Craftsman Wood Grille & Tap House — Restaurant in Town of Manlius

EDIT: My last experience here was absolutely dreadful. The foods quality and taste have drastically declined. We order halibut and the fried chicken sandwhich and both were incredibly disappointing. The halibut tasted very much of ammonia and the chicken was dry, for $40 fish and $20 sandwhich you would hope you'd be getting your money's worth. French fries were soggy yet overcooked? No salt?

The white chocolate mouse dessert was tasty but it felt incomplete. The resturant needs to remove the shortcake dessert immediately. The pastry was dry, flavorless and paired with unsweetened whiped creams with berries.

The waitress was very nice and overall service was good, we didnt complain about out food since I feel like there is little they can do.

This is my review from two year ago...

Reading all of the reviews for this place I find that most of the complains are about the food and the restaurants design. When my boyfriend and I parked the first thing we noticed was how beautiful the building was, there was a large window to view the bar and fires lit out on the porch. It was very inviting and beautiful in early March. Finding an entrance was hard, the restaurant would benifit by making an entrance was more prominent. We had made 8:00pm reservations ahead of time and were seated immediately. The interior was what I called modern rustic. Lots of wood and dim lights, modern and simple, but with high ceilings. Our waitress was lovely and knew all the answers to our questions about the menu and restaurant. I noticed people complaining about the price but I feel like when you walk into a place that looks the way this place does you'd expect maybe to pay a little more for your steak. Regardless, my boyfriend and I ordered the beat cured salmon gravlax, the Waldorf salad, lamb and scallops. Everything was delicious and cooked correctly. My favorite thing I had was the salmon gravlax, it was very unique and different. The scallops came on a jalapeno mashed potatoes (you can get potatoes without jalapeno) which I really like, but my boyfriend felt as if they didnt go together very well. My lamb was cooked perfectly and came with gravy and sweet garlic, which paired with the lamb really well. I really liked the sweet garlic on the side. I also got two cocktails, a spiced apple and a BlackBerry gin. I preferred the BlackBerry but the spiced apple was very good. We shared a lemon tart and chocolate mousse dessert. The tart was better but both were very good.

Please dont come here and complain about the prices, my boyfriend and I racked up a bill of $103 without tip and I thought that for what we got, the quantity and quality of our meal was very good.

If my only complaints are that the entrance was a tad difficult to find and the bathrooms are far from the main dining room, I think we had a very good date dinner night out.

I will come back, especially in the summer and hangout around the...

THE CRAFTSMAN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT ITS CUSTOMERS!!! Update!!! In response to the Craftsman reply, I reaffirm my issues as a co-worker of mine with children had the same experience recently. They treat people who come there with kids horribly and will blatantly lie to them that there are no tables when there is clearly space available. I can only conclude that this is a top down directive and the management truly doesn’t want families going there. So many great choices right around there, learn from my mistake and go somewhere else.

I despise writing bad reviews for small issues. My experience tonight was completely appalling. I have lived in Syracuse for 3 years and the Craftsman is where I had my job interview in 2019. Since that time my family has retuned there regularly as the food has been generally good. We went there this evening with my family, mainly because my daughter wanted to go out to dinner for her birthday. When we arrived I asked for a table for 5. The person at the front desk asked us if we had a reservation, which for an early Wednesday evening, when the restaurant was half empty, seemed a little strange. I said no, he said all we have is outside seating, "I asked do you have anything inside?" He said not until 8pm, now keep in mind the restaurant was not full and I had a one year old with me. So we said sure we will eat outside, he brings us to our table, which is directly in the sun, my wife is a skin cancer survivor and didn't want to spend her meal getting a tan. So we say thanks but we will just go somewhere else. On our way back to the car my wife suggests calling the Craftsman just to see if they have room because they didn't really look busy. I call the front desk, the girl says please come right in, we can seat you inside!!! So we go right back into the front door and they sit us inside. The person who initially seated us proceeds to whisper to the waitstaff who is taking care of us. It got to the point where I felt worried for my children that they would do something to our food. We decided just to leave, which I felt horrible about because I love the craftsman and it had a special place in my heart. The manager spoke to my wife(who was actually very pleasant and helpful) and apologized and gave us a gift card. Personally it seems to me that because we had younger children with us, they didn't want us to come to the restaurant. It was a very strange experience and I would have caulked it up to chance if my wife and mom hadn't reaffirmed my suspicions. Bottom line, the wait staff there is completely unprofessional, rude and disrespectful. The Craftsman is not worth your hard earned money, time or patronage. They're are so many good choices in that area, please choose...

Final Update: upon returning with our gift card we ordered. Not exaggerating but literally everything the brought us (including an extra meal I ordered lambchops) were absolutely perfectly done and delicious for both of us as were the deserts. Service was excellent and I am convinced the single less satisfied experience we had was an outlier. I won't hesitate to return. Well done you got my 5th star returned by your attentiveness and performance.

Update: 11/12/23 Trevor was very quick to respond to what or issues below were and took full responsibility, without excuses, conveying wanting to maintain their high standards that I was previously used to... They sent a gift card that was generous in my opinion and I will stop again in hopes, the food and service I became accustomed to here is as I remembered from many times prior. Thank you Trevor!

Mom's 81 today figured a good Happy Birthday dinner was in order. With my go to restaurant in Fayetteville closed today The Craftsman it is... This is my 3rd time here since the remodel and not at all like the last 2 which went from very good, to good, to this last visit today...the first of those which I had a room. Today was disappointing...

Update mom's fish was good and the lemon caper sauce and the gnocchi was good, mom's fries were bland dry and tasteless, the sweet potato fries and Honey Maple butter was very good, the prime rib and bun of the beef on a wick was good, however, the bottom bun was soggy soaked through so undesirable, I would have preferred soaking it in the Au jus, and whomever has the notion that the wet limp white onions in this offering even remotely approaches what "caramelized" onions are has a lot to learn about cooking food but limp, white & tasteless... I hope it's not sitting in a vat of juice meat and onions together but you know it probably is...carmelized onions take 45 minutes to an hour is your hint! The "fire Roasted parmasan asparagus" was not pre-snapped so tasted like hard straw, the ends soggy like boiled not fired anything and the Parmesan chipped off a cold block lol, awful, they were sent back. The garden salad and shallot vinegrette was fresh and good. The deserts (salted carmel cheesecake and flourless chocolate tort) looked and tasted frozen or boxed with possibly the Butterfly cake being the exception. ...really this place is beautiful but food wise has plummeted for anyone with a true pallet...the server got his 15% (my disappointed minimum) but didn't fill my water till the check came, and wasn't real attentive during...nice enough guy...I won't likely be back again unfortunately...to the restaurant. Hopefully the menu from the hotel is still good. For $140 I will cook my mom's dinner next...