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| - I have this love/hate relationship with yelp's "Hot and New." It's almost always a guaranteed fail at service, but for the most part the general feel of the restaurants offerings can be gaged. Most Hot and New restaurants are just OK. And sometimes, like today, the find is exciting and worth the prolonged wait for food & drinks!
We arrived shortly after noon for brunch. Mind you, we were all STARVING! I was hesitant to try a new spot this morning based on how hAngry I was even before arriving! Apple maps even took us past the address, made us make a u-turn, and landed us at NOTHING. Something is wrong with the Apple maps idea of this address, so use Waze when venturing to this new local eatery. If you're familiar with this side of town, it's located behind Osaka before you hit Sunridge Heights.
Upon entering, we were greeted with the comforting smell of coffee and pastries. Yum!
They really need a hostess stand outside or closer to the door. We weren't the only group that walked in kind of confused about whether we seat ourselves, or need to be seated. After about a minute of standing around, a nice young girl scurried over to us (I guess we really looked confused). She offered to seat us and asked us where we would like to sit. We opted for a table outside. The weather today is PERFECT! She gave us menus and a kids menu for Chloe. No crayons for the coloring kids menu tho. Maybe an oversight?
We were immediately greeted by our server, Kevin. He took our drink order, then recited the specials to us. We asked for his personal favorites (our favorite question at a new place). He recommended the Short Ribs w/an added poached egg on top, and the smashed avocado toast. We ended up taking his recommendation on the Short Ribs w/a poached egg and got the Croissant Sammy to split. The little one ordered the waffles & fruit off of the kids menu. To drink, waters all around, 2 coffees and a decaf mocha.
Our waters came out quick, but the coffee drinks all took a while. I think the server should have explained that their coffee is brewed per cup, therefore takes about 10 minutes to come out (probably based on other customers who probably ordered before us). The coffee is bold, tastes like an Americano it's so strong. It also has a light foam at the top. I definitely think they need to tell their coffee story somewhere. If I didn't ask about the coffee after our 2nd cup came out (and took just as long as the 1st cup), we wouldn't have appreciated how good the coffee was. A little briefing on the coffee story makes the wait worth it, and somehow even tastes better!
About 10 minutes after our server took our order, another server showed up and said "welcome to Craft Kitchen, are you guys ready to order?" We explained we had already ordered, and thanked him for checking on us. A little disorganized, but that's ok. At least he was the 2nd waiter to try to take our order. Lol.
When our food finally arrived to the table, we were all so hungry, we didn't really talk much. We devoured each dish, leaving no crumbs behind. The braised short ribs were cooked to perfection. Zero complaints. I make a pretty good braised short rib dish and it's rare I find one that blows mine away. However, Craft Kitchen's version kicked my little homemade version's ass. Bravo!
The croissant Sammy was nothing to write home about, but the salad that came out with it was amazing. It had these little potato chips on the salad that tasted homemade. Yum!
Chloe's kids waffle meal was the perfect size. 3 small waffles served with berries & maple syrup. Being in restaurants myself, I know how pricey maple can be, so I do recommend they pull back on the serving size of the syrup. She hardly used half of the syrup they gave her. I cringed at the waste. Eek!
Our bill was just below $50 before tip. A bit pricey for brunch, but honestly for the freshness of the ingredients and quality of the meal, this was expected.
As we were leaving I visited the pastry case to see what I could take home! We got a small bag of assorted cookies ($4.95). Honestly I expected them to be better, but I'm not mad about the purchase.
After drooling over the other items in the pastry case, we decided to talk to the pastry chef Katie about ordering a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving. She took our info down and will be contacting us later this week about our size options & pricing! Yay!
Overall, this place WOWed me. The service wasn't horrible, but it can definitely be improved. None of the staff really offered info about their concept until we asked questions. I think their pricing, wait times, and menu can be understood better with even a brief explanation of their ingredient sourcing. It adds value to the experience. I look forward to dining at Craft again! I think this place can only get better if they stay true to their purpose!
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