Monday, May 18, 2009

Crave Cupcakes



Crave Cupcakes
1151 Uptown Park Blvd
Houston, TX 77056
(713) 622-7283
http://www.cravecupcakes.com/

Bite Me Houston is where I like to keep things real. I try not to sugar coat anything and tell you my honest opinion about a place, whether it be good or bad. This brings me to Crave Cupcakes. I have heard so much hype about this little shop whipping up some of the best cupcakes in town. Located in the posh and trendy Uptown Park, Crave is drawing in people anxious to taste the decadent little treats. Crave has 24 different cupcakes and some are only made on certain days and they only make small batches throughout the day so you better there early to get the ones that you want. I had heard so much about this place I had to try it for myself. As I arrived at Crave I noticed it had a very nice exterior but that is to be expected since it is located in the Uptown Park. Designed by an award winning design firm, Crave is a small place with lots of windows. You can watch the team prepare the cupcakes as you sit outside and chow down. There is no seating inside just a little shelf that you can post up on. On the outside they have little cafĂ© tables that hug the storefront which is nice but umbrellas would have been nice to block out the sun on a hot spring day. On the inside a glass case displays the little cakes waiting to be selected. The line to order is a little unorganized and people bumble around trying to decide on what to get. Your options are pretty limited near closing time and as they run out of a certain flavor they remove it from the board. At first glance I notice how small these cupcakes were. Sure they are supposed to be a little small but at $3.25 a pop I was a little shocked. I was at the point of no return now and I decided to go with the Red Velvet. Described as a “Traditional Texas red cocoa cake with a sweet cream cheese frosting”, I wasn’t really aware Texas had a traditional red velvet cake but I figured eh what the heck! First, you don’t really notice how small the cupcakes are until you get them on your plate. I felt a little ripped off but I held my opinion until I finished this little treat. The cream cheese icing had a medium thickness and creamy, but the taste seemed unproportioned. The frosting seemed like it had too much powdered sugar and you could not taste a rich flavor of cream cheese, which is what is traditionally put on Red Velvet cake. The cake itself while good, didn’t really move me. This really wasn’t any better than your average Betty Crocker do it yourself mix. While it was decent, I wouldn’t go back and pay $3.25. You can go to a grocery store and pick up a whole dozen for around $10, while here you will pay $36 for mediocre cupcakes. I personally would not recommend Crave. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t buy into the hype that, just because it’s in a trendy area and it’s the latest fad does not mean it’s going to be good. Nothing here really makes me Crave more. In the end, not so crave worthy!

5 comments:

  1. it is entirely possible that one cupcake out of 24 flavors could end up being mediocre. next time order more than just one flavor? it seems weird to rail on a cupcake shop after you have had exactly one flavor of cupcake- but then again i agree they are expensive for a measly cupcake perhaps this is the reason for only getting one? or is because it was too close to closing time?


    i guess usually when i read food reviews- it's pretty typical for there to be more than one food item being judged. it seems like it would give you a better idea of the range of tastes offered by an establishment.
    i'm just playing devils advocate on this one- food for thought?

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  2. Actully I did sample more than one but chose to write about this particular one. I was not very satisfied. I didnt even mention the rude service. But thank you for your comment!

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  3. I agree! I thought they were mediocre, at best. And the frosting is way too sweet. Hear, hear!

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  4. Also, to note - I bought a dozen, 12 different flavors. I tried a bite of each one because I was buying for a client. They were terrible.

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  5. We tried more than one flavor and they all were mediocre. Quite disappointing.

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