CRAVE Food & Drink Rochester — Restaurant in Rochester

Went to CRAVE this week for a friends birthday.

They do not seem to have any concept of the idea of social distancing. All tables on their "open porch" were full, and they were most definitely not 6 feet apart. Few tables inside had people at them so it was not super busy. Most staff were not wearing masks. Yeah covid restrictions have been relaxed, but considering that CRAVE is charging a 3.5% "Surcharge" on all meals I expect them to actually be taking some steps to justify said surcharge. Otherwise they are just adding extra cost for extra profit.

Their "open porch" dining room has the acoustics of a high school gymnasium which makes conversations difficult. And with tables so close together it is just a cacophony of noise.

As to the food: they completely forgot birthday friend's orders so the rest of us were nearly finished with our meal before hers ever came out. And all she ordered was the Lobster Avocado toast. Overall opinion on it was that there was too much onion and that overpowered most flavors.

Second, I ordered the Lobster Mac and Cheese. This should be such a decadent meal as it is nothing but fat, cheese, and lobster but somehow they managed to make it bland. I'm pretty sure they just showed the truffle oil to the dish and did not actually put any on as I sure could not taste it. The sauce was too thin to actually stick to the noodles so it just pooled in the bottom of the dish. The lobster bits themselves were excellent at least.

My wife had the Wagu burger... Now personally turning Wagu into a burger is completely missing the point because you end up covering up the taste with mayo / ketchup etc but she said it was fine. She upgraded to the truffle fries of which I had some....They were cold, hard, burnt, and once again, I sure couldn't taste any of the so called truffle oil. We ended up dunking them in the leftover bland sauce of my lobster mac.

Another friend had the non-lobster Mac and Cheese and they also commented on how bland the dish was which for them was a good thing since lots of spice cause them to have GRED.

They were out of chocolate cake, so we settled for the Smore's brownie. The execution and presentation of the brownie was decent. And definitely a share size desert. Of the meal, the brownie was the highlight.

They were ALSO out of mini french silk so birthday friend had to switch to the turtle cheese cake. Cheese cake was reported as being creamy and cheesy with just a hint of sweetness.

One of us ordered the Mini tiramisu which.. the server managed to dump on the table when it first came out so they had to bring us a new one. It was reported as being okay, but not having much coffee liquor taste to it.

With all of this, they did comp the birthday friends lobster toast which kind of makes up for it not showing up in the first place.

Overall I doubt I will be back, I sure won't be suggesting it as a destination. There are nicer restaurants here in Rochester at a similar price point with more comfortable atmospheres in acoustics, comfort and actual COVID adjustments with...

We spent $500 here for a birthday party of 6. I really enjoy the atmosphere here, when the weather is right and the windows are open, it's great! That was this night. This was the second time I have been to Crave. The first time was slightly post pandemic and it was nice but not worth the reward on investment, good service, OK food, but not worth the cost (varied menu but nothing that shines as special... Cheesecake Factory style). Here we are 4 years later, kid requested for their birthday. Waiter was great. Ordered appetizers and drinks while we were waiting for our 6th person to show. Appetizers arrived before our cocktails, when the drinks did arrive, we only got 3 out of the 5 we ordered as they were delivered by other people. Brussel Sprouts - yummy, Avocado/Chicken Eggrolls - mostly bland chicken but served with a tasty sauce, Spider Roll - Sent the first one back. I get it. There is a large part of the population that does not understand what a soft shell crab is. I do. I also know what old, held, tempura is like (ick). What we were served for $18 was garbage. After some pushback from a FOH manager, the replacement was better. Not great, but I was wiling to let my family try it for the first time and not be embarrassed by what was originally served. When you want to introduce people to a world of food that they aren't familiar with or aren't normally willing to try, you want it to be great. Sticky Ribs - Yummy and a great texture. After this, the last remaining drinks we ordered first arrived. We all placed or dinner orders, some from the regular menu and some from the 3 course for $40. Thai steak (x2) Delicious, cooked to order. Halibut - Amazing. Volcano Roll - Yum. NY Steaks w/ shrimp (x2)... Overcooked, fingerling potatoes were hard and had a weird funk that reminded me of rancid olive oil, broccolini was nice, a bit al-dente for others. Desserts were good, also came out at separate times... like 3 different people delivering over a 5 minute span. The Lemon Cheesecake was OUTSTANDING! After dinner drinks were comedic. Ordered a Big Lebowski... server came back and told me they were out of Kahlua... so I ordered a alternate drink (noting that they were both from their printed cocktail menu) .... server came back and told me they were out of Chambord... so it was also a no go. He DID whip together a weird concoction that in some reality may have been recognized as a White Russian, with a bitter bite (free of charge). He tried. Overall, I wont be back. For a $500 meal, and all the hullabaloo, it was overpriced by...

TLDR: Vegetarians/Vegan BEWARE - they accidentally gave a vegetarian of 20 years a beef burger.

Probably the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had. The waiters were fine and all at the start. Took our orders and my wife clearly said that we are only eating from the plant base area of their menu. We wanted vegan only. The waiter said no problem. As he’s coming back with our food he’s stopped and told that they messed up and put cheese on some of the food. He gives the other waitress 2 of the dishes but brings the burger over.

It looks weird from the start but impossible burgers look very convincing to me at least. But even for one of those, it was odd. It was a grayish color…A piece broke off and I ate it and thought 1) that it was the blandest thing I’ve ever eaten. Absolutely no flavor. 2) The texture was all wrong.

I stopped eating after that and luckily only ate maybe a fifth of it. My wife and friend ate the rest. After we finished a different waitress came up and told us that they messed up the food. We had gotten the wrong order and it was meat. They were apologetic and I’m not sure who messed up but we were done. They comped part of the meal and brought us another dish that they said was for sure vegan. We didn’t trust them and said “no thanks” but had to pay for it…not sure the justification but whatever. I just wanted to leave. I don’t get why you offer a plant based menu and then mess up so horribly on it. I want to add to that the restaurant was almost empty. Maybe 6 other small groups but no more than that. So there is no excuse of it being inundated with orders.

In any case, not having eaten meat in so long, I’ve been curled up by a toilet on and off today as it feels like my insides are being ripped up. I will never go to one of these restaurants again. I’m livid at the level of incompetence shown there. How can you ever trust what you’re going to get? And how does one mess up a burger so bad that it’s gray and flavorless??? So, if you happen to be vegetarian, pescatarian or vegan and go...