Crave Fishbar Upper West Side | Raw Bar & Seafood restaurant — Restaurant in New York

Today was my second time visiting Crave Fishbar UWS (I’ve also been to the Midtown location last year as well). My last visit to the UWS location was early 2022. Food and service were good back then. Today….was not a good experience at all. My fiancé and I had brunch with “Drink like a fish” (basically 90 minutes unlimited drinks). After the first drink came, the waitress put a sign with the time the 90 minutes would be up. Thought that was neat but it also came with a disclaimer, only one drink at a time and if we ordered too fast we’d get cut off before the 90 minutes. Okay… in all my life and in all the restaurants I’ve been to, I’ve never heard that one before, but thought maybe they had some rowdy people in the past who got too drunk or something.

After we received our first drink, we chatted for bit while waiting on our food. The waitress came back and seemed shocked that we finished the first drink, and made a remark. I started feeling a bit uncomfortable, like I was being watched, but ordered a second drink anyway. Pacing seemed spaced out on purpose so we don’t order too much. My second drink order was wrong; ordered a mimosa and got a beer (I don’t drink beer), but I didn’t want to cause any issues.

Food arrived. Good, basic, small portions. I ordered a third drink, but my fiancé was told he couldn’t order another until he finished what he had (which we understood) and not to chug it. At this point we felt like we were children being told what we could have and how much. After the third drink we left.

There was still 45 minutes left (out of 90) and we were still hungry, thought about ordering more food but honestly didn’t feel comfortable with the service so far and ended up eating at a place across the street afterward.

I would not recommend visiting Crave Fishbar. Service is abysmal and honestly there are better seafood restaurants...

Crave UWS Review: I've been to Crave on the East side many times and loved it. Was so happy to hear they opened a new location in my neighborhood. I even recognized our waiter from the other location (he did not recognize me). My husband and I had terrible service. We sat down to a dirty table, which they eventually cleaned, but did not give us the candle and small flower that was on every other table. We had to get up and get them from another vacant table. Our waiter was pre-occupied with the couple sitting next to us. I made eye contact with him, but he never even came by to take our drink order. Finally another man (appeared to be a manager) came by to tell us about the menu and take our orders. My husband ordered the steak medallions. I wish I took a photo of this plate. It was 3 small square-ish sized pieces and a mound of mushrooms that took over more than half of the plate. It looked like an appetizer (and I've seen appetizers with more food). My husband is not a big eater, but he finished eating and said he was still very hungry. Waiter/Manager guy asked us how everything was, and we were honest about the portion. The man instantly turned defensive and arrogant with us!! He said it's 10 ounces of steak. If it was 5 oz I'd be surprised-such a lie!! Then he said no one has ever complained about the dish, shrugged his shoulders and rudely said, "hey, I can fix something else up for ya if you want" and walked away. They presented us with a dessert menu, which we declined. And then the check. No apology, no concessions of any kind. Zip. It's the last time we'll go there. With so many great restaurants in our neighborhood, they should watch the arrogance attitude and terrible service. Go to nearby Fish Tag or Mermaid...

Just had 1.5-dollar oysters mid-day on Saturday in the post-pandemic UWS!! 😻😻😻 For a second, I thought I time-traveled to the good old days 😅 More surprisingly, those were not your regular blue points. My oysters were so fresh and not too meaty or salty that I didn’t want to mix it with anything other than a drop of lemon juice!! I am quite picky when it comes to oysters. Here, you can find a more refined and interesting selection from both coasts, which is something that has almost disappeared from way too many places in Manhattan in recent years. That being said, not all oysters are included in all of the deals they have, and some West Coast varieties can be up to $5 per item. Still, what is included in different deals during the week offers you a decent choice. Plus, their pre-fix restaurant week menu that runs until September 1st does include 6 oysters, three from each coast. Had a crispy sandwich, too. It was better than I expected: The fish was crispy but not deep-fried. And waiters were nice, knowledgeable, fast and not too overly attentive. Frankly, I was so surprised that this place I only found by passing by a few times wasn’t busy at all during the brunch time. So I’d recommend this place to catch up with an old friend you’ll be exchanging the news with because you’ll certainly will be able to hear the other person, but, if you want a more pronounced party vibe, maybe it’s not here (at least during the brunch hours). One thing that I didn’t particularly like was that their bloody mary was way too spicy for me. So maybe discuss that before ordering if you want it to be mild. Otherwise, it’s a lovely, laidback spot. Will...