me, was that when I made reservations, I requested a candle in a dessert for my sister-​in-​law and stated that we were celebrating a birthday. I also called earlier that day and asked for a candle. I was told that they had noted my request and that for sure we would have the candle. Well… no candle… no mention. I was upset as it is a small touch that makes someone feel special. I would have complained, but we were there with the birthday girl and didn’t want to say anything. Luckily, we had a second round of desserts from one of our favorite spots (with a candle) waiting for us at home.
Honestly, I would have rated this restaurant 2 stars, but we had great service and wine in the back bar.
I would like to think this restaurant does a better job on a normal night that is not restaurant week, but I am not tempted to return.

Five stars is too limiting for such a restaurant. I absolutely love this place. I work at two hotel/​resorts and always suggests our guests to come here and I have never had anyone come back disappointed. The gespacho soup and chicken lollipops with sweet chili are the most delectable decisions you could ever make! Extensive wine selection to cater to each plate.
As far as how they have it set up, there are a few tables out front, dining mainly being inside and a lounge area in the back with couches and chairs. I would recommend making reservations as the seats fill up fast and people stay there for hours!

My best friend and I decided to try this place during Restaurant Week. Nice ambiance and pleasant staff. We didn’t order any wine, but for appetizers, we had the bacon wrapped goat cheese dates (nice flavor) and crispy pork belly (warning: very fatty, but that’s why we ordered it!). For our entrees, the cedar plank salmon and braised short rib (very tender) were delicious, but nothing spectacular.
I have a sweet tooth, so I was looking forward to desserts. I love crème brûlée which should be smooth & creamy with a crunchy topping… the blood orange crème brûlée had a unique flavor. Crunchy topping? check! Smooth & creamy? NOPE! It was more like pudding… very runny! The chocolate bread pudding was a much better choice, but not great. With mediocre desserts like these, I’d pass next time, but it was a 3-​course meal for $ 30 (Restaurant Week special). I would not come back if I had to pay the regular menu prices, but I might consider a future Restaurant Week special.
I’d give them 2 stars because of the desserts (soooo disappointed with the crème brûlée) but since the appetizers and entrees were good, I’ll give them an extra star.

Cousin dinner date night here for restaurant week so of course we took advantage of the restaurant week special which was $ 30 for an appetizer, entrée and dessert. It was a last minute decision to venture out for dinner so we did not have a reservation but when we arrived we luckily were seated immediately on one of the couches in the back. This was our second time here together and we both agreed that we liked sitting on the couches better. It’s a very cute establishment but if you have claustrophobia or have issues with minimal elbow room while eating, you may not be too fond of dining here. The general dining area with the regular tables and chairs are pretty squished together so you’re more or less dining with the people sitting next to you. Small price to pay in my eyes for some yummy food with decent service.
On to the food… we both ordered the crispy pork belly to start off with. Nice presentation, flavored just right and a good way to open our palates before our entrée. I had the salmon and my cousin ordered the chicken goat cheese. Both entrees were proportioned well and very filling to the point where we only ate half our plates to ensure we saved room for our dessert. For dessert I ordered the crème brûlée and my cousin got the chocolate bread pudding. The bread pudding was head and shoulders above more scrumptious than the mediocre crème brûlée which unfortunately was a disappointment to the both of us. Insert two sad faces because we both were hoping it would be yummy to our tummies. Nonetheless it was a good meal, good price, and good service. Looking forward to coming in for a 3^rd round and trying something new.

I stopped in for lunch and I’m blown away. The service is extraordinary. Tory was an absolute pleasure to be around. She offered me a 3 ounce taste of wine since I’m on my lunch break. Soup of the day is albondigas (tradition mexican meatball soup) and is outstanding. This place has style and class. Its the perfect addition to escondido. Color me impressed

We came for a late lunch and it was okay. I ordered the turkey melt sandwich and gazpacho. The gaspacho had a creamy mayo drizzle that was not tasty to me — too heavy handed, honestly, and the gaspacho itself was really chunky rather than blended… it just wasn’t very tasty, so when the server asked me if we liked our food, I was honest. She took it back and then later I was surprised to see it on my bill. She didn’t offer anything to replace it or anything — and maybe one of my companions would have liked it if she’d left it. I mean, if you’re paying for it, you might as well at least see if it suits someone else’s taste, right? Anyway, I also got a turkey melt sandwich and it had a bit too much fig compote for my taste, but it came off in a giant lump, so no biggie. They had a good selection and good prices on wine and my companions loved their meals (a pear BLT and abondigas soup and a burger), so I guess it just wasn’t my taste. Nice place, though, nice décor, friendly, good prices. I probably just ordered the wrong menu items.

Seen this place to the last couple years and never stopped in. The atmosphere is really nice. We had appetizers and wine flights. It was REALLY good. The calamari was perfect… not frozen type with the ones with antennas. Great place for a date.

It was «date night» for my husband and I, and it has been literally months since we’ve had a date. Out of alllllll the restaurants we could have chosen, we chose Intertwined because we enjoyed the food immensely last time. Made reservations for 5:00 PM.
We get there, wait a couple minutes at the front for the hostess. Then, we get seated right smack in the middle of the restaurant. I politely asked if we could possibly be moved to a different table, and she said, ‘No, sorry, the other tables get filled faster”. Okay? I don’t understand, but okay.
Now again, this was our first date night in months and I was really looking forward to a nice dinner and some romance. Well, a table right behind the hostess stand, the only table in the middle, right by everyone walking by all night, was just not the best seat. And there were other seats available, still towards the front. But I guess those seats «get filled faster» which still doesn’t make sense to me.
Anyway, we still decided to stay until we sat there for over 10 minutes, with servers walking past us, and still no one came up to us to even ask what we would like to drink. 10 minutes. At that point, I told my husband that this is off to a bad start and let’s just go.
So that’s what we did. We just left. VERY disappointed. We walked down the street to another restaurant and had an amazing experience.
To the Intertwined person who reads the Unilocal reviews: It is not enough to have good food. Please work harder to make sure your staff/​the staff works to make people feel welcomed. Good service can go a long way!

YUM!!! I haven’t been disappointed yet! There are lots of vegetarian options which is nice. Perfect for a lunch meeting or happy hour (try a flight).

I didn’t know this place existed, it’s kind of tucked away among the random businesses on Grand downtown. Unless you walked down the street, you would never know what some of these little businesses are.
I met a friend for a late lunch, and he’s a regular. He hadn’t been in to eat for a while, and all of the staff was happy to see him. I got to meet the owner, and she was very welcoming.
We started with the stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. They were good, stuffed with goat cheese, which is good because I’m not a fan of blue cheese.
We ordered a goat cheese & arugala flatbread, with added chicken and a side of pesto. It was very good, cut into small pieces to make it easy to share.
We also got the pasta with mushrooms & chipotle cream sauce. They subbed shrimp for the normal sausage, because the sausage contains some tequila. The mushrooms were fresh, because the normal mushrooms are marinated, and have some wine in them. The sauce was good, but a little heavy. It could have used some spinach, or cheese or something to break up the flavors.
Overall, a nice place to come for a meal. I can imagine it being busy on date nights, because there are some romantic seating areas.

Came here with my husband for our 1 year anniversary because:
1. It was close to the grandparents house which is out of our town. Free daycare
2. The ambiance
3. The reviews
Must admit we were horribly disappointed.
The highlight of our dining experience was the hostess, the fact they remembered our reservation and the Riesling.
The ambience was enjoyable, nicely decorated and chic. They booked our reservation for «the closet» a tiny two person table in the back tucked into the wall. However, we felt it was just a front to distract patrons from the «bottled sauce «food and horrible waitresses.
As a former waitress I have an added respect and understanding of the workings of a restaurant and it’s employees, with that being said the hostess was great very personable, as was the busser our server however seemed scatterbrained originally asked if we’d like water and replied yes no water,
after we ordered a bottle of wine asked again if we would like water replied yes… By the time we signed for our bill we never received water.
We ordered the calamari and dates.
The calamari was mediocre at best basic batter bland aioli and bottled spicy chili sauce. We had to ask the waitress for lemons which should come standard.
Dates had good rich flavor however the sauces were bottled store bought and did not complement the flavor.
We sat at our table after finishing our appetizers having the busser remove our planets, finished our bottle of wine, before our waitress showed up to check in on us with our check in hand !
Saying you didn’t want dessert did you?
Desert !!! We never even ordered our dinner!!!
I was so upset at this time I just said no
My husband already having card in hand just said no being very disappointed we didn’t feel like having dessert out on our anniversary because of bad service.
If you want a great ambience and a good glass of wine this place is great if you want good food and a wonderful dining experience go else where
Just an over priced restaurant playing off it’s looks.
Just very very very disappointing:/

Seriously, how can this place have 4.5 stars?!! They truly deserve all 5 stars (or even more). Food is divine, service is attentive and spectacular, and the ambiance is always an eye catcher. We always get the crab tower as an appetizer and it never gets old. Make sure to ask for a side of the plum sriracha sauce along with it! The little not of heat from the sauce compliments the sweet chunks of mango and creaminess of the avocado and crab.
Unlike many high end restaurants, Intertwined is very accommodating. They subbed the bread for cucumber on the tower and were open to adding a few extra ingredients we wanted on the goat cheese flat bread. If you have any special requests or are curious to tweak a dish, don’t be shy to ask. They are very open to it and won’t flat out reject you before you even finish your sentence.
Shout out to our server Jenny, who came to check up on us multiple times throughout the meal! Definitely made you feel more than a customer and like one of her friends.

It’s restaurant week and we decided to come here and enjoy a nice dinner with great service and wine! I ordered the Calamari to start with a Chicken penne pasta & Gouda. For dessert I went with the apple berry cheesecake cobbler. Everything was superb and the price was excellent. $ 30 per person. Highly recommended!!!

Excellent service and food. Delicious salmon, chicken stuffed with feta cheese and steak. A birthday dinner for me. Presentation fabulous. So was tomato soup. Snoqualami Riesling perfect with my meal. We will be back. Quiet, relaxing atmosphere.

This is a excellent restaurant!
I enjoyed the house burger with sweet potato fries. It was cooked exactly how I like medium rare. The sweet potato fries were very good and I would highly recommend them. Also I got a side of the aioli and it is very good as a dipping sauce for the fries. The service was great and the atmosphere of the restaurant was even better. Definitely recommend coming here.

A very nice date place. The interior décor is soo pretty. The waiter was very attentive. We tried the cedar plank salmon and ginger ale pork chop. Both had the same celery veggie side. The pork chop had some weird sour soap tasting mush on top, just push it aside, yucky. I passed on dessert because there was no crème brûlée. There is 2 hour street parking right outside.

Great find in Escondido!
I was sure I was going to enjoy the food just by admiring the décor. Biased? Yes, knowingly. This restaurant is very small but really cute, the lighting is intimate without feeling like you might accidentally stab your finger instead of the steak.
Our server Torry (?) was very knowledgeable of the menu and made some great recommendations. She also had a great smile!
Chicken lollipops– very tasty frenched little chicken drumlettes paired with a delicious plum and sriracha dipping sauce. $ 10 for four pieces, worth it.
Interwined bowtie pasta– surprised by the large portions (see photo) and had plenty to take home. I love the mixture of the cheese, sundries tomatoes, pine nuts and chicken, my only complaint would be it was a bit oily making the dish feel more heavy. $ 13-​$ 14
Lobster pasta special– $ 28, generous amounts of lobster with 3 perfectly grilled jumbo shrimp. The cream sauce paired well with he seafood and asparagus. This was probably my favorite dish of the night.
This was a great place for date night for the hubby and I. Love the atmosphere and service; only 7 miles from the house we will definitely be back again.

I absolutely loved this place.
The place has been decorated to perfection: unique hanging light fixtures, beautiful molding in the ceilings and quaint little lounge areas in case you are only there for a drink. We started with a glass of wine at the little bar that they had, and the owner, Kristi, was talking to us for a while about the place.
When we finally sat down, the waitresses was very attentive and let us have a few tasters of some of the wine that we were contemplating, I really appreciated that.
As far as the food goes, everyone in my party enjoyed their food. I personally got the salmon which was cooked to perfection and I opted for the Brussel sprouts instead of the rice, which I am glad that I did. My sister had the Thai chicken flatbread which was huge and had to take about half of it home! My other sister had the stuffed chicken which looked great, but I am not sure that I would have been a fan of the creamier sauce. The only thing that I did not like about my food was in the chard there were whole pieces of garlic. I love garlic, but I just wish they had been cooked a little more because they definitely overwhelmed the bites in-​between when I had them.
They even brought out some ice cream and a candle for my dad since it was his birthday. This is definitely a gem of Escondido.

So glad restaurant week was extended. Met with my friend for dinner and it was amazing! I never really go anywhere in Escondido and this was such a nice surprise! I would’ve never thought to try this restaurant. The menu caught my eye when I was browsing places to try that is close to home. Well I was mainly looking at what type of desserts that the restaurants were serving. The restaurant is really cute and staff was very friendly.
It was one of those days at work so I looked right at the wine. I ordered the pinot wine flight. 3 glasses of wine is perfect! Lol.
We ended up having the goat cheese dates, calamari, cedar planked salmon, goat cheese chicken, bread pudding, and the apple-​berry cobbler. Everything was delicious! The chicken was good then I got to the middle and it was amazing! I loved that it was stuffed with goat cheese. I had a few bites of his salmon and it was perfect. The goat cheese dates was really good and it was recommended by our waiter. I was really craving the bread pudding but I preferred the apple-​berry cobbler.
I really love Grand Ave in Escondido. There are a bunch of restaurants I need to try on this street. I hope to come back again soon.