Crush Kitchen and Bar

still not my cup of tea. its like they think they are the only place in town. way too much drama going on here

I don’t think that there is another restaurant that I have been to that is a consistent as Crush! There is nothing worse than having a phenomenal meal one day and something that isn’t up to par the next, never the case here! Also, being in the center of the agricultural capital of the country, it is nice to see a place use local and organic ingredients in their food.
Their soups are some of the best that I have ever had, always full of flavor while always managing to invent new flavors. Their wine list is fantastic! My favorite lunch item is possibly the BLTA sandwich, but I haven’t been disappointed by anything else that I have tried.
The popcorn is hopelessly addicting, don’t even bother to try to recreate it at home or you will just end up feeling upset. Their desserts are great as well! The house-​made s’mores are delicious and a unique item to have on a menu.
Service has always been friendly and accommodating as well, which is a plus for Lodi.

Nice décor. Casual, but well-​decorated. Service was friendly, but very slow; this was the biggest negative. The food was quite good, but possibly over-​seasoned.
Food we tried:
–Popcorn: complimentary at the table. Stale and odd seasoning. I wouldn’t recommend.
–Beet salad. Tri-​color beets. Dipped balls of goat cheese. Toasted almonds. Balsamic dressing a little heavy-​handed, but yummy. Nice mix of textures
–Chicken and couscous salad: Grilled chicken on a bed of dressed mixed-​greens and Israeli couscous. Chicken was well cooked, moist and well-​seasoned. The dressing was sooo lemon-​y that it was a bit distracting from the other flavors
–Quinoa mac and cheese: Think quinoa gratin. Was tasty.
–Gnocchi: The gnocchi was grilled, which gave it a nice texture. Cream sauce with sundried tomatoes. A little heavy for me, but my husband liked it. A yummy splurge. At $ 20, though, a tad expensive.
We didn’t stay for dessert because we figured it would have taken ages.
Summary:
Clean casual atmosphere. Satisfying food. But the service was far too slow. We’ll try other Lodi restaurants before coming back again, but I wouldn’t mind visiting again.

After eating here a few more times, and found a few favorite dishes, I’d drive to Downtown Lodi for. I’m changing my rating and opinion, in favor of Crush Kitchen & Bar. Not that I didn’t care for it in the past, I’ve simply now found a few dishes I think are both healthy and quite tasty as well. I like the ambiance as well here.

I’ve been several times now and it has been consistently good. Great food, drinks, service, and atmosphere. I had the BLAT with the truffle fries and the bourbon stout to drink. Table shared the cheese platter as an appetizer. All were excellent and everyone enjoyed their food.

We come here all the time when we feel like eating something special. My wife loves the popcorn and the Vino Verde. We ordered multiple things off the menu and have never been disappointed. We dine out often and always find ourselves coming back here. The atmosphere is beautiful and the service is great. This continues to be our «go to» restaurant when dining in Lodi.

Have not experienced much of the menu, but the cocktails are delicious and the edemame hummus is AMAZING! I will definitely be back and will recommend when we have a girl’s night outing.

I came to Crush for my gf’s bachelorette brunch. I loved the design and layout of the restaurant. It’s colorful and eccentric, but my favorite combination.
I loved that while you waited for your order, you get served with deliciously seasoned popcorn. I ordered a sandwich from the March menu and cannot remember the name of the sandwich. But I’m pretty sure that it was Niman pork. I just remembered that it was absolutely delicious. The fries were thinly cut, just the way I like it.
I would definitely come here again to try out other dishes on their menu.

First time here. this place is a really great. great service, awesome wine and fabulous food. not to mention the atmosphere is relaxed and not pretentious. for starters the popcorn they serve to everyone is out of control. So much so, we bought a bag to take home.yummy.the scallops was sweet and savory and the gnocchi was rich and delicate. Will definitely be back.

Bourgeois and pretentious!
Went here for the first time because they were touted as having organic dishes and after 5 minutes of standing in the empty entry I had to walk through the empty dining room to get someone to seat us. All those unfilled seats at dinner time should have been a clue! We were promptly brought water and complimentary seasoned popcorn as appetizer and I thought things were looking up. Unfortunately the prices were steep and the food was just average. The presentation of the plates was nice but the décor in the restaurant itself is a bit tacky and mismatched. It looks as if they hired a decorator who tried way too hard to make things look trendy; that or they hired two or three decorators with different ideas and let them all have a little piece. I will admit I have been back a few times because other people have wanted to try it, but we have been disappointed each and every time. Service is always horrible and practically nonexistent; in at least 5 visits I have never been greeted at the door. Guests are seated very close to the bar and although there are usually practically no patrons, we did leave early once because a group of loud people came in to sit at the bar and we could not even hear each other across the table. Ridiculous. The flamboyant owner seems more interested in walking around acting fabulous than he is in any actual customer service. This place is a lot of hype. The only reason it gets more than one star is that the food itself is usually fine. Pop some popcorn at home and throw some seasoning on it; that is the only thing worth talking about at this place. Save yourself the time and money!

Excellent food and service on Friday night. I knew the bartender from other places he has worked, he’s one of the best. Loved the eggplant fritto and the lamb.

Honestly this was a great place to take my mom for Mother’s Day. We had pretty good service.
The lunch was tasty, but had a limited menu. Wine selection was good too. Nothing really extravagant but just good.
The stand out was the service. Our server made my mom feel special and that made it a winner for me.
Great service but expand the lunch menu.

Really nothing memorable to talk about here. It’s a cute little bar with OK food, terrible prices for college kids, servings are OK. Their complimentary popcorn was unique and great for opening my taste palates.
Kids, save your money for the real bars and lounges in SF/​LA/​LV.

I wanted to like this place, but nonetheless I was very disappointed! I recently relocated to the city of Lodi, so a couple of my friends came up to visit me. I took them for a stroll in beautiful downtown Lodi, we were walking around looking for a place to grab a bit to eat. We came across this place, it looked nice so we decided to go in. First, they brought us a basket of stale
Popcorn (I was not happy). We all ordered four different things off the menu, my salmon was ok, but the portion was way way way too small! One of my friends had the eggplant Parmesan, she made a comment saying that her dish was disgusting. She works at a hospital, so she proceeded to say that the eggplant serve at the hospital had better flavor. I would go there again for drinks, for not for their food. The food lack imagination!!!

Lodi’s little hidden gem. American + Italian.

Loved everything about this place! The service, the food, the awesome dirty gin martini, I even loved the bathrooms! Lol the only problem was the lighting which seemed a little bright for such a loungy, fine dining experience. The wine was corked table side and poured like a pro. The food was 5 star plating and flavors. I felt everything was priced accordingly. I will be going back!

Let me preface this by stating that; I rarely ever give a restaurant a full 5 stars. This restaurant blew my taste buds out of the water. I ordered what would normally sound like a very basic meal. The ham & egg sandwich and soup of the day. The sandwich was anything but average. It was incredible. The soup of the day was a; sausage & potato cream soup, and put my taste buds on fire. The food was so good, I was in a fog.
The service was quite slow, however once the food arrived, I realized the wait was worth it. My wife ordered the eggplant Parmesan. It was quite good, but still not as good as my sandwich. which I realize sounds ridiculous.
The cost for lunch will run appx $ 15 per meal.

Dropped in the between Christmas and New Years for lunch on Saturday. This was our first time eating here and we will be back.
We were seated promptly, and our server was fantastic. Shannon was attentive, knowledgeable about the menu and even offered some suggestions. My Fiancé took her up on the soup suggestion — Chicken Enchilada… and it tasted just like an actual chicken enchilada… it was awesome!
Our sandwiches where out quickly and were delicious! I had the BLTA and the fiancé had the Porchetta sandwich. Both were very tasty and large enough that we ended up each taking home half for later.
What a great gem in LODI!

Pleasant surroundings and our server was okay. (that’s why the two stars.) Had the BLTA with the Niman (insert heavenly music here, more on that later) bacon. Sandwich was mostly bread with only a couple small pieces of Nimon (insert heavenly music here) bacon. Perhaps would be a better go to get a bread which did not crumble to nothing when you eat it and put a little more bacon on it, or a little less bread. Lunch companion had some sort of sandwich which had a fried egg on it. She said it was quite tasty. I have to agree with other reviewers on the popcorn, not a fan.
Okay about that Niman bacon, listened to a 10 minute rant from the owner about how great it was and how no one else was serving Niman bacon and blah… blah…blah… Seriously, this is Lodi, CA. All the people here want is good food at a good price. I don’t need a lecture about how great one restaurant is because of the bacon they use. Okay it was good bacon, maybe great bacon but the amount on the sandwich was out of proportion with the amount of very dry bread. So disappointed because the sandwich had such great potential with all the other ingredients. After the build up I was expecting something that would blow the Hash House’s Bacon-​Bacon-​Bacon-​Bacon Lettuce and Tomato out of the water… sadly didn’t happen.
As to the comment about my uneducated palette… yeah it’s hard to find a decent restaurant in Las Vegas so how would I even know when I was in the presence of greatness. Don’t tell me how great you are… show me. Didn’t happen with the BLTA. And oh yeah, don’t take shots at customers or potential customers.
Reading through the other reviews this seems to be a love it or hate it place often depending on the owners mood that day. While i don’t hate it, there are plenty of places down the street which will work nicely. LBC, Twisted Fork, Schools Street Bistro, Dancing Fox, Rosewood, etc, etc.

We were looking for something fresh, but local. I had heard mixed reviews, but was willing to give it a try. I started with the lavendar cocktail, which tasted like soap. The entrees were just ok; considering the price, and the wait time to receive dinner, I was unimpressed.
The popcorn they served as an filler (instead of the typical bread basket) took a little getting used to, but in the interim of waiting for my dinner, I found a way to love the bakers yeast and cayenne flavored popcorn.
I would not feel the need to return.