Crush Wine Bar

This is my second update to my review of Crush Wine Bar. I feel it’s worthwhile because I have to go to a full 5-​stars.
We were entertaining guests from out of town. I still had some apprehension about Crush, but the trend had been improving and I hadn’t been there in over 6 months. Andrea (owner) greeted us from the hostess station with a big enthusiastic smile and escorted us to nice table on the former «sushi side».
Our server was prompt, friendly and funny. Our guests asked for suggestions. He claimed «everything is excellent», so they took a different tack and asked for his least favorite. He replied with «the beet salad», which is my favorite. We laughed and I ordered it anyway, and it’s still my favorite (I’m always disappointed when other restaurants serve a tons of greens with some beats thrown on top).
We ordered our standby favorites, including brussel sprouts, calamari, mac & cheese and a sushi roll. The food was without exception, outstanding.
At the end of the meal we asked if we could chat again with Andrea. She came back to our table and we relayed our compliments and gratitude. I will no longer have apprehension about Crush, because now «I know the owner».

I agree with what most people write about Crush… Very good food, wine, very different menu, I just haven’t been able to get past why the owners of Zinc won’t try to at least moderately improve the main dining area. Tends to smell musty, they put craft paper over the nice cloth tableclothes, it’s just not what I think a ‘wine bar’ should ‘vibe’.

Originally from Sandusky and was visiting my parents this past weekend and had a fantastic dinner with a large group. Crush was generous to help in giving us a back area for a large birthday group for dinner and I had the California roll and it was filling & delish.
I was drinking a sauvignon blanc (not sure which one) that the bartender recommended as her favorite and it was perfectly buttery.
Expect to pay more when you go to crush, but you’ll be paying for quality and service.

Overrated and overpriced. WAY better food can be found in the Cleveland area at the same price.
Crush was middle of the road for us, but maybe we didn’t order the right things?
— the duck wings were nothing special. The description in the menu sounded interesting but they were underwhelming at best.
— the seasonal soup was outstanding. I’m not a soup person, but the combination of Apple, squash, pumpkin seeds was amazing. Could have done without the bacon.
— smoked salmon pasta was a mess. The salmon overpowered everything and I think the dish would have been better deconstructed.
— Bianco pizza was ok. Would have been great with more truffle oil and less cheese.
— while ordering, we were told the chef doesn’t add or change anything. Are you kidding??? Maybe get off your high horse and listen to what your customers are saying.

That rarity: an establishment, in Sandusky, which serves really good food. No surprise that it is an affiliated enterprise to the marvelous Zinc.
Five stars for the food.
Ditto for the staff except for our server, Carina.
Although honesty isn’t a prerequisite for serving food, when one blames her incompetence on the barkeep who she manipulated into explaining away her errors, and whose duplicity attenuated the enjoyable evening, a truly five star business will be bidding her a fond adieu!

Food was amazing. Zack was a Fantastic server. He was so friendly and so fun! Patio was excellent! Thank you Zack for making the cucumber martini recommendation and our parents day out so great!

One of my favorite places! L-​O-​V-​E the trout patte (make sure the toast isnt too hard and overly crunchie please!!) as well as the duck wings and dates. A great place to shate small Plates and wine

I’ve been here several times and the food is always perfectly cooked, the menu ample and the wine list impressive. I always look forward to eating here.

This is our family’s favorite place! I would rate this with 5 stars except I think they need a little work on getting the proper meat temperatures to order, however with that said, everything is always tasty and made with the freshest ingredients.
The atmosphere is chic and inviting with exposed brick and candlight with Thier impressive «wall of wine» the focal point of this restaurant. I would not recommend this for younger kids based upon the quiet, non stimulating atmosphere and menu geared towards a more sophisticated palate.
It’s perfect for a romantic dinner, a group gathering or even a casual meeting for drinks. The martini menu looks fabulous, but with such a large wine menu to choose from we can never say no to good wine in exchange for other spirits! The flights make it possible to try a variety of wines and we usually enjoy two flights (6 half glasses) and a full glass with our meals (about 24 oz. total between 2 people).
There isn’t a children’s menu but our 10 year old boy swears by their hamburger and french fries.
I enjoy their smaller portion dishes and love mixing and matching to create my own fabulous feast. Currently I am in love with the bacon wrapped dates, saffron risotto balls, Brussels sprouts and butternut squash soup. The apple wood smoked salmon was decadent and very rich, but it really was way too much food for me. My husband enjoys the artisan cheese plate, salmon and the lamb chops. However, the lamb chops were over cooked but still very tastey.
There are still several things on the menu we want to try and with the rotating seasonal specials I doubt we will get tired of this place anytime soon.
We do wish that the owners didn’t take such a casual approach on the wine recommendations. As relative newbies in the wine world we enjoy pairing recommendations and a little education.

We ordered a bunch of different plates to try a little bit of everything. We had the crispy duck wings, baby back ribs, the papardelle pasta, and pierogies. My favorite was definitely the ribs. Although it is a small plate, it was very substantial and flavorful. The crispy duck wings are delicious, but also a little smaller sized. The papardelle pasta was very filling and the mushroom aroma was strong.
Surroundings are very nice. It’s a darker setting but very romantic and intimate. Slightly narrower seating but it’s very comfortable. We had a birthday and the waitress was very discrete with the dessert. Provided a candle as well!

We stumbled upon Crush while looking for a decent meal after the amusement park, somewhere away from most park goers. We were drawn in by the food menu, and the place looked to have a nice atmosphere.
While the atmosphere was very nice, I will say that the setup of the restaurant fostered a fairly noisy environment.
On the food that we ordered, it was pretty good. The grilled chicken with pesto sauce over fettuccine was very tasty. The pasta could have been slightly more al dente. Also, it would have been nice to be served bread with the dish to soak up the pesto sauce off the plate that the pasta left behind.
The duo of filet mignon with broccolini and fingerling potatoes was very nice. It was well prepared (not overdone, like so many restaurants make the mistake of doing). All in all, a tasty dish.
Where I feel I need to hit them a few stars is the wine. If there is one thing that a wine bar should have down pat… It’s the wine.
I won’t say that the experience was atrocious, but it could have been better as well. A flight (3 glasses of 3 ounces each) of sweet whites was served with two of those wines being served at room temperature. They were not as enjoyable that way. The restaurant did replace those two glasses. One came out chilled… One was still at room temp. Good wines, but sadly, served poorly.
A flight of Cabernets was also ordered. Once again, good wines, though one was served with a great deal of sediment in the bottom of the glass. I know this can be common in some reds, though I’d prefer it be filtered out before it gets to me.
Give the place a try. Good food, fun atmosphere (even if a little noisy), friendly staff, and good wines — hopefully served properly. All in all, I’d try it again.

Four of us ate here and everything we ordered was outstanding. The Thai salad and the mixed green salad were winners. Great rustic bread with dipping oil. Main courses were salmon and bolognese pasta and both were very tasty. Salmon was grilled perfectly. Unfortunately, we were too full to try dessert. We will be back.

Remarkable varietals, create your own flight from 3 oz pours ($ 9 – 12 per flight of 3). Tasting plates range from $ 6 – 12. Loved saltimbuca scallops (3small) artichoke green goddess (fried). Dates in fontina bit too candy sweet. Pizzas ok. Bit crowded, not quite elegant enough to merit the $ 80 price tag for two (flight of wine for each) no dessert.

When I saw the 4-​Star rating, I thought to myself, «Wow! They really got their friends to trump up the Unilocal!» Then I noticed a 3&½ Star rating for the «Thirsty Pony» and was somehow relieved to find that it is — in fact — a sliding scale for the area.
When my party arrived we were seated, informed that our server would be with us momentarily, and waited for a solid 15 minutes to find a waitress address a table that was seated after us… I didn’t immediately discredit the evening, but noted to the party that it wasn’t the best start.
I ordered the Thai Cucumber Salad and Duck Confit Flatbread. When the rest of the salads came out (3 in our party), mine was not present. When I asked the apparent «runner» for my salad, it was clear that she wasn’t paying much attention as she promptly turned around and meandered away.
We were brought our main courses and the salad was mentioned. I was immediately offered a desert (this must happen a lot). As a non-​desert eater, I declined.
Moral of the story: avoid a Cesar restaurant.

A great place to go to treat yourself! The Mac and Cheese is super yummy along with the Bianco Pizza.

Was staying with a friend in Sandusky this past weekend and wanted to avoid the chain restaurants that litter the strip.
Following a recommendation, we ordered the risotto balls as an appetizer. This small plate comes with two balls of of risotto wrapped around a ball of mozzarella cheese covered in red sauce. These were pretty good. We also had the brussell sprouts as an appetizer, and these were also pretty good, nothing to write home about however.
Interestingly enough, we had to pay $ 3 for bread and olive oil… what? This was unlimited, but each basket that came out had about 6 small slices… one piece for each of us at the table. The olive oil and herbs were served in a ramekin. This should have been served on a flatter plate as it was difficult to get any of the herbs or balsamic on the bread.
I couldn’t choose between two of the pastas, so I asked the server which she liked better and she recommended the mac and cheese. I expected this to be creamy, but what I received was a bowl of penne pasta and a bunch of melted cheese. There was absolutely no sauce. Just a bunch of melted mozzarella. It was more like a quesadilla than anything Italian. I let my friend try some since she also did not like her meal, and she honestly almost choked on the cheese. I DO NOT recommend this dish.

The main restaurant section was closed on a Saturday night due to weather we were told, so we decided to try bar (asian-​fusion) side. We were not disappointed. We ordered a California roll of sushi which was quite good, shrimp phở-​style soup which was plentiful, although a bit too salty and ahi tuna tacos which were fantastic. Also had a couple flights of wine. Recommended.

This is a review for the Kitchenbar Asian-​fusion restaurant attached to Crush.
Ambiance: Very nice modern atmosphere inside with dark woods, candles, and textures all over the place. Service was very friendly and average on promptness.
Food: Started with the Sangria Flora which was an awesome white sangria, very fruity and smooth. The soft fish tacos (2) made an excellent appetizer to share, the savory creamy sauce they use was very enjoyable. My fiancé had a dish with ahi tuna served on rings of heirloom tomatoes drizzled with a sweet sauce. It was absolutely delectable with the already sweet ripe tomatoes and savory-​meaty tuna, easily could have eaten 2 plates of it. I had the beef ramen which was pretty good considering it’s Sandusky. The broth was savory but nothing really stood out about it. The noodles were not too mushy but lacked the freshness and firmness of truly freshly-​tossed noodles. The beef was plentiful for a noodle dish but was sadly overcooked and slightly mealy.
Aside from mediocre bowl of gourmet ramen (especially for something supposed to be high-​end) everything else at KitchenBar was excellent and I would gladly come here again. The drink selection is great and the chef does a good job of putting a fresh and flavorful spin on dishes, I’d probably give this place 4.25 stars since ramen is a huge part of the limited menu, small portion sizes, and lack of value but it’s marketed as a high-​end restaurant and it’s Sandusky so I forgave all that and rounded up.

My son is new to the Sandusky area and on a recent visit we were looking for a «nice» local eatery.
This was the perfect place. Historic location downtown, fun & friendly atmosphere, superb wine list — something for all tastes, professional service, excellent food and deserts to die for.
Young professional clientele, casual attire, maybe a little pricey but, hey, you get what you pay for.
All those years of just coming to Cedar Point and now finding out about Sandusky’s other treasures — this has got to be one of the best.

Crush is not really something I ever expected to see in Sandusky. It’s a wine bar that offers more than just the mid and low shelf items at Giant Eagle while offering wonderful food options ranging from snacks to full meals. Given that it is owned by the folks behind Zinc, the amazing food makes sense. I’ll start with the food and then comment on the wine bar second.
The list of food options is not huge. It’s generally quite focused and short. There are cheese options, a few apps, a couple entrees, and then the daily specials on the chalk board. I usually get one of the daily specials since they generally highlight the chef’s mood for that day and some of the kitchen’s creativity. I’m never worried about «special» meaning the near spoiled food the kitchen needs to sell off, as I would in some other Sandusky establishments. I do advise that you ask about portion size when ordering. Some items are smaller than you might expect – knowing what you’re getting up front is going to help you out a lot. The deserts, on the other hand, are perfect in size, from what I’ve seen, but I’ve only ate the chocolate mousse myself. My family has enjoyed other items and spoke quite highly of the deserts.
Outside of the food, Crush is a wine bar and it’s everything one would expect in a wine bar. They offer the standard wine-​bar atmosphere with a massive list of wines. If the list is too long, they offer two smaller sampling sizes and wine flights. I love this because it affords me some opportunities to try new things when I’m in town. And if wine is not your thing, they have a nice selection of fine spirits and liquors. This place is great for those who enjoy great booze.
It’s not a cheap dive like most of Sandusky’s bars. Therefore, you’ll mostly see Sandusky’s professional class in the restaurant, which is made up of people aged 40+. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s an important differentiation point since many bar establishments in the area do not cater to such a crowd. Walk across the street to Daily’s and it’s a completely different scene that I wouldn’t expect anyone frequenting Crush to enjoy. While Crush is frequented mostly by the 40+ professional crowed, a twenty-​something young professional should have a wonderful experience. However, be ready to spend a little bit of cash – this place can get costly if you’re not paying attention.