9 Craft Kitchen And Bar — Restaurant in Tisbury

On August 27th it was my first time in the Vineyard and my 80 year old father in law wanted to take his son and I out to celebrate our recent engagement. He said it had been a while since he had been there, but he wasn't sure of the reservation policy whether it had changed. We arrived and they were able to seat us. However, we were celebrating, so we brought our own champagne and bottle of wine. We had asked the host if that was okay or if a policy had changed and she said no, that was fine. We had sat down and the server offered to open our champagne and decant our bottle of wine. We had toasted to our engagement and were enjoying our time. I asked about the chef special that evening.It was a white fish with "red peppers and gnocchi", I asked the server if there was a chance I could keep the red peppers out because I wasn't a big fan of peppers, he said, unfortunately, he could not, but I figured i could just separate them later and I ordered a side of roasted cauliflower. As we are talking about where we are getting married the general manager approached us and said unfortunately, we could lose our liquor license if we continue drinking the outside alcohol she said that she would be happy to pour our $200 bottle of wine back into the wine and cork it for us. She allowed us to finish our champagne which was basically gone at that point an eighth of the bottle left. We had explained to her that we had asked not one, but 2 of her employees if it was okay and they expressed yes , it was to the point that they had decanted the wine and already poured our drinks. She rebutted by saying the host would not know the policy and the server simply just didn't know. I would like to say I have been in the hospitality business for a very long time from a server stand point and as a general manager of a high end waterfront restaurant. Her demeanor was very strict which I understood, but there was no compassion for the situation. We were not once offered a dessert perhaps for the misunderstanding or even just for the celebration in general. When the food came out, it was a red pepper sauce that the gnocchi was in, there was no red pepper for me to even discard. And I was so over the evening I didn't even want to complain any more. At this point, the manager was clearly irritated with our table. And my father-in-law is hard-of-hearing and I think she took that as disrespectful. All in all, for being an expensive dinner as well, the evening had quite lost its mood unfortunately and the manager didn't seem to bothered to even try to make things better in any way. She wanted to get across the no alcohol policy and that was that. The server had to tell us that it was his 5th day on the job and he was sorry, which was nice for him to say that. But unfortunately the night was already ruined. Furthermore, I'm not sure where else the "no American express" sign is but he would have been devastated to ask us to pay but thankfully the manager allowed him to put a card on file. It was embarrassing for him so perhaps a more noticeable sign at the host stand would be appropriate. I understand in certain situations "the customer isn't always right," but there's a way to kill them with kindness especially with such an abrupt stop to our evening of celebration. We had 2 restaurants in mind for the evening in case you didn't except outside liqour but because you did we decided to celebrate at your restaurant. I am compassionate and understanding about losing your liqour license, I am. But when the ball has been dropped so horribly from the standpoint it was, to no fault of our own if anything we asked twice, the least you could have done was offer a free dessert, a complimentary appetizer card, an abundance of apologies just to rectify the situation. Not make the guest feel as if they're being "rude" for being upset about something they attempted multiple times to clarify. I'm hoping this reaches someone at the restaurant that cares enough to know this situation and perhaps can avoid ruining someone's engagement dinner...

Four of us were out for a delicious meal. Two of us were happy and two unhappy. The lobster, goat cheese risotto tasted intensely of goat cheese. For the $42. charge, one would hope for lobster to be the dominant flavor. The filet Mignon was dry and lukewarm, as if it had been finished first and had to wait for the other main courses to be cooked. The potatoes with it were lukewarm as well, and the onion rings, cold. The mussels, and salmon were tasty, as was the salad and another dish. There was no desert menu, the server offered two desserts, we ordered one of each. One turned out to be a small bowling ball sized vanilla ice cream, drenched in commercial chocolate syrup with some nuts, the creme brulee acceptable. They do not (if you can believe this) serve and coffee or tea! They premise this idea, by saying you can get this in many shops nearby! In fact, in high time in Martha's Vineyard, it good business to rush people out after dinner, so they can turn the table over. This was not high time, and of course people want to relax and end a meal with a warm drink and conversation. Not go to another place, disrupting everything. The server was professional and friendly, and of course, none of this was her fault. The decor was beautiful. If you want a great dinner in Martha's Vineyard, skip 9 Craft. There are many that are excellent, take a pass...

One of the best meals I've had this year. Everything we ate felt very carefully considered, with layers and pops of flavor to be discovered. Starters as good as the mains which is rare. We had the corn+cheddar fritters with an addictive sweet and spicy sauce and the filet mignon deviled eggs, both very tasty. I had the striped bass special, perfectly cooked with roasted red pepper sauce, spinach, mushrooms, gnocchi, delicious! My friends had steak dishes, lamb and a pasta dish all of them were equally as impressed. Drinks were great, spicy watermelon margarita was my favorite, tiki fire a close second if you like sweet. Food and drink service were well timed and came out quickly. Server was very attentive, friendly and discreet. Noise level for our 6:45 weekday reservation was low, easy to have a conversation. Keep up...