Crave

October 30, 2024

So my very first impression of this place wasn’t the best… but given that I didn’t die in their final destination style parking lot, I said I’ll still give them a chance. I’m really that person who won’t go somewhere if parking is going to be an issue, it’s too much effort to be stressing about parking just to go have a meal.

No one warned me how bad the parking situation is at Crave but I’m letting y’all know now… if you can avoid driving there, just avoid it.

That aside, the restaurant itself is pretty snazzy, nice clean decor, muted colours and chill ambience. They have an upper and lower seating area. Most people prefer upstairs because of the balcony area, outdoor seating will always be a vibe. There’s a section in the lower area where the tables are way too close to each other, we may as well be all sitting on one long table because we can hear everyone’s conversation.

The menu is A LOT. It’s giving - encyclopaedia. It’s such a large menu with so many items and a picture for each and every item they have. It’s not well designed at all and I don’t think we need to see all 15 versions of mocktails that you have. A big cumbersome menu like that is very overwhelming to the customer and may put some people off from ordering but according to our waitress, she said most people complain about it too but because it’s a Somali establishment, they made it that way because the Somalis like to see what they’re ordering. I mean I guess but heh! I was tired of turning pages after page 4.

Another downside of a big menu is that the food may not be good if you have so many options like that. So I kept my expectations very low. Opted to get a BBQ chicken pizza (KSH1100) and had a strawberry lemonade (KSH350). My friends had the matcha fruit smoothie (KSH500) and the blueberry lemonade (KSH350).

With my expectations at zero, the food and drinks actually surprised me! The pizza was absolutely amazing! So much flavour, a great amount of bbq sauce for the bbq chicken, I added some sweet corn as a topping and some chilli pesto sauce that came with my friend’s meal and that ish was good! The bread used for the pizza base was so soft and not chewy, and tasted very fresh. They definitely made that in a proper pizza oven, it was really good. The lemonades were very refreshing, when I went back a second time (I did not park in their creepy basement this time lol) I had the exact same drink - perfectly balanced.

On my 2nd visit, I wanted to try their popular button pancakes so I had breakfast for dinner I also had the pepper steak (KSH1500) while my friend had the grilled fish (KSH1100). The steak was nice and tender but the pepper sauce wasn’t as pepper-y as I’d have liked. It was quite bland, I could have done without it. But the steak on its own with the fries, really good. Their portions also are very generous, and fits the price tag for each meal.

The button pancakes are very cute! I chose the ones with Nutella drizzle, so yum! Because they’re so small you’d think you can eat a whole plate of them… nope. It’s still a pancake after all, so quite as filling as a normal size one, after like 2-3 I was already done and asked to have them packed. I’d have liked some strawberries/blueberries added to the dish just to balance out the chocolate and sweetness of the pancakes. Our server agreed and said they’ll be adding them to the dish from then on (I don’t know if this was done or not but just letting y’all know you should be getting some berries on the side).

The service here was really good, there’s a waitress there called Millicent who was so nice and very attentive. I really appreciated her service.

So far Crave has really impressed me. The food is great, the service is good, the ambience is okay for what it is - a cafe… if they could just sort out that parking situation.. it would really be a consistent go-to. They also really need to redesign that menu as well, it’s way too cumbersome.

It’s a place that’s great for coffee plans, nice chill weekday lunch/dinner plans. It’s great for birthdays and also great for dates (just don’t sit in that downstairs area I mentioned otherwise your convo will be everyone’s convo lol) I don’t know if it’s a good place to work from if it’s consistently busy but maybe earlier in the day is less full and could work well for that.