Craft Kitchen Southington-Plantsville — Restaurant in Southington

I was here for the rehearsal dinner of my brother's wedding, and this was seriously some of the best food I have had in a couple years. Hand-made pasta, incredible menu diversity, and much of the food was served by the head chef. Every single dish that was brought to the table was at least an 8/10, with most of them being PERFECT.

I started with the roasted vegetable salad; Brussels were crispy and seasoned perfectly as were the mushrooms. The star of the plate was the roasted eggplant hummus, very similar to baba ganoush but with a different flavor profile. Girlfriend had the French onion soup which was top-notch.

Appetizers were served family style. The goat cheese and shishito bruschetta took my family by surprise, absolutely delicious. Meatballs and burrata were fresh, moist, and flavorful. The star of the show, by a long shot, was the calamari - by far the most well-cooked I have ever had. Seasoned perfectly, and it's texture was so tender - I'm a Rhode Islander and this was absolutely the best calamari I have had since visiting Avenue N in Providence years ago, and honestly I think this beat them out. My family was laughing at me for how much I RAVED about the calamari. The least favorite was the Cajun drumsticks, and this is not to say they weren't delicious. I live in the South now, and when something is Cajun it's CAJUN. The hot honey drizzle was a lovely touch, and the chicken was cooked wonderfully - it just couldn't match anything else that was served.

Entree was the PEI mussels served over handmade pasta with a fra diavolo sauce. The pasta had that bite to it that makes you KNOW it is handmade. The sauce was spicy and fresh tasting while not being too heavy. Mussels were cooked perfectly - the only thing I could have asked for was MORE of the mussels.

I left Craft wanting to talk to and thank the head chef, as I consider myself fairly decent at preparing a nice meal. I saw him on the way out, and legitimately got star-struck. I had to keep walking because I would have just asked him to teach me everything he knows (also had many drinks so I didn't want to make a fool of myself).

If you are in the area, go here. It's incredible, there's really no other...

(ORIGINAL SOUTHINGTON LOCATION) Stopped in to Craft Kitchen for the first time this afternoon. You could easily drive by it if you weren't paying attention. Looks small on the outside, but it was cozy with plenty of space inside.

Our server, Anna was very nice and attentive. Could not ask for better service!

The food was fantastic. Portions were great, the freshness and flavor was more than I could have hoped for. All reasonably priced.

Easily a new favorite place when I'm in the area. Looking forward to going back and trying something else!

• OLD UPDATE *

(NEW PLANTSVILLE LOCATION) Since the above 5 STAR review, the restaurant moved and the menu has changed.

The new space is very nice and had outdoor seating, however despite the inside being nicer and much bigger, it's very dark. Feels more like a dimly lit bar with a restaurant as an after thought.

The menu has changed. Comparing the old menu vs the new, some things were removed, others added, sometimes a change in price. The steak and cheese is absent from the menu.

Ordered a chicken sandwich that while good, was not anything spectacular, and wouldn't make me want to drive from Middletown to Plantsville.

A mistake was made with one of the orders and for whatever reason, we had to ask for refills. So I'm not super impressed with the service. Wasn't "bad," but it didn't stand out.

It would seem the Plainville location maintains the menu I first saw, and if they do that's perhaps a better option.

• NEW UPDATE *

They have since closed the location in Plainville and I noted that the menu in Plantsville added the steak and cheese back to the menu. HURRAY! Didn't seem quite what it was the first time in Southington, but still the king of steak and cheese and I've ordered them from many restaurants. None of them come even close to Craft Kitchen! Makes wanting to order anything else very difficult! Bumped up the review stars to...

I cannot honestly give a review of the food of this restaurant because I did not eat here. We did not get that far into our meal before we told half the meals we wanted to order was not available from their menu. First, they blamed it on the local Apple festival then they blamed it on having a busy night the night before. Either way as a person wanting to eat lunch at 1:45 in the afternoon on a Sunday they had nothing hardly in the kitchen. There’s approximately 25 tables in this restaurant and I would say maybe a quarter of them may have been busy but what they were serving those customers your guess is as good as mine, because we couldn’t get any food. The person that was supposedly in the “manager” position was dressed like she was a 17 year-old teenager with a T-shirt and ripped jeans and didn’t seem to really care that they literally are throwing this restaurant down the drain. I definitely will not be coming back. I will not be recommending it and I will tell anybody that will listen how bad the service was. As far as being part of front of house goes the hostess and the waitress were awesome but they weren’t the back of house/cooks so they couldn’t do anything about the poor service from the there. When I asked to speak to somebody above the manager, I was told that there was a card at the front of the restaurant that I could call or leave a message. I’m really not interested in leaving a message with anybody. I wanted to speak with a human, but apparently I didn’t get that either. So if I could give this “establishment” negative stars I would definitely give them a -5 out of 5. Their menu sounds scrumptious but I couldn’t tell you a thing about taste! Avoid this place like the...