CRAVE

Nothing special– menu is definitely overpriced. Our waiter was great and our entrees arrived quickly, but the portions were extremely small for what we paid.
Exception– Monday’s are half price sushi and it was great.

They are now closed!.. Call Groupon to get your refund!

Upon entrance to Crave, I had immediate feelings of Cheesecake Factory and Grand Luxe Café. The lightning, colors and décor certainly make it feel like Crave is going for that vibe… although there happily is a lot more elbow room in both the bar and dining areas than the often tight quarters of those other restaurants. We received really good attention and service from the host stand, bar and wait staff and a very visible manager throughout our dinner. Plates of the Kogi Beef Tacos and Crave Burger had good flavor as well as the Key Lime mini-​dessert. There are obviously many dining choices in the Mall of Millenia area, but this is a very nice option that is a step above the usual casual dining experience.

We stopped here on our way to Mall of Millennia. It was getting ready to POUR down rain, so we needed to stop quick and this place looked nice.
We didn’t get a smile from the hostess… just a «right this way» to our table.
Our waiter was nice and personable. I asked for the gluten free menu and he brought one over. It had quite a few items on it. I asked our waiter about the Japanese Spring Rolls and he came right out and said they were awful and not to get them. I thought he was joking at first, but he wasn’t. I mean… I appreciate the honesty but hey, let’s get this off the menu if it’s that bad, right?
I ended up ordering a chicken meal. I can’t remember what it was called but it had a pineapple, avocado salsa on top and came with colorful roasted potatoes and asparagus.
The first batch of potatoes I got were SO good. Lots of garlic and cooked perfectly so they were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. But, my chicken wasn’t cooked through. Boo. :o (
I sent that back and he took my potatoes and asparagus, too. So I just had to sit there and watch my husband eat.
My second plate came, and the chicken wasn’t cooked through AGAIN. But, only the thick part, so I just ate the part that was cooked. But sadly, the potatoes weren’t as good this time.
My husband ordered a burger and he liked his just fine.
We don’t live anywhere near this place but, I suppose we’d give it another chance if we ever were.

Went for dinner on a Thursday night and was surprised with how long we had to wait for our food. It was a good thing I ordered sushi for an appetizer as it was a solid half hour to receive our two entrees. The service was also subpar. The server seemed distracted and made himself scarce after the food came. Took a good 10 minutes to get the check and another 5 or so to get it back. He only stopped by once after the sushi and seemed surprised we didn’t have our food yet. After he let us know it should arrive soon, it was another 15 minutes before it arrived.
There was good in the visit because I must say that the food was terrific. We had the Dynamite Sushi, Spicy Lamb Burger w/​sweet potato fries, and the Asian Salad. The taste of everything was fresh and flavorful.
Ultimately I would probably give the restaurant a second chance based on the food and hope the service was just an off-​night.

This was one of the best meals of my life.
I have paid more for less. The portions were simply perfect. And yet the food was — I must repeat myself: some of the best I’ve ever had. I had the crab stuffed shrimp. The chili citrus glazed salmon and the spicy shrimp fettuccine. ..

The food wasn’t bad. The presentation was nice and the food had good flavor. Portion size was a bit small and the atmosphere was typical of your average restaurant. I couldn’t help but think how overpriced their food was for the over all experience. I have no problem spending a lot of money for above average food and a memorable experience, but this wasn’t it. This place should have $$$ not the $$ listed.

Love coming here! The service and cuisine is always fantastic. If your looking for a great place for brunch, you can’t go wrong with Crave. I also recommend the happy hour. The wings were wonderful and the chicken sliders with fries were yummy! Great selection for there drink special too!

I love the garlic chicken wings. Comes with chucks and loads of garlic. If you go during happy happy that have some great deals on their appetizers.

I don’t know about you guys, but my New Years resolution (Cliché, I know) is to try new things.
I am IN LOVE with the Spicy Lamb Burger! Carmelized onions, & goat cheese had me questioning my decision but it was put together very well, the Greek aside they gave me on the side was unnecessary, it was a great flavor without it.
My boyfriend had the Chicken Apple Brie, which looked really yummy.
We also had two appetizers– the scallop poppers & the yellowtail jalapeño sashimi (favorite– had to fight with my chop sticks though) & a two rolls, the Bamboo roll & the Mexican roll. I personally loved the bamboo roll, but you could barely taste the jalapeño, & I love spicy!
Overall, the food was wonderful, there wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like, and the ambiance was great! Also, our server, Kevin is fantastic, really knowledgable about the menu.

Liked everything !!
Kogi taco, bamboo roll, and the lamb burger!!! Haha fatty mc fatty!

So yea, I don’t love Crave as much as I did before. For my most recent visit my friend and I opted for sushi as our main entrée. (I went with the Godzilla roll…) Both of our orders looked great but let’s just say I won’t be ordering sushi again from here… Or at least not that particular item. It just wasn’t up to par with some of the other sushi spots nearby.
I also hope that on my next visit (assuming that there will be one) I won’t get the same less-​than-​enthused waitress as this last time. There simply aren’t words to describe her nonchalant attitude the entire evening.

Crave is ok. I would say not as good as a few other happy hour places in the millennia area. The other reviewers are on par with the atmosphere as its really nice and modern. It feels stylish and a little clubby. I have had a regular lunch (non-​happy hour) here once and it was pretty good. The beef tacos and sushi are tasty for happy hour, but the mediterranean plate wasn’t so good.
Happy hour info as follows:
Drink: ½ off draft beers; $ 4 — $ 5 specialty drinks; $ 5 house cocktails
Food: ½ off appetizers; $ 5 flatbreads; $ 4 — $ 6 sushi menu
Sun 7pm-​10pm
Mon-​Fri 3pm-​7pm

Had the #9 sushi roll. Lovely wet n’ raw salmon meat with a crunchy tempura shrimp in da middle. Ummm. Very tasty and a great starter. (Shrimp tempura, salmon, avocado, sesame seeds, sweet sauce).
Altered the Crave salad’s goat cheese to bleu. The dressing is too vinegary for my liking but he caramelized pecans helped take the edge off that nose wrinklier.
Ahhhh the really good stuff was those (3) CRAVE Sliders. Simple and deliciously grilled to med-​rare and that sought-​after CRAVE burger sauce grilled flavor. Shame we were sharing.
Their Kogi beef tacos make me glad I’m a meat lover! (3) Shredded short rib beef, kimchee, spicy mayo, green onion, cilantro
All came to the table in (ok) good time except the martinis, we were a little anxious for them.

My clients decided they would take me here for lunch as they felt sorry for me due to the fact my hotel was in front of the local prison… lol
Very nice place as it has a very modern look to it. My party of 3 were shown to a nice booth by a very nice server. Lots of goodies on the menu, but I decided to go with the Bento Box which included tuna, salmon & yellowtail maki rolls along with fried tempura, mixed greens & fresh fruit. It was the perfect lunch as I did not want to be too full.
Definitely would check this place out again.

Was CRAVE-​ing brunch this past weekend when I was in town, so decided to stop by for a bite to eat before we were set free in IKEA. Had a reservation, but since we were getting there when it opened, that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Was pleasantly greeted and quickly guided to a booth. Learned that the menu is not available until noon; no problem, wanted to try the buffet the last time I was here anyway.
My only mistake was not timing my arrival better. Because we were one of the first ones in the door, it became quickly obvious (to me) that the food had been sitting in the trays for a bit. It wasn’t bad, all of it had great flavor. It just wasn’t exactly hot. The pastries, however, were divine. And the croissants were definitely hot and flaky.
Who can complain too much when it’s all you can drink mimosas? While my expectations had been higher from my previous experience, I haven’t given up on CRAVE yet. I do hope to make it in soon for dinner as I have been quite impressed with the menu.

My first time having dinner at CRAVE. It was an early dinner so tables were in abundance and getting seated was pretty quick. Thought the hostess dressed a bit to casual but was very nice and helpful. CRAVE has a nice comfortable atmosphere with enough posh décor to keep it from becoming too casual. We were hungry so for starters we ordered the tuna poke, beef sliders and California rolls. All were good! The California roll rice felt as if it was kept in the chiller rather than freshly made but it wasn’t bad. The kids loved the sliders and the poke was perfect. For our main meal I had the CRAVE burger (delicious), kids had the mac n cheese off the main menu (best ever!) and the wife had the Caribbean Seafood Stew which she thought was very good. To end our dinner we all shared a brownie with vanilla ice cream. Overall the food was outstanding. Our waitress was very good and attentive. CRAVE is a comfortable affordable place to take the family out for dinner. I was impressed which is hard to do.
#Orlando #CRAVE

I hadn’t been to Crave in awhile, so I thought it was time to get another visit in and enjoy some of the tasty Happy Hour specials (Currently offer: special Happy Hour sushi menu ($ 3-​$ 5 for rolls) half-​price menu appetizers and draft beers, $ 5 cocktails and $ 4 personal flatbreads.) Great food and drink specials, for sure.
Since I had expected about 7 – 8 people, I had called ahead and was told no problem for our party to be seated in the bar and was given the current drafts of tap so I could share that with friends. We ended up having 6 extra people unexpectedly, so we got resituated since the area we were initially seated at was also being set up for live music later in the night– so tables were being removed to make way for the music set up. I’d say, if you are arriving on a Thursday, get there early.
We got fully seated and the rest of our party started to arrive. However, when I was greeted by both the host and our server, the tone was less than welcoming or friendly. The hostess acted very put out and asked if we had a reservation for the bar, funny, since I had called ahead and tried that. Apparently on Thursdays, when they have live Jazz in the bar there is some type of reservations allowed– but not everyone at the host stand or the bar knows that tidbit. Several «reserved» tables were still empty when we left at 7:40pm (I arrived at just before 5PM) so, there is a data point.
Food was fine. Beer was good. Hubby loved his Lemon garlic wings. My crab artichoke dip had large chunks of uncooked onions in it, which was very odd and didn’t work with the lukewarm dip. Those onions should have been cooked through or caramelized. I’d skip the dip next time. Tuna roll was fine, I requested a spicy sauce on the side which we didn’t get, so I requested some again. We ordered sweet potato fries after seeing them come out with a burger at our table. The server said he’d bring some dipping sauces he recommended, that didn’t happen but luckily we had the sauce from the sushi. Hubby enjoyed his Breckenridge Agave Wheat beer so much that we popped over to Total Wine to pick some up for home.
I’ll close by saying I’ve been waited on by the server who waited on us, before. The previous experiences were great. This experience was not. I missed his warm personality and attentive service. Especially with our large group. This go around we spent a lot of time waiting for beverages or trying to get his attention for food and drink orders. If a runner brings out food, there should be server follow up to see if everything is in order and if anything else is needed. That didn’t happen. While I understand we were a large group, we were there early and before things got busy in the bar area. When we received our bill all was in order– gratuity was included and there was a glossy card in the bill jacket saying Crave would appreciate Unilocal feedback. We found that ironic considering 10 Unilocalers (of the 14 people there) would have been very happy to give them Unilocaltastic reviews had the experience been better. Too bad, we won’t be returning there for Happy Hour anytime soon.

Crave did not leave a good impression on my first visit here, which makes me more than a tad hesitant to make a return visit. Their decent Happy Hour specials are tempting, though.
The server and I started on the wrong foot when we arrived to join our big group and was greeted with… wait for it… silence! He just looked at us with a «what do you want?!» look on this face. I didn’t say anything because I expected at least a, «hi, my name is blah, what can I get for you this evening?» Because, you know, that’s kind of the norm or something.
Apparently not.
So, we gave him our order of 4 things and he didn’t write anything down. Interesting. When he eventually returned with our food and drinks, he reached over other people at the table to give them to us, expecting us to receive it from him instead of going around the table to put them in front of us like another server graciously did. And you know, also the norm or something.
On to the drinks and food. We took advantage of their Happy Hour which offers half-​price appetizers and beers on tap, $ 5 cocktails, and a $ 4 personal flatbread. We ordered the Crispy Chicken Sliders, Margherita Flatbread, a Sweet Tango cocktail, and the Wheat Agave beer. We then added the Beef Tacos later on.
The Beef Tacos were REALLY good. I will give it 4 stars. The Crispy Chicken Sliders were also good. I will give it 3 stars. The Margherita Flatbread was, not a flatbread. It was bland, and the crust was just not right. It was thicker than ideal and not cooked as long as it should have. A measly 1 star will be awarded to this so-​called Flatbread.
The drinks were delicious, and the cocktail was strong. They gave us a healthy amount of it which makes for a great deal.
For the price, it was overall worth it. But I can’t imagine paying full price for the appetizers we received, except for the Beef Tacos.
Considering how our group was treated by management and the server, I am extremely leery about returning, especially when there are plenty of other, better places available around town that I would rather support, especially since, you know, they don’t treat us like crap and give us amazing food.

Once Graham and I decided we would be honeymooning in Orlando, I signed up to receive groupons from there as well. Around the park there are tons of chain restaurants, and I didn’t want our dining experiences while on vacation to be limited to TGI Fridays and Chili’s.
We’re both sushi fiends, so when a Groupon for Crave popped up one day, I checked out their menu and then promptly purchased it.
The night we had planned to have dinner there, we stumbled upon it accidentally when we headed to Super Target and found it was right across the street. The restaurant is in a very nice shopping area of town. It’s by the Mall of Millenia, which is home to a Bloomingdales, a Neiman Marcus, loads of other high end stores and there is an Ikea in the same shopping center.
The restaurant was very nicely set up. The kitchen area was open, which I like. They had the sushi area over in it’s own little corner and dividing the restaurant, they had the biggest wine rack I’ve ever seen in my life.
They weren’t very busy when we arrived, so we were seated promptly. This place doesn’t have the greatest reviews, and most of the bad reviews were in regards to service, and price. Price is what it is, but for the most part our service was excellent. Our water greeted us promptly, brought the drinks out fast (the sangria was delicious!) and checked back with us multiple times during out meal. It did take forever to bring out my husband’s second beer, but that was the only service related flaw.
For an appetizer, we ordered the Mediterranean Plate ($ 9.95), which was hummus served with roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, kalamata olives and warm pita. This was absolutely delicious. The hummus was different than any I had ever had. It tasted like traditional hummus, but it was also slightly sweet. I asked the server if he could find out what was in it, and came back and told me it was honey. I’m not a fan of mixing savory & sweet things together, but this was excellent.
Now, I’m aware that a huge plate of hummus is not the typical starter for a sushi dinner, but oh well. We’re not the your typical couple =)
We ordered three sushi rolls. We typically do four, but the appetizer was huge, and their rolls were definitely on the pricey side, so we decided to start with three.
The Keilani: Shrimp tempura, fresh water eel, avocado, spicy sweet sauce; $ 16.95
The Sumo: Spicy salmon, mango, cilantro, asparagus, sweet sauce, tempura flash fried; $ 13.95
The Crunchy Spicy Tuna: Spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, cream cheese, avocado, cucumber, seaweed salad, crunchy flakes, sweet sauce; $ 16.95
All three were delicious, but the Sumo was by far my favorite. It was put together perfectly, the flavors all went well together and it definitely had some heat to it! The Keilani was my least favorite. It was tasty, but too sweet for me.
Only getting three rolls turned out to be a very smart idea, because we were both beyond stuffed when we left. After a $ 30 Groupon (and after adding in the tip), we spent about $ 90, and it was totally worth it. The sushi rolls tasted fresh and the appetizer was really amazing. It’s definitely a good spot for a quiet dinner away from the theme park madness if you’re ever in Orlando.