Crave Dessert Bar — Restaurant in Asheville

Crave Dessert Bar Asheville Management

My recent experience at your restaurant on 06/28/2025 was unfortunately marred by significant service issues, leaving a deeply disappointing impression on my first visit. I was dining with a group of seven friends to celebrate a bride to be, totaling eight people.

The evening began with a prolonged delay for one of our party members, who waited over an hour to receive the correct food order after two incorrect dishes were delivered. This considerably impacted the overall enjoyment of our celebration.

Further complicating the situation, when we requested a split bill (entirely reasonable considering the group size and celebratory nature of our gathering), the process was handled with unacceptable inaccuracy. One person in our party received no bill at all, while several others had items added to their bills that were never ordered, including myself. My bill, in particular, was substantially inflated due to the inclusion of two extraneous items. When questioned, the server responded that they had added these extra items arbitrarily because they didn't know where else to place them. This lack of attention to detail and responsibility is utterly unprofessional.

The inconsistency in billing was not isolated to my bill; several others in the group reported discrepancies between their initial bill totals and the final versions presented for payment. This chaotic and frankly unacceptable billing process significantly overshadowed what otherwise appeared to be a pleasant atmosphere.

While I acknowledge the restaurant's ambiance is inviting, the severe shortcomings in service and billing accuracy on this occasion were truly disheartening, particularly for a first-time visitor. I am hesitant to return until these issues are addressed and rectified. I would appreciate it if you would investigate this matter thoroughly and consider appropriate steps to prevent similar incidents...

Okay, so when you have a sign out front that says "Cupcakes and Cocktails" you have piqued my interest. We were looking for a late-night snack and were happy to stumble upon Crave Dessert Bar. It was quite crowded both inside and out but we were seated right away inside. Thankfully they have "non-hookah" sections as inside as we weren't there for that and being drenched in hookah scent, smoke, or smoke of any kind really is not something we're ever looking for.

My wife and I shared the "hand cut fries" - The phrase "hand-cut" feels gimmicky to me...I mean are fries better if each one is a slightly unique shape because of the imperfections of someone manually cutting a potato? Maybe. I can officially report the fries were good.

We also shared 2 cupcakes (as they come in pairs!) The Bugs Bunny which was an extravagant carrot cake situation that came (in addition to what was actually listed on the menu) decorated with pieces of caramel corn and a piece of dark chocolate on top, and the Strawcup Berrycake which was a dryish cupcake with cream cheese frosting and also chocolate. Both of these were good enough. You have the option of getting them "bad & boozy" with Godiva Liqueur infusions which wasn't right for us at this point, but which I'd definitely try in the future. I liked the caramel corn on the Bugs Bunny but sometimes when menu items come with ingredients that weren't listed it can be a problem for some...it wasn't for us, but just something to consider if a menu revision is ever done.

If you're a vegetarian and hungry there are a few appetizer/small plate type things on the savory menu as well as a couple of flatbreads to choose from.

There is PLENTY to choose from to drink with an extensive beer, wine, and cocktail menu, including a very enticing "sippable desserts" menu which looks like alone might be worth a trip back...

We were excited to cap our night off here, but unfortunately the experience fell well short of our expectation. The dessert drinks were of average quality... certainly not something we'd go out of our way for in the future, but not terrible. The Bailey's Bread Pudding on the other hand... now this was something else (and not in a great way). It is an $11 bread pudding served in a miniature cast iron skillet. To give you an idea of the context of "miniature", have a look at the photo. For scale, that's a ramekin. The bread pudding consumed about half the depth of that skillet.

After some discussion we agreed that this was something we should at least offer a bit of constructive criticism on. We decided not to leave a negative review, but instead to engage the staff and explain our disappointment My wife politely began to explain that we were disappointed in the bread pudding and before she had a chance to make her case, the "manager" immediately made a snide comment that it didn't look like we had anything to complain about (since we did eat all of the bread pudding). So, after patiently waiting for the manager to wrap up her defensive stance, we continued... we paid $11 for an ultra-small serving of average bread pudding and just thought you should know, after watching numerous giant desserts being shuttled around we feel underwhelmed and disappointed. Yes, we ate it all, no it wasn't bad, we just felt that for an average quality bread pudding the size was a bit comical really. Again, the manager made a defensive remark, this time in regards to the level of effort involved in preparing the bread pudding and that the price was fair.

The manager's near combativeness left us overall disappointed. We decided to leave the review after all. Seriously, there are much better desserts in town. ...