Crabtree's Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

2017 - If I could give a half star more I would. The place manages to straddle the chasm between pretentious, trendy, and comfortable eatery. The maitre'd was COOL, he had just enough "aire" to please the snooty crowd, yet seemed to be earthy enough for the rest of us, he was efficient, precise, and fast. The wait and bus staff were all excellent and had great sense of timing. My waiter was top notch but had a touch of OCD it seemed all the silverware on table had to remain symmetrical or he would rearrange it to make it so, if you wanted to have a little fun with him it would be easily accomplished. Now to the food, I ordered clans casino for appetizer, they were nothing special; then I had the filet mignon, it was perfectly cooked (medium) but even though it was not grizzly it was hard to chew, kind of tough. I eat lots of filet mignon and haven't had this problem before. The person I was with ordered cold lobster salad for an appetizer and crab cakes for the entree, the lobster was easily removed from the shell and was tasty and fresh; the crab cakes were very good (I tasted some myself), but they were on the small side especially for an entree. Overall excellent restaurant but I guess you need to experiment with the menu to seperate the epicurean stars from the duds. update June 19, 22 Post CoVid I'm still not comfortable eating inside a restaurant so my Father's day meal was ordered from here takeout , for a pricey restaurant they provided the cheapest utensils available, the order was packed OK but one of the dishes were not fully closed and the sauce ran all over. We ordered crab cake appetizer which was OK, kind of dry on a bed of Meslun, onion, and tomato . White Truffle ravioli entree, the sauce had run out, portion was tiny for an entree, taste was OK but not the dish others had raved about. Then there was walnut crusted salmon, nothing like the picture previously shown here with a whole fish, it was a 4"slab that came with beets, broccoli, yellow squash pieces, corn, and zucchini, taste was fair but with the veggies a suitable entree. Finally lamb medallions, was the outstanding dish, it was cooked perfectly, tasted very good and the mashed potatoes & mixed veggies provided enough to eat only bad part was the plastic utensils were not strong enough to cut or hold the meat so had to eat it caveman style. Compared with my previous rating I give 3.5 for the food and 2 for the takeout experience. To be fair it seems that the more expensive a restaurant is the cheaper they are with the takeout essentials,...

tl;dr the staff is excellent, the food is decent, and the decor is dated (like most of the diners).

It's rather outdated. The interior has an old and dusty feel to it. My chair felt like it was on the verge of collapse and the table was tiny - we frequently had to shuffle things around just to eat.

We had the mussels on special for an appetizer. They were tiny, but the sauce was tasty. It was April, so they're not in season yet, but why have them as a special then?

My girlfriend had the duck l'orange. I would have no idea it was l'orange if there wasn't an orange on it... The sauce was bland and duck was a bit dry.

My first two choices were sold out, so I ended up getting some random fish fried and gently coated in a lobster sauce. Honestly, it wouldn't be edible if it didn't have the sauce. The server brought me more and I drenched it to cover up the grease.

We also had a couple of drinks each. They were all delicious. 5 stars to the bartender and the rest of the staff for incredible service.

We had a cheesecake for dessert. It was a little small for the price, but it was also tasty. We were actually happy that it was so small considering the massive entree portions.

The whole experience was rather underwhelming considering it was rated #6 on Long Island. Maybe that just says something about the restaurants out here 🤷‍♂️

My advice to the owners: Redesign the interior. Brighten and clean it up to give a vibe as fresh as the food you want to serve.

Modernize the menu. Focus on fresh and not just the ingredients, but the flavor profile too. A simple, well-cooked fish with a little citrus goes a long way.

HALF the portions! Really, you can drop your prices a bit if you cut back on the amount of food on the plate. Your tables aren't big enough to handle such hefty...

I have dined in Crabtrees many times before but hadn't been there for a while before I went last Sun. I have to say the dining experience left a lot to be desired. To start we stood for at least 7 minutes before there was any sign of the hostess. We had booked a table in the garden and were shown to a table to the right of the garden at the wall completely away from the few tables that were occupied to the left. We asked to be seated to the left and that was not a problem. Only the tables that were occupied were set. The only thing on our table when we sat down were 2 napkins as was the case with the table where the people who had been seated just before us were sitting. Bread and butter was served but there were no knives and forks or bread plates. A bus boy came and gave us 2 forks each and did the same with the other tables - however we were not given knives. I saw a stack of bread plates on a table behind and so went and got 2. When the waiter came I had to ask for knives. We were not asked if we wanted anything to drink, I had to ask to see the wine list. Our appetizers were served and I had to ask for salt as there was none on the table. The food was more or less the usual standard and our waiter was friendly and efficient. Yanni or his son are usually walking around the restaurant making sure everything is in order and diners are enjoying their dinner, however, there was no sign of either that night. When we were leaving we did see Yanni sitting at the front of the restaurant dining with 2 other people seemingly oblivious to what was going on in the restaurant. All in all, compared to our previous dining experiences this was very...