Kraverie — Restaurant in City of Saratoga Springs

I feel terrible posting this review, particularly in the midst of a pandemic, but feel I have no choice. This restaurant is a place I have throughly enjoyed supporting for the past few years. The food was terrific, the waitstaff attentive, and the environment (such great music, both recorded and live) just a really fun place to hang out. We visited for date nights, with family, and brought friends too. Tonight was the second time I have visited during Covid. It wasn't great the 1st time, but I was determined to give one of my favorite restaurants another chance. We arrived around 6:30 on a Friday night to an empty restaurant with 3 other parties seated in the patio, one of which left right after we arrived. Our waitress was also the bartender/to go order person, which we didn't realize right away. Another waitress was responsible for a couple of the other groups. Our server/bartender (Erin) took our appetizer order within 10 minutes of arriving and came back with samples of cider/beer too. All seemed to be going well. She said it could be a little slow as the kitchen was fairly busy with takeout orders. 45 minutes later, our order of nachos arrived. I was not feeling particularly patient by then and it was a double whammy: the food took forever and the quality had changed. They were nowhere near the same. After finishing our appetizer (happened pretty fast as we were starving, never mind the change in quality ), we waited for our dinners. And waited. And waited. I went inside shortly before 8 to speak to our waitress who was tending bar. She apologized again (totally not her fault), but the kicker was that the manager/owner was literally sitting right there. He didn't apologize, didn't jump in in any way. Just let me be upset and the bartender try to help. Our meals arrived minutes later. I ordered the burrito - something I once loved and have not had since before Covid. Completely not the same dish. Tons of sauce, so much that the shell fell apart. Chicken was tough. Rice - sticky rice that is usually great - was just part of the sadness of the sauce. Erin did bring out a free drink for our time. But, honestly, this whole sad situation deserved at least a comped appetizer, an apology from the manager, something. We paid full price for an hour and a half wait for dinner, less than great food, and a waitress who through no fault of her own couldn't focus on waiting on us. If this was the first I had been here, it would have been - as it is now- the last. And a note to management: If you want to focus on your delivery/pick up orders, save yourself the money on servers and the angry customers and just go in that...

Kraverie is a restaurant with a Korean theme to its menu, with an emphasis on Kimichi in many of the dishes available. So what can you expect from dining here? Is the service good? The meals yummy? Well, I think it's about 50/50.

My party arrived and were seated almost immediately at of the booth-tables, though I knew right away the hardwood of the bench side was not going to have me staying around very long after my meal. The restaurant's ascetics are a mix of dim-lighting and knickknacks, feeling more like a bar than a restaurant. The music playing overhead was also representative of a bar, being loud enough to create an issue for my party to converse. The worst offender was the fact they had both the rear and front doors open in late October, and in New York State that means letting 40 to 30 degree weather inside. 2/5 stars for the ambience.

The service seemed rather backwards, as our appetizers arrived lightening fast, but then our main course took close to 30 minutes more. Refills were sparse, as our waitress was "around" but hard to get ahold of. 2/5 stars for the service.

The food was probably the only real saving grace, as everything served was delicious. The Kimchi Cheese Fries, Korean Nachos, and Vegetable Spring Rolls made for an excellent few starters. The nachos in particular were awesome, crunchy, and paired perfectly with the cheese. My main choice of the Krave Burger was interesting enough, though the Korean Salad was a tad bit underdressed. 4/5 stars for the food.

Overall if you don't mind waiting and dealing with a bar-type atmosphere, then you will probably enjoy your time at Kraverie. For those of us who actually want to have a great meal paired with a quite ambience though, maybe think about...

Not for foodie. I had such a high level of expectations, but came out deflated. Definitely not what I was expecting, not sure how these people said the food was good, maybe the ambients is good, perhaps the food has changed drastically compared to the (past) picture, maybe the cook is on vacation, i don't know .... This is what I know

For ribeye Korean burrito, I was expecting ribeye as thin sliced beef(the same ones you would use for Philly cheese steak, as they have one on their menu), not chunks of tiny over cooked beef(like the ones you get from Moe's) with pineapple fried rice(different than moe's rice, but still....). If you are not a foodie, it's flavorful bunch, but for a foodie, with the price, it's not worth the experience.

then we have the tacos, we asked for sesame chicken taco, and beef short rib. When it came out, i am still not sure what they were, but definitely not worth $20/portion, (again the chicken chunks and beef bites feels like the ones you get from Moe's), we were expecting deep fried sesame chicken taco, and Melt in your mouth soft tender beef marinated in bulgogi sauce.....do me a favor, just go to Moe's and you'll get similar food with half the price.

The waitresses were having Moe's delivered for dinner(when we were waiting for our food that took a while !!), i guess they knew better what is a better value for their money ... We will...