CraveSushi

i havent noticed any rennovation on the outside, i walked past the building this morning

just started, slowly but surely...we hope.

any updates on this restaurant?

We've been told that its still moving forward with the Greek Deli as of yesterday. We will see.

Just to keep you guys informed. We received notice today that our Exterior Rendering will begin next week Aug. 31st. We are crossing our fingers. Its been a LONG wait!

Just an update...

check out our new website (www.wecravesushi.com)

Wednesdays we have tons of ladies for happy hour

new happy hour specials (listed below)

hope everyone is well! we are growing as a business and making improvements daily. Thanks for the support and we appreciate your word of mouth

Introducing Crave Sushi's New Happy Hour Specials!!!

5pm to 7pm Daily, All Night Sunday (5-10pm)

Reverse Happy Hour Fri and Sat 12am to 2am (food only)

$1 Chicken Yakitori (chicken skewer grilled)

$1.50 All Nigiri (excl. mkt items)

$3 Edamame (lightly salted soy bean)

$4 Gyoza (pork dumplings)

$1.50 to $4.50 for ALL Regular Rolls (Half-Off Regular Price)

$2 Domestic Beers

$3 Import Beers

$3 Hot Sake & Flavored Hot Sake (vanilla, melon, pineapple, pomegranate, lychee, banana, apple, raspberry, & peach)

$4 You Call Its (Exc. Cordon Bleu)

$4 House Wines (glass)

$5 Crave Special Drinks, Mojitos, Martinis, Long Islands, Mimosas

$15 Mimosa Pitchers

The word...

"A sushi restaurant lives or dies on the freshness of its fish, and Crave passes the test, with dishes that are pristine as they are beautiful." ~ Texas Monthly Magazine

"Crave Sushi is the "Hidden Gem" of superior sushi in Houston. So don't go around telling everybody! Sssshhhh! It's our secret." ~ Out Smart Magazine

"There is only one word to describe the fish here: Luscious!" ~ Envy Magazine

"Crave Sushi has a sleek, sexy look with teal walls, dark stained woods, and two bars: one for fish and a larger for a drink!" ~ 002 Houston Magazine

"The hottest new restaurant in our area!" ~ Midtown Paper

"Crave Sushi, the newest addition to the midtown restaurant scene at 2900 Travis. C.I.A.- trained Chef Robert Garay is top toque! ~ Papercity

"Midtown's newest place to get a raw deal is open late till 4am on weekends, quite cleverly mixing things up!" ~ Houston Modern Luxury Magazine

The word is that a Greek Deli will be going in next door and a lounge on the other end (nxt to Camden Travis). Also, the plans are at the city for the rendering for the building. This will be great for us I hope!!!

Linny

ps. does anyone know when Camden Travis will done? my guess...3 more months?!?!

So here is the special Crave Sushi is presenting... copied from my facebook group message.

Hey Guys! Summer is upon us and I'm excited! In the last months since I've opened Crave Sushi. I keep hearing "In this economy...", you can pretty much start any sentence with "In this economy.." So that being said...

"In this economy, Crave Sushi is bailing you out with $1 Chicken Yakitori!"

What is Chicken Yakitori? Chicken Yakitori is a chicken skewer grilled & glazed with a sweet soy garnish with scallions & spicy sesame

This special is all day, any day (except late nite). So stop by, check it out, and help us spread the word!

Linny

Crave Sushi

2900 Travis St.

Houston, TX 77006

wecravesushi.com

For reservations call 713-527-8744

While I like the interior decor, your prices are astronomical compared to your competitors. Zake, Soma, Fish, Blue Fish and Uptown Sushi all have much better pricing. Zake runs a happy hour with $3 rolls and $2 domestics. I had trouble finding a specialty roll of yours under $20. 25% off happy hour isn't quite cutting it. I have only been there three times, but the place has always been scarcely populated. Any chance of lowering prices in this economy?

forgot to add...

All of Crave's Special Rolls are under $20 except for the Tiger Lily. we priced the Tiger Lily at $20 because it is a large roll (10 big pieces) and has crunchy soft shell crab, salmon, ebi, and avacado.

Our special rolls range from $10 (dynamite & tiger eye) to $20 (tiger lily). Our best sellers are the Perfect Roll ($16) and Crave's Cheetah Roll ($15).

midtownuser,

I am sorry to hear that you are disappointed with our happy hour pricing. The 25% off our entire menu was not to restrict you to certain items. Almost if not all other restaurants have a seperate happy hour menu or drink specials. This method is used to push out overstock inventory or offer foods that are at lower price points which is why they only offer certain items to their customers. We wanted our customers to be able to have an import beer or a vodka-soda with premium vodka such as grey goose or belvedere at happy hour prices. Also, to be able to order any appetizers, salads, or soups with our discount. If you strongly feel that this is unfair, I personally would like to sit down with you over a meal and hear your opinions. Please email me with your contact information at lp@wecravesushi.com. My name is Linh and I am the owner of Crave Sushi. I would like to be transparent about my business and your patronage is very imoortant to me. I would like to hear your ideas and what you think will make my restaurant better. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Linh Hoang.

ps. we are working on new specials that will be introduced shortly.

While I like the interior decor, your prices are astronomical compared to your competitors. Zake, Soma, Fish, Blue Fish and Uptown Sushi all have much better pricing. Zake runs a happy hour with $3 rolls and $2 domestics. I had trouble finding a specialty roll of yours under $20. 25% off happy hour isn't quite cutting it. I have only been there three times, but the place has always been scarcely populated. Any chance of lowering prices in this economy?

Thank you for your input. We introduced the 25% off the entire menu because most of the restaurants that you mentioned above offer a restricted menu or a seperate happy hour menu. We did not want to restrict our customers to a specific menu. We are working on something right now that will be very SPECIAL or HAPPY for our customers. Please stay tuned.

Parking issue resolved! Customers are always first!

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render...dMXgL6wUPJPM%3D

Thank you for all your support! See ya soon!!

Hi John,

I started the valet parking rant, so I appreciate your offering a response. Now that I know that Crave only has valet parking on Friday and Saturday nights, my wife and I will be sure to visit you guys on another night.

Nevertheless, we were ready to eat at your restaurant on a Friday night at 10, but we were put off by all of the blocked off spaces. And because I did not observe a single vehicle in your lot at that time, I have to assume that other potential patrons were also turned off by all of the unwelcoming cones. I'm worried that your policy may be costing you diners on critical nights and creating an overall negative first impression.

I'm a real estate attorney, and I know from personal experience how parking can be a major issue for tenants. I respect that you're trying to make the best of a difficult situation. But that being said, forcing everyone to valet is an atypical solution. Much more common are the warning/towing signs you see all over the city. The standard sign provides that if your vehicle is parked while you are not (or you are no longer) patronizing the business which has provided the parking, then your vehicle is subject to being towed at your expense. Granted, monitoring who is properly parked and who is not can be more of an art than a science. Your host(ess) might need to keep an eye out. Adding a 2 hour limit to the signs would be a good idea as well. You'll still have some people who will beat the system, but I suspect most would simply pay to park somewhere else rather than risk ruining their evening by having their vehicle towed.

All that being said, it does strike me as somewhat disingenuous that you profess a desire to preserve parking for diners while freely admitting to selling your spaces at $15 a piece to non-diners. John, that's like trying to have your sushi and eat it too. In theory, you could sell the entire lot to club-goers and shut out everyone else. I know there's the idea that someone who comes back to their vehicle from a club is a potential diner, and I recognize the benefit to you of selling that person both a space and a meal. And that's fine.

But now we come back to Musicman's statement that, on Friday and Saturday nights at least, club-goers are the "better" customers that you are catering to. Given the real alternative of using warning/towing signs, it seems that by employing your valet system instead, you are tacitly admitting that on those particular nights club-goers are your preferred customers, and that you want to be in the business of selling parking to them as much as you are in the sushi business. Again, that's free enterprise and your choice to make - I don't have a problem with it. All the same, be up front with the choice instead of coming on to this board and claiming that your "intentions are not to make any person better than the other". Obviously you've made a conscious decision to cater to club-goers on Friday and Saturday nights.

As for me personally, when I get hungry I'm looking for a restaurant and not a parking concern like the one Crave operates on Friday and Saturday nights. Therefore, I won't be your customer on those nights, and I suspect that many other people will similarly pass you by. Once more, that is the result of a business decision on your part, one that you may end up reevaluating in the future.

The foregoing notwithstanding, my wife and I will stop by during the week sometime soon. We're right around the corner from Crave and we'd like to see you and many other Midtown businesses succeed. I wish you all the best.

Hello Furious Jam,

Thank you for your comments. And I will take these into consideration.

Again, we do not cater to one specific crowd. We have to try our best to cater to everyone.

It is hard to please everyone. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so to each their own.

To answer the towing sign question, The lot is only ours for the time being because we're the only tenants in the complex currently.

Once or if a new business decides to occupy any of the units in the complex, those signs will not be valid.

We don't want to open us up to any lawsuits for illegally towing cars.

Those signs will only be valid if we had the whole complex to ourselves or if we could negotiate a deal with the neighboring businesses once they're occupied.

The landlord will most likely frown on this as well considering he wants these other units occupied soon. And with signs like that, it might lead to some discouragement to a potential tenant.

And having someone regularly monitoring the lot from the inside is just too difficult. Especially considering I cut my hostesses around 10 or 11.

This situation is just a real difficult and touchy situation.

Thank you again for your suggestions.

and you're ignoring the fact that you've already received customer complaints regarding the valet parking. guess the club kids who pay $15 are "better" customers.

Hi Musicman,

We have not ignored any customer complaints on site. Every parking issue there has been resolved by me personally.

I have personally paid out of my own pocket, not Crave's pocket, for customers parking in the past and recently.

And no one is better than the other. I'm sorry if you feel that way, but our intentions are not to make any person better than the other.

If you have dined here, you would know that we treat everyone with the upmost respect regardless of anything.

The solution we have now has had minimal complaints.

And minimizing this situation is all we feel we can do for the time being until something better arises.

Without valet around 10pm to 2am on Friday or Saturday, Crave customers will have "zero" parking.

Please forward me any suggestions you may have to help with this issue.

john@wecravesushi.com

Thank you!

When are yall gonna get a proper sign?

I tryed Crave a couple monthes ago, it was good, my wife liked the cayenne pepper on the edamame. If we'rte ever out and about in the wee we'll stop by again.

Parking is a problem all over midtown and valet parking tends to exacerbate the problem imo.

I have a mailbox at the UPS off McGowen and it's simply a hassle when all the available parking is coned and all the street parking is taken.

Hi infinite jim,

We won't have proper signage until the exterior/fascia of the building is renovated to modernize the building.

The renovation process is out of our control. It is in the control of our land-lord.

Once this is done, which we hope is in the near future, we will have proper signage.

Valet has its advantages and disadvantages. We will try our best to make the situation better for everyone.

It is just real hard for us inside to know who's coming to Crave and who's not. And we just don't want having 20 tow trucks in our lot trying to tow everyone not coming to Crave either.

So valet almost seems to be a must.

Btw, Thank you for stopping by our restaurant and the good remarks! I hope we'll see you again!

so why are you providing parking for OTHER businesses if you care so much about your own clientele? $$$

Hi Musicman,

To answer your question, we have to rely on the fact they are coming back to eat at our place after 2am considering we stay open til 4am those nights. At $15 for the Club clientele is a value for them considering our prime parking location. And for the club-goers to park elsewhere, doesn't provide us with much exposure. And it also hints at the club-goers to actually pay even less if they decide to eat at our place right then or the next time they park in our lot. Club-Goers are potential Crave clients as well. I hope this makes sense.

Thanks!

Screw them and their Valet Only Parking Policy!

Make the drive over to Sasaki.....it's worth it. Wesrhiemer at Fondren

Hello Everyone,

I see that valet parking seems to be an issue with people on the forum here and others who have visited us as well.

And I deeply deeply apologize for this.

We currently have valet in place only on Friday nights and Saturdays nights. It is complimentary before 10pm.

After 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, It is $5 for Crave Guests and $15 for the Club Crowd.

The reason why we have this in place is to control the club crowd surrounding us.

If we had no valet at all controlling who can park for $5 and who parks for $15, the club crowd would take over and therefore their would be no parking for Crave patrons at all until who knows when.

And If it were free valet for Crave patrons, Someone could very easily say their going into Crave around that time, walk out the side door and go elsewhere until 3 in the morning which would end up being a wasted space an actual Crave patron could of had.

Please understand that parking is a huge problem in midtown around that time. And we are extrememly limited with only 20 spaces.

This is the only viable solution we have currently.

But we are willing to do things to improve it for our guests. So we are willing take suggestions in to making this situation better.

Please forward any suggestions to me at: john@wecravesushi.com

Thank you!

No worries, I figured it was just a startup thing you're working through. We definitely want to try the place - any idea when the high chairs will arrive? I think we'll just call ahead next time to be sure.

Hey! We should have them in by tomorrow!

Went to try this place out today...didn't quite work out because they had no high chairs. The staff didn't seem to know if that was on purpose or if they just didn't have any yet, but I'd like to know.

It looked pretty cool inside, very trendy. Maybe a few babies here and there would kill the trendy vibe or something. Ended up going to Tomo, which was ok but not as good as it was last time we went.

Hi! I completely apologize for this mishap. I remember when you guys came in. We had ordered high-chairs from our restaurant supplier but still have not received them. The staff was not aware of our situation. So their was some confusion when you guys came. I take full blame that this happened. We haven't had requests for high chairs since we've been open so it never became an immediate concern for us. But I misjudged it. I will be sure to try our best to accomodate you guys and anyone with children next time. Please accept my apologies and come by again. Ask for John and I will take care of you!

I ate here on Friday and it was fantastic!

The ambiance is really cool. It was much trendier on the inside than I expected. Prices were really reasonable and you get 25% off the bill at Happy Hour! I have a new Happy Hour spot.

Thanks for the great compliments!

And I can't believe we're finally open! lol

We've been open for 3 weeks now!!

And we've been doing pretty good. I just want to thank you guys for all your support

and please don't hesitate to swing by, grab some food and drinks and say hi!

Here's our hours if you decide to come:

Lunch - 11am to 2:30pm (No Lunch Sat/Sun)

Dinner - 5pm to 10pm

After Hours - Fri/Sat til 4am

Happy Hour Daily (25% off Full Bar, Sushi Bar, Full Menu Excluding Entrees) - 5pm to 7pm and All Day Sunday 5pm to 10pm!

Again, Thanks for everything!

What's going on guys,

So here's what we've been working diligently on.. Any day now!

Hey guys,

Sorry If I haven't been on here lately. Been real busy with trying to get the place open.

Their have been some delays but nothing drastic. So we have to push back the opening to January 2009.

The website was down temporarily because we updated the site and switched to a better and faster server.

The website is still in the beta phase. Theirs still many updates to the website that need to be done.

As far as the exterior rendering, that was just a teaser and it may or may not happen, it's not our call, we can only hope it will.

Either way, we will still open for business in January 09!

Don't you think 4am is a little early to close on NYE? most people will be leaving the clubs around that time.

Yea it depends on how business is doing really. If we're still slammed at 3am or 4am we may stay open even longer still.

does that mean you will be open on the night of new year's eve?

I really really hope so!! haha

We're not sure what to do about New Years yet if we are open.

We're trying to decide if we should just do business as usual or...

maybe do like a private party where theirs an open bar, selected all-you-can-eat sushi bar and maybe do a cover along with it. It's hard to say what will make it a successful New Years. I would invite people on here for pre-sale tickets or whatever...idk

What would most midtowners agree with? Any suggestions??

We gotta keep it mind it is a 'restaurant' not a club...

so I and the other owners may do like the private party thing we wanted from say 9pm-1am then open for business as usual for after hours til 4am. We don't know. haha what do you think??

Hey Guys,

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Just a little update, We are about 3-4 weeks out from opening our doors.

I know, I know... things keep getting pushed back a little here and there.

But don't worry! We are opening eventually!

Things are starting to come together.. and they're coming together quickly!

BTW, at this time, we NEED experienced Line Cooks and Dishwashers/Bussers.

So if you or if you know anyone that is interested... Please submit resumes to john@wecravesushi.com

Thanks again guys! See ya soon!!

Also, check out our b4-u-eat.com profile page!

http://www.b4-u-eat.com/profile.asp?r=5742

doubt this restaurant is coming. i saw a new sign up saying LEASING NOW. so the landlords are looking for someone else to fill in this space. sucks

Hey sorry guys.. been so long since I've been on here. Been so busy with meetings with purveyors and whatnot. And still so much to do.

We are still planning to open by end of November, early December. So no worries 'midtownuser'!! lol

We lost our big sign due to Hurricane Ike but we have 2 new signs up now.

That leasing sign is up for the other 2 units that are still vacant.

Btw, We are currently accepting resumes for all positions here at Crave. (i.e. line cooks, sushi bar, dishwashers, barstaff, waitstaff, hostess, etc.) Please submit them to john@wecravesushi.com for further review.

The building process is progressing rapidly now. So don't be afraid to stop by to check out the construction. You might run into one of us! Kind of crazy how things are coming together now.

I'll keep everyone posted!!!

no construction so far. i wonder if they will even open up this year.

we have some things rolling and we have some other things pending as far as construction goes.. its been a very tedious and meticulous process... construction should go fairly smooth once more things start falling in to place..we're still aiming for a late nov/early dec opening... cross your fingers!... january would be worse case scenario.