What a find in the middle of Fort Myers. Â Just passing through as I visited Sanibel and was looking for something to eat on the way back home. Â This place had a pretty high rating and the menu looked interesting so we decided, why not?
Omigoodness...why cant we have this place in Miami? Â I think I could come here every week for breakfast, lunch or dinner and not be bored or disappointed. Â Everything on the menu looked yummy and judging by the plates of those around me I really wanted to sample their dishes. Â
Cant choose between breakfast or lunch items? Â Get them both with the Pork Chop and Eggs! Â Pork chops are served over a biscuit and then the whole thing is SMOTHERED in sausage gravy! Â Are you drooling yet ? - because I am, just remembering it. Â This dish is also served with a potato pancake that is perfectly crisp and yum! Â Did I mention that the porkchop is also perfectly seasoned and yummy on its own? Â But with a bit of sausage gravy its just amazing.
Banana nut crunch pancakes are pretty good as well. Â Yummy banana flavor with a smattering of nuts. Â The pancakes were also soft and fluffy. Â Wash it all down with grovestand orange juice? Â Sigh...no breakfast will be able to compete for a long time!
My wife and I have made Crave a regular stop for Sunday brunch. Being seated can be an issue as the dining area is small, two rows of booths and some tables in the middle.
Never had a problem with the quantity or quality of the food here. I've had a few different omelets all were great. I really like their shrimp and grits, I think I've had them the last three times we've went. The biscuits are great, the potatoes, not so much, i prefer grits for a breakfast side.
 Sometimes the staff can be short but it is a very busy spot, I wouldn't call them rude, rushed maybe. Â
 They have a good selection of FL craft beer, and the mimosas are good too.
Have only gone for dinner and lunch, and I hear breakfast is the best time to go. So that should color the rest of my review...
Lunch is a good experience. The atmosphere is quaint, and the service is friendly. The menu has lots of variants on "big a** stacker sandwich" if you're into that kind of thing. They seem to change specials up often, and place a lot of care into what is served.
Dinner was a little more underwhelming-- it just doesn't feel like a dinner place. Also a bummer to see so many of the sandwiches removed between lunch and dinner. Since the place is so window-dependent for light, it gets a little too dim for comfort at night as well.
Not a great beer selection, but its also not really that kind of place.
We ordered out for lunch. Called them and told them my order and they said it would take 30-35 minutes? I got there a half hour later and waited ten more minutes. The place is really small. I overheard one of the tables and a lady had a hair in her food and told the waiter and he offered her a new plate at no charge. The place is expensive. I would give it one more chance but wouldn't recommend it unless you like attitude and hair in your food.
Review Source:Snotty attitude must be on the menu, because man, were they serving it up!
Not impressed with the dinenr either - who wants spicy mac & cheese? I either want spicy or mac & cheese, but couldn't enjoy any of it, after the waitress, who may have been an owner, ruined the experience. If it was one or the other, I may have returned, but bad service and bad food aren't worth my time and money.
Coming from Boston we have very high expectations for food and the only drawback to vacationing in Florida is the lack of independent restaurants.  Well it appears that Fort Myers is catching on!  This place is awesome!  Great American comfort food.  The only thing better then the food was the service.  I was very impressed.  The waiter was  right there every time we needed something and was very friendly.  His attitude was still great even when the party sitting next to us were total pains in the ass.  Everything  was delicious!  We will be back!
Review Source:This place is absolutely AMAZING! Â I love coming here with friends on Sunday mornings! Â The mimosas are great; I recommend getting it with the Sun Harvest juice! Â Everything on the menu is excellect, though I love the Shrimp and Grits and seem to order it often!
Highly recommended!
TIP: Arrive early, around 10:30 or so a crowd can seem to gather and you may end of waiting a bit for a table, but definitely worth it!
I had the Montecristo for entree and the goat cheese for an app. The food was good, but I have quite a few complaints for service.
1- There are only a few tables in the whole joint. It doesn't take a spatial design genius to look at the place and see how they could make room for tables. They use these huge tables in the middle of the restaurant. Not only do they not match the rest of the decor, they are ginormous and usually only seat 2 people at lunch ... even though they could seat more.
2. Don't come here if you don't have at LEAST an hour to sit around wait. It took about 15 minutes to get seated, 10 minutes for service, then once you put your order in expect 30 minutes before your food comes out. I get it - it's freshly made, yadda yadda. Doesn't really excuse 30 min ticket times. Hire some help if you need to.
Portions are huge, that's a plus.
Our waitress was friendly but the host/waiter near the front kinda had an attitude problem.
Nice place, good food. I had the warm brie salad to start and it was not very good (80% pastry and 20% brie with a salad that had barely any dressing composed of spring greens only).
The fries are fresh and crispy, but the crab mac and cheese was watery and underseasoned. The others at my table had sandwiches which they thought were excellent, if not a bit oversized.
Crave speaks for itself. Â Stop reading this review and go and look at all the amazing pictures of food people took. Â I think photographing food originated at Crave. Â I would go here every day if I could afford it. Â I always get the Egg White Omelet and a Pancake. Â Best Pancakes. Â And Mimosas.
Review Source:Good but not great. A happy stop on the way to the Edison/Ford Estates that played out much better than a random unresearched stop but also not as good as I'd say the reviews would suggest.
We were seated right away at mid to late morning. The small restaurant is plainly but smartly decorated - simple but fun. Before noon there were breakfast, sandwich and salad offerings from the menu and many specials on the board.
The single pancake tasted like a delicious yellow cake cooked in a pan served with real maple syrup.
The burger looked good and came with fries.
The coffee was 2.50 and decidely ok not worth 2.50.
The cobb salad with double chicken for $12 was a great deal filled with lots of veggies and grilled chicken.
The mushroom omelet was fine. Nothing wrong with it. Much like I would make at home on a good day. I expected something more nuanced but this is a diner though an updated one. It was unevenly salted which threw me off as I kept being concerned about getting another bite of salt.
The service was good, everything as expected.
Overall rounds up to 4 stars as the ingredients were all fresh and prepared well. I would definitely go back as there were many other interesting items on the menu that I would like to try.
The twenty minute wait in the blazing heat outside of Crave to be seated and served was well worth it. Â The service was superb, as they tend to have a very experienced and charismatic staff. Â The menu is vast, and they always have copious amounts of specials. Â There is no such thing as a mediocre meal in this establishment, although a few healthier options on the menu would be preferable.. The food is very rich and of a higher quality than the other "casual dining" restaurants in the area.
Review Source:Took my daughter to dinner (her 1st visit) and she is already looking forward to returning with friends. She noted how spotless and charming it is. She had the spinach salad that was loaded with fresh berries and grilled peach, kudos to toasted walnuts not laden with sugar. I convinced her to try shrimp and grits (my personal favorite) while I indulged in the special twin Maine lobster tails (&yes I shared-that what mom's do :-). Perfectly cooked and lightly breaded. Grilled asparagus still had a crunch. Shrimp and grits spiced like they are supposed to be. Finished with bread pudding that was not overly sweet with a light creamy sauce that each forkful was dragged through. Daughter happily left with the leftovers and vowed to meet for breakfast the following weekend. Side note-server was wonderful, just the right amount of attentiveness and sound recommendations.
Review Source:Fresh. Delicious. Homemade. The food is so good it will make you smack your mama. My mom was with me, and I was tempted to reach out and land a good one right upside her head, lol, but I ain't crazy! Colloquial Vernacular aside, I really enjoyed my meal at Crave, and the service was fantastic! I had blueberry pancakes with warm syrup, bacon and some of the best java! It's hard to mess breakfast up anywhere, but this breakfast was exceptional. Crave was a pleasant surprise, and I will go back!
Review Source:Have you been to place that you find harmony when you come to eat? Â This is that place for breakfast! Â The blueberry pancake is the best in Ft Myers (Better than First Watch). Â Ask for the Orange Marmalade Jam, it blows your mind with real orange zest. Â Coffee is always fresh too! Â Try the sausage potato omlette...a real winner!
Small place, but worth the wait.
What a diamond in the rough. Â I say so because it is located in an old strip mall, and you'd pass it 500 times without noticing. Â Also, the front of the restaurant looks like a barbershop or something, but once inside you'll be pleasantly surprised. Â The veggies used in the food are locally grown, in-season, and fresh as could be. Â The breakfast choices looked delish and we had a hard time picking. Â We ended up doing veggie eggs Benedict which were AMAZING, and the California Omelet which was also outstanding with fresh avocado. Â The cook, who I was reading on the wall was not classically trained, but you could tell he knows what good food is. Â By going the extra mile with prep and presentation, this business will flourish. Â I'm only sad that we live in VA, far from Crave in Ft Myers, otherwise my wife and I would be regulars.
Review Source:tthis place was great. I had a veggie cravatilla it was fantastic. It was filled with broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, sweet peppers, onions... It was amazing. There was a wait because the place is small only a few tables in the place but it was worth it. I also got a butter cresaunt which melted in my mouth
the wait was about 30-45 minutes so don't go hungry.
Thumbs up: Â Split pea soup with carrots was the consistency of potage, and was served in a deep bowl with oyster crackers.
Thumbs down: I was given a choice of "wilted" or "Southern" spinach salad. Â The waitress met my puzzled look with the answer that "Southern" meant cold spinach. Â On my own, Â I could conjure the "wilted" version from happy culinary days before today. Â So I threw in with "wilted."
Instead of a vinaigrette heated with bacon drippings and drizzled over a toss of spinach, hard boiled egg, red onion, & bacon...Crave's version was kind of a hybrid breakfast. Â Crave mixed bacon pieces with white onion and copious amounts of mushroom, giving me the impression on the first taste that this mixture soaked for a while in a bacon grease & water base before joining the spinach. Â A bland, bland mess. Â
As for red onion - not here. Â Instead of chopped hard boiled egg, there was an entire poached egg dropped on top of the greasy spinach. Â One move with a fork, and the yolk flooded the bed of spinach. Â omy. Â I'm certain that there are huge fans of this recipe, otherwise Crave would not offer it. Â For me, it was an unappetizing dish.
The tomatoe, greens and onion side salad. $5.00 for dinner is huge.
The seafood gumbo is traditional New Orleans. Rice on the bottom loaded with endue sausage. Very spicy but very good.
The vegetarian puff pastry was good. It was lacking something else on the plate. Tomato sauce and puff pastry. That was it. I ordered some grated parmigiana cheese and it helped but it needed something on the plate. Maybe a bunch of asparagus spears a veggie... something.
The Whoop Whoop Chardonnay was excellent. $7.00 per glass. I dont like Oakey and this one fits the bill. Â Its really worth a try.
I would dress more business casual than Fla casual. I've been here three times now and I will say that the service is definitely lacking in quality and attitude.
Each time we ordered food we had to wait a very long time to get our food.  I understand fresh cooked food takes a while but by the time we received our  dinner plate it took over an hour and it was room temperature not hot. If you read my reviews I like my food to come out steaming hot.  Fresh from the kitchen not from the heating lamps.  That to me is the mark of a good restaurant.
I enjoyed the food and the prices were good, but I just cant get past the attitude of some of the staff members.  We had one of the young waiters and he was excellent, but the other 2 waiters were pretty much stuck on themselves. I saw them eating their dinner (or some plate of food) instead of checking back with us to see if we needed anything else for our warm plates of food that had come out of the kitchen  a few minuets prior.  And yes the waiter had forgotten to bring and item we had requested..
We wont be back. Â Its a shame because they are close to home and have a good variety on their menue... 3 strikes. If you notice that I only have two check inns it would be due to Yelp being down one of the times I was there.
Wow! Â Very nice breakfast. Â Terrific eclectic menu. Â Watched all meals come out of kitchen and they all were hearty, bright and made my mouth water. Â We ordered traditional eggs Benedict and white omelette with turkey tomato avocado bacon cheese. Â Yummy! Â Must come back and try bison burger!! Â Good prices and if you need it... Bloody Mary looked good
Review Source:HOLY SMOKES. Â Breakfast at Crave this morning started with great coffee...which is not always a guarantee for breakfast. Â Slid right into large fresh squeezed OJ which was big and so sweet! Â Next, I PUT A HURTING on the corned beef hash Eggs Benedict. Â Let me tell you I am a serious hash elitist, and this was as good as it gets crispy and not CHOCKED FULL of peppers and onions. Â I really hate hash that is ruined with big chunks of vegies. Â This was potato/corned beef....exactly the way God intended it. Â Wifey had french toast with grilled bananas and twas also super. Â Can't wait to go back and have the mushroom omelet which looked pretty darn good.
Review Source:Went here for Sunday brunch, and I'd give it five stars just for the biscuits and gravy alone. But they steak was also pretty good, the coffee was great, the OJ was great, and the ambiance was nice. On my short trip to Florida, this was by far the best restaurant I ate at.
One of the people I was eating with ordered the Pork Chop Special, what brought him pork chops covered with gravy, and biscuits on the side. That looked awesome, but it is limited supply, because they ran out of them.
Great place for brunch in Ft. Myers.
BEST SUNDAY BRUNCH IN THE COUNTY
Yup, all the other reviews are right. This is a great place. I don't know what took me so long to try it out.
Four of us went in for Sunday brunch during "season" getting there around 9:15 and only had about a 10 minute wait. Two had the Crazy Mushroom Omelettes (portobello, shitake, button mushrooms & Yarlsberg Swiss cheese) with potatoes (but not the ubiquitous homefries, but rather like a potato pancake) & toast. My wife had the Traditional Benedict: poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce on a Thomas English muffin with Smithfield ham and grits, and I had the Filet & Eggs: a 6 ounce steak with scramblies, whole wheat toast & grits.
Everything was absolutely perfect. They appear to use the very best ingredients here and it certainly pays off.
I LOVE breakfast food and I used to be very loyal First Watch Bruncher, that is until I went to Crave! It was heaven! I have had the biscuits & gravy, various omelets and have never been disappointed.
My most recent favorite item is the Banana Granola Nut Pancakes. I have had them enough times that I think I have perfected the recipe at home!
For lunch or dinner I liked the meatloaf  & chicken pot pies - good old fashion food using fresh veggies - Thanks for not going cheap and using frozen veggies!
In a city where the number of chain restaurants is the same as the number of gas stations, Crave is certainly a diamond in the rough when it comes to quality dining in Fort Myers. A few friends took me here for my birthday brunch, when I thought all hope was lost for finding a unique meal for a reasonable price. Okay, I'm exaggerating-- but my first taste of Crave was just a week or two into my move to FM and it certainly changed my mind about eating out in this town! (I've only been for brunch so I can't talk much about the other meals, but from what I've heard, there isn't a meal Crave can't do-- and do well).
The restaurant itself isn't very large, I'd estimate there are only about 15 tables. I visited on a Saturday morning and there was a short wait, but I feel like people must not know about this place or the wait would be out the door. The atmosphere is laid-back, a perfect place to meet up with old friends or to take out-of-towners for a bite to eat.
On my first visit (with many more anticipated in the near future), I chose the shrimp, crab, asparagus and brie omelet. It was fantastic in a way that's hard to describe. I could tell walking in that I had underestimated the place, but this really was so delicious, I was ready to order a second to take home and eat later. Other omelets sounded just as amazing, with great mixtures of seafood and fine cheeses and all under $12.
I will warn you though, as the name of the restaurant does, that this place will make you addicted. I follow Crave on Facebook and it's almost deadly-- I look at pictures of the food and consider sprinting there just to take a bite of some of these meals (i.e. crab mac and cheese). Based on Facebook page, I know that they also do catering-- I can't see how their catering menu would be anything short of amazing after seeing the food people around me ordered. These people know what they're doing!
Each item on the menu is a unique and fun gourmet option, but without the pretentious price of other gourmet restaurants. I'd say that all Yelpers should spread the news about this place, but then again, I like not having to wait to be seated so maybe we should keep this great place to ourselves!
I've been to Crave four or five times now and the food has ranged from "Hey that's pretty good" to "I would sit in a tub of that and eat my way out!"
Yelp reviews led me to Crave and on my first visit I had the biscuits and gravy. Â They were good but it wasn't as grand of an event as some Yelpers have talked about. Â I brought a friend the next visit and it was more of the same. Â The waitress said I'd have to come back for dinner some time. Â The next time I ate breakfast at Crave I got the shrimp and grits and it blew my mind. Â This is hands down the best shrimp and grits I've ever had. Â I indeed crave them. Â There is such deep flavor that they have to be tried to understand. Â The shrimp are cooked perfectly and the grits creamy. Â Unless you are allergic to shellfish you have to try them.
Per the waitress suggestion my wife and I did return for dinner one evening. Â I ordered the crave burger (medium rare) and my wife had the warm brie salad. Â Once again, Crave had outdone itself. Â The crave burger is easily in the top five burgers I've had next to the Vortex in Atlanta, Les Halles in New York, and the apple wood bacon burger with an egg on top at the Bank Street Brewery in New Albany, IN. Â The seasoning of the burger was also full of deep and rich flavors and was cooked to perfection. Â The bun helped soak up the juices from the burger. Â I ate that burger with an almost perverse glee. Â I wish I knew how they seasoned their meat. Â I'd use that recipe and live by my grill. Â
Crave Burger - <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fs3-media2.px.yelpcdn.com%2Fbphoto%2F7-kk1EvsjDJzYnqSNzItUQ%2Fl.jpg&s=5904f3248eaffb9d441503bbf32c6090ef83c9d15ba39d2cf5935d47bf03a10b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://s3-media2.px.yelp…</a>
My wife really enjoyed the warm brie salad but we were both expecting some more greens and not so much brie. Â The warm brie salad seemed to be more suited as an appetizer shared amongst friends. Â Slight criticism aside it tasted fantastic. Â There is simply no fault with the flavors happening on that dish.
Warm Brie Salad - <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fs3-media1.px.yelpcdn.com%2Fbphoto%2FeOj3OKrzN6AWb8HW09cU0w%2Fl.jpg&s=a6d472a8113eb7cef892ea241e8c1579f647c55f07f0c112f93692cf0719d718" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://s3-media1.px.yelp…</a>
I will be back to Crave but the question is will I eat anything else besides the shrimp and grits or the burger?
Spectacular American bistro. They reinterpret American regional classics and deliver every time. The Shrimp & Grits are hauntingly addictive.
Fabulous choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My only issue is what to order - it's one of the few restaurants I frequent where I'm trying indecisive on what to order each and every time. I've yet to try anything that wasn't excellent.
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