Charleston Restaurant Week: The Ocean Room, Fall 2010

This past week, the fall edition of Charleston Restaurant Week occurred.  After drooling over many of the featured menus from restaurants at which I normally cannot afford to eat,  a couple of friends and I decided to visit "The Ocean Room."  Ironically, I did a stage at "The Ocean Room" before I worked at the "Jasmine Porch" restaurant (both within the Kiawah Golf Resort Sanctuary Hotel) this passed summer; however, I had never eaten at "The Ocean Room."

Note, please forgive the quality of the images.... My normal camera has been away for cleaning and my backup camera just doesn't have the same capabilities I'm used to.....

looking back at just a portion of the Sanctuary hotel

So we made the long trek from Charleston all the way out to Kiawah.  And, WOW, it was worth it!  As part of the Restaurant Week promotion, we had three courses for $30. We added a few things on to our meal, but still, for the caliber of restaurant, it was quite a deal.

To start, we shared with an additional appetizer: Southern Caviar (smoked trout & roe, mascarpone, dill, corn brioche, corn blinis).

Then my appetizer arrived: Farmer's Fall Salad (greens, honey vinaigrette, marcona almonds, kadota figs, cornbread croutons, camembert cheese) Delicious!

My two companions had a Golden Corn Soup (sweet shrimp, avocado, charred corn), which was poured tableside.

We all chose the same main course: 130 degree Prime Beef Tenderloin, (creamed silver queen corn, foraged chanterelles, black summer truffle jus).  I'm not usually a beef eater.  In fact, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've eaten beef in the past 12 years.....  But this was some of the best beef I've eaten.  Sous vide style is truly the way to go.  The dish just melted in my mouth!

And then why not just add an order of "Truffled Pomme Frites" for the table to share!  Mmmmm.

And next comes dessert.....  I'm not exactly sure of the official name for this chocolate dessert, because we never saw the menu, but it featured a rich chocolate souffle cake with vanilla ice cream and an isomalt garnish.  We shared this dessert as a table.

My two companions each had the Goat Cheese Cheesecake (walnut crust, candied walnuts and wild huckleberry sauce.)

And I had the Banana Pudding (vanilla wafer tuile, roasted banana ice cream, caramelized bananas, toasted meringue). I thoroughly enjoyed all our desserts (and the rest of the food, for that matter), but I think I like my dessert best of all the desserts!

It was a great, memorable meal with good friends, good wine, good conversation.  Charleston Restaurant week will happen again this winter, and I encourage everyone to take advantage of the amazing promotions that happen.  I know I'll be saving up for future experiences :)  

If you're interested in finding out more about Charleston restaurant week, please visit here.  

If you're interested in dining at the Ocean Room, here's their website as well.