Craftbar

Craftbar
900 Broadway St
NY,NY 
212 461 4300
Food 7

Ambiance 7

Service 6

Overall 19

Good for trendy tasty enough  dining in Union Square for couples or groups, no Top Chef here though!
I promise a Brooklyn review soon. I have somehow been hanging out in Manhattan more than usual these days. Anyways we went to Craftbar super early last Friday on our way to a wine class through NYC wine class at 7 pm. Our dinner reservation was for the ungodly hour of 5:30 pm and apparently 3 people called my husband to confirm our open table reservation. With this kind of annoying followup, we expected the place to be packed on our entry and where surprised there was only 1 other table with clients. Now of course I went here to sample the famed cuisine of Tom Collichio, now also know for his co judge role on Top Chef. He owns 2 other places in NYC, Craft steak and Craft, and Craftbar is described as the most casual of all 3. I must say if this is casual cuisine I am very intrigued to find out what his other restaurants look like. When you enter, the space is decidely modern. A little too much for my taste..large red canvases distributed throughout the sleek wood and metal interior with a few pops of green. I think the place is an homage to nature and the waitstaff were dressed in casual teeshirts and pants in brick red and green. Dimly light . Well cushioned faux leather banquet seating. We were quickly seated and perused the fairly small menu .
Prices are average for this level of Manhattan cuisine. Appetizers ranged $9-13 and mains $18-24. The menu leans towards Mediterranean, focus on French and Italian cuisines. Although they have a fairly large wine bottle menu with a good price range, the wines by the glass were more limited although a good range of a few varietals in both red and white categories. We decided to share a half portion of the beet casunzei as our appetizer. I started with a $9.75 glass of the Muscadet white and my husband had $14 Crozes Hermitage white. I later had a $9.75 Manchuela red. The wines were fine, nothing spectacular but ok for simple dinner accompaniments. The Casunzei was essentially beet ravioli. The half moon shaped dough was a little undercooked, beyond al dente firm. It had the suspicious taste of wonton wrappers- often substituted for fresh made pasta. The half portion came out to 4 fairly small ravioli. Not bad for an appetizer portion but for a pasta main, doubling that, would still be puny. The filling was a lovely sweet fresh tasting mix of beet and ground lamb served with a light butter sauce. I found the taste subtle but not as simple or great as the best Italian pastas I have had. I am not sure why American chefs have to make all pasta so complicated. Seems to me the rule of three, or 3 ingrediants maximum which works so well in Italy should work here. On to the mains. I had the toro tuna , essentially a nicoise salad and my husband had the branzino.  Both were fairly small portions and not exquisitely fresh. My toro was perfectly cooked but the presentation and taste were very boring and basic. I have had tuna nicoise raised a notch before, and unfortunately for 20 plus dollars a pop this was not that. My husband's branzino was over cooked, not to the point of dehyrdration luckily. His dish was better flavored with more complex spice combinations. But this was definantly no Top Chef moment. For the buzz of this chef, I must say overall I was unimpressed. Its not that the food was bad, it just wasn't top notch by any means. We continued on to the desserts, because we were both still hungry after our puny meal. The dessert selction is skimpy. I am hoping there is no dessert chef with these pathetic dessert options. I opted for an olive cake with ice cream and my husband had the brownie with ice cream. Both came out looking like unkempt messes. My olive honey cake looked strangely like a tiny dunkin donuts muffin. Unfortunately it was half as good as one. Very disappointing. Not very moist or tasty. The brownie was an average brownie with a chocalate sauce that tasted too similar to Herschey's chocalate sauce. The star of both was definantly the ice cream. And would definantly recommend if here getting their trio of icecreams.
I have to say the level of cuisine at this place is not making me want to rush out and spend more dough at Craft or Craftsteak anytime soon.
If you are in Union Square and are dying to sample Collichio cuisine for not outrageous prices in a cool enough atmosphere, check this place out.
The Quest continues.....