Crave Café

If paninis, sandwiches and everything inbetween are your preferences for lunch, Crave Café if your place. Located in the strip mall on Lake St., it wasn’t hard to find and sits nicely among the other businesses.
Upon entering to meet Jacqueline B. for lunch, I was greeted sweetly by the lady at the counter. I wouldn’t say the menu is overwhelming but there is a LOT to choose from. You’re not weird if you need to ask for a minute to browse through all of the different types of hot and cold sandwiches and the rest of the menu. I picked up a bottle of water from the open refrigerated section by the counter, ordered myself a chicken pesto asiago panini and took a seat. It was immediately in the middle of a lunch rush so I’m surprised I had gotten a table! This place gets crowded!
I have very few preferences and opinions when it comes to food so I thought my panini was a-​ok to me. All paninis come with a side of chips which doesn’t sound very filling but the sandwich was actually larger than I had thought it would be. The chicken was pretty scarce within the sandwich but the panini bread made up for it. The prices were what I expected (and had read from previous reviews). The prices are definitely comparable to a Panera lunch.
The one qualm I have about Crave is that from the chatter and conversations as well as the music throughout, it was really difficult to hear the lady say the order when your meal was ready. From the ambience and looks of the place, I had honestly thought your order gets brought to your table — especially because there is outdoor seating. It may be really inconvenient for those outdoor customers to peek in-​and-​out to see if their food is ready.
Overall, the space was nicely decorated, very clean and had a nice rustic look to it with the warm colors and dark wood. The employees were really sweet and really take care of the place from the looks of it. I’d love to visit again and try more on the large menu!

Their beef barley soup is to die for! Hands down my favorite winter soup and theirs is top notch. Burgers are great too. My daughter had I believe a salmon panini (something with salmon anyways!) and said it was amazing. My only minor complaint was that it is not super little kid friendly (I’m talking 2 yr old). I felt like the woman who was taking our order was irritated by my little ones presence. Didn’t bother me enough to stop eating here because it’s just so damn good but now I just get it to go ;)

Food is OK, people are nice but man is it expensive. 7.50 for a chicken burrito that’s no where near as big as Chipotle.

Nice little local place, enjoy coming here for lunch. Food comes out fast enough and the service is friendly. There is a good selection of food: sandwiches, salads, soup, burgers and wraps and good daily specials. I like getting the fish tacos. I haven’t had a bad meal here.

Very friendly & attentive staff! Great service and the food is always very good! They give you a very large portion at a reasonable price. Many meals also include a delicious bowl of homemade soup or a fresh crispy salad and a dessert. The tapioca pudding is excellent and definitely home made. I highly recommend Crave Café!

I came here for lunch with my boyfriend from finding it on Unilocal.We were just visiting the area for a wedding and were craving something good.
Crave Café is this cute little café in a shopping plaza area between a grocery store and other random businesses. We went inside and were greeted by the sweetest lady who talked to us as if we were friends, and she seemed to know everybody else in the café as well from the way she was talking to them. Everything on the menu was delicious, I went with one of their daily specials, a panini of some sort (this was last week so i don’t recall) but it was absolutely delicious. It was a big sandwich and I was told that people usually leave with leftovers, but i managed to finish it. It came with a side of fries which were crispy, hot and perfect. I would totally go back here if I lived in the area.

Me and my girlfriend were in town and stopped by for brunch. The food was top-​notch and the personnel very friendly! If you are passing by or live in the area, definitely give the place a try!

I eat here WAY too often, but it never gets old! The food is great, the staff are friendly, and it’s cute, quaint, and one-​of-​a-​kind. I highly recommend Crave Café!

I have three stars because it wasn’t an awful experience. Prices are a bit expensive but so is everywhere else … Even portillos which is across the parking lot.
I ordered the chicken pesto Asiago panini. I did not love it. I did like it. The chips served along with it were so salty I could barely eat them.
My food took a while to come probably 10 minutes … I wasn’t counting. I don’t mind waiting for food but someone who reads this might.
Parking is ample. Staff is friendly. Food is by no means outstanding. I will come back again one day and try something different.

Crave Café is close to home. A great alternative to fast food! Healthy and delicious soups and salads, friendly staff and an inviting atmosphere. My son loved the tranquil music.

2 stars for cleanliness and fast/​efficient service. Unfortunately no stars for the food itself. I really hate giving bad reviews but their food is nothing spectacular. Perhaps I had too much expectations given that this place was 4.5 out 5 stars (33 reviews). It was a total let down for me. I do appreciate the variety of sandwiches they offer.
They advertise fresh soup which maybe it was but the taste was bland. I had the mushroom soup and it was bland with big slices of mushrooms.
I asked for their most popular sandwich and the lady said it was the chicken pesto panini. The bf had that and I had the Cuban panini. The chicken pesto was bland with tasteless chicken and same with the pork in the Cuban sandwich. Both meats were tasteless and it could’ve been more tender. The bread… Have you ever had a sandwich that hurt the top of your palate because the bread was too hard??? Yep, the bread on this one surely didn’t make the cut either. I ended up taking out the meat and leaving the bread uneaten.
The Cuban panini came with seasoned fries. $ 8.95. The meat filled half of the sandwich, but then again if you don’t enjoy the taste, why have more of it? Not worth it. Chicken pesto panini came with chips. $ 8.99. Not worth it either.
Sad to say I will not be back.

This place is beautiful! Fabulous menu and a super inviting and coffee shop feel. We love it here! Want to invite all my friends and come often!

Great food

This place is hidden in a shopping center but was worth the search. The food was very fresh, homemade and the service was outstanding. I had a burger topped with a lot of BBQ pork. The pork was engiugh for its own sandwich. they offered blueberry bread pudding and that was awesome as well. This place is 49 mins from my house but I would make the trip for this food again ;-)

I love supporting small, local, independent businesses. Crave Café delivers on a lot of different fronts. The space is really clean with modern design. The menu is fairly extensive with lots of good sandwich, wrap, and salad options, and the prices are all reasonable. I had the buffalo chicken wrap today. Overall it was good. I definitely need to come back and try some other items.

For me, this place is nothing special. I’ve only order sandwiches when I’ve gone (or had it delivered) and never been exactly excited about any of them.
Granted they have a service deliver for them and they don’t have their own drivers. I definitely won’t order delivery again because it takes well over an hour and they even called me a few times because they needed to clarify my order. It wasn’t complicated and it was a small order so getting 3 calls about it was odd to me and made me feel like they weren’t paying attention. Why not ask all at one time, one call, instead of 20 minutes apart for each call? As a customer it made me feel like they were super unorganized.

Came here alone and discovered love… for the food. As well as the excellent customer service. Everyone was so friendly. Will come back!

There are times in life when you question all the choices you’ve made, be it spouse, career, or cell phone carriers, but when you pick good restaurants two days in a row, you know everything is gonna be ok.
Crave Café is one of the good choices. The small café has about 10 tables and it’s half full at lunch time on a Saturday. The menu reminds me of Panera Bread, with sandwiches (hot and cold), soup, salads, but there are also at least 5 different kinds of burgers and some «south of the border» choices.
I decided to go with the special of the day: fish tacos with fries. Each of the 3 tacos had a good-​sized well-​seasoned fresh-​off-​the-​grill tilapia fillet, not small pieces of unidentified fish like many other fish tacos. I devoured all of them. The crispy fries were the best I’ve had in a long time. If the weather was cooler, I would have tried one of their homemade soups.
The San Antonio Burger he (by he, I mean my spouse of choice) got was a little messy to eat due to the BBQ pulled pork, but he said it’s yummy.
Prices are on a par with fast casual restaurants, but you can expect more of «made from scratch» here.
Crave Café is next to Angelo Caputo’s in Bloomingdale, down the street from the parking lot for Meacham Grove Preserve, where we got to see blooming trillium. I wish it was in my neighborhood, even though it’s worth a drive.

Crave Café is great! I had the Brunch Burger. It was delicious! The fries were so good!
The burger was thick and juicy, tasted fresh and was topped with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, fried egg, hashbrowns, and American Cheese. It was big, too. They don’t cut corners and make sure that you get your money’s worth.
The fries were crispy and had a nice coating. Definitely not greasy at all.
The chocolate bread pudding was good, also.

We seriously love this little sandwich shop. I remember them fondly for being especially nice to my father when he visited. He came in and asked them a thousand things and left without buying anything. Still, they answered every single silly question and wished us well.
I’ve had a chance to eat here a couple times and we order from them at least once a month. Their burgers are delicious and their sandwiches hit the spot. It’s a lot of food for not too much money and service had always been tops! They offer delivery services too, and I’m currently hogging our only available car, so it’s very convenient for my fiancé.

We live close by and go to Caputos often so crave café would have had our business often. Stopped in tonight, ordered the salmon sandwich which doesn’t state it has cheese… asked for no mayo. I’m severely lactose intolerant.
Politely advised the older gentleman, I think he was the cook as well. Asked if I could possibly have something else since cheese was melted all over the salmon. He responded ‘it’s already made. We can take the cheese off.’ which wasn’t an option, it was seriously all over…
Unfortunately had to walk out $ 12 short and still hungry.
Poor customer service to a legitimate concern

New fav lunch spot! With. So much to choose from, after our first visit we had to come back the next day! Large greasy burgers. Healthy wraps and salads. Breakfast sandwiches. Homemade pita chips. Great soup! Something for everyone including vegiterians and vegans!
Located in the same strip mall as pivot point cosmetology school, its a great place for my single friends to score dates. Your welcome thirsty bros.

First visit to Crave Café, and opted to try it instead of going to Portillos.
I got the Asian Chicken Salad for about $ 8. The size is good, ginger dressing is delicious but my salad is FROZEN.
Yes, FROZEN. It took the guy all but 3 seconds to put it in a bag for takeout which must mean that they are premade. In any case, a frozen salad is not a salad. All the lettuce is frozen and the chicken as well. That said, the menu said «grilled chicken» and I had hoped it would be warm. Or at least room temperature, or edible. Also, the chicken looks processed.
I would try it again, but would not do a salad.

The menu is quite extensive and a little overwhelming IMO. It was hard to decide what to get.
I got the Garden Panini ($ 6.70). It came with onions, a strip of portobello, spinach, and cheese. Sadly the whole last inch of the sandwich was void of veggies. :(Not a fan of spinach… spinach-​in-​the-​teeth phobia! (And it still happened, ugh.) I just felt I could have made a better one at home, so the price wasn’t on point. It came with a side of salty Ruffle’s potato chips. I appreciate there was something other than just the sammy though. Oh, and I got an Arizona Tea ($ 2.25!).
He got the Chicken Tacos ($ 6.50) — 4 tacos in corn tortillas that he remarked he enjoyed. I quite enjoyed his chipotle mayo (or whatever it was).
Service was friendly and it was clean. The lady who took orders also brought out food and wiped down tables.
The food was really underwhelming for me, though. after $ 17, we just didn’t quite feel satisfied. Maybe stick to the specials (?).

Stopped in for lunch to pick up something quick that wasn’t fast food. Ordered a turkey sandwich with bacon and spicy mayo and jack daniels chili.
The sandwich was bland, lacking real character. I know you say it’s a turkey sandwich — what did you expect Vince? There was nothing exciting in the sandwich — the turkey was boring, bacon basic and the spicy mayo lacked zip.
The chili saved the lunch. It was smoky, full of meat and was an excellent rendition of chili. I’d go back for this by itself and try something different on the menu.
Staff was pleasant and space very clean.