Crave Fishbar

I just loved this place!!! We had delicious oysters, the octopus was charred perfectly, yummy cauliflower soup and then drinks were awesome! We sat at the bar and Zach was so helpful and attentive. I would definitely go back here!

The staff at the Crave were awesome! Our hearts were heavy with our daughter’s engagement being broken up and we needed friendly faces to keep us from crying. Those girls as well as the GM were so kind — not even knowing our heartbreak — their courtesy, smiling faces, and the obvious happiness in being employed there made us forget our heartbreak for a bit.
Thank you for a great meal– so much better than Grand Central Oyster Bar– and for being the smiling faces we needed on a devastating evening.
We will always remember the Crave as the place that got us through a horrible day!
We will be back!!!

All five dishes were distinct and delicious. Vegetables were interesting, flavorful and presented beautifully. Delicate flavors, subtle accents. Wait staff were attentive and helpful. A bit loud with active conversation. Nice ambiance. We came the next day for$ 1 oysters and were here for one hour and we only had 24, sitting here for 30 min + waiting for the second round.

This review is purely for the oyster happy hour that happens from 5−7pm weeknights. Just based on the 10+ varieties of oysters on the happy hour menu, this may just be the best oyster happy hour place that I’ve discovered in NYC.
What you need to know:
— All the oysters on the menu are just $ 1! And you’re not limited to just the chef’s choice or a select one like other places. There are over 10 to choose from tonight. I recommend trying them all, especially contrasting the difference in taste between east and west coast oysters.
— Reservations for happy hour are accepted and I recommend making one.
— The raw bar is upstairs. If your friends arrive first and you can’t find them like myself, follow the lit up arrow next to the raw bar sign.
— Last call is at 6:45pm but arrive before 6pm and you shouldn’t have an issue being seated.
— We found the sangria to be a bit diluted but the sour nuts cocktail is fantastic if you like pistachios. Somehow it works in a drink!
Enjoy!

This is a nice casual place to get seafood in midtown (and not too expensive). The bottom level is a lot like a bar, and I suppose I was expecting more of a formal restaurant vibe, so just FYI. The upstairs is only restaurant with an open kitchen, which is kind of cool. The calamari and garlic chive rice were forgettable; the salmon, scallops and mussels were good. Service is a bit on the slow side. Bread at the beginning of the meal is ice cold. Also VERY LOUD — something about the acoustics make the place very echoey, so not the best restaurant for anyone hard of hearing!

Most people are here for their happy hour special which is every day from 4PM — 7PM. $ 1 oysters, reduced priced cocktails and $ 5 fried oyster sandwiches.
Love the cute cozy décor.
We asked for the servers suggestion on oysters and she gave us a dozen different ones from less briny to briny (two of each). We narrowed down the selection to the ones we liked then ordered another dozen. It’s an amazing deal so we had to take advantage!
We also ordered the handmade squid ink pasta ($ 26) which is served with chopped shrimp, spring garlic, fresno chile, clam stock in broth. The shrimp was a bit overdone but the broth is perfection. The dish has a spicy kick to it and the portion is good for sharing.
The overall service is good though a little on the slower side considering the restaurant wasn’t busy given the early hour. The manager has good front-​of-​house service and a friendly, approachable demeanor.

I was extremely happy with my experience at Crave Fishbar. It really meet my expectation on the service and the food. My friend David told me to try the restaurant as he knew someone working there. I love Sea food but never have the chance to eat a lot of fish and oysters as my friends are not really fund of the sea world. I invited my coworker to join me and make a feast 1 days before New Year’s eve. I did not have any plan for NYE so I decided to celebrate on December 30^th.
We arrived a little bit before 7PM and got a table in the back of the restaurant.
Our waiter was very friendly and tried to speak French as I’m French. I think his name was James. a young girl was shadowing him and we believed she was in training. She was a little bit more shy but very polite.
The atmosphere of the place is nice. They did not try to hard on the decoration (I mean it is not too much) but the theme of the Sea is there. The wallpaper has some octopus, I really liked the sailor painting of the wood wall that reminds you being on a boat. As most of the restaurant in the US, it’s dark but I think that we had the table with a better lightning (which was good as I took some pictures of the food). Level of noise: perfect!
The FOOD: As I received a gift card I was able to try a lot of different thing on the menu and ate a lot!
we started with an oyster platter! My favorite were the Neptune Oyster! VERY TASTY
Then we shared 2 appetizers: the raw Salmon salad with a tofu salad that was amazingly good and we shared the octopus appetizers. The octopus was very good and not too salty but I did not liked the leak salad and the mustard hidden under the salad. The mustard was too strong too match with the Octopus.
For the entrée, it was very difficult to choose. We took the beef and the lobster. Lobster was more spicy than we thought but it was very good with the coconut milk and the eggplants! The beef was well done too! It came with a Sautée of Mushrooms.
The Sides: We had the rice and the brussel sprouts! Both were amazing. Rice was buttery and there was something in the sprouts that makes the taste different from regular broiled sprouts. (just FYI: sides are pretty big!)
The Drinks: My friend had a chardonnay and I had the apple cider sangria (delicious) Should have order more! My friend got crazy on the tap water. she only drinks water at ambient temperature and they served us a perfect tap water.
The Desert: we tried the mint chocolate desert and Milk and Honey. As I don’t really like the mix of chocolate and mint, my preference went to the milk and honey desert but I tried the chocolate mint too. And it was way better than I thought as the brownie is very dark chocolate!
At the end, we were more than full! I ate more than i could… my stomach was hurting me but this is my fault because I don’t know how to stop eating when the food is good!
To resume: A very nice spot to eat Sea food and enjoyed a good meal with good company. The hotel where I work will recommend this place for sure.

I went here during happy hour for oysters. Oysters were all right, certainly not the very best that I’ve ever had, 3 out of 5 stars for oysters. However, I must take off 2 stars for the service. The server was quite arrogant, rolled his eyes at me. I’d rather go to a place where staff is more respectful even if I must pay more. On a positive note, I told the manager about the server’s rude behavior, and he said he would speak to the server. I’m not sure if the server was rude and arrogant, and didn’t fill my glass with water, didn’t bring me cutlery and napkin because I was dining solo or if he was indeed a bad apple.

Came here for a buck a shuck oysters during happy hour! (5 – 7 daily!)
Was excited to try this place because they have both east coast and west coast oysters.
** Ordered 12 oysters because it was the Max order for 2 people during HH and the MIN order was 6 oysters per person .
They had a huge selection of east coast oysters and they were all very fresh and easy to enjoy!
I also really liked the sauces they had for the oysters :) They had a garlic sauce and a house-​made spicy sauce.
** The east coast oysters were smaller than the west cost oysters.
& The west coast oysters were more briny than the east coast oysters.
However, there were ~4−5 poorly shucked oysters. I had rocks/​shell pieces in them :(

Dinner for 1.
— Ambiance (⁴⁄₅)
A bit loud for my taste, but very chic, cozy atmosphere.
— Service (⁵⁄₅)
Very speedy and courteous. Waters were constantly refilled without prompting.
— Bread (N/​A)
— 6 Raw Littlenecks, $ 10 (⁴⁄₅)
Nice and fresh, though a little gritty, and one clam wasn’t shucked cleanly.
— Porgy Crudo, $ 14 (⁴⁄₅)
Used to catch porgy from CT shoreline all the time, and cooked, it was always a so-​so fish, but never thought to serve it as a crudo! Silky smooth and clean taste. It was delicious. The popcorn bits were clearly there for texture, but I think something else would have been better for texture, as some of the popcorn were a bit chewy.
— Squid Ink Spaghetti, $ 26 (⁴⁄₅)
Great bowl of homey pasta with a lot of great complementary components. The clam stock was really, really light… almost too light. I felt like it was missing just a dash of salt to reach truly scrumptious.
— Chocolate Chip Cookie w/​Ice Cream, $ 6 (⁵⁄₅)
Can’t go wrong here, and the cookie was really quite a bit better than most.
— Value (⁴⁄₅)
Pretty decent value with the littlenecks and the pasta. A bit turned off by the price for the porgy crudo. Porgy is a junk fish that many fisherman actually use as bait for stripers, so to use it like a premium fish… doesn’t quite pass my value test.
— Final Word
Really homey, inventive cuisine. In town for 2 nights and strongly considered going both evenings.

Everything about their oysters and squid ink pasta is YES! Lives up to the hype. Be sure to come for their happy hour between 5 – 7 pm.
The service is so-​so, as our waitress, who was perfectly nice, was gone for long periods of time without checking on us.
However, if you have time to spare, and are in the mood for good seafood, check this place out.

Come for happy hour!!! We didn’t order anything not on the happy hour menu, so I will only be reviewing that.
You can make a reservation, even for happy hour at the tables, which is recommended since the place gets crowded after work hours! My friend and I were able to snag a table that was free though, and was greeted by the most lovely waiter who never pressured us and was so cheery. There is a huge variety of oysters, from both west and east coasts, for $ 1 (usually places only have one or two varieties), so we ordered the maximum of 12 at a time. Our drinks came out quickly, and I heartily enjoyed my sangria which was strong for once! As prior reviews said, the oysters do take a while to come out, which is why I’m docking 1 star. No oyster crackers either, but slices of orange, lime, and lemon decorated the platter when it finally came out, properly highlighting the plump little oysters we were able to devour!

Came here for Happy Hour (they specify that the *kitchen* is open at 5:30pm, but do not worry — the restaurant does open at 5pm). Came exactly at 5pm for a walk-​in and there were a good amount of seats.
I had a gimlet while my friend had the Mint Condition (which was very good).
My favorite part of the happy hour oysters (besides that they’re a dollar in this very expensive city I call home) is that they have a great variety — they had 9 East Coast and 2 West Coast oysters today. Usually, West Coast oysters are my favorite, but these ones were my least favorite out of the bunch. One was particularly creamy, which turned me off. I also like that they give you grapefruit (that’s a new one), lime, orange and lemon in addition to the cocktail and mignonette sauces.
My favorites were the Black Duck Salt. They do have a limit of 12 oysters at a time (for up to 2 people), and the oysters do come out slowly. My friend and I ordered 3 dozen and it took us an hour, even though we ate the oysters within 5 minutes of receiving them every time. The waitstaff are a little unattentive, and I had to wave them down several times, but the bussers are very fast and efficient.

Review only for Oyster Happy Hour!
The happy hour is fantastic with a wide selection of oysters (many I hadn’t tried) between 5−7pm. The waiters are very pleasant and don’t rush you or try to push you to order a drink or food.
They do have rules that you can only order 12 btwn 1 – 2 people at a time and you can order more as soon as you finish. The oysters come out painstakingly slowly though. Waiters are kind enough to do a final sweep, asking who wants a last round before closing happy hour. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would return for happy hour.

Everything we had was fresh and on point and left my friend and I terrifically impressed. The tuna tartare was a flavorful blend of fish, avocado, and crispy garlic/​onion, almost like a reconstructed tuna roll. The squid-​ink spaghetti was house-​made, an ink-​black pasta with the chew of a good ramen noodle. The fluke tostadas were a tasty mix of crisp and mush, fish and bean.
Drinks and dessert were equally good. I had the Black Smoke Monster cocktail – rum, mescal, smoked ginger, and lime – which was smokey but not overwhelmingly so, and very drinkable but not sweet or easy. And for dessert we split the Milk & Honey Cake, which was like a wedge of chocolate-​peanut butter pie with the added crisp of a honeycomb.
I came here on a Wednesday at around 7:45pm and it was packed – it’s a popular place. No reservations meant a likely 45-​minute wait, but space freed up at the bar within minutes. The bar serves the full menu, and service was swell, if a bit hard to hear.
Speaking of hearing: the whole place is a little loud, but not painfully so, or, not for me; the noise added more energy than annoyance, and sitting at the bar next to my friend, conversation was easy.
Cocktails are around 14, small plates around 15, and main plates mostly 25 – 30. Pricey but–
a) you’re in midtown, and
b) all the food is well done, and
c) the menu notes the seafood is all sustainably and ethically caught. And I give an extra star for that, even though I know the world of seafood is rife with corruption and confusion, and half the time even people in the know seem not to know what they’re getting. But hopefully the folks at Crave do know, and their menu’s claim is serious.

It is no secret that my love of seafood has grown. I ended up hitting a yoga studio near here and grabbed happy hour afterwards with a friend of mine.
The best news was it was a Sunday at we arrived a little after 5pm and we able to get a table near the bar. The drinks are great, I had a vodka mint drink — perfect for the steamy temps in NYC.
I’m a lover of oyster and tried several happy hours, as previous reviews state this is by far one of the best. You can choose any oyster on the menu, East/​West Coast and all at #1 each. We ended ordering 3 dozen of them along with oyster sliders and shrimp cocktail.
The service was spot on and it was such a cute place. I plan to visit again later this week, happy shucking :)

Crave Fishbar was a very solid restaurant. I enjoyed my time there throughout the evening, the food, the service, and the company was good.
Crave has a Happy Hour from 5−7pm with any oysters being $ 1, that’s a crazy good deal if you ask me. The staff there are very friendly and accommodating. They had a special dish of the day and it only contained 4 pieces, they were nice enough to make it 5 pieces since we had 5 people. The food came in a timely manner and the waiter would always come by and check on the table.
The good?
Grilled Prawns were pretty great; the shrimp jus would’ve been phenomenal if they had bread. Lobster Curry was nice and spicy, chunks of lobster meat, had a really good kick to it. Local Diver Sea Scallops was cooked perfectly; the vegetable medley in tomato champagne vinaigrette was very light and summer-​y. Handmade Squid Ink Spaghetti was fun to eat, tasted a bit like ramen but had a nice bounce and flavored well, only thing was I wished it was more ink-​y. Garlic Chive Griddled Rice was surprisingly good, tasted light and wasn’t too garlic-​y.
The bad?
Chilled Local Scallop was a bit on the odd side, I just couldn’t get pass the sauce, tasted like hoisin sauce and peanut butter but it was actually chipotle grapefruit sauce. Yellowfin Tuna Tartare tasted bland and felt like it was missing something, maybe a light sauce or coat of lemon and oil would be nice. Plancha Grilled Octopus was a little on the dry side, octopus was a bit overcooked.
Crave is a great place for happy hour and regular dining hours. The atmosphere and service makes you want to come back. Definitely recommend.

BEST OYSTERS IVE HAD IN NEW YORK SO FAR!
I tried this place 2 weeks ago for happy hour $ 1 oysters and loved it so much that i went back again this week. I haven’t tried anything else besides the $ 1 oysters and the pinot blanc but the oysters alone are a good enough reason for me to return.
Happy hour is from 5−7pm everyday. It says they open at 5:30pm online but don’t be fooled, they actually open at 5! Try to make a reservation before you go because the second time when I went with 5 people, we got there at 5 pm but there was unfortunately no table for us except at the bar :(The con of this place is between 1 – 2 people, you can only order 12 oysters each round and between 3 – 7 people, you can only order 24 oyster each round. You’re also no allowed to order the next round till you finish the oysters in front of you. The oysters can take 30 minutes to come out because the place can get quite busy but it is worth the wait!
I suggest asking for a mix between the east and west oysters! They’re both delicious and worth a try! Will definitely be returning again ^_​^ The staff was so nice which is always an added bonus!

Crave fish bar may just be my new uptown/​midtown-​ish go to. The restaurant has both a raw bar menu as well as a kitchen menu.
We asked the waitress what she recommends and she said everything is good which wasn’t very helpful but she was right. We started with the rice dusted point Judith calamari ($ 15). It was hands down the best calamari I have had. The texture was great and they weren’t greasy at all. The portion is small but it is served over sprouts so it looks a little larger than it is. The second appetizer we got was the chilled local scallop ($ 15). This was also good but the corn nuts were a little heavy for the scallop and I found that they took away from the dish. Maybe if there were no corn nuts and more cilantro I would have like it better.
For my main dish I got the handmade squid ink pasta ($ 26). This was the best dish in my opinion because 1. The portion was large (and I was super hungry) 2. Both the shrimp and the pasta were cooked perfectly and were so fresh that all the dish had, which was all it really needed, was butter and seasoning/​stock.
The other dishes we got were the seared rare yellowfin tuna ($ 31). I tried it but I am not a fan of tuna. The broccolini that came with it was delicious though. The poached local hake ($ 26) was not to my liking. I found the sauce to be a little heavy and the fish needed more salt. My dad did enjoy it though.
Overall this was a really good meal. The service was good though they forgot my diet coke and the restaurant is really nice inside. Happy hour goes until 8 so I definitely recommend checking this place out.

Happy hour oysters! What more can I say?! My friend and I came specifically for the oysters and we were thoroughly surprised by the entire meal. They have a good selection of east and west coast oysters and it was so enjoyable to try each kind! It does take a long time to get the order out and it doesn’t help that you can order a maximum of 12 oysters each time. In the 1.5 hours of happy hour time we were there, we got 2 dozens because that’s really how long it took. I suppose they can’t be giving away food like that and there are many people ordering so shucking takes time.
We then ordered the plancha grilled octopus to share, the salmon entrée, and the squid ink pasta. The octopus is hands down the best! It must be one of their signature dishes because everyone seems to be ordering it. That appetizer was worth every penny! My salmon entrée seems like a small sliver. It was kind of ordinary and nothing too special. They did give me a lot of roasted carrots. It’s as if I ordered roasted carrots with a side of salmon. I tried a little bit of my friend’s squid in pasta. It had a spicy kick to it but I didn’t find it special. The little shrimp bits also seemed overcooked. Not exactly something I look forward to trying.
The atmosphere is generally very nice and spacious enough. The unfortunate thing was that this couple moved over to the table next to us and they BOTH decided to sit on the same side rendering me having to duck whenever the guy gestures and moves. To make matters worse, the two people were obviously on their first date and the guy was eating her face and talking about him being famous during the winter but stinky in the summer (because he is hairy). Not exactly something we wanted to hear but we had no choice. At one point, I went to the bathroom which is not close to our section at all and I could hear the guy talk even inside the bathroom stall with the door locked! I know this is not the fault of the restaurant but this inconsiderate diner put a damper to an otherwise awesome and enjoyable night.