Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar — Restaurant in Regina

Careful, if you say it's your anniversary they WILL go all out for you. Booked a first date via the online form and when it asked about an occasion/celebration I haphazardly selected "anniversary". Selecting an unrelated occasion on online booking portals is a bit I've played for the past few years as no restaurant/etc. has ever done anything from the first time I selected "birthday" for an actual birthday.

Anyway, back to Crave. I booked bar seats as we were only going for their mulled wine; These people set up an entire arrangement front of house romantically at the window and offered a special anniversary dining selection. My date implored we play along so it became our five year anniversary - if you've heard of "13 Going On 30", we were "0 Dates Going On 5 Years". Although we could still stay at the bar seats, we were in too deep. We were probably the least impressive wood anniversary the waitstaff had ever seen, but I'm proud to have celebrated it with such a dashing individual. We were certainly best dressed in our t-shirts, jeans, corduroys, and docs. As the waitstaff would pass we'd talk about the night we met five years ago (that night), and sleuth typical pleasantries and first date talk in-between the candlesticks and surrounding holiday cheer. We pondered escaping to Vic's Tavern for a more appropriate setting, but by then we became the anniversary and the anniversary had become us.

Last week's first date is now my five-years married partner, and we've never been happier. Thank you, Crave Kitchen & Wine Bar, for facilitating such an incredible experience and feature. It was only five years but your incredible service and experience made us realize the lifetime we've had together, and the infinity we'll get in each other's arms. We'll definitely be returning on our ten year.

Oh, and the mulled wine was incredible. It comes with my highest recommendation for any five year...

Just in Regina for 1 night and I'm so glad I had dinner here based on the menu and the reviews! It was an unseasonably warm day so I had a really pleasant time on the cute patio with some trees for shade. The meal started with an amuse bouche of roasted onion creamy blob on crostini. The flavours and texture melded together so well I knew I was in for a good one. Then I had the duck confit with onion tart. This one ties for the best duck confit I've had in Canada. Very tender but still has some chew to it. The flavour was very well developed - toasty and a little caramelized probably through the long cooking time. The onion tart was kind of like a quiche and creamy. The pickled onions and saskatoon berries are a good call to balance out the caramel, creamy rich tones. Since the entree was so good, I decided dessert must be worth the extra calories here - and I was right! After much deliberation I ended up with the creme brulee which was accompanied by lavender shortbread. The creme brulee is a little lighter than typical which I actually prefer, and it's super silky and smooth. It sets up the shortbread where the lavender really popped. The lavender also stood out because there's a lot of restraint on the shortbread base so it didn't overpower it. You really have to like lavender because once it declared itself it was quite sharp - fortunately I love lavender so every bite made me smile. As I ate my dinner I could smell all kinds of wonderful aroma from dishes on other tables. I'll definitely come again on...

I've been to Crave twice. The first time, I had the chicken liver parfait and the duck confit. The second time, I had their butcher's cut (which was sirloin, that day) with the 3 cheese soufflé and we shared the chocolate espresso torte and the vanilla crème brulee with lavender shortbread. The parfait was delicious... Very smooth and creamy. The duck confit was just okay... it wasn't too salty, it wasn't too dry, but there was something in the taste and texture in the meat that wasn't as good as I'd like.

In contrast, the butcher's cut was very good... Done to perfection with the tasty cheese soufflé. The highlight was the desserts. The server said their crème brulee was rated as the best in Canada, so we had to try that... It was delicious and paired very nicely with the delicate lavender shortbread. The chocolate espresso torte had a ganache top, smooth creamy dark chocolate middle and a slightly hard to break through bottom. It wasn't easy putting a fork through it while keeping it from toppling over, but it was worth every bit of effort getting that taste sensation into my mouth! To quote my friend, "Next time, I'm ordering​ one of those and I'm...