Oak Steakhouse

A pair of good friends are moving next week, and invited Maggie and me out to dinner, conveniently on Thursday, for a goodbye. We initially settled on Hall's Chophouse, a relatively new steakhouse offering on upper King St, we switched to Oak because we had never eaten there.

(Hall's, incidentally, is great.)

I'm struggling to say something about Oak that wouldn't apply to any upscale, expensive, well-executed steakhouse. That's not an insult - the atmosphere was refined, but decidedly Southern. Oak feels like Charleston, while also feeling like a thousand other high-end restaurants.

Maggie's filet mignon was delicious (though that's not my favorite cut), with a really well-flavored crunchy crust. My osso buco was seasoned nicely, but the bed of thin polenta it sat in absorbed and obscured the marrow and juices until I felt like I was eating a lamb soup. The perfectly cooked shank deserverd more. Drinks were well made, if a little slow to arrive. Service was otherwise impeccable.

The side dishes do deserve a mention; a light and wonderfully sweet butternut squash puree was a great dish to usher in the Fall. I had heard rumors of a lobster macaroni and cheese that was rich enough to kill, but no one at our table had the guts to try it. Next time.

I also commend Oak for a having more variety on the menu than a typical steakhouse. Between the wide variety of salads, sides, seafoods, and appetizers, even a vegetarian would come away happy. That said, most food was nonetheless steakhouse-like in terms of richness. Think The Palm or Ruth's Chris, with a lot more Southern flair.

In the end, it's hard for me to get excited about spending that much on dinner for anything less than a perception-altering meal. I think steakhouses are just not where you should spend your money in Charleston when looking for a great dinner. Almost any other restaurant will be cheaper and more interesting. Oak is good at what it does, but I just don't care.

Gaulart & Maliclet (Fast & French)

Teetering on the edge of the commercialized strip of Broad Street, threatening to fall into the residential darkness of the lower peninsula, the hole in the wall of Gaulart & Maliclet (better known as Fast & French) has been a staple of the business lunch crowd for 25 years. Like all the restaurants on here though, I had somehow never been.

The space was surprisingly small, rustic, and immediately enjoyable (despite the seizure-inducing color scheme of their web site).

Thursdays at F&F are Fondue night, an altogether pleasant surprise. Fondue is not common on the peninsula. Maggie and I started with some soups - her a gazpacho, and a lentil for me. Both were flavored wonderfully and cooked well. The gazpacho especially deserves mention, I think. I've found many gazpachos to be no more than the sum of their parts, and others to over-emphasize a particular seasoning like parsley. This avoided both traps; vegetables and herbs blended completely, and tasted like a coherent soup with proper balance. An auspicious start.

The cheese fondue arrived, accompanied by boring bread cubes, and vegetables that didn't seem happy to have been steamed. Along with it, decent looking cubed beef, and oil fondue.

The cheese and butter melted, but never mixed into a proper fondue, leaving an oily layer on top and a dense cheese pancake on the bottom. It was made more disappointing because the flavors were actually spot on. As for beef, it was just too tough. Conversation was replaced by mastication.

The soups were so good though, that we want to go back another night when the chef is a bit more involved. And we will go back. In 40 weeks, when we can repeat a restaurant.

The Fat Hen

I had heard a lot of buzz about the Fat Hen, so I was really excited to kick off Dinner on Thursday with this restaurant. Maggie and I hopped in the car for a late dinner, plugged the address into the GPS...and discovered we were in for a solid 25 minute drive to John's Island. As residents of downtown Charleston though, the (relative) out-of-the-wayness of The Fat Hen turned out to be the best part of the experience.

Everything about the Fat Hen is in support of having a great meal. The experience of a great meal, not just the food of one. I felt like a local when I walked in (it's debatable whether I really was) - an experience totally foreign to someone who eats mostly downtown, among the crush of tourists and second-homers. At the Fat Hen were groups of friends, huddled around wood-slab tables, enjoying a last glass of wine before bed.

We were seated around 9:15, with last service at 10. After a drink, the wonderful tomato tart (which could have plausibly been served for dessert), not-too-salty just-right-crunchy duck confit, poached salmon, and a crème brûlée, the time had tocked past 10:30. The restaurant was closing, and most other diners had left. Our waitress approached the table, undoubtedly to give us the bill. But no, she wanted to know if we would like some coffee, or another drink. No one has ever been rushed out of the Fat Hen.

Dinner on Thursday

Dinner on Thursday is simple - every Thursday, visit a new restaurant in Charleston, SC with my beautiful girlfriend Maggie. I'll write a quick review of the restaurant here and keep an up to date list of the places we want to eat, and the places we have already eaten. Any maybe, if it's notable, something about how the date went. I'm going to try and convince Maggie to write too - she's more interesting than me (and has a better palate!).

More about me later, but in brief, I've lived in Charleston for about two years and have visited what feels like a huge number of restaurants, but whenever I actually get to talking about where I've been I realize the huge number of places I still need to go to. Charleston is such a great city for eating out, with tremendous variety, reasonable prices, and interesting atmospheres. I'm really excited!

The restaurants we plan on visiting range in price and style, from diners to steakhouses. I'm keeping abbreviated notes in a Google Docs spreadsheet here.

Some really notable Charleston restaurants are missing from list, probably because I've already been. I might put together a more complete list so any readers out there can alert to places I haven't heard of.

Until next Thursday...