Crave Restaurant

Gonzo!
too bad, had one of the best secret patios in the back, kinda cozy… Main. St needs more restos like these…

I went there for brunch on Saturday for the first time. We arrived after 11:30. It wasn’t busy and there were many empty tables. It started getting busy after 12. We sat on the little cute back patio. I don’t think you can find many places with a patio like that in Vancouver. But the wasps didn’t let us enjoy our meal. We had to change our table and move inside when our food arrived.
Coffee was really good. But the food was just OK. I ordered the pulled pork benny and my friend got the short rib migas. The pulled pork benny was delicious but nothing special. Short rib migas wasn’t tasty and didn’t have that much meat. Portions were big. I couldn’t finish my breakfast and only had one benny.
If you like to have big breakfast and are not looking for anything special, Crave might be a good choice.

Crave on Main is one of Vancouver’s favorite brunch spots praised for its local fresh ingredients (but then again, most restaurants nowadays all praise to use local and organic ingredients). Anyways, Crave has an urban vibe mixed with minimalistic white wall décor. On those sunny Vancouver days, they even have a small patio for you to chill on.
Crave has a pretty good selection of brunch and lunch items on rotation and even serves Stiegl Radler Grapefruit beer by the can. Any restaurant that serves this has a plus in our books!
organic beef crave burger served with house cut fries 12: We optioned for half fries and half salad. You know, just trying to make ourselves feel healthy. The burgers here are raved to be one of Vancouver’s best burgers. It comes with the standard lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, and a juicy beef patty on the soft focaccia bread. The patty is nicely seasoned and cooked to a juicy perfection. Mushrooms on top adds a excellent touch.
dungeness crab cake benny 14: The lightly crispy yet moist crab cake was delicious on the English muffin. The Hollandaise sauce was creamy and didn’t break but we wished came with a little more so we can soak our potatoes in.
buttermilk fried chicken cobb 16: avocado, aged cheddar, blue cheese (I subbed for feta), bacon, egg, green onions, sun dried tomatoes, creamy ranch dressing (on the side). I love the different ingredients offered in this salad. Cause, sometimes salads are just so boring with just lettuce and tomatoes. The buttermilk fried chicken was sinful. Was I on a diet? Omg, I almost forgot! The chicken was moist, but because some parts were thinly sliced was crunchy and hard. The seasoning on nice and a little spicy which was great!
Now I must love you and leave you, I have a mountain of textbooks to flip through while I drool over these pictures. I’ll just have a Vega One shake to save on time today.

Gorgeous patio, but the menu items (which read beautifully) were somewhat of a let down.
Good for casual drinks and appies with friends on a spring and summer day!

CRAVE: How have I not brunched at you before?
I’ve just left but am already eager to try more.
Crave is a small establishment. Simple menue items… Pancakes, bennies, scrambles.
I ordered the California benny with a biscuit base. Anything on a biscuit and I’m sold.
Medium-​done (attractively oblong shaped) poached egg, subtle hollandaise, a perfect piece of avocado, back-​bacon, and a cheese biscuit. Pair this with crunchy hash browns on the side and I’m entirely satiated.
Our server was attentive and kind enough to talk to the kitchen when I requested the biscuit in a meal it is not normally served with.
I left very happy. I’ll be back for further investigation.

Haiku Review —
It’s just some good food —
A nice small room, patio.
Kind, well-​trained servers.
The steak amazes
Truffle oil, mushrooms, and
french fries fried just right.
In frying, roasting
Timing is everything —
and servers’ visits.

Went here on Friday night for date night, walked in at 9:15pm, ordered a drink, then an appie, dinner and a bottle of wine with dinner. I asked after we ordered what time they closed and our server said 10pm, so I felt rushed to eat and drink our bottle of wine to not hold the staff up, not fun for date night, but they had space to seat us as walk ins so its not weighing on my review.
We shared the popcorn shrimp appy, it was ok, shrimp that had been battered and deep fried and served with a funked up mayo for dipping.
My boyfriend ordered the Shorty Rigatoni (beef shortrib & tomato ragout, parmesan cheese) $ 16, nothing mind blowing but ok. I ordered the Roasted Beet salad (goat cheese, greens, pumpkin oil dressing) and added Buttermilk Fried Chicken $ 5. Normally when you order a roasted beet salad the beets take center stage, not here, I had shredded roast beets (very few of them) hidden in a massive pile of oily salad dressing drenched greens and a very small amount of goat cheese. The chicken was the best part of our meals combined, it was a huge piece, juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside — but not the best buttermilk friend chicken I have ever had, I ended up sharing half with my boyfriend or he would have left hungry (the pasta didn’t have much short rib in it), so instead of a $ 21 dish, I should have just ordered a side of chicken for $ 5.
There is a reason places like this aren’t busy and close early on Friday nights, we won’t be making that mistake again.

My darling Crave, how I crave thee, yet tend to forget thee.
Located on Main street, right where all the cute local shopping stores are, with a black front reminiscent of old bistros and bars in London. Free 1 hour street parking out front (nice!).
My Crave staple their ahi tuna roll, slightly spicy ahi tuna, wrapped in sushi rice /​seaweed and lightly battered and fried. I wish I could stop ordering it so I can try other things on the menu! Luckily for me I have no qualms about feasting off other people’s plates. Remnants of my cave lady days or more than likely I come from an Asian family and food is communal property if it’s on the table, regardless of on your plate.
The spot is squishy and charming, packed to the gills on the weekends and if you are one of no patience, this is NOT the place for you. Even week day lunchtime is busy. Perhaps 8 seats plus a teeny bar on the inside and another 5 – 6 tables outside on the warm months. It has the neighbourhood worn down, much loved feel and the patio out back reminds me of the little courtyards you find in Portland. Another, you come for the food and not the furniture or space (lack of space).
Food review from other people’s plates:
Hamburgers, which I never eat, is probably where I would eat a burger if I ate burgers. You cna actually TASTE the burger, not just bun, ketchup and the sensation of meat.
Fried chicken cobb, cobb portion hearty, fresh good, all your cobb goodness of eggs, blue cheese, lettuce, etc etc. Fried chicken part, take note, it’s all dark meat, the skin is not quite fried so its a bit flabby icky to look at once the batter falls off. Unfortunately my partner’s also had little hairs sticking out of the skin. They were prompt to remove from the bill
Short rib pasta, divine. Divine. Divine. All thick and juicy with flavour.
Soups, have had a few, meh, OK, not bad, not great, good on a cold winter day to warm up but makes sure to know what to not expect when you’re expecting this.
It’s a creative menu with flair, basic items touched up with good ingredients and an eye for detail. Lots of comfort food for those chilly months ahead.
They also serve breakfast and brunch and from eyedropping on the other tables, it looks good, all your regular brunch favourites in good portions. I like lunch too much to brunch, other than the mimosas.
Staff is always friendly and happy even when the line is snaking out the door and they’re getting the hairy eyeball gaze (yes, I’ve done this too).
#30daysofyelp
⁴⁄₃₀

This is a little oasis of beautiful garden patio in the heart of the Main Street neighbourhood since 2008, enchanting locals and visitors alike. Everything is deliciously crafted by the team led by the former Executive Chef Wayne Martin of Four Seasons Hotel.
The menu is quite ambitious for a intimate restaurant, but I find I tend to stay with a few signature items. For instance, when I am here for brunch, I always go for the Dungeness Crab Cake Benny with the blended smoothie of the day. This dish is so popular that it devours 13.5 kilos of fresh Dungeness a week.
For lunch or dinner my staples are the Buttermilk Fried Chicken Cobb (avocado, aged cheddar, blue cheese, bacon, roasted corne, egg, green onions, sun dried tomatoes, creamy ranch dressing), Not to mention the Ahi Tuna Tempura roll (lightly battered sushi roll, ponzu & ginger), but the last time I visited the tuna in the roll seem to shrink in size.
If you are a die-​hard carnivore, go for the Pulled Pork and Slaw Sandwhich and/​or the Chipotle BBQ Baby Back Ribs, both served with house cut fries. The meat are gender and juicy full of flavour guaranteed to make you suck your finger.
I would have the dessert elsewhere though since Sweet Revenue is few doors down and the local cafes offers some good pastry selection.
Overall, the service is attentive and pricing is on par with the casual fine-​dining chains. If you haven’t tried this place do give it a chance.
Cheerios~

I’ve been here twice for lunch, and both times I’ve ordered the cranberry ginger french toast with warm berry compote. It is AMAZING. So good I don’t think I could try anything else off the menu for fear it won’t measure up. Try it, you won’t regret it! They also make a really nice iced latte.
The best kept secret about this place (shh… don’t tell) is their quaint back patio. It is heated and secluded and gets great light on a sunny day! The perfect place for a zen brunch on a sunny day!

We ended up at this little restaurant by chance when our original dinner plans fell through.
I LOVE the buttermilk fried chicken cobb. The vegetables in the salad were fresh and crisp and the chicken was moist and delicious. The serving was generous and I almost wasn’t able to finish it.
Our server was good and kept our water glasses full.
The food was a little on the pricey side; it was $ 16 for the salad. This kind of pricing is acceptable in downtown Vancouver, but on Main Street, that’s pushing it.

Stopped in here for brunch a few Sunday’s back.
There was quite the line up for a table (it’s a really small space, so it doesn’t take much for a line up to form.
We had a seat at the bar to work on a couple coffee’s while we waited for a table. The coffee there is quite good. I don’t know what beans they use, but I like. I only got halfway through my cup before a table opened up, so the wait couldn’t have been that long.
They’ve got a very compact brunch menu with small fruit dishes to full on pancakes and eggs.
I tried one of the more interesting items, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon on a toasted croissant. All in all it was really good. Filling, tasty and all those good things.
The staff here is friendly, helpful, and quick to keep your coffee cups topped up.
I will be back here again soon!

I have a split decision.
The brunch menu is good and it’s easy to give a 4 star rating for most items, but the dinners I’ve had definitely warrants 2, at most, a 2.5 star rating with lots of room for improvement.
On a previous visit, I had the ribs. It wasn’t special. I’ve had the same quality or better at cheap pubs. They type of ribs that has a good coating of tasty sauce, but inside it’s just steamy and blah meat.
I most recently visited with a Groupon, and they told us that the wait would be an hour. Fair enough, it was busy. We head down the street for drinks to pass the time, and returned only to be seated over 2 hours later. Arrived at 6:50pm, seated at 9:05pm. It’s not their fault if a lot of people show up, but that’s a pretty bad estimate of seating time.
We were fortunate enough to receive a free popcorn shrimp appetizer as part of the Groupon deal. It was pretty oily. I’d never pay $ 11 for that. I opted for the fried chicken cobb salad because, well, it has ‘fried chicken’ in the title. I’m a sucker for it. It looked amazing, but to my disappointment, the chicken was very bland, the skin was rubbery, and did not suit the rich flavourful taste of the blue cheese, bacon, eggs and avocado in the salad. I even thought twice about finishing it. I looked at the table beside me and a woman at the table had dicarded the chicken on her plate. Maybe she didn’t like chicken, but what are the chances when it’s supposed to be the star of the dish. I arrived back home with a displeasing taste on the palate. Dinner at Crave hasn’t left a good memory for me.

It’s more of a 2.5, and I really wish I could’ve ranked this higher but it just wasn’t working for me last night. Husband and I showed up for late dinner just after 9pm, and were seated promptly.
It kind of went south from here. The server seemed really uninterested in us, and by the end of the night (with our water glasses empty for half the dinner) I felt pretty uncomfortable and didn’t want to stay there a minute longer. I get that it’s been a long day and you’ve probably been working there all evening and you’re tired. But it would have been nice if you looked at me the only other time you walked past, or not hid around the corner so I couldn’t see you and we could’ve just talked, you know?
The food was good, and it was kind of the saving grace. The starter we got was fantastic — their popcorn shrimp is amazing. I was skeptical since popcorn shrimp sends off alarm bells of massive breading, but these had a very light coating and great seasoning. The sauce that came with it was delicious as well — a spicy mayo that added a nice tang.
I ordered the miso sablefish and husband got the lamb sirloin. Both were very good dishes. The sablefish was a bit on the salty side (I guess it was soaked in the miso sauce for a bit longer than it should’ve been), but the vegetables that came with it were fantastic. I could just sit down and eat a whole bowl of those veggies with a ladle, they were so yum. The lamb was great — seasoned well to bring out the natural flavours, and came with a fantastic scalloped potato that I pretty much ate half of.
Overall, the place is nice and the patio is a definite sell. I wish our server was more attentive (the table beside us was being served by someone else and I was jealous when they got two water refills when we got none), but the food was good and I left with a happy full stomach. Not sure if I’ll come back, I guess I’ll wait for some more reviews before making that decision later.

After hearing a lot of buzz about Crave from some of our friends we decided to hit it up for an early dinner. The space itself is quite small but they have a small front patio and a large, lovely patio in the back which essentially doubles the occupancy on a nice day. Because of our early arrival we didn’t have any difficulty getting seated immediately wherever we wanted.
The décor is spare and modern, in a good way. It appears that the customers were divided between those having cocktails and small plates and those having meals. Our service was immediate, friendly and attentive.
We started with an order of the Ahi Tuna Tempura Rolls with ponzu and ginger that is apparently one of Chef/​Owner Martin’s signature dishes. It was a winner and was thoroughly enjoyed.
My husband ordered the short rib «shorty» rigatoni and I ordered the fettucini pasta with tomatoes, spinach, olives, pinenuts, feta cheese and lemon olive oil. His dish was clearly the better of the two and would be ordered again in a heartbeat. My dish proved off-​balance with a little too much lemon olive oil and not enough feta. With a slight proportional adjustment, this could be an amazing and flavourful summertime pasta dish.
I’d love to come back to try out their breakfast menu which looks very enticing.

I thoroughly enjoyed eating brunch here last Saturday. We were lucky to arrive during a lull and were seated right away. The services was friendly and fast. The décor is neat, tidy and modern. I loved the small touches like the photograph gallery and the fresh cut flowers all over the restaurant.
We were served fragrant tea served in a french press, turkey sausages, fluffy thick pancakes, boozy compote and french toast, and perfectly cooked eggs. I left so satiated I didn’t feel the need to eat until late night snack time.

We went there few times for brunch, however, they’re so full and never get a chance to eat there.
We got there around 10 on Sat morning and they’re so busy already. After few mins wait, we got seated. The restaurant is so small but they have deck area at the back with gas heater.
This place had a really great breakfast and lunch menu. My mom had ½ traditional Benny and I had omelette. We both liked our food, but we found the sauce of my Benny so rich and tasty. They used Omega enriched egg, so yummy.
By the way, the organic coffee was hot and good.
I would go there for breakfast more often but probably make the rsvn next time avoid the line up.

Crave is small, cozy restaurant on Main St… it’s easy to miss, I don’t know how many times I had passed by without noticing it before my friend recommended it for brunch. Very very delicious.
This is one of those restaurants where you’re reading the menu and EVERYTHING sounds so good and you just can’t seem to pick one! They have a great mix of savory and sweet brunch dishes and unique specials. I enjoyed my brunch thoroughly and also couldn’t help but drool over what the table next to me was ordering… it just looked delicious!
It’s a pretty small little restaurant so get there early to avoid waiting in line. Lots of street parking available.
I can’t help but love that it’s conveniently located right across the street from Front&Company :) Shopping right after a delicous food coma = happy girl.

I wish I could rate a restaurant purely on décor and service, because then Crave would get 5/​5, but had to factor in the food…
Techniquely I think my visit was a ~2.5/5 for dinner. I had the mushroom/​leek soup (I usually LOVE mushroom soup– esp Oliver Bonacci’s in Toronto) which came as a healthy portion, but unfortunately lacking in flavour– I kept looking up for a salt shaker (which there wasn’t one).
I also got the beet salad with goat cheese. The good: huge huge portion, a good plate to share. The not-​so-​good: again, not so flavourful. The beets were shredded and perhaps cut pieces would work better.
I really wanted to like this restaurant – the service was great. My friend got the shorty rigatoni, which was good– so maybe their meat dishes are where they shine for dinner.

What seems to be the trend right now is not just poutine, but short rib poutine. I’ve seen at least 3 restaurants attempt a short-​rib poutine. Crave’s comes with the option of fois gras dipping sauce. The fries alone could cause a heart attack, but fois gras poutine? Wow, that’s a heart stopper. I did manage to try, and it had a nice flavor, a bit salty and rich for my liking. I shared the rigatoni with short rib… It’s really sufficient for two and I was impressed that they split the plate without us asking for it. I would not be able to tell if the full version would be as large, but judging from the other patrons, Crave seems to offer nice portions. The pasta was a bit too al dente for me, but the short rib was very tender and there was a good amount of it.
I also had the Dungeness Crab Cake with apple and mix green salad. It was nice, had a delicious crunchy exterior and a tasty soft interior, quite small though. The apple salad was tart and salty with feta cheese.
Service was nice and friendly. The restaurant is quite small but the deck out in the back is a nice option on a hot summer night.

Tried this new place out in August of 08. We arrived early on a Saturday night and avoided a wait. It’s a small restaurant. We opted to sit inside instead of the patio because it was a hot day. There’s a row of bench seating, with small tables along it. It’s a modern looking place, framed photos line the wall.
I ordered a Tokyo Rose cocktail, sake, hendricks, cointreau, cran and lime. It came in a nice pink, and just the perfect mix of sake and everything else.
Starting off with the popcorn shrimp-it’s a gourmet version of a favourite snack of mine. The batter is not too thick, and just enough crispiness. The sweet chili mayo goes well with it. A good sharing appy.
Food:
mussels wild game chorizo chips, garlic & herbs, bread… mussels were a bit small, dish was ok in flavour.
J got the organic Crave burger-​I didn’t try it, but it looked good.
We had a good time. It’s not too noisy, and a relaxed atmosphere.
Prices are reasonable here, and service is attentive. Next time, I have to try the brunch.