Craft|One|Half — Restaurant in Mishawaka

TL;DR: overpriced hipster joint with no unique features and no flavor in their food

I get it. The simple decor, the no-uniform policy for most of the staff, the "scratch" recipes, and the inconsistent menu. Sure, let me try it out, knowing that the true measure of a restaurant is how good the food is and how efficient is the sedvice. Here it is bland. I could forgive that it took more than half an hour to get us appetizers if the appetizers weren't lazy concoctions (a salad that consisted of a piece of lettuce with dressing over it, nothing chopped or prepped in any way). I could forgive that you didn't ask how my partner wanted her "wagyu" steak cooked - but it was bland. The salsa placed on top of the steak had the consistency of home made salsa but it's flavor tasted like you just pulled it off a store shelf. And the steak itself tasted NOTHING like the wagyu steak we've had both in Akihabara and in Chicago, and yet the price was higher in this small restaurant than in either of those metropolis. Furthermore, it seemed the chef feared spices or marinades of any kind. Focusing on my dinner of chicken and gnocchi - I wanted to like it. I did. The gnocchi was bland no matter how heartily it weighed on my stomach. The gnocchi tasted like nothing more than diced potatoes sans seasoning, barely cooked. The chicken though, this was egregious. There was zero flavor of any kind. In my youth, I prepped chicken via a George Forman grill for quick lunches during the week and this $20+ dish brought me back to those memories. But since then I've grown to know the wonders of adobo, Mrs.Dash, or any variety of Aldi's spices and marinades from all over the world, and I hope someday the chef that prepared our meals tonight might also find the joy of cooking food with seasonings, spices, and flavorings. Dessert was also decidedly mid, with a "NY Style Cheesecake" that lacked anything in the ways of a strong flavor but did have some cinnamon toast crunch sprinkled straight out of the box on top. All in all, we paid too much for worse food than most other restaurants in the area could provide, and for a plainer atmosphere. While I did like that it was 21+ only inside, so are most bars so this is nothing...

I don’t love leaving a bad review here, as these are local folks trying to make it in a tough market, but I genuinely feel a moral duty to warn others away from the food.

While our cocktails were tasty, the food was some of the lowest quality I have encountered in the area. We first ordered the bread basket with the “house baked baguette.” There is no universe in which that bread is made in-house; it was the same quality as a $.99 baguette from Walmart, and within moments of arriving at the table, the already stale slices had hardened into an inedible mass. The spreads that came with it were pretty sad as well, with a thin butter and watery “pan jus” that was clearly just some beef bouillon.

Next came the stone fruit “panzenela” (the incorrect spelling should have been a red flag). Again, the ingredients seemed to have come from a grocery store, particularly the peaches, a great tragedy considering that stone fruits are still locally available this time of year, and quite delicious. The dressing made the whole dish inedible. After a single bite each, neither my wife nor I were able to eat any more of it.

Finally, there was a mushroom gratinée, riffing on a French onion soup. Again, the same problems presented themselves: the grey mushrooms floated in a weak broth that was clearly the same stuff as the “pan jus.” A slice of the same bad baguette covered in a heap of rubbery cheese topped everything. And again, after a single bite, we were done.

At this point, we called for the check, even though we still had orders in for the tuna cake and chicken gnocchi. We paid for these as well, just to make sure they hadn’t already begun to cook them, and thus waste the restaurant’s money, but we both knew at that point that there was no saving any of it.

They’re kind people running this place, but at the end of the day, they are charging the same prices as any similar restaurant you can find in Chicago, and so the criticism is merited. I am not joking when I say that you can go to a Texas Roadhouse and get a far better meal, which makes...

We visited Craft One Half for my birthday dinner after a good friend highly recommended it, and while we wanted to love it, our experience fell short.

We always try to support local businesses and were hoping this would exceed expectations, but the reality was mixed. The atmosphere was very loud, and we had to raise our voices just to carry on a conversation, which made it feel far from an elevated dining experience. Drinks were average, and the menu felt both limited and overpriced.

The standout of the night was the chicken fried chicken, which I would recommend if you go, though I’m not sure it justifies the cost. Surprisingly, one of the small plates ended up being the second-best dish at our table, with a portion size nearly the same as the entrées at about a third of the price. Unfortunately, the other entrées were underwhelming and didn’t feel worth what we paid.

The main reason I’m even leaving this review is because I see a lot of five-star reviews, and I wonder if people hesitate to leave honest feedback since this is a local business. We really do want Craft One Half to succeed, especially since we’ve seen several restaurants open around the area that struggle to last. My hope is that by sharing some constructive feedback, the restaurant might reflect on how it defines a fine dining experience and make adjustments that help it live up to the hype.

First impressions matter, and for us, this one was just average. That said, we may give it another try for cocktails and a couple of small plates to see if it...