Essex

Patio is one of the best in Charlotte! Food always tastes fresh and service is friendly.

Love the Brussel Sprout Caesar! Great place for a lunch meeting or a private event!

My first time eating at Essex was this past weekend for my bachelorette weekend! I had been passing by since they opened, but never actually stopped in for a bite. My girls and I enjoyed the food, ambiance, and service very much. I ordered the lamb chop lollipops - so tender and cooked to perfection (just wish they had mint jelly to accommodate the lamb). Overall the food was delicious! Before ordering the waitress took her time in explaining to use how they prepare and serve the food, which was just fine with us. Hopefully I will be going back soon!

Enjoyed the experience. Loved being able to make a reservation the day of. Service was a bit slow. Would love to have had the appetizer arrive before the other food. Overall good experience.

So the food was phenomenal. My fiancé and I got the spring rolls, Szechuan shrimp (AMAZING, but not spicy as they said on the menu) and short rib ravioli. The only complaint is service. We had an early dinner before a show and sat for over 10 minutes at our table with other servers passing behind quite frequently without anyone acknowledging us, coming up to us or giving us water...... before we finally went to the hostess stand to ask where our server was. Once she came, she was great and attentive the whole meal so I’m not sure where the communication breakdown was. We’d go again I think but definitely give yourself some time because service issues can really mess up a scheduled evening.

Inside booths are very uncomfortable, the benches are either to low for the tables or the tables are to high! Very noisy & have to scream at one another. Tapas plates are too expensive. Their web site says free valet parking & no one was there.

Tables are too high for booth seats.....waitress was s little slow but it was tolerable

Food was exceptional as usual. The only issue we had with this visit was that they were out of quite a few of the dishes we ordered, which took them a while to realize the issue and let us know so we could order replacement. They also brought out the wrong appetizer twice in a row after taking longer than usual to bring out. Staff was extremely professional as usual and was very accommodating once the mistakes they made were realized.

This could be higher rated. This restaurant has a very nice layout and decor. The wine list is quite extensive. The issue is that while it is small plates and they do say the plates come out as prepared, there was literally an hour between when our first plate arrived, a meat dish, and the last dish, fish. For a table of 5, this lack of kitchen continuity is terrible for even a small party. I also had to send back two glasses of wine as they bought out a white wine when I had ordered a red. I was not unclear in my ordering. With that out of the way, the food is good. The octopus was very unique and flavorful. The bang bang grouper was great, although it is in fish chucks so it is very similar to bang bang shrimp. The lamb lollipops are also very good. I would go back, but only to the bar and not with a group as they cannot handle a group without someone being disappointed by the service and delivery.

Food was amazing....only giving 3 stars because the manager was surprisingly unprofessional, somewhat arguing back & forth with my friend when she complained about how her side item came out well after her main course because the waitress & kitchen staff somehow did not know that potatoes were included....she only wanted all of her food to come out at one time but had actually finished the meat before the side arrived becsuse who wants cold meat?? He continued to go back & forth with her & finally asked what she wanted from him & what did she expect him to do because it was simply an oversight...we were appalled at how long he was willing to go back & forth with her standing over our table instead of just making it right in a professional manner....it was alarming but guess you cant win em all

The waiter tried to get us to buy more food than we needed and WAY overcharged us for a drink. She refused to change it. It took speaking to a manager to make the change, which he did in the end and agreed that they did indeed overcharge us. Place just seemed like they were trying to get people to spend much more money than needed. Don't fall for it.

A bit hard to hear tablemates due to loudness. Disappointed in butter chicken. Not near as tender as other places. The fried cauliflower was very good. The salads looked nice and I will try that next time. Will give Essex another visit. Server was new and very eager to help in selections.

We’ve always enjoyed Essex, tonight we had Tiffany as a server and she was excellent! Will definitely be requesting her in the future.

Very rude waitress. She was very slow as well and wasn’t yet busy at 5 on Friday evening.
Food was good and tapas were large portions. I think the meat tapas have much less of a portion. Salad was sloppy and not good.

Have eaten here 10x or so and always have great food and service. Flat breads, bang bang grouper, and garlic gambas/shrimp with bread are all favorites. Nice variety done well.

Food was good. Service was SLOW. We went for lunch and it took almost 1 hour and 1/2. Sat quickly with a reservation which was great. I have been a few times as I work uptown but won’t go back. Service needs a lot of work.

Great experience!

Excellent food! I took a friend here to celebrate her birthday and we sat at the bar. We had the potato gnocchi, shrimp scampi, fried cauliflower, warm Brussels sprout salad, veal meatball and bang bang grouper. Everything was amazing with great flavor! The only one I wouldn't order again would be the fried cauliflower, it needed some kind of dipping sauce or something, was kind of dry for me. One of my favorite places to people watch if you are able to sit outside on the deck/porch. Cool bar area and great booth seating options available too!

Wonderful amazing food with great service and pleasant atmosphere.

We shared several apps & enjoyed them all... loved the hummus & really loved the falafels!

Just an amazing restaurant all around. Loved every dish and the service was excellent.

Overall this is one of the hidden gems in uptown Charlotte - the staff is very friendly and attentive. The atmosphere is causal to upscale depending on what you are looking for.

The food is Tapas style and very tasteful- I would definitely go again and tell my friends about it!!

Something we were served gave my wife and I an upset stomach for more than a day. Won’t be going back.

Good food, but extremely poor service detracted from the experience, we sat for 20 minutes waiting for our bill

The food is amazing!! The service is ok. I went twice, my first waitress was really good and super nice. My second waitress was a total ditz. She took away my food as I was eating it, she couldn’t tell me if there was a house glass of white wine, she messed up splitting our checks, and when my guest asked if a chicken sandwich was served hot, she said “well the chicken is cooked.” ... I hope it’s cooked!!! She was just an idiot. But that was one waitress out of many and my other one was very good so I don’t wanna label the service as overall terrible.

Love the variety of small dishes, some of which are pretty sizable. Some of my favs are fried cauliflower, short rib ravioli, beet salad, tikka masala, ahi tuna tacos, and the list goes on. Can be loud in the evening but there is a nice space for a group in the back. Patio is great for people watching. Love this place!

Awesome experience! Food was terrific and waitress was excellent! Will definitely be coming back again.

Great menu with a lot of choices. Apps where very large & shareable. Food arrived quickly. Server was indifferent

Our shared app was great but the Naked Lamb Kefta was hard as a rock! I had 4 little hockey pucks. They were so burnt my guests could see and asked if they were. Everyone said that I should have sent them back but I worry about what they will do to your food when you do that so instead I just peeled off the outside burnt and ate the very little dry insides. It was my first time there with 4 out of town guests, and yes it was also my last time.

Our service was very slow. We had brunch and 2 of 3 omelettes came together, the 3rd took another 10 minutes. Fries came with the omelettes but we received them very late. Also a veggie omelette listed as containing onion, mushroom spinach and cheese...it was creamed spinach. Truly gross.

Restaurant week date night, great food and many choices.

Wonderful atmosphere and the best food so many great options one of our favorite restaurants . We recommend to many friends also.

Essex was awesome! We went for Queens Feast and the portions were huge. So much bang for your buck. Everything we had was delicious! We will definitely be back.

I went to Essex for restaurant week with a few coworkers. We sat outside to enjoy the nice weather however, it was highly distracting due to all of the ruckus of the local beggars right beside our section. The Spicy Tuna TarTar was amazing however, my skirt steak was a little chewy! I have a friend who is allergic to certain food items but she can typically have them removed from a meal, it was not that way at Essex. The service was decent, no complaints! Overall I’d say that this is a decent place however, not a must have!

Great food! The flavor was exceptional, the price was reasonable and the choices were aplenty. Definitely plan to return again with more friends!!

Food was delicious, service was great! We were told it was tapas enough to share... that’s true, not you typical small plates.

The waitress was not friendly, our food came out incorrect and the Bill was incorrect. Then they ran out of containers to take home leftovers and if we wanted any to go orders we had nothing to take the food home in. They gave us cups to take food home. This was the first time that I came to this restaurant and I’m not going to return.

$100 later and we're still hungry. Those were not tapas sized portions. we've been here before and the portions were about half the size. We went for restaurant week and I expected a lot more. First off, they were out of 3/4 of the things we ordered. Second, the service was meh. Our water was never filled up. we waited about 30 min for the butter chicken (which I'm sure they forgot about considering everything else came out within 15 min). I was finished with all of my food first. and we were never updated on the status of our food. third , the dessert. I swear they took a thin slice of cake, cut it in half and then gave it to me . I've attached the TWO portions of dessert we received. I will honestly never come back here , especially for restaurant week. I could've spent my money better somewhere else

Food was great. I think with a soccer tournament in town and restaurant week, they were over booked. 3 items from our order never showed up at the table. We had the server remove 1 item from our list and the other 2 items were boxed to go.

The short rib ravioli and potato gnocchi were super dense and chewy, like they may have been over worked when rolling. They were also out of several items due to the influx of customers.

Drinks were good.

Food was fantastic, service for us was pretty good. People around us were having horrendous service with various servers, so it feels like we may have gotten lucky with a good server. Based on service around us I’m not sure if I’d recommend a friend go.