Crafty Cow

Quaint gastropub that has good food, nice selection of craft beers and is well lit indoors and with huge windows that look out into the street.
I love how its not traditional bar food they serve here like fish & chips or bangers & mash. Instead they’ve got hamachi salads, wagyu hanger street sandwiches, truffle grilled cheese sandwiches…
They’ve got a good «curated» craft beer menu though most of the selection are in bottles & cans and not on draft.
Worth checking out at least once if you are in the area. Their lunch menu has a better selection and tastes better than their snack menu.

It’s more a gimmick. Crafty Cow is priced at the same range as Three Monkey and other hip restaurants near that area but the food quality, environment and atmosphere are not as good as the other ones. With a bit of expectation we came here to try the wagyu and beer. We ordered an A3 and A5 beef and two beers. What had disappointed me was the cooking equipment and the process. It’s better if all these were hidden from me in the kitchen, but most cooking seems be to being done at the bar. As we were seated at the bar, what had caught my attention was some all the food ingredient laid around the bar, right next to the bar table. This was kind of unacceptable to me. Back to the cooking, I realized my A3 and A5 beef were frozen ones, and were defrosted in hot water, and then being sizzled on iron griddle (it was not teppanyaki because it was not facing the customer). It gave me a feeling of sitting in front of a food truck. A decently priced hip restaurant shouldn’t be like this. I felt I’m being tricked. I asked for changing to a table seat (such that I could escape from the food truck scene), I was told by the staff that the empty seat was actually not available because of the water leakage. Then I realized the condition of the restaurant was quite terrible and I felt like I’m at a dai pai dong (Cantonese type of food truck).However, the food was a pass. There were 6 sauces (including BBQ, mustard, pepper salt, sea salt etc.) came with the beef. The mushroom salad is quite good tho. While I was struggling whether it’s a 2 stars or 3 stars, they started cleaning the «kitchen» (i.e. the cooking area at the back of the bar), and it was merely 11pm… so disappointed that they managed to start wrapping up the night so early and in front of all customers, most of them (including me) were still drinking… this was like trashing rubbish in front of the diners… unacceptable.

Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the Crafty Cow. While the menu looked promising, it fell short in many aspects.
The ambiance was cozy and charming, however the service was lackluster. There were about 4 tables besides ours and we had waited quite a bit to get any attention from staff and even a glass of water. Nobody was in any form of uniform so I had no idea if they were a server or a patron. Nobody explained the menu or what they recommended. It was pretty much a «figure this shit out yourself» type of a place.
Started with a Shiso Lemonade, however they had no shiso, so I ended up paying $ 48 for a bottle of lemon flavored sparking water. Already leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
Had the Hamachi Salad. Good portion, however my date had mentioned to me that the hamachi tasted too fishy to her which made me paranoid.
Next came the thick ass truffle grilled cheese. This was by far one of the highlights of the night, however it came at a steep price. It wasn’t rocket science or anything, and charging $ 108 for it makes me think twice.
Baby Back Ribs were tasty. Fall of the bone tender, however small portion. Over ripened kimchi on the side which did not seem to go together in terms of flavor.
Finally we were hoping for the highlight– the meat. Sadly this also fell short. It was served with a nice garnish of seasoned potatoes and a side salad however one of the pieces I had eaten I ended up spitting out because of the cut. It was extra chewy and grainy.
We paid $ 700 at the end of this meal without any booze and left hungry. Pretty sad. Will not return. For their sake, I hope this is just a soft opening and they will change it up quickly.