Careit in Crestwood is one of those places. I want to fall in love with Careit. I love their story, their philosophy, and their menu. I really really want to love this place. I have visited Careit several times and I have to be honest when I say that while I do not want to walk away from it, Careit is only getting one more try.
Careit, we need to talk about seasoning and customer service. Both are really hit and miss at your place and it is unfortunate that you have such great ingredients at your disposal but do not respect them or your customers enough to turn out the high quality food you have the potential to deliver. The lack of consistency makes me skeptical. So does the inability to get about 30% of your advertised menu items, regardless of what time of day I have been there. At this point, all that is keeping me in the game is a great price point, a clean shop, and a few items from the menu I have not yet tried.
Be warned, Careit. We may just have to break up, even if you have the world's best carrot cookies. And we do not want that, do we?
Ratings:
Appearance: Clean but poorly lit.
Service: Hit and miss. Some staff cannot help you enough, some cannot be bothered to acknowledge your presence.
Food: Home cooked and health conscious but just OK, 5.5/10
Overall rating: Will be back but only because there are other items on the menu I want to try
Chicken Pot Pie:
(A little note... again, I used my ghetto phone camera so be warned!)
The portion size on this pie is perfect for lunch. The puff pastry topping wasn't all that flaky and to be honest, I suspect it may have been frozen; the taste and texture were a bit off. I do love me some chicken pot pie but this one was a bit train wrecky. The potatoes were undercooked, the chicken was scarce, and it was desperately underseasoned to the point where it screamed for sage and I will not even tell you how much salt and pepper I had to add. Overall, 4/10.
Crab and Roasted Pepper Quiche:
Again, the portion size is great for lunch. While the quiche was dense, it still had a light sensibility to it. The amount of crab and pepper was perfect for the size of the quiche. The pastry was perfect but the quiche itself could have used a bit of salt and pepper at the very least. Overall, 7/10.
While I will give Careit one more try, I will not be having the chicken pot pie. I may go back to the mac and cheese as it was pretty good the last time I had it. If you do chose to go, go early as the fresh items go fast and you will be left with really old rusting salads and beet hummus as your lunch options. Bring a knife too because every time I have been to Careit, knives have not been available for take out food.
