Crave Bar & Grill

Worst meal in years. Food was terrible. Fish and chips tasted like they were fried in rancid oil. Vegetable Paninni was too salty. But the big problem is the servcie. We waited over an hour for our food on a slow Tuesday night. Then another twenty minutes to get someone to get a check which was wrong and another twenty minutes to get it corrected. Maybe the kitchen was slow because at least two of the other tables in the room sent back their food, sometimes twice. They offered us $ 10 off the next meal, but we refused. We would never go back.

Sigh. What a disappointment. I too had a
gift certificate, so I brought along the bf and my parents in hopes of a nice, tasty meal. Big mistake.
We selected an overpriced white wine only to be told after 15 minutes of waiting that they «just had to go find it for us». Not a good sign, so we resolved to try another bottle once our waitress arrived. However, she arrived with our bottle already OPENED and proceeded to pour four full glasses before we even tried it. Turns out, it was the wrong bottle in the end, so she came back, again bringing an OPENED bottle of wine. Also, we had to ask for an ice bucket.
Anyway, we order the lobster quesadilla, and the chopped BLT salad with garlic croutons to start. The quesadilla was pretty good, but the salad was way overdressed and the worst part… STOREBOUGHT croutons! You know, like the ones you get in Stop and Shop. Not a good sign of what was to come.
After waiting about a half hour (the waitress kept telling us how backed up the kitchen was, again, not good) my mother’s stuffed chicken comes out– dry, a bit burnt, but my «gnocchi with bolognese», which the waitress personally recommended… I fought back tears when I saw the slop I was served. Overcooked, soggy gnocchi swimming in undrained beef fat with bits of crumbled ground beef sprinkled on top. My father and boyfriend waited for their steaks… and waited… and waited… TWENTY minutes after my mother and I had been served our slop, we asked for the check.
In the end, we only paid for the 2 bottles of wine, but that was after I told the waitress where they could stick their gnocchi and storebought croutons. I was so upset I went to Applebee’s and ate a whole order of spinach and artichoke dip, and this morning I hate myself. Thanks Crave.

HAPPY HOUR… not so much. Upon arriving to Crave, I parked in the back lot which had ample parking for 5:30 in White Plains. I aproached the front door that was NOT open, but noticed a second entry.” Lounge” was on the door, I assumed it would be the bar area. I was right.
At the bar, alone sat a Tony Soprano type man playing bejeweled on his iPad, I figured he too just finished a long day at work. As I sat with my friend at the corner of the bar a young woman appeared from behind the bar (possibly kitchen area/​bar back room) she greeted us. While the man on the iPad old her «you’re late». So I guess he’s somehow involved with the resaurant.
My friend ordered a frozen margarita, to which she was told“we don’t have a blender”. She than ordered a Mojoito, to which she was told we don’t have the ingredients for a mojoito”. I convinced her to have her margarita on the rocks. Which was great, and she had 3!
We ordered some bar food, prime sliders with blue cheese, lettuce& tomato and Hand cut fries which were yummy. We also ordered crab fritters that were terrible, and had to have been microwaved. They were cool to the touch, scalding inside and the crust was chewy.
The bartender was a lovely young girl who seems uncomfortable working under the watchful and unhelpful eye of her manager/​owner.
Who by the way had his dinner brought to him at the bar, by the waitress who didn’t have a single customer in the diningroom.
Did I happen to mention they were trying to figure out the sound system while my friend and I were the only paying customers in the place?
I would give them another try since the bartender was soooo very nice. Hopefully, Tony Soprano and Carmela will be on vacation.

The Crave menu is creative and extensive, something for everyone from meat lovers to vegetarians. The mussels were outstanding and I had to break by bread diet to soak up the rest of the sauce and bloat my tummy.
I hosted a party of 15 and the overwhelming consensus was that the food was excellent, but the service was slow.
It was surprising how empty the place was for a Thursday night. They clearly need to do a better job of advertising because the bar is trendy and attractive, a great date place. There are some nice, private tables away from the main dining room and the bar looked well stocked.
I’d definitely go again, but as long as I was able to budget time and didn’t have somewhere to be afterwards.

As we pulled in to the parking lot, we stopped at the valet. After getting out of the car, we were given the «one minute» finger by the attendant who was talking on his cellphone. After awkwardly waiting for him to finish his (personal) conversation, we were given a ticket. Unfortunately, this was a harbinger of things to come.
After walking in to the beautiful entryway, which includes the bar, we once again were left standing awkwardly. The bartender did not acknowledge us, and there was no one there to greet us. Finally, a server walked past and took us to the hostess stand (which was behind a wall and not obvious from the front door) to be seated. After waiting for the hostess to finish *her* phone conversation, we were offered a booth that had crates of folded dinner napkins, along with piles of dirty napkins, on it’s seats. After protesting, she said «Oh, we’ll clean that up». We politely declined and were shown to a lovely table in the equally lovely dining room.
Needless to say, we didn’t expect much at this point.
However, we were in for a surprise. Although our server was clearly overwhelmed and in over her head (she did not know details of the wine list or the menu) she was incredibly sweet and genuinely helpful. The biggest surprise, however, was the food.
*Each and every dish was outstanding.* The four of us found ourselves repeatedly eating off each others’ plates like pigs at a trough. Everything was perfectly executed, seasoned well and presented beautifully. We were simply blown away by the culinary experience, and not just because our initial impression was so awful. Whatever our misgivings, the chef truly knows his dishes, and creates them impeccably. To our further surprise, even the dessert was fabulous.
After stuffing ourselves to the point of unbuttoning our top buttons, and sitting in a truly tastefully elegant space, we were torn. With such a gorgeous space and such stellar food, if this restaurant could work out it’s front of the house kinks, it would truly merit five stars.
I look forward to the time when I update and give it them.

Solid, excellent food. Service kind of disjointed and disorganized, yet still friendly.
food=4.5 stars
service = 2.5 stars
A group of us had dinner here after leaving the hospital from work last week, we started with the berkshire pork, flatbread and salmon/​shrimp ceviche apps — all packed with flavor and bite, we were off to a good start.
We then moved onto the Fresh Cut Fettucine, Amish Chicken, and Crave burgers. The fried shrimp was my favorite! All were excellent.
The bread basket was great, fresh and warm, with a nice olive oil plate adorned with a few olives in it. Very nice touch!
Great wine selection as well, love the choices by the glass.
The service was quite rough though, bread came after the apps, water wasn’t refilled, ever, app plates weren’t cleared before dinner arrived, wine and sodas came after the apps, etc. They were still very friendly though.
We will be back, hopefully by then they will have worked out the kinks in the front of the house so that the service matches the excellent food.
*** edit/​update:
Something must’ve changed hands, the food was not as good as the first time :(