Crave Suya — Restaurant in Houston

"Best Suya In America" is what is being advertised here, so being the huge fan of beef suya that I am, I definitely had to give this place a try.

I placed an online order for two of the plates of spicy beef suya (with onions and tomatoes), as well as two sides of the fried plantains. I was a little disappointed to see that the side of joloff rice seems to have disappeared from the "order online menu" at some point (shown on the main website menu, and in some of the IG pics), especially since the other Suya spots I frequent have the option.

Expected pickup time from the time it was ordered, was 20 mins. I got there about 5 mins after that time, then called to let them know I was there (per their curbside instructions), and they texted back saying the food would be out in 5 mins, which pretty much proved to be an accurate estimation. A friendly young gentleman came out to bring me my food, and confirmed the name on the order, and I was on my way.

I had about a 25 min drive home, and am glad to report the fresh suya (wrapped in foil) stayed fairly hot, and was ready to eat once I made it home. Let's get to the meat and potatoes though, and what I actually thought of the food itself.

The onions and tomatoes that accompanied the suya, were sliced well, and were fresh (not soggy which my wife hates). They also added a little suya spice on the side, which was a nice touch. The plantains were cooked well, and were sweet, and quite delicious. That's all fine and dandy, but the beef suya is 90% of what I care about when I try a Suya spot, and while the Suya here is pretty good, I must compare it to two other Suya places I frequent, one of which I consider the King (Suya Hut) when it comes to Suya In Houston.

We'll start with portions. Overall, I would say the amount of meat you get for the money is fairly decent, and pretty much on par with other places for the most part. In some ways it's not a completely fair comparison to make, since the meat is on skewers at other spots, and the meat is either a different cut here, or is sliced different (maybe both). Either way, it's a fair amount of meat IMO. I will add though (this isn't really a knock, and I could be wrong), that my wife's portion of meat seemed to be a tad more generous than my own, as the meat appeared to fill up the foil it was in, a bit more.

Let's move on to taste though, which is what really matters. I'll say this first, the meat here is definitely the most tender suya I've had. It's quite flavorful as well, and definitely has a kick if you order the spicy variant. Unfortunately, I almost wish I'd tried the mild, since IMO, the spice itself seemed to overpower the other flavors, to the point that when I had eaten quite a bit of this stuff, I was left with a bitter aftertaste of sorts. For that reason, at least in terms of flavor, I can't quite say I enjoyed this more than Sabo Suya, or Suya Hut. Sabo Suya, while less on the spicier side, has a distinct peanut buttery taste and flavor that's absent in the meat here from Crave. Suya Hut on the other hand, matches Crave suya in terms of spice level, but the bold flavorful taste of their signature marinated meat is still unmatched, and undeniably the best tasting beef I've ever had. At the end of the day though, some of this just comes down to personal tastes, and preference.

With that said, I definitely enjoyed the food here, and absolutely destroyed it, to the point that I was even eating my wife's after finishing my own. It's another good alternative, and I can't really knock this place, because of the overall experience. My wife personally gives it a 10/10, and she's very picky, so that's definitely saying something, and for that reason, I couldn't give less than 5 stars. Definitely...

Went to Crave Suya today for the second time and I have to say we were extremely disappointed! The first time we went in December after Christmas the portions were very large, we were given lots of Suya pepper and we thoroughly enjoyed it, the wait wasn’t too bad. See today when we visited, we waited for about an hour for 3 sharwarma and 2 bowls of Suya. We were told the last time to call in our order before we arrived well, we tried today and the phone rang off the hook. The portions were much smaller and the food was cold and we got home and noticed no Suya pepper! Other people we met at the truck complained as well. So apparently now that many people know of Crave Suya there is no need to be consistent with quality and customer service. This is the problem with small black owned businesses. We need to do better. These days it’s easy enough to set up an online order system where people place their orders online, pay and pickup. So even if you advise that pickup is in an hour that’s fine. We won’t need to come and hang around a food truck parking lot for a whole hour!!! Surely there are better ways to manage the growth of...

I was here last night and I will Not return. I should give it a 0 star but I understand the ins and outs of running a business. The timing was atrocious. The Suya was not great. Didn’t taste like home. It’s their spin on Suya. Customer service was trash. Only one guy cared if you got your food or not. Thanks to the nice guy with the ecko puffer jacket. Have him work your windows. The guy making the food should not communicate with anyone. Waited a hour and 15 minutes with kids in the car. The shawarma was a 10/10. The rice was definitely days old frozen rice that was warmed up. Guess you can’t complain if it’s $3 but definitely couldn’t eat it. For a place that makes Suya all day to make you wait that long is odd. Maybe invest in more grills? Or think of a faster process. Those fries my kids could not eat. The oil is not fresh. Soaked in old oil. Hope you all can get better at your craft. I heard Houston is naija central but not all of us are not used to the chaos. Trying to be cool and suave doesn’t change the fact that my time is being wasted. Change that wait time...