Crave on 12th

[tighe]

Has anyone checked this place out yet? I drove by it the other night and thought it looked kind of interesting. Their menu is appealing to me and seems very reasonably priced. I think I'll try to go for lunch sometime next week.

[laurel]

I'm planning to see the Typing Explosion at CHAC ( http://www.capitolhillarts.com/events.html#Residencies ), so I might check it when I do...

[tsquare]

They got some good reviews this week. A customer was talking about it a little the first time I was at Lark.

Neal from The Weekly

Can't remember what else I read.

[reesek]

i saw that today in the weekly too - thanks for the menu tighe - i really like the looks of it - did anyone else notice the 1/2 price wine on tuesdays?

[tighe]

I just a did a detailed reading of the menu and am even more stoked about it. This may be my favorite 'option' I've ever seen on a menu:

Add duck confit ~ 3

I mean, wouldn't the world be a better place if duck confit was an add-on to just about everthing?

This could be a close second though:

Add thick cut bacon ~ 1.75

Can anyone muster a good argument why one wouldn't have the spinach salad w/poached pears, pickled red onions, Cabrales cheese, warm bacon vinaigrette and duck confit?

Damn.

[BastilaShan]

The Duck Confit sounds good and I really like the sound of the Brunch menu too.

Ahh . . . so many new restaurants and so little time/resources. :)

[Schielke]

This place looks so good! I can't wait to try it out. I saw it on my way to Lark last week and it did turn my head.

I also saw on their Web site that they offer free wireless internet service and half price wine on tuesday.

Ben

[Schielke]

Anybody know who the chef is?

Another good sign is the first link on the Link page is to Slow Food.

[tsquare]

Anybody know who the chef is?

See the write up in the Weekly.

[Schielke]

Will do,

Ohh, I wonder if it will be rated for how many vegatarian options the menu has!!!! Joy!

Ben

[tonguesandwich]

Like others here, when i checked out Crave's website/menu, i was really pleased... they used phrases like "honest food", something that I feel is lacking in many seattle restaurants.

My wife and I went for a late meal (10:00) on friday night. The small dining area had only two two tops open, and I was really impressed by the compactness of the kitchen layout and the dining areas. It felt a little cramped, but it also felt homey.

The first pleasant surprise was the wine list.. I'm no where near a connoisseur, so I can't comment on the quality of the offerings, but I did notice a few names and was really pleased with the prices... 4.50 / a glass for many selections. We chose a drinkable tuscan red that at 5 or 6 dollars a glass would leave me a bit disappointed.

First to arrive was the Artisanal cheese board and living watercress salad. The cheeses, Manchego, pecorino toscano or similar italian sheep's milk cheese, and a nice soft blue (french?) went great with the quince butter, pear and pine nuts and was served w/ slightly warmed bread rather than crostini as listed. Also missing was the spiced almonds and port reduction. The watercress salad was pleasing, missing were the candied almonds (did they run out of nuts?) and the tangerine oil wasn't as present as my wife had hoped. The orange pieces and caramelized shallots made the salad for me (not much on the greens).

Next we shared the Duck confit (it was too late for a heavy meal). The perfectly cooked thigh meat matched perfectly w/ the Mission fig compote... a really delicious combo. The winter greens were really tasty (baby bok choy sauteed in garlic and oil) but the big surprise (for me) was the formidable serving of savory bread pudding. I kept going back to it during the meal, questioning whether it's herby flavor was a bit too subtle, but I ended it thinking it was perfect for the meal. The flavors were really well thought out.

The service on the other hand needs a bit of tuning. The servers were all very pleasant, but a bit forgetful and had seemed to have a difficult time navigating the small dining room... normal I think for a new restaurant.

Overall, I really think Crave could become a regular spot for me. The prices are totally reasonable, the menu is interesting, the space is comfortable and the chef/owner makes an effort to thank you on your way out.

ps. my wife just called, she picked up a coffee and a large home baked muffin there this morning, all for $2.13. That makes me happy.

[tighe]

Scrat and I had dinner at Crave on Monday night and were very happy with it. As others have noted, its a small space, with a total of about 24 seats. The food style is bold flavors using good quality ingredients and straight forward preparations. Given that entrees max out at $16, this place has be a serious contender for the best price/quality ratio in town. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that prices will creep up after they get more established.

The details...

To start, I had the Living watercress salad and scrat had roasted beet panzanella. No duck confit that night, so the spinach salad lost some of its appeal for me. Extremely fresh and spicy watercress balanced with sweet oranges and candied almonds. Very nice manchego on top. The panzanella was grilled bread on the side of a mix of greens and beets, not a bread salad, per se. Beets went well with the goat cheese

For entrees, I had the pork chop and scrat had the roasted chicken. It wasn't the tenderest pork chop I've ever had, but it was powerfully flavored, mostly from the ancho, shallot sauce that was made to order. The baked beans served with it had good flavor, but were under-done for my taste. The chicken was very moist and the cabrales mashed potatoes (a little under-cheesed) and gravy were good, if not spectacular.

In many ways, dessert ended up being the highlight. I had a 'frozen Grand Marnier souffle' and scrat had small profiteroles covered with dark chocolate sauce. The souffle was a small tower of ice-cream with a chocolate ganache cap, resting in a pool of warm strawberry sauce. The best part to me was how clearly the Grand Marnier flavor came through. The profiteroles were primarily a vehicle for the excellent chocolate sauce.

The wine list is small, extremely reasonable and interesting. Unfortunately they were out of the first 3 wines I asked for, probably just a new restaurant hiccup. I ended up with a serviceable pinot noir for only $4.50.

Service was very friendly with the only significant foible being that our server asked if we wanted the check, before offering dessert. She seemed quite embarassed when said we were interested in seeing the dessert menus.

The whole dinner only ran us $67 before tip!

[Schielke]

Bitchin'

[kieran]

great review, tighe. i can't wait to check it out.

[laurel]

I stopped by after Typing Explosion last night. I wasn't too hungry, and was there alone, so I didn't try very much of the menu. I enjoyed the living watercress salad like everyone else... I like salads where the greens are the focus. I also had the very colorful miso cured salmon: intensely orange salmon dotted with cool green blobs of cucumbery stuff. The salmon was moist, tender, and subtly spiced. I definitely need to go back and try some other stuff.. he brunch menu looks especially good.

[kieran]

after all the positive reviews here, i was really excited to try crave. well, i've now tried it, and i won't be going back. our experience was terrible.

we went for brunch today. there were no tables available when we got there, so we sat at the counter. i ordered the crave omelet (duck confit, goat cheese, shiitake mushrooms) and a side of sausage and my s.o. ordered the french toast and a side of green chile hash browns.

now the thing about sitting at the counter at crave is that you can see everything going on in the kitchen. and the first thing we noticed is that the french toast is not soaked overnight in orange custard, as it says on the menu. we watched the cook slice bread off a dry loaf and dunk it egg for a minute and then pop it on the grill. this was a little irksome -- why advertise something on the menu that isn't true?

when the french toast was finished, our server took it to another table, so we figured that one wasn't for us. a couple minutes later my omelet was ready, and it sat in the to-be-served area a few feet away from us for ten minutes before i finally asked our server if the omelet was mine. he looked and said, "looks like it is. it might be a little cold. hope that's okay." and then he left it in front of me and walked away to seat some other customers. we wait for a while for the french toast, but no french toast arrives so we nibble at the omelet. the omelet itself was eh. there were almost no mushrooms. the goat cheese was very good. the duck confit was extremely dry and leathery.

fifteen minutes later i am finished with the omelet and there is no sign of the french toast. our server gets into a public disagreement with the cook, who says he already made the french toast. someone has accidentally turned the grill off so it needs to be fired up again. fifteen minutes later we are ready to leave but the french toast is done. there is no sign of either of our sides, the sausage or the hash browns. according to the menu, the french toast is served with blue cheese butter and maple syrup. maybe it would have been better with the syrup but we can't say because the syrup never arrives. as it is it is a couple of slices of sourdough bread with blue cheese butter and it manages to achieve what i would have thought impossible: it is both dry AND soggy. pretty lackluster.

ten minutes later my s.o. is finished with the french toast and we are gearing up to pay when our server asks if we still want our sides. he drops one of the sausages on the counter, picks it up with his hand, and then puts the plate in front of me. we say thanks but no thanks on the sides (the hash browns are nowhere in sight, not that that would have made a difference).

i realize it's still a relatively new place and that mistakes happen. if it had just been a wait for the food, or if it had just been that our dishes ended up not well-timed we wouldn't have cared. but the food itself was bad, and it definitely wasn't prepared as advertised on the menu. and the service was truly horrible. (fwiw, by my observation the other server did a much better job with her tables.)

there are too many good places to eat. i won't be going back to crave any time soon.

[seacrotty]

This definitely seems like a restaurant that's still ironing out the kinks. We did breakfast there Saturday and it wasn't stellar, but it was good value. I had the crab omelete, and Anita had the eggs benedict. Competent, but not earth-shattering. I'd try dinner, though.

c

[chuck]

Oh, man, that's sad. It sounds like they need to do more than iron out the kinks. They sound like a bunch of amateurs. Touching the food after it's left the kitchen, arguing with each other, and not getting you all of your food (even by the time you left the place) says that whoever is in charge ought to get in there and do some ass kicking.

I want to know if you had to pay for your meal.

[kieran]

I want to know if you had to pay for your meal.

There was a great deal of discussion about this basically right next to us, before we ever saw the bill. In the end the server who was not ours prevailed upon our server to make deductions from our bill. We paid for the omelet and not for the French toast in the final reckoning.

I really wanted to like this place. Maybe the dinner staff are better than the breakfast staff.

[tonguesandwich]

after my positive dinner experience (see above, only complaint was w/ the below average service), i started hearing really bad news about breakfast and brunches... from the breakfast cook being incredibly unskilled, to inept service, to a very possible case of food poisoning (2 people ate the same thing and both were violently ill a few hours later). All of the complaints i've heard have had one thing in common... the chef/owner wasn't working. Let's hope she gets the staff under control soon, because i think this could be a really good place.

[Schielke]

I went on Sunday for Brunch as well and actually had a nice time. I had the french toast, which was not soggy and fairly good. My friend had the seasonal omlette which he said was quite nice. Another friend had the biscuts and gravy which he also agreed were good. Nobody thought anything was amazing, but all agreed that it is a nice affordable place with some interesting choices.

We had no problems with service.

Ben

[tighe]

Wow, kieran's account sounds like one of those experiences thats so bad, it seems surreal when you're in the middle of it. Maybe breakfast just isn't their strong-suit. A shame since the breakfast menu looks so promising.

The point about the effect of the owner not being around in the mornings is a good one. I think this could be a serious weakness of the open all day, every day model.

[Schielke]

I am pretty sure the owner was there around 1:00 p.m. when I had brunch. She was supreming oranges out in the hallway.

Ben

[BastilaShan]

I was there for breakfast on Sunday and the service was terrible.

Sat there for over 10 mins with no service and I had to help myself to the menu.

The server was re-arranging tables even though I was the only customer waiting to be served(the rest were waiting for their food).

The plates from the previous diner were still uncleared on my table then.

Finally had to walk up to the counter and try to place my order.

The French toast had to be brought out by the cook and the inept server didnt give me water, utensils nor the latte.

After breakfast, I had to go to the counter to pay and the latte and water still had not arrived. The food wasnt even that great.

This was the most pathetic service that I have encountered so far . . .

There werent even that many customers there but the service was just horrendous. Not going back for sure.

[LEdlund]

MsRamsey and I and our spouses were there for dinner on Friday night and I really enjoyed my meal. Yes, the service could have been better (we never did get the bread that we saw on other tables) but the quality of the food was very good. I was thinking I would go back and try breakfast, but now I will steer clear.