Crave International Foods & Catering

Eclectic, freshly made, delicious food. Limited beer selection, but decent wine. Great service and nice, friendly atmosphere… an obvious local favorite.

What Crave isn’t — a formal, printed menu, white table cloth, culinary trained server, pretentious foodie restaurant. It is in a less than attractive building and lacks anything that resembles atmosphere.
What it is — a kick ass, neighborhood, real deal server of reasonably priced, rock solid fare with subtle (usually southern) twists that show the skill of the chef. Your stomach will give out before your desire to keep eating all the goodness.
I ride my bike 15 miles round trip so I can justify the shrimp and grits. The Crave Benedict is fantastic. The smoked brisket hash is out of this world. I have been around the world and I still come back regularly to this purveyor of great tasting, filling fare. I will be on the island for the holidays. If you see a guy in Crave with his eyes rolling in ecstasy as he crushes the hash, it’s me.

Just had a delicious meal at Crave on Kiawah Island. The beet salad with goat cheese, candied pecans, and cranberries was outstanding! The shrimp and oyster platter was lightly breaded and fried to perfection. My husband had the black and blue salad with a generous portion of chicken. A friend had a chicken pot pie. It was filled with large chunks of chicken and vegetables and was baked in flakely phyllo dough. Took home a tomato pie for lunch tomorrow. Will definitely stop there again.

Fantastic place! We have been here twice on vacation. Am going to miss when we are back home. I had the shrimp and oysters and my wife had the mussels.
If you are staying on Kiawah island you must stop here!

I really wanted to support Crave — since a cozy entrepreneurial restaurant that offers home cooked fare is always my restaurant of choice. But alas this one proved me wrong.
As the menu is strictly on the chalkboard there is not room for a description of each item. I ordered a chicken pot pie which was anything but traditional and the Server — who seemed rushed even though there was just one other table — did not advise that the pie was prepared with a tomato base and broccoli-​which is a vegetable I totally despise.
To add insult to injury my lunch partner had her credit card taken from the table and the Server quickly charged both of our meals to her tab– without any inquiry for how we were handling the bill.
My suggestion is to offer a printed menu so the patron knows how the dish is prepared — or train the service personnel to do so. And of course discuss payment options or provide receipts accordingly in order not to place your customers in an uncomfortable position.
All in all a poor experience — and at $ 15.00 average for a lunch entrée without any sides– one I would not care to repeat.

We recently spent an amazing week on Seabrook and were so lucky to find Crave! In 8 days we visited Crave 3 times. We first had lunch which we shared. The oyster salad is wonderful and the lobster roll was chocked full of huge chunks of lobster. Our next 2 visits were for breakfast (brunch). The shrimp and grits were terrific, such a generous serving my husband had several bites and I had enough left for breakfast the next day. My husband ordered the fried chicken, biscuit with sage gravy. Oh my gosh talk about comfort food. Our final stop was for breakfast, I ordered the Crave Benedict which was delicious and my husband ordered a breakfast sandwich which he loved. Such a wonderful restaurant in such an unlikely place! Cannot wait to return!

Homemade and fresh. Great lunch. Burger is a juicy giant with great steak fries. Shrimp tacos were plump and tasty. The slaw is great. Owner made a half size house salad that wasn’t on the menu with chicken that was to die for. Have a giant slice of cake for us later tonight. Yum. Will be back for breakfast in the morning.

The food and service were great. Very casual dining. Our party had some lunch items and some breakfast items. The grits were very good, as was the lobster roll, the gfy omelette and the shrimp tacos. We all shared the tomato pie. We will be back.

Crave offers one of the most unique menus you’ll find and quality to match! On this visit we ordered breakfast and their Crave Benedict added to their growing legend!
Homemade Potato pancake, spinach w/​eggs over easy w/​Morley sauce… sooooo good!
And a slice coconut cake for later!
But a word of caution… don’t judge a book by it’s cover!

So we just ate at this small cozy restaurant for brunch. I had shrimp and grits which I recommend highly and we also had a ham & cheese quiche which was also delicious.
The service was so slow but it’s hard to be mad at them because they were sweet and personable. However, we did wait a long while every step of the way.
One bright spot to the long wait… friggen Dan Marino and his family sat next to us at the communal table! So we talked to them and talked about grits and the weather. Nice family! No photo because we didn’t want to be «that» person. When we got up to leave though, Dan shook both our hands and it was very friendly and classy

All 5 members of my family say this was our best dinner of the week. Place doesn’t look like much. Don’t let that fool you. Great service. Better food. Shrimp and grits, lobster roll, chicken pot pie, and our favorite app all week fresh scallops ceviche. So good. Loved this place.

What a wonderful place. We were in town for a golf tournament and had lunch on friday. We had the hamburger and the fried chicken sandwich… awesome! We loved it so much we went back for lunch on Saturday and brunch on Sunday. The food is great and the people were wonderful. Just a nice relaxing place to eat with great food. Do not miss it.

I ate here several times while at Kiawah. I highly recommend the
Shrimp and grits
Fried oyster salad
Burger
Lobster roll
Whoopie pie
Lava bites

We stopped in after a morning of disc golf on Kiawah Island and were not disappointed. The shrimp and grits was the favorite dish with the fried chicken, tacos and fried oyster salad all being delicious! The waiter and cooks were all friendly and made us feel very welcomed.
You must try this place!

Excellent staff, varied menu, and cozy atmosphere. Their hours are longer in the summer than Unilocal lists, the night we went they were nine to nine. Our favorites were the grouper tacos special and the salmon blt.

The grouper with fingerling potatoes, Kalamata olives, grape tomatoes and fresh asparagus was a nice medley of color, all complimenting the lovely piece of Grouper. Very nice!

Crave is my favorite restaurant in the Charleston area. It is a small restaurant with quality food. I split the Fried Oyster Salad and the Seared Yellowfin Tuna Special with another person. They both were spectacular.
The Oyster Salad had mixed greens, Roma tomatoes, fried oysters, fried onions, and a bacon vinaigrette. The oysters were the best I’ve ever had and were nice and crispy. The bacon vinaigrette was delicious and really tasted like bacon.
The Seared Yellowfin Tuna Special was spectacular and was my favorite seafood from the week when I was on John’s Island. The tuna itself I got cooked rare and just melted in my mouth with lots of flavor. It came with yummy stir-​fried Asian vegetables and «Forbidden Rice.» The vegetables were nicely cooked and had a good flavor. The «Forbidden Rice» was a long black rice and had a good crispiness. If they have the Tuna on the specials when you go to Crave you definitely should get it.
Overall, I love Crave. The staff were kind and attentive, the food came out pretty quickly, and the food I just can’t stop raving about.

Where do I start? We stopped by on a whim to browse the menu. I ordered the four cheese grilled cheese, which came with fresh fried potatoes and homemade cole slaw. My wife ordered the buttermilk chicken sandwich. I cannot say enough good things about this place, from the friendly service to the delicious food… this is a MUST TRY. Oh, and don’t forget the Crème brûlée, which was incredible.

We love this place, casual, friendly Southern service and extraordinary food. I have to eat the Shrimp&Grits every time — their goodness gravy can’t be missed, but the entire menu is great for breakfast or lunch (says everyone else I eat with!). This place is just off #KiawahIsland and easy to miss if you are not looking, if you do see it, it won’t look like much, but it is a must try. Always call, they can keep odd hours due to their catering service.

Crave catered our small wedding on Folly Beach in May 2015 and we were absolutely thrilled with the quality of the service and food. This was easily one of the best meals I’ve ever had!
We did a tasting at their restaurant in May 2014 and Chef Mike and their Event Coordinator Michelle had us convinced within minutes that they were the only choice for our wedding. The tasting was incredible (Lobster Fungetti, Bacon Wrapped Filets, Salmon, Lobster Rolls). I’ve never eaten so much and so well. Incredible quality.
Fast forward to May 2015. The team of 2 servers, the chef, and our event Coordinator Michelle arrived plenty early and immediately made us feel at ease. They were so friendly, professional and our guests were amazed with their meals.
We served lobster rolls, brisket stuffed corn bread muffins and pulled pork sliders for our appetizers. Instantly, we were in heaven. The apps were followed by salads that were perfectly fresh and beautifully plated. Finally, the entrees — Filets, Loster Fungetti, Salmon, and Chicken. Every single guest told me it was the BEST catered meal they have ever eaten.
For comparison sake, in the same week we ate at Poogan’s Porch, Husk, SNOB, and Hominy Grill… all excellent restaurants but I give the top mark to Crave.
In addition, we had Flute provide the bar service. Again, we had an excellent, experienced bartender. He was so friendly and the bar was decorated to match our décor. The price was extremely affordable and the we coordinated the food and drinks all through our Event Coordinator, Michelle. (She was fantastic!)
In short, if you are looking for a catering service please call Crave and ask for Michelle. She will not disappoint! Thanks to Chef Mike, Chef Zach and the entire team who helped make our wedding the most amazing day of lives.