CRAVE

Had reservation for 630 and sat at 615. Waitstaff were friendly and prompt. Had the bacon cheddar tots which were amazing. Our food was timed right to let us finish our app first. My wife had chicken stir fry and I had a burger and they were both great. Pretty noisy though. Loud large parties

I realize that Minneapolis is approximately 1000 miles from the nearest ocean, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to have a craving for some nice sushi every once in a while. Thankfully, CRAVE has multiple locations that do a nice job of sating that craving.
CRAVE has a great variety. While I always get sushi — there are plenty of entrees to satisfy other appetites included grilled steaks and seafood. On my most recent visit, I got a Mexican roll — tuna based with just a hint of spice — and a few pieces of sockeye salmon nigiri — I don’t usually see sockeye on most sushi menus and it was surprisingly rich and delicious.
Although I am not a fan, many of my work colleagues swear by the Angry Dragon cocktail as one of their all time favorites — featuring Bacardi Dragon Berry, Soho Lychee, cranberry, and citrus zest.
There are 5 locations in the Twin Cities including this location in the Mall of America. The folks who own CRAVE — Kaskaid Hospitality — also own the popular UNION rooftop bar and restaurant and hip REV Ultra Lounge in downtown Minneapolis. There are 5 additional CRAVE locations around the country including a spot at Summerlin Village in Las Vegas. Check one out when you get a chance.

A big group of us went after work for happy hour, and many people where happy with their food, but my sushi was just pathetic. Really pathetic. The salmon nigiri was pretty mediocre, but the yellowtail roll had probably less than a half ounce of fish in it. It was just rice and nothing else. It’s literally not clear to me why my portion was so much worse than my coworker next to me who ordered similarly. The best that can be said is that I didn’t get food poisoning.
Service was friendly and prompt (but the place was absolutely empty besides our group), and beer was good… but I was not happy with my dinner.

Great gluten free menu and friendly, wonderful staff! The food was excellent, even for the kiddos! Will definitely eat at this higher end chain again when in town!

I dined in this establishment at 430pm on a Monday, and the service was atrocious. Our waitress, Trish, arrived at our table promptly 13 minutes after we were seated. Her section was not swarmed, I counted 3 tables (a 6, a 4, and us a 3) but her tables were receiving little to no service. We ordered the chips and guacamole to go w/​our first round of beers. She returned some time later w/​the chips and explained that they were out, but she had brought what was left. The chips were just pieces and parts of their former self, broken and sorry. It was also no longer bottomless as Trish had told us it would be, because «you know we’re out now.» So we placed our orders.
Our beers got finished, and our waitress, rather than trying to help us order more, and drive her tip up, was out of sight while her other tables got their flash lights out and joined in on the search party. Finally, several other employees started to help Trish out, getting us another round, brining us water, delivering our orders. She showed up to eventually bring the check, but couldn’t even muster a smile. How burdensome we must have been to be seated in her section, how dare we?!
The food was fine, and the beers were cold, but the service, oh the service, to be that bad was dreadfully bold. We will not return.

Spicy Tuna & Philly Roll. The philly is not good, usually served warm and the cream cheese tastes like the other flavor air absorbed in the cooler. Skip it and head to Tiger Sushi down the lane…
We keep trying this place but it’s just not any good.

Good food and very nice staff. Made great recommendation with Salmon! Also the tacos were very good.

This chain is an interesting one. I have been to the one in Orlando and it was good too. The balcony sits overlooking the theme park for an interesting experience. The food is good and has it’s own twist to it. It is a bit pricey though if you are on a budget. Good service too and right at the beginning of the food court.

Yummy food. Good service. We got chicken avocado egg rolls, chopped chicken salad and beef stroganoff to split. Yummy! Our server, Trish was helpful and friendly. Plates were cleared quickly… I like that! It is a bit loud, but really nice lunch.

NOTE: I should make it clear, I do not give out 1-​star reviews often. In fact, to date, I think there has only been one other experience that met my criteria for that level of dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, our time at Crave does not deserve any more than simply one.
We went to Crave for a very specific purpose — my daughter had requested ‘spaghetti’ and we were running low on dinner-​time. We had stopped by three other establishments, but no one seemed to serve it. Luckily, or we thought as such, Crave’s kid’s menu was appealing. They did appear to have some decent items for grown-​ups as well. Now — to be clear — it is OUR fault that we did not realize that menu we viewed on the outside board was lunch pricing. That is on us, but you can imagine our shock when we got the menus! Items were two-​three times more expensive than what we intended. That all out of the way, what killed it for us was the waitress.
Our waitress, who I do not recall the name of, was one of the most critical and unfriendliest persons we have dealt with while eating out. My wife and I are probably not Crave’s ideal client base. I understand that. We are normal people who do not often try to spend over $ 15 a plate just because we have our child’s mouth to feed too… This woman, made us feel incredibly awkward during our entire time eating there… Here are some specifics.
1) When my wife and I were preparing to order we were unsure if we wanted to even order anything. We were a little uncomfortable spending a large amount on dinner since we just spent the day shopping. We ordered our daughter’s meal and then decided to split a sushi roll. Our waitress — approached the matter as such, «You want to order food yet?» We ordered sushi «So… Like start with sushi, and you’re going to order real food, right?» Her tone was crass; as if she thought we were going to «that cheap table».
2) She subsequently would hover our table asking if we wanted to order anything else — like entrees — before we even got first order. My daughter received her food about 20min. in and about 5min. before we received ours. What we received was one, very small, sushi roll which cost $ 17. (If you want a reasonable price on sushi, I do not recommend. It’s quality was no different than the BeniHana across the walk).
3) Our waitress returned to ask (again) if we were sure we didn’t want any more food. We had clearly established to her were not going to order any entrees. We again declined, but I said I would like a coffee… She, probably unconscious reflex, physically rolled her eyes at me and walked away. Never — NEVER — has that happened to me before.
4) It was clear that we were bottom on the totem pole since our meals were done minutes before my coffee finally arrived. My wife asked for a cup too, which took time as well. She returned and promptly asked if we wanted our check, because we probably wouldn’t want dessert. We, however, did order dessert. Which, I regretted because that extended our time there even further. She returned with the dessert, and did not hesitate to put the check underneath those dessert plates. She never asked us really if we wanted — just gave us the subtle push out the door.
Sadly, I still tipped her, but I had no idea why. I’ve never felt so inadequate in a dinner setting. It felt like, although we simply wanted to share some meal time with our daughter, we were wasting out waitress’s time filling up a space that could be used for ‘real’ customers. I was also shocked that management didn’t realize this! My wife and I had saw what appeared as a manager floating around and asking customers about their experience. They never came to our table, but that’s not really an issue or their fault.
In the end, based on this, I would never recommend this establishment. It’s price-​for-​plate ratio is outrageous. I will not complain on the quality of the food because that was not or primary issue. The experience with the waitress left a bad enough taste in my mouth the food was barely noticeable.

Tried the strawberry-​jalepeno margarita. Very good– sweet with a little heat. Hubby and I stuck to the Asian side of the meal; he got the bento box and I got the sushi lunch combo. The chicken and avacado egg rolls were good, just pricey (11.95) as an appetizer (essentially two egg rolls cut in half).
Would love to try some of the American dishes (burgers, flatbreads, salads).
I would definitely return again.

Was in the mood for a grass fed hamburger so found Crave. I ordered the grass fed burger without cheese and french fries with no added salt. The burger was cooked to perfection and was delicious. I will be back when in the mood foie a hamburger.

A single dish experience. Last night I ate at the MOA Crave. I ordered the chicken chop salad. While I will admit that it is unfair to judge a place by a single dish, I believe this one was telling. It was the single worst salad I have ever eaten. The problem was the chicken. It consisted only of BLACK, not dark, black meat. It appeared to be all the scraps that one tosses. I felt like I was in an episode of Bizarre foods. It was inedible. It look horrible and tasted worse. To their credit the server removed it from the bill. I was further surprised by her response. She said ‘yea, we’ve changed our chicken lately, it just hasn’t been very good’
This cannot be an isolated dish. I doubt I will every visit a crave again.

Good food nice atmosphere. You forget that you’re in a mall until you look out the window.

Stopped in on Saturday and the good part of this place is that it was the only place without a 45 min wait for seating. It did have an amazing outdoor view for the mall that overlooked the amusement park in the mall.
Service– The service was ok but could have been improved drastically. Upon unrolling the silver we realized that we had a dirty fork that went into our napkins at the dinner table. We didn’t see any servers around for a few minutes so we took it upon ourselves to grab clean utensils off of another table so that it would not interrupt our meal at the time. When we walked away from the place we saw what appeared to be a hostess walking between the cabana and the restaurant that appeared to hate her life/​job. She had a giant frown that you could spot from a mile away and it was very obvious that she was not happy.
The bad part was the food. We ordered one of there pasta dishes and a giant southwest style salad. We actually only ended eating about ¹⁄₃ of their food on our plates even though we were starving when we arrived. There was absolutely no seasoning whatsoever in either of the dishes that we had ordered and this made it extremely hard to continue to eat the food. Usually I leave with to go bag if I don’t finish the food but not this time. We could have made the food that was served to us on our own at home and saved the money. We probably would have also gotten better quality out of anything that we cooked on our own.
There was really nothing that I left craving about this place, In-​fact the only craving that I had was for something else after we left. I’m sad to say that we will not be back and defiantly not having any cravings after our recent visit.

How does this not not have 5 stars? First off, the service here was wonderful. Our server Sara is the poster child for «Minnesota Nice.» She was accommodating in every way possible. I ordered the Bison Burger and asked for it as rare as legally possible… AMAZING! The bison was full of flavor and the fries were a great compliment. My wife ordered the one of the flatbreads and it was great! It was pretty busy so we didn’t mind waiting for our food, but when it came Sara was apologetic for the wait and gave us a complimentary dessert! Totally unexpected, but a very nice gesture. We had just traveled 10+ hours from Cleveland, OH and it was a great way to finish off the day. Thanks for the great experience!

Crave is located on level 3 inside The Mall of America. They offer a wide variety of food: flatbreads, signature sandwiches, burgers, pasta and a sushi bar.
If you desire something other than fastfood while at the mall, it’s a great choice.
Alan, thanks for the recommendations and exceptional service.

Came here for happy hour and it was decent. The prices were good but the food was very subpar.
The tuna roll was small with only 6 pieces and tasted pretty basic. For only $ 4 though it’s hard to complain too much!
I sat at the bar and the service was attentive constantly refilling my water, but stopped once they could tell I was not going to order more.
Out of the options at the Mall of America, this is probably one of your best bets. Good option if looking for a cheap happy hour bite to eat.

I’m also posting this as a contrast to the Edina Crave review that I just posted. If I do say so myself (and I do), I think that that review is also worth a read since it’s a bit more in-​depth from the menu and also serves as my initial reference point.
We stopped by for a quick lunch while we were shopping — the restaurant was half-​full and I was still okay with my experience at the Edina location not too long ago. Service was fine, though I was asked… repeatedly…if I wanted a cocktail… at 11:30am.
Basically, the lunch menu has the same pricing as the dinner menu (aside from the inclusion of sushi lunch specials). This time, the two of us (dining companion was also at Edina) repeated the Asian chicken salad and lamb burger… but when we got the food, honey I shrunk the portions. Seriously. Both the salad and the burger were ²⁄₃ of the size that we had at the Galleria. Wouldn’t have been egregious except that we were paying the same price. Not sure if this is due to a difference between locations or a lunch vs. dinner rule, but I understand that staff might not have control over this, but stuff like this should be consistent. Definitely changes the value proposition.
Speaking of food, at least the quality of the food was consistent. Again, Asian chicken salad was liked by dining companion (although a bit too salty for my taste) and the lamb burger was juicy. This time we got the matchstick fries instead of the couscous, and that was definitely a better choice.

Before a very funny night of comedy, a few friends and I decided to grab a bit to eat at Crave, At first, I was in the mood for some sushi so this place would have suffice.
The joint was part of the restaurant walk in MOA. When you walk in, you’ll notice the light dimmed a lot. It was a pretty intimate space. Lots of booths and table tops. The walls were adorned with TVs and lighted art to help with the ambiance. Our server was Sarah who was super personable. She was quick and really did a great job suggesting some things for us.
For dinner I got the Rib Eye for $ 31.95: Huge cut of steak, ancho chili molasses glaze, potato purée and caramelized brussels. I LOVED the brussel sprouts. Nice carmelized flavor. The purée was a little too runny. I had the texture and taste of mashed potatoes, but didn’t have the chunks and/​or consistency that I expected or preferred. The steak was a nice cut but really fatty. I liked the char flavor and appreciated the glaze but in my opinion, not worth the hefty price.
I’m definitely open to returning though! I heard the sushi is great and I’m all about sushi! If you’re definitely in the area, come check them out!