Cravings Bistro & Pub

I was not expecting this unassuming little place in a strip mall to impress me at all.. boy, am I glad we gave it a chance! !!! I ordered the special Flank Steak with blue cheese sauce, it was insanely tender. The garlic mashed potatoes actually seemed like something I lovingly prepared myself.. everything was delightful and we’ll be returning!

Wroth the feel of a sports bar connected to a small fancy restaurant inside a strip mall by the interstate, we weren’t sure this was what we wanted. Particularity after a slow response from the maitre’d. But the food was great, and so was the beer made on site.
We started with crab cakes ($ 11) and a flight of beer for $ 8 and both were excellent. Waitress was knowledgeable and friendly even though things were a little slow to come out.
The paella was the star, though. Spicy, moist and irresistible, even though I was trying to cut my carbs. Clearly they are fans of flavor, add my wife and I are.
It’s worth the trip if you’re staying in St. Joseph, but try to come along the interstate or you might end up in a bad neighborhood of Benton Harbor.

This was only the second time we’ve eaten at this restaurant. The first time this year. I had the quesadilla which was on the appetizer menu and my friend had the boneless chicken nuggets. The food was good and our server was outstanding. There was however a slight sour smell like a dirty mop or bar rag. Hopefully that will be cleared up by our next visit

We stopped on our way from Chicago to Ann Arbor. We were pleasantly surprised to find a place like this so close to the highway.
Though we didn’t partake, there seemed to be a great beer selection.
I’ve read very mixed reviews of this place, but our experience was really good. Service was great and attentive.
We both had Plantain-​encrusted Salmon. All entrees come with soup or salad as well as two sides — lots of food!
We would definitely stop by again on our way through town.

G R O S S
I don’t want to write such negative things but RARELY will I say that something is not edible!
I left this establishment needing to go eat at another restaurant.
Gordon Ramsey needs to come save this place! Could be a gold mine!

I’ve been here a few times when in town and love their plantains and salsa and their cilantro hummus. Im a sucker for flavorful dips and salsas and these are two of the best I’ve had around this area.
The staff has always been nice and attentive and love to just pop in to the bar for a drink and an appetizer while out shopping. Beats the chain restaurants nearby.

As my wife said, this place needs to be on kitchen nightmares. I’ll say the scallops, while overseasoned were prepared very well. Everything else we got was soooo overseasoned overbuttered overbreadcrumbed. Yuck.

It’s just ok. I went once with my husband after a wine tour, and then again with a large group. Service is ok but the food was really inconsistent. Some good some bad. I had the scallops, they were not overcooked which was great but they were extremely salty. It has the potential to be great and was very convenient to our hotel. The host when taking our reservation seemed annoyed, which made me feel hesitant in bringing my group there. Once we arrived the staff was nice. It was just ok.

I’ve had mixed experienced here… the food is okay and the wait staff is fine but nothing to write home about. However, the service at the bar has been consistently fantastic, which makes the meal much more enjoyable. Our server in the bar has always been attentive and personable. She seems to really make it her mission to make sure her tables are enjoying their dining experience.

This is my second time visiting. I visited when it first opened. The food was good, but I wasn’t wowed yet. Until recently. My friend and I visited and she got the chicken mac n cheese, and I got the shrimp penne pasta. Our appetizer was the artichoke dip. Let me tell you… from the drinks (margarita) to the side salads. This was a very good meal. Usually we in southwest Michigan have to travel to Chicago or South Bend for a decent meal. The mac n cheese, it is so good. I can’t find anything wrong. They are very attentive, and I was pleased with the service.

The service was slow given the ratio of staff. Took a good while before our drink order was taken. We ordered the spinach artichoke dip. Good flavor, more on the veggie versus cheese side. However, it did come before our drinks. The place seems to have an identity crisis. Upscale casual, candle lit tables, but classic rock radio station playing over the speakers. It just didn’t fit. Husband had the NY strip and it was good. Salad was good. Coconut chicken was very sweet, but good. It’s a hard vibe to explain. Weird pace on service, wine glass stem was sticky and dirty, plates are mismatched. The food is decent, but the experience is just «off.» We probably won’t come back unless we’re doing beer and burgers on the patio one night.

There was a Superbook coupon for this place last year, so my husband and I decided to try it out. My steak was overly salty on one side, and lacked seasoning on the other side, and had the texture of something that had been beat to death with a mallet.
What brought us out there this time around was the release of their microbrews last month.
What will keep us out of there was the abhorrent service we received. This was honestly the worst service that I’ve ever had in my life, including the time a waitress cleared my plate of crab before I was done with it.
Ahem. Back to our experience. Let’s just say that it took over 2 hours for a friend to receive her beer flight. TWO HOURS. Two WHOLE hours. All because they were out of glassware. On opening night.
Since my group had already received two flights, we each drank half of the beers from each flight, and returned a set of empty glassware for her to have washed and refilled with our friend’s order. One hour and thirty minutes later, we see a few other tables getting their beer flights, while our friend still didn’t have hers. Mind you, during none of this did the waitress show any concern. I think that was the most appalling thing about it. The waitress simply did not care, nor did she apologize for the situation, or tried to remedy it in any which way. Oh yes, and I had to practically get my own water for the 2 ½ hours we were there.
She did offer to refill it after we paid our check.
Hey, Cravings, next time you run out of drinkware, why don’t you utilize the Party City that’s right next door, and buy some plastic cups to use in the interim?

This place is great. Good beer selection, tasty menu items, pleasant service. We went on a Saturday evening and the wait was a tad longer than I would have expected but the food was excellent. Me and my wife both had the rib-​eye steak sandwich and it was friggin’ awesome! The steak was cooked perfectly. I would come back if I was ever in the area again.

Had the Plantain crusted salmon. It was cooked perfectly but the crust was not what I expected. I was expecting a little more crunch but was more of a light breading. The paella my husband had looked great with a huge portion but not served in the traditional skillet he was use to. Over all very good food great service and nice atmosphere.

Went into this place with very high hopes after seeing the reviews. I have to give them credit that the beer selection was really good and that the lobster bisque was delicious. The good stops there. The pretzel what was supposed to be served with beer cheese was awful. The cheese was like something from Arby’s beef and cheddar and the mustard was too grainy. My wife ordered a Ribeye. If it was a Ribeye then I need to forget everything I have ever known about food. It truly was a sirloin. Good but not what was expected. Lastly I got the beef tenderloin medallions which were good. However, the sauce on them was bland and hurt the meal. Also, the risotto seemed to be out of a box from Walmart and tasted awful.

Best restaurant in the St. Joseph /​Benton Harbor /​Stevensville area.
Service is responsive and accommodating.
Food is great. My personal favorite is the paella — get it spicy. I rarely need to take home food — but the paella is so big, I do.
They pour a good drink — I would not say great — but good.
My kids (under six) find the kids menu the best in the county.
When we asked my 5 year old what she wanted for her birthday dinner — she wanted Cravings!!!
My wife absolutely loves the wings — which are very good! They don’t have the ‘mass produced bar flavor’.
The décor is simple, but it works.
Their sweet potato fries are fantastic.
Their sandwiches work very well.
Every special I have tried was great — I think I had a blackened whitefish.
DISCLAIMER — I have yet to sit at bar and engage in social drinking or other activities, but would like to.

I stopped here on the way to Detroit, and it was a mistake. Had a Cilantro Lime chicken sandwich. It tasted funky, but I was starving so I ate half of it. Then I gave up. Later that night I had a pretty serious case of food poisoning.

Who says you can’t find good food and great beer/​wine selections in a strip mall off the highway (in Michigan no less)?
I do. Well I did — until I visited Cravings Bistro & Pub
With taste preferences honed from eating in and around cities for the last 15 years, I accept that I’m spoiled when it comes to good options for food. So whenever I visit Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin etc. I’ve come to expect a certain level of disappointment in any dining experience.
I realize that there are gems in those states, perhaps many more than I am aware of. But overall, I’d say you are only as good as you have to be. And if there are no great establishments in your area of those states, then there is often no pressure to actually create great meals.
Instead, ‘restaurants’ (I use that term loosely) like Applebees, Chili’s, TGIF, Olive Garden, etc. — competitively race-​to-​the-​bottom. Most actually concede the food is not the prime motivation for customers visiting — the price is. In places like Chicago where actual restaurants compete on the quality of the meal these types of places can’t survive. Conversely, where actual restaurants are few and far between, they seem to thrive.
Cravings Bistro & Pub bucks that trend.
First off — MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF PAELLA! There are only a handful of restaurants in all of Chicago that offer paella, let alone more than one type of paella.
Second — good standard pub fare — including the now-​ubiquitous gourmet burgers, which the night I visited were on special for 7 bucks. Unlike some places where a food special means cheap and thrown together, at CBP they use quality meat and quality ingredients (real mushrooms not mushrooms out of a can) and prepare the food as ordered — which for my burger is always medium rare. Incidentally, getting a medium rare burger is impossible at TGIF-​styled places because the burgers are frozen and medium rare could kill you.
Third — CBP offers a really varied selection of good beers and wines, many of which aren’t even available in Chicago/​Illinois.
CBP does have a wonky layout with a restaurant on one side and a bar on the other — but unless you plan on moving in who really cares? You can eat well here or eat poorly 200 yards away at Applebees and have Americana décor to the gills.
Overall, CBP’s offerings could hold their own on the Chicago scene and certainly blow away the ‘in a strip mall off the highway’ competition. [Note to owners — you guys really need a highway billboard].

Probably the best, fairly casual restaurant in Saint Joseph, Benton Harbor. Great service, great — real homemade — food. You clearly you know you are in a place where they pride themselves on food and cooking. Some restaurants are really just serving «Sysco» pre-​made food and they are heating it up — not cravings. This is truly great food, a great price and very nice staff. Truly a «local’s «location. You will have to drive to it but totally worth it. Clearly one of the best in town and for those who travel here on vacation and want to know «where the locals go» this is one of the places.
I give it 5 starts as it has the mix of everything — great service, atmosphere (even had a live piano player), great people, great food and great price.

A surprising find in the back corner of a strip mall. This lovely bistro features a serene décor, friendly waitstaff and delicious, well-​executed food.
I had their blackened scallops with white wine and butter using a crisp Reisling from the local Round Barn winery. The scallops were perfectly cooked, while the wine brought acidity to balance the rich butter. The lobster bisque was light and creamy with just the right amount of lobster.
A delightful discovery in Benton Harbor, MI.