the crest gastropub

another hidden gem!. so i had driven past this place a number of times and one day when my sweetheart and i were looking for a good place to eat we looked it up, made reservations and went. we were not disappointed! my sweetheart happens to be gluten-free and she found a menu full of goodies, all of their ingredients are local, fresh and seasonal. from a good bison or lamb burger, to their mac and cheese (baked in small cast-iron dishes, ;-) to their chips and the house made hot-sauce on the table all of it was good in the two visits we have made!

this place is the bomb!. we visited on a thursday during the second week since they've opened. i. love. this. place. the food was delicious (best hamburger i've had in a darn long time), the servers are very well informed about the beer (and even tequila!) and patient when we were trying to decide what to drink.

there's a great patio, but even if you're sitting inside, the huge windows bring in a lot of light. overall, the vibe is casual but very convivial. i'm really glad this place opened up.

take a psss for awhile. we wanted to like the place. looks great from the street and the inside is fun.
thats where it stops. service was bad. food even worse. coffee and breafast potatoes arrived cold. we told our server and she never returned. except to drop the check. grill cheese was buttery and not grilled. more like heat lamped. we will try again but only after a some time goes by and my tastebuds forget.

my last trip here 3 years ago was horrendous and i swore i’d never go back...i was convinced to give it another try only to be disappointed from the start. the hostess had a scowl on her face and was anything but inviting. she paced around the restaurant seemingly with no real purpose other than to look busy. we chose not to wait for a table and instead sat at the bar only to find the bar staff was cut from the same mold as the hostess. one bartender in particular was constantly stroking his beard and dreadlocks only to immediately grab glassware and serve drinks. another member of the staff was seen not washing their hands after using the bathroom....food took far too long to prepare and was mediocre at best. good location and trendy decor can only get you so far in this market - too many great alternatives in this city...i would imagine the crest’s day are numbered.

the only truly good thing about this meal was the drink i had--the spring collins was a delight and was exactly what i wanted. my companions' wine selections were also good. that was pretty much where the good ended.

we got the wings and fried goat cheese as apps, and while the wings were good and the goat cheese was fine, these were fairly mediocre in terms of what we expected from this place. i got a custom duck burger off the menu and both of my dining companions got the house burger. they both enjoyed their burgers and fries. 

my duck burger arrived with soggy sweet potato fries and was anything but what i expected. it was two half-hard, brick like patties that looked like you could get them from gfs. i don't know if the duck was really local, but this is not what i expected nor what i wanted to pay for. the patties were stuffed so much with spices--which was not advertised on the menu--that i couldn't even tell it was duck. honestly, it tasted more like a boca burger than anything. a really spicy boca burger. it was dry and flavorless except from the spices, and was anything but a rich, moist duck burger like i expected.

i sent the duck burger back and ordered the fried chicken sandwich instead, totally plain except for the amish honey butter that came on it, which had been on the fried goat cheese app and was really good. after way too long, the chicken sandwich was sent out of the kitchen, completely wrong, covered in everything i had asked for it without. my companion took it up to the line and told them, and within two minutes they had another one out the way i had asked for it...sort of. some stray lettuce and i'm still not convinced it was the honey butter on the sandwich. it did not taste good, and i ate two bites of it and stopped. 

but that wasn't the worst part. 

my dining companions, who both got the house burger, both got food poisoning and were up all night throwing up. this is the only thing both they and only they consumed at our table and definitely caused the illness. it is not that difficult to correctly handle ground beef.

while we have had some positive experiences here, it seems that the negatives have not outweighed the positives, and we won't be returning.

i've been to crest twice since moving to columbus and they never fail to impress. the food is phenomenal. the menu is full of such a wide variety of flavors. the beer selection is huge and the wait staff does very well with recommending a beer that fits your taste. it can be busy on the weekends but don't let the wait keep you from going. there's a reason everyone goes to crest. if atmosphere is important to you (don't lie you know it is) crest has that too. they have it all. i don't have a single negative thing to say about this place, it really has it all.

excellent service. sat at the bar. bartender attentive and friendly. had bodhi and shankleesh. amazing. awesome flavor and texture. very different.

while this place offers many good choices on the menu, don't try to get food near the end of the night for the kitchen (heard similar stories from other, as well). ordered a soup that came out barely warm, which would have been fine if it had been a gazpacho, but unfortunately not the case. server just looked at me when i told him and said "well, the kitchens closing soon, so that's why it's cold." umm...excuse me? if you are gonna offer something, don't offer it up incorrectly. i don't wanna pay for something that is served up cold. everyone at my table received something that was cold or could tell was not served fresh. server didn't seem to care that are food was complete rubbish. could tell he just wanted to get out of there. won't be back. just get your beer/drinks from somewhere else; they are all offered other places in columbus.

the atmosphere was trendy and cool, but overall i was underwhelmed. i went for brunch.. so perhaps visiting for another meal would be warranted. i got the waffles with some very sweet berry compote like topping. it's not that it was bad... just fine. my friends meals also looked "fine". service and coffee were better than fine! 😀

this used to be one of my favorite restaurants in all of columbus, then for whatever reason they decided to remove all the best items from the menu. removing the pastrami sandwich along with all the other items was the worst decision they have made! not coming back.

love this restaurant! it is one of my regular stops. if you are traveling to columbus be sure to check it out! great atmosphere, great food, tons of beers on tap & bottled. get the pub chips!!

not bad, not great. this is one of the few times i wish the us app had an indifferent vote. hung at the bar waiting for table. cool scene & good cocktails. had the ebb & flow which i would recommend. our group was seated outside, also chill. shared apps, both good, i had the fish, well prepared. service was lacking. he forgot sides ordered for all. had to request drinks that were forgotten. once those came, realized he never put in my earlier beer order. requested it 3 times, it finally came after we were done eating. also, with the craft beer boom, i've seen many places local & abroad with significantly broader beer list. may need to rethink gastropub label. if you were in a small town, this place would probably be your best option. unfortunately for them, there are so many choices & new places always popping up so they would be low on my "gotta ge back list." probably better to hang at the bar during happy hour than dining.

disappointed. this was my second attempt at the crest, and i don't believe there'll be a third, at least not for a meal. the menu has been completely revamped and is a bit pricier than i remember, but on the other hand, it was happy hour so we were able to save a little on half-priced draft beers. on my first trip, i thought it was odd that i had to request a beer menu. this trip, there was a nicely detailed menu on the table. in addition to the new menu, the lighting/layout seems a bit different now, in a (mostly) good way. the only downside about the layout is the noise. holy cow, is it loud in there. being close enough to my neighbor to practically bump elbows didn't help.

the food - man, the crest really drops the ball here. wife had a pasta with veggies. menu promised broccoli, leeks, and i don't recall what else. instead, there was the equivalent of about a single spear of asparagus chopped up into a few pieces. not at all what she was looking forward to, and seriously overpriced at $16. i opted for the special - braised short rib w/ risotto, carrots, and peas. the waitress asked how i wanted my meat cooked which surprised me a little as i didn't realize you could braise meat to order. since she asked, i requested it medium rare. it came out as i would've expected - very well done. it was also very delicious, though, so put one in the win column. the risotto, on the other hand... wife says, "it just looks like rice." that's right, it does... because it's severely undercooked. guys, risotto takes time and energy to prepare, and should never, ever be crunchy.

we'd had enough fun for the evening so we opted to take dessert to go. white chocolate carrot cake for me, ricotta cheesecake for wife. $7 each. both had decent flavor, but also the tiniest portions of dessert i've ever seen. our waistlines were ok with less, but for $7....? next time i want carrot cake, i'll just swing by wildflower cafe a couple miles north and pay $4 for the slab of carrot cake that i can't finish in one sitting.

i really want to love the crest. but... no.


-----28 oct, 2013-----

unsure.... ...what exactly the crest is or wants to be. based on the very mixed crowd, i'd say that it wants to be something for everybody, and that's great. i've just never been to a place with such a high concentration and equal mix of yuppies and hipsters. interesting.

we'd been waiting for the hub-bub to die down some so that we could get (a) parking and (b) food without an hour wait. no doubt this place is popular right now.

service - good. attentive, friendly. i was surprised that, given the reputation for beer selection, there wasn't a draft list on the table. had to request one. other than that, dude knew his stuff.

one observation about the service - some of them don't seem to like each other, and it shows. i witnessed some uncomfortably overt passive aggressiveness complete with eyerolls and snark. c'mon guys, at least put on a happy face while you're on the floor, hm?

food - wasn't bad. i do have to say that the best part of the meal, for me, was the warm bretzel pretzels. the rest...ok, but nothing super amazing. wife had fish tacos, they were cold. i had pastrami which was tasty, but being not especially tolerant to salt, i knew better than to order it. did it anyway. if you like pastrami, this was a good one, well balanced with cheese and rye. one note - the bread seemed a bit stale. *shrug*

overall, it was ok. i don't know if it's something i'll seek out for more than an occasional beer, but i can definitely see why people like it.

the crest is a restaurant that perfectly epitomizes sustainable, local food. in fact, a good portion of the items used in their dishes are grown on-site, either on the building’s rooftop garden, or in the wooden planters that line the patio area. many of the restaurant’s condiments and sauces are made from scratch too, such as the hot sauce found right on your tabletop. if crest doesn’t make it in-house, then the ingredient is often locally sourced...

menu has changed and unfortunately so has the service. initially enjoyed this restaurant. went yesterday for lunch and was terribly disappointed. the menu has changed to focus on "shareables" - overpriced, small portions. our server did not offer us anything to drink (soda/alcohol) and took our order. both my silverware and my husband's silverware were very dirty (with food pieces on them)! someone rolled the silverware without even looking at it. the shareable we ordered was not flavorful (mac and cheese in dough) and had unmelted pieces of what looked like lunch deli cheese slices. the entrees came out wrong (i.e. asked for no tomato and no sauce on burger and got both). waitress took a very long time to check on us and we waited a long time to get our bill despite the low headcount at lunch. will not be returning.