CRAVE Food & Drink Sioux Falls — Restaurant in Sioux Falls Township

The food was okay, some dishes were better than others.

That being said, I do have two gripes with my dining experience. The first is the rowdy guests seated a few tables from us talked so loudly my family could barely hear each other, let alone waive the staff down. My family is full of people pleasers, who don't rock the boat, and had it not been for them, I would've made a complaint.

The second issue stemmed from a dropped burger bun. During dinner, I noticed my nephew eating his burger, but kept lifting it up to inspect it. I asked him why he was doing that, and he told me he saw them drop it, and walk into the kitchen and immediately come out with a "new" bun. I wouldn't think this sort of establishment would do such a thing, but based on the timing, according to my nephew, it was rather suspicious. But who knows, maybe they have tons of heated ready to go buns on standby right behind the doors for such scenarios. Especially ones with finger nails dug in, something my nephew just reminded me of.

Had I known this when it happened, I would have told him to order something completely new. I don't like the uneasy way he kept inspecting the burger, but kept silent to be polite until I outright asked.

So yes, as the more confrontational person in my family, I got protective. I didn't outright accuse them of this, but I did want to point out that it was noticed and that he was uncomfortable with the situation. Admittedly, I was passive aggressive, but maintained civility. Our waitress, instead of apologizing for the situation and uneasy feeling my nephew had decided to "prove" that buns could be heated in the time it took to enter and exit the kitchen door back to back (according to my nephew, who saw it happen). Her attempt to prove it was not nearly as quick as what he had previously seen. I didn't need her to prove that it could be done, which is what soured me against her and the staff. Just apologize for the staffs clumsiness. They could have at least comped his meal.

I directly told my sister that she should not put more than 10% for a tip. I do believe that regardless of staffing, your waiter should always be tipped... but your tip should reflect your service. But to my surprise, 20% is an automatic tipping charge.

Oh, and then everything after her attempt to prove her stance left me uneasy. I watched the staff much more carefully. For example, when our waitress' helper asked if we needed to go boxes, our main waitress strolled a mopping bucket into the kitchen. Before the waitress entered the kitchen, the helper went to go tell her we needed boxes (I assume). I immediately told my family that if our main waitress hands us our to go boxes, we MUST refuse. I waited to see how quickly she exited the door after moving the mop bucket. We accepted the boxes because the helper handed it to us, even though I believe it was her who dropped the bun. It's just about cross contamination, really. At least one aspect of my unease was lightened. But I don't think I could ever trust this staff again.

I don't like to make service workers' jobs more difficult, but I also don't like people trying to prove themselves right, instead of a simple apology. I reiterate, had she said something akin to, "I'm so sorry that happened. (Insert excuse like the night is hectic.) I guarantee we wouldn't serve food from the ground. I apologize for any uneasy feelings that may have caused you." Even if it was a lie, even if she wasn't the one who actually dropped it, it would have been a kind gesture. And if they would have taken his meal off the check on top of apologizing, I would've thought, "Wow, I'm a jerk for putting her on the spot when she tried so hard to put us at ease." But none of this happened.

Note: My nephew did go on to eat more of the burger, saying that he still wasn't sure if it was clean, but he was hungry, didn't want to wait again (we waited 1 hour for our meal), and that he already ate half so why not. It made me sad, but...

This Sunday 7/5 was my third visit to Crave. And while our hostess visit wasn't thrilling, our server and meal made up for it. Best food I've had out of my three visits. I apologize in advance for the long review!

A little back story on this third visit. We had a reservation for 6:30 and we made it exactly on time. However there was some confusion (on our side) with our party, I thought they had checked in, the other side of the party thought we had checked in. My wife's parents were staying at the hotel above crave and I assumed the reservation was under their name. We have a newborn who needed changing and we were having trouble finding a bathroom with a changing table (don't use the bathroom in the hotel lobby for baby changing, use the one at the entrance of crave.) Wife and I just got married and because of covid, our parents hadn't met one another yet.

Long story short when we were finally ready to sit down about 15-20 minutes after our 6:30pm reservation, the hostess, rather rudely, informed us we were late and we would have to wait. Waiting was not the issue, and we were mortified we hadn't properly checked in, but just the sense of being punished by the hostess was very off putting. I own a restaurant and my staff would never be so disrespectful to customers, and believe me people are frequently late for reservations! Furthermore, the table they sat us in was empty the entire time we waited, so not like they didn't have space to seat us, not to mention there were 3 six tops in area they sat us all clean and unoccupied (6 of us plus infant.) I thought maybe they were social distancing, but both other six tops were seated about halfway through our meal. Simply put, we were being punished for being late! Can you tell I'm still annoyed!?

The entire meal was a success and our server, Ezra, (I hope I spelled it right!) was phenomenal. Very knowledgeable of the entire menu, including the cocktails. If we didn't live so far away, I would totally have offered her a position at our restaurant!! (Just kidding Crave, you have yourselves a solid team member.)

The sircaha soy edamame and tempura jalapeno bites were great. I had a huge platter of sashimi and everything was very fresh. I ordered another round of salmon and it was like butter! Wife was very happy with her salad and our parents really seemed to enjoy their meals. We ordered dessert, tiramisu, French chocolate silk, and coconut cake all of which were very good. Also, bartender(s) made a solid gin and tonic for me. And all other mixed drinks got verbal compliments from theirs drinkers.

That said, we left a little bitter with the reception we received. Very important that greeters maintain a welcoming aura, as they are the first and last folks you see when you dine out. There were no smiles, no welcomes and a very condescending tone and that's just not right! However, we...

I wish I had had the 5 star experience everyone else seems to have had. I wound up with an overpriced meal with utterly deplorable service. It had been a few weeks since I had had sushi. I was looking to go out for lunch. This seemed like a good place. Obviously it's inside a Hilton so it's not going to be cheap. But, for a lunch special sushi combo, which was 1 roll, 4 pieces of nigiri, miso soup, plus one additional roll I ordered, it was $40 before tip - only drinking water. Which brings me to the service, which was some of the worst I've had in recent memory. As a party of one going out for lunch you don't always get the royal treatment, but I have to say that out of the 3 or 4 staff I interacted with I can't remember a single smile or pleasant greeting. I felt more like an annoyance to them rather than a valued customer. When I placed my order the restaurant was maybe at half capacity, but it took about 20 minutes just to get my soup. Then it took about another 20 minutes to get my 2 rolls of sushi. I had saved some of my soup to enjoy with my sushi. While I had a mouth full of sushi my server, who had not checked on me in about half an hour (it was another server who brought my food to the table) swooped over and took my half full soup bowl off the table without asking if I was finished with it. I made hand gestures and grunts to try to stop him but apparently he was oblivious. So about 1/4 of my $40 lunch that I had waited 40 minutes for was taken away from me without my consent. The sushi was adequate, but I've had $7 sushi rolls in Kansas City that were better than the $20 roll here. After being in such a hurry to clear my half full soup bowl from my table my server proceeded to ignore me and my legitimately empty plates for about 20 minutes even as I sat with my wallet and credit card in plain sight (the universal language for "Hurry up I need to go.") Typically I tip 20%, sometimes 30% or more for good service. That was certainly not the case this time. Mediocre food for a terrible price with atrocious service. I will...