CRAVE Pasta - Pizza - Pub — Restaurant in Gaylord

Mixed review. The main problem with this place is staffing. There was only one waitress who was also making the food and one guy making pizzas and food. There should be at least three people, if not more, working in a restaurant at a time for prep and service. After reading the reviews this seems to be an ongoing issue for at least a year. So it makes me think the owners don’t care and are greedy. The Italian spring rolls were good, could have used a bit more pepperoni for flavor. I didn’t care for the tomato basil bisque soup, bland, but my husband liked it. My husband ordered a salad and they said they were out of spinach. The salad ended up having a tiny bit of chicken and tomatoes and just mixed lettuce for 14.00. Not worth it. I had the lush pasta and it was amazing, rich and creamy. The side bread was very good too! I would come back for this! My husband also said the coffee wasn’t the worst coffee he has ever had, but it was tied. A small cup of awful coffee for 2.50 is a rip off. In these days with amazing coffee everywhere there is no excuse for a restaurant to have bad coffee. The decor is awesome! I love all the plants and games for adults and kids. It would be nice to have a little table in the bathroom to put a phone or purse on so you don’t have to hold it while you go. A wait to be seated or seat yourself sign would be nice for the front door as well. When we walked in we didn’t know what to do. There is a wait to be seated sign in the back but with such short staff people could wait for 15 minutes before anyone would acknowledge them and walk out by then. I would hope if I stop back in here for the lush pasta again that they would have more people working. The poor waitress (Erica), who was amazing, seemed overwhelmed and tired. Understaffing is how you lose amazing workers like Erica!!! I hope the owners see this and make adjustments to show they care about...

We are new to the area--just moved here. We are trying ALL places in Gaylord and surrounding area. We tried CRAVE on 12/18 at approx 5pm. Immediately we were put off by the lack of beer choices, but were given samples of 2 that we decided to order. The server was nice enough, but was extremely unattentively and had an awful runny nose. She kept using her hand -- HER PALM-- to wipe her nose and then touching trays of food going to tables, setting up for a back room party, making drinks, and making coffee. We almost walked out, but didn't want to make a scene. We got a pizza and shrimp pasta. My shrimp pasta has ZERO taste except for the very strong shrimp....like the shrimp was old. Also, the portion size was ridiculously small. while my husband ate his pizza, I sat there waiting for her to come over so I could order something else. FINALLY, 15 minutes later, she appeared from the back room, passed the table and said, "I'll get a to-go box for you." My husband yelled to her to stop---because she was literally power walking away from the table. We told her about the dish. SHe kindly reversed the charges on our bill and ordered the spaghetti and meatballs for me. It was quickly delivered. It was also AWFUL! It tasted like a can of tomato sauce was thrown ion top of pasta and the meatballs were absolutely tasteless. I ate half of it. We paid and left. As we were leaving, she was once again wiping her snotty nose with her palm. I looked at her and said, "That is so unsanitary; bet the Health Dept would frown on that." Overall, the place is tiny, a VERY short list of (and not very diverse) beers, small portion sizes of GROSS food. The pizza was average: not worth the cost. Ambiance was nothing special. SAVE...

This will be long- we stopped in to try something new on 8/31/24. No one was at the door so I walked to the register & asked do we seat ourselves? I was told yes. We sat there for exactly 9 minutes (giving ourself 10 before we'd leave) before a younger server finally came over asking if we'd been helped. I literally kept staring at the register where all the servers were. They saw me looking, yet no one came over to give us menus or even waters. She obviously knew we were there since I asked about seating. Once our server came, we started with the spinach & artichoke app. 4/10 for that. The bread was so hard, I thought I was going to chip a tooth & the dip was mediocre. We ordered a pizza for dinner. When it came out, it was so hard due to it being burnt & our server told us that they dropped 2 slices so he'd box them up for us to go. We were very hesitant bc we thought he meant on the floor. He assured us it was just in the oven. So we agreed. I was 2 slices in before he came back & I had to ask for plates since there were 3 of us sharing the pizza. I thought he would've noticed when I was eating off of a napkin, but I still had to ask for plates. Then we were waiting for our bill when he dropped one off, but realized right before walking away that that bill was for a different table. Another 5 mins, he brings our bill. Then a whole new pizza. Which honestly looked 100 times better than the one we had to eat. There were only 3 tables in there before us so it wasn't busy at all. I think if they got more organized with the seating, they would do...