In honor of Mother’s Day, we took the family out to lunch at one of the Mall of America’s newest restaurants, Crave. This is the second location for Crave, which started in the Galleria. Our server said there is a third in the works for the west metro (likely Minnetonka).

Same day reservations via Open Table were no problem and we were seated promptly in the very busy and very full room. Unfortunately, that’s when things went downhill:

• Our server forgot a water order (and was a little slow on refills).
• I ordered a chicken Caesar salad, described on the menu as “All-natural chicken, grilled romaine leaves, warm caesar dressing, and parmesan reggiano crisp, $12.95” and was unlike any other Caesar salad I’ve ever had and didn’t taste like a Caesar at all.
• My order came out of the kitchen about 5 minutes after the other three.
• Kid two’s side dish of fruit was not brought out until we asked.

On the plus side, one manager did apologize right away for the lateness of the salad and a second (who was in a suit) asked for my opinion of the salad and described the unique method of preparation. He also offered to bring out more anchovies, which I decided against.

Another nice surprise was a presentation by our server at the end of the meal to my wife of a Mother’s Day gift consisting of a $20 spa certificate at Revamp Spa in Minneapolis and a $10 Crave gift certificate for a future visit.

The decor was also very nice and seemed like an upgrade over the previous tenant in that space, the California Cafe (which was no slouch). Lots of televisions in the crowded bar too, although I felt a little guilty watching Tiger play golf at the TPC while having Mother’s Day lunch.

We’ve had much better experiences at the Crave in the Galleria, so perhaps the new location just needs a little time to get things sorted out. Maybe we’ll try it again in a few weeks (and use that $10 certificate).