Crave

Had dinner here last month on a Saturday night with a group of friends, 8 of us total. We had made a reservation a few weeks in advance and were seated on time. This was my fourth or fifth time at Crave but had not been here for dinner in a few years. The atmosphere is very cool and I suppose I would call it trendy yet not ostentatious. Seemed to be a very nice crowd of people and even bumped into a few people that we knew. The staff was great and we had no issues. I had the confit chicken wings to share as an appetizer and they were amazing. For my entrée I had the Filet of Tenderloin, Pommes Frites, Humboldt Fog Blue Goats Cheese Creamed Spinach, Bone Marrow Bordelaise. Let me say that you will not find a better entrée anywhere for $ 29! It was absolutely delicious and the perfect portion size. Everyone at the table enjoyed their meal and we had a great time. We will not be waiting 3 more years to come back for dinner. Afterward we walked over to the Blu Jazz club and enjoyed some music. A great night!

I walked in a little after 6:30pm. The restaurant was not terribly full. As a party of one I walked past several tables with only two chairs that I could have been seated at. In fact when they decided to seat me they mentioned the window table was not the only seat. They have a bar style table in front of the window that may work when it’s not 24 degrees outside and the window has a draft. I sat for about 3 minutes with my coat off and decided I was not paying to eat and be cold because of the draft. I went back to the hostess stand and she told me in 3 minutes they no longer had any seats for me, but I could sit at the crowded bar. That defeats the purpose of me asking for a table to begin with. I have eaten here before and although the food is good it is not worth being cold whole you ear it or sitting at a cramped bar, fighting for arm room. Thanks, but no thanks for the lack of service.

I went to school at UA, and have been back only infrequently since. Akron has certainly changed since I was there, as some buildings I knew as landmarks are gone, and new ones have cropped up. As a poor student I pretty much had to stick to cheap places close to campus for dining options. I certainly would not have hung out at a place like Crave.
I can’t recall what was in the vintage building when I was around, but the restaurant occupies the whole street level. They opened up the space to allow easy connection between the already large dining room and the bar area. It seems unthinkable that a place with 200 or so seats at a fairly high price point would do well in downtown, but apparently it does.
The menu is a mix of small plates and entrees, pretty hip and adventurous items as well. We sampled lobster pierogies, chicken and waffle, and a banh mi, all quite delicious and nicely presented. The beer and wine list is also pretty nice. I found Bell’s Two Heated Ale, my all-​time favorite.
Service was generally good, but we spent something like an hour and a half between being seated and leaving, with some pretty long waits in between. Fortunately we weren’t in a hurry, and we actually liked the easy pace as a way to socialize. Akron has a happening hangout!

This place is really terrific, and a great addition to the Akron dining scene. Of course, I don’t spend that much time in Akron, so I’m not really up-​to-​date on where people like to eat, but I was surprised at the quality of the small plates and sandwich options here. Really nice cocktail menu as well.
Hubby and I started off with lobster pierogies, which were delicious, but not quite as lobster-​y as I expected. Still, it’s an excellent choice. We also tried the chicken and waffles (very spicy!), the banh mi (delicious), and my parents had a burger and the lobster BLT. Mostly beer and wine to drink, but my mother ordered a Brandy Alexander, which turned out to be very tasty and strong! I would definitely go back to have drinks and small bites here again, but I would also point out that the size of their sandwiches is enough to fill you up if you want a meal for around $ 10, which is much cheaper than trying to fill up on small plates. Cocktails are a little pricey, but there is plenty of variety for almost any picky eater/​drinker.

Service is slow as molasses while sitting at a booth near the bar!!!
thought we were forgotten while sitting then finally given a menu.
Food is tasty, and the drinks are great — well that is if you ever get your drink!
The bartender should ONLY work behind the bar making drinks not serving or waitering — can’t multitask.
I ordered my second drink and never received it until I asked for the bill!
So ridiculous!
We asked for additional bread for our charcuterie plate and was charged $ 2.00 for 4 slices of toasted bread with a side of butter… uh, not what we asked for.
Additional bread to compliment the large $ 18.00 charcuterie plate should be complimentary.
Lots of staff just walking around — which is an indication that the bartender should focus on making drinks and not waiting tables.
Not sure I will return, but maybe just for the charcuterie platter.

I want to preface this review by stating that it has been some time since my friend and I were there for dinner, so the power of the immediate impact is gone, but as I was looking through my bookmarks on Unilocal and realized that I still had Crave bookmarked, I wanted to write the review I had initially planned to write.
As an adjunct professor, I make very little money. In fact, I live well below the poverty level, and if you do a little bit of research, you will learn that adjunct professors have been categorized as America’s new class of working poor. I say this because I want you to realize that spending money on a place like Crave is indeed, for me, a luxury. It is not one I can afford ever, and it’s not one I can repeat often without having to move into my car. I had read some reviews of the new place and I had some friends who recommended it, so my friend and I made reservations for a Friday night and set off, very excited to have a new culinary experience.
We began the evening by splurging on an appetizer, the charcuterie board. While it was fun to try, the 5 or 6 little slices of cheese next to the 7 or 8 little slices of meat and the 3 or 4 pickles and olives simply did not justify the price. For the entrée, I ordered the hanger steak, and while it had a good flavor and was properly cooked, there was nothing spectacular about it. My friend ordered the half roasted chicken, but it was just a roasted chicken. Maybe we made a mistake by not being more adventurous, but my philosophy is that if a restaurant can’t do the basics well, why am I, as a paying customer, going to believe that they do the complex well. We each enjoyed a glass of wine, and at the end of the meal, we each had a cup of coffee and split the crème brûlée that was the dessert special. That crème brûlée was the best thing we had that evening.
So the food was not spectacular, but many times the experience of dining in a place can be elevated through superior service. If only that had been the case here. Although we had reservations, and although, from what I could see, the place was only about half full when we arrived, we waited nearly 20 minutes for a seat. We were initially seated at a table, but immediately after she had seated us, the hostess came in with an elderly couple, whom she attempted to seat at the window bar. We noticed their discomfort and hesitancy and offered to trade places with them, so we were now sitting at the window bar. While it was fun to sit there and look out the window, see the people passing, enjoy the lights of the city, it was as if we had entered a no man’s land or had suddenly become invisible. We waited an inordinate amount of time for a server to come and take our order. A runner delivered our appetizers and our meals, and we didn’t see our server again until we were finished eating. She finally came and removed our plates and boxed our leftovers, took our dessert and coffee order, and delivered those shortly thereafter, but we sat for quite a long time before she came to pick up our check. As a former server myself, I almost always tip at least 20%, but on this night, the server did well to get 15% from me. All in all, we spent over $ 100 on a meal I have not once since ‘Craved.’

We ate here for my Birthday dinner and it was a great find. We really liked the atmosphere and the food was very good. I ordered Chicken and Waffles which I had wanted to try for awhile… glad I tried it here. I also appreciated how our waitress took my leftovers and boxed them up for me!

Crave’s unique food and drink menus make every visit entertaining. The pulled pork sandwich as well as the chicken and waffles are highlights. The cocktails are creative. The atmosphere is nice, a somewhat laid back vibe wile still being upscale. Being able to make a reservation on OpenTable is great – too many Akron restaurants overlook this convenience.

Pleasantly surprised on Wednesday evening. The husband and I stopped in before going to the nightlight cinema.
We were seated promptly. My husband enjoys a Rob Roy cocktail which is somewhat obscure but the waiter was familiar with the ingredients. We ordered the jerk chicken flatbread that was interesting as the flatbread was a small piece of cornbread – very tasty. I enjoyed my kale salad with apples and cheese
Noticed some nice changes to the menu.

First time visiting, thanks to Unilocal reviews. Will definitely visit again! Stopped for dinner before going to a comedy show. Started with fried green tomatoes (topped with diced tomato, onion, shrimp) and jerk chicken … awesome! For entrée she had pepper-​crusted ribeye (succulent) and I enjoyed the tender bbq brisket special! Service was very good … Thanks again Kim!

I cannot rave about Crave like the others. It might be that I’ve tasted far better especially for what it is really trying to be (i.e. hip, trendy, foodie). Their food is not bad and I can understand some of the really high ratings but perhaps it is because, once you have more perspective, you can see that this isn’t really anything special.
I grew up in Akron and when to UofA. I grew up on Swenson’s, Lou and Hy’s, and the Mustard Seed before it became the monolith that it is now. I’ve eaten at Diamond Grill and Tangier’s (you can do better at both) and I fondly remember Ding Haw’s (Merriman Valley) and Bangkok Gourmet (Highland Square) — RIP.
The prices are high for Akron; they are average for SoCal. But the taste quotient is well below par for places outside of Akron (i.e. with competition). Perhaps Crave exists as the «splurge meal» spot or the «exotic trendy spot» for those who haven’t really experienced that much. The place was half full on the Saturday night when we visited (any only after we couldn’t get in at Luigi’s).
The chef is obviously someone who likes adding heat to his/​her dishes as nearly everything on the menu has some sort of chili pepper or other form of heat listed as one (or more) of the ingredients. Now I like heat and will frequently eat spicy items especially when they are done well. My wife doesn’t mind heat but will choose more savory over that. This is the reason why she chose the Gouda Mac and Cheese with is literally the only main dish that didn’t list some sort of heat added (here is exactly what is listed: Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese, Blackened Chicken, Roasted Garlic Butter). I chose the Cornflake Crusted Chicken sandwich (which promised Manchego, Caramelized Onion, Carolina Mustard BBQ, Smoked Paprika Aioli to go with it).
So when my wife’s Gouda Mac and Cheese was delivered we noticed a curly line of red sauce all around the bowl rim and already mixing into the dish. What was this? Sriracha. Now I like Sriracha (I have two bottles in my fridge right now) and my wife likes Sriracha in small doses. But to have the equivalent of a teaspoon and half drizzled around a dish THAT IS ALREADY SMOKY IN FLAVOR because of the Gouda is ridiculous. Especially since nowhere on the menu is this listed.
I tried to take it off but most of it got mixed in the process. We complained to our server who’s response was «well, Sriracha is something new and interesting». Really. A product that you can purchase in every grocery for the past 5 years at least (and you have been able to purchase in any Asian market for 30+ years) is «new and interesting». She made no attempt to rectify it or even apologize, she just walked away and continued to provide the completely minimal amount of service she already had been providing.
And my «Cornflake Crusted Chicken»? Pretty basic, not much to write home about. Certainly nothing that I would ever «crave».

After a long time of meaning to try Crave, but getting held up on the long drive to Akron, I finally found an excuse to go on Saturday night. We were seated right away, despite it being busy, on Saturday at 8pm.
First thoughts: the interior is a little hokey and the price difference between their sandwich and entrée selection makes this restaurant a bit hard to place between fine dining and casual.
The food itself was excellent. We ordered the crab cakes appetizer which was complimented with a papaya noodle salad; it was an excellent take on the dish though hiding the different sauces under the noodles was a bit odd.
For entrees, I ordered the perch special which came with a goat cheese cake and a type of mango salsa. The perch was lightly breaded and cooked excellently while the goat cheese cake and mango salsa added a unique flavor. If they have this special while you’re there, I highly recommend ordering.
My boyfriend ordered the pork tenderloin and he was very pleased with his as well; the mashed potatoes serving was ridiculous with it.
We were unfortunately too full for dessert but while I thoroughly enjoyed Crave and would recommend going if you are in the area, it also wasn’t a dining experience I can’t experience closer to Cleveland.

I was in town on business, and I received a recommendation from the hotel staff to try Crave. The menu looked good, so I decided to give it a shot. I sat at the bar as I always do when traveling on business, and I was quickly greeted by the bartender. He was excellent in terms of service… very polite, timely, not pushy. I started with the steak skewers, chimichurri, with a Manchego fondue. It was delicious. The steak was cooked perfectly and there were five small pieces of steak. The fondue was a great compliment to the steak.
I then moved on to the Patagonian Salmon served with a grilled vegetable couscous, smoked tomato butter, mustard crème Fraiche, and chives. The salmon was cooked perfectly and fell apart, but was still very moist inside. The couscous was a perfect starch to go with the salmon, not too filling yet very good flavor.
Ambiance of the restaurant was good. You can tell they have tried to be creative with the setup and they achieved it. The only reason that I am not giving it a 5 star is because the place could use some updates and organization. The bar looked to be cluttered, as if there was too many bottle out along with too many bottles of wine. Also, the granite bar top has a in counter light that is covered in frosted plexi glass. The glass seemed to be dirty and was not able to be cleaned due to the sealant. Aside from these picky things, I would certainly recommend this place for anyone in town.

This place is a solid 3.5 to me.
I was visiting home and my mom and I were testing out 4 restaurants around Akron because we were getting my grandparents a variety of gift cards for their 60^th anniversary. We only tried appetizers and drinks at each place and Crave was on our list.
We tried the Fried Green Tomatoes (with chilled shrimp salad, hot pepper jelly, mango pico de gallo) and the Baked Goat Cheese (puttanesca and garlic ciabatta).
The tomatoes were AMAZING!!! I’m not sure if their menu changes for the fall, but if it doesn’t then you should DEFINITELY order these. The mango pico de gallo was probably my favorite part of it. The description says hot pepper jelly, but I don’t remember it being spicy and I am such a baby when it comes to spicy hot things.
The baked goat cheese was pretty average to me. The goat cheese flavor was VERY strong and the marinara sauce didn’t cover it up so if you aren’t that much of a fan of goat cheese don’t bother (Bricco has some amazing goat cheese marinara so try it there!)
I ordered the Hibiscus martini (doublecross vodka, hibiscus syrup and a flower) and it was so, so strong. The presentation was great but I really felt like I was taking a shot every time I took a sip. The drink is the only reason I gave it a 3.5 — keep in mind we didn’t order entrees.
The décor is great! Their light fixtures are gorgeous and, if I remember correctly, our waiter said they order them from Greece (maybe ask when you get there if you really want to know).
Besides the super strong drink it was amazing, and I bet their main dishes are great! Awesome atmosphere so definitely give this place a try if you are in the area.

Food was very good. Our waiter was fantastic, very upbeat person & had a positive spin on everything.
I liked the atmosphere, the art, layout. Great choices for beverages & food.
The patrons provided an interesting mix. It was interesting to see so many of the girls dressed up in nice dresses, heals & makeup & more of the guys looked like they just left the loading dock or boat. Come on guys you are mailing it in.

Great environment! Friendly staff efficient service. The menu is one of a kind everyone in Ohio who comes to Akron should try this place!!! I know the chef at my work in Westminster CO would love this place it’s authentic and amazing!!! If I were to grade this place I would give it an A+ for service quality and uniqueness thank you Crave for fulfilling my crave!

Ooooh, I love this place.
Such a romantic vibe about this place, with great food, great place for a date night. My boyfriend and I have been here a good handful of times already and we just discovered it less than a year ago.
The portions are bigger than you would expect of a «fine dining» restaurant. We have ordered an appetizer every time, because it’s just necessary, especially because of the options they have. The goat cheese with bread was great!
I’ve come to love the airline chicken dish, I’ve already ordered it twice. Served over gouda mashed potatoes, mmm.
We love treating ourselves on date nights at this place, right on the edge of the city, right next to a little music venue if you want to stop by there after dinner for some drinks and live music, this is a perfect place to do that.

The folks at Crave deserve credit for their passion and enthusiasm to be an upper-​tier, modern, forward-​thinking food establishment in a «rebound town» that has yet to develop a strong, centralized gastro culture. There is a concerted effort to stay contemporary, fresh, and cutting edge at Crave; this is why a typical menu might have such wide ranging items as a steak bahn mi sandwich, ceviche, and tenderloin skewers packed into a single, sleek page along with your standard scallop/​steak/​crabcake/​salmon etc. lineup.
Unfortunately, when it comes to execution, I’m not convinced that Crave is an upper-​tier kind of place yet. The dishes more often feel like faint shadows of their traditional namesakes; they draw you in with the «hot name» going around in the Cleveland food scene (i.e., brussels sprouts, confit wings etc) but don’t quite deliver the goods like you’d hope.
A gourmet bahn mi, for example, sounds so promising as you sit and look up at the high ceilings, elegant curtains, contemporary colors and sleek booths that frame the Crave experience. But a bahn mi, even in its most sophisticated re-​imaginings, should never be served on a soft, grocery store hoagie-​like roll, as it was at Crave, nor should it have big, gristly chunks of meat. For bahn mis, one must go thin, super thin, and a sweet, salty, long marinade for the meat is an absolute must. Don’t even think about leaving out fish sauce in this process.
«Confit» wings, meanwhile, should never be attempted with anything but the utmost seriousness and attention to detail if you are a restaurant that happens to be within a 100-​mile radius of the Greenhouse Tavern. The bar has been set very, very high for this dish, which requires a patient, slow roast and a minimalist sauce to accent, not overwhelm, the soft, delicate chicken meat. At Crave, my «confit» wings were simply bar wings with a different name. They came on a plain white plate with celery sticks, bleu cheese, and hot sauce, and the texture was no different than if they had been dropped in the fryer. Maybe they were.
Crave is about a 2.5 star kinda place, in my book, but we can round up here, because Akron needs places like Crave who are willing to come in and take some risks and think outside the Ken Stewart-​esque box where 80’s dishes like calamari, ahi tuna and scallops in beurre blanc are still seen as dashing new concepts by their country club Republicany crowds.

I may need to give the place a second try. It was 85 degrees outside and felt like 90 inside. I sweat through my clothes and felt sick. I packed up my food only after a few bites. My husband fought through the heat and enjoyed his chicken and waffles. We also were sat at a poorly placed table that was too close to the walkway and I kept getting bumped by passers-​by. Hopefully the leftovers will be good.

My boyfriend and I ate at Crave on Wednesday evening April 2, 2014. This is one of the most beautiful restaurants in Akron. The ambience is dark and romantic and the style of the interior is young and funky. They were featuring abstract paintings by a well-​known area artist whose style perfectly matched the feel of the restaurant.
We started with glasses of Malbec from Crave’s varied wine list — a good choice! Our waiter E.J. was so enthusiastic about the food it made us smile! We split the Boudin Crawfish balls as an appetizer… they were served with creole goat cheese and peach mustard — delicious! For dinner I had the blackened catfish Po’ Boy with Peppadew Remoulade and crayfish (I had their rosemary fries on the side) and was not disappointed. My boyfriend ordered the special — pasta shells with black beans, tomatoes and crayfish in a cream sauce… everything from the beginning to the end of the evening was perfect! If they have it order the Pumpkin Flan for dessert!