Beautiful South by Kwei Fei — Restaurant in Charleston

The word “Beautiful” is almost insufficient when describing our experience tonight at Beautiful South by Kwei Fei.

Yes, the atmosphere and decor is indeed beautiful but it is also warm, inviting, cozy, and comforting.

Our servers countenance was indeed beautiful but she was also energetic, enthusiastic about the food, the restaurant and life in general, whitty, funny, and flawless.

The food was more than just beautiful, it was stunning, with well balanced flavors, appropriately savory and sweet, spicy, and tangy. The best Chinese food is made from few ingredients that are minimally fussed over, kissed by a hot wok in mere minutes. Beautiful South rang this bell.

We deliberately over ordered for a party of two so we could try several dishes.

We had: Scallion Oil Noodles that were just perfect! We did share back with them that the crispy Scallion garnish was not crispy, but that we also understand that it’s July in Charleston so we weren’t surprised, lol

Special Dumplings this evening were beef and they were served in a Black Vinegar/hot chili oil sauce that was delicious.

Our mains dishes were:

General Tso’s Chicken - a wonderful balance of sweet and spicy with an appropriate amount of Vinegar in the forefront in a nod to the great Taiwanese Chef Peng who invented this dish in the early 1970’s only to have the recipe stolen and bought to NY and bastardized into the overly sweet version sold at every Chinese takeout restaurant in the country.

Mushroom Mu Shu with the addition of the Cantonese Roast Duck -served with thin pancakes and a Peach Hoisin. A great dish that displayed Wok Hei (the breath of the wok) bringing a not so subtle smokiness that really complimented the roastiness of the duck.- a real winner.

And finally, The Black Pepper Beef- Velvetized tender slices of Sirloin with red Bell Pepper served on a sizzling Platter. This dish had a ton of umami and a glorious warmth from the Black Pepper.

I am a retired Chef and cook a fair amount of Chinese cuisine in my home and I really appreciate the attention to detail and the respect Beautiful South gives to keeping it real but making the food their own.

It has quickly become our goto, along with Kwei Fei for when we have the itch for great Cantonese or...

The bartenders are great and while I can’t remember the name of the drink we ordered, it had matcha and it was delicious. I give the service here 5 stars. We also had the beef dumplings and those were delicious as well.

For the main courses - I ordered the 3 cup chicken wing dish that was made with a soy sauce base which is expected to be a bit salty but it was a bit too salty for our liking. We also like our wings crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. These were a bit chewy. The second dish we had was a curry dish with beef. The curry didn’t have much flavor and the beef chunks were dry in our opinion. There were separate pieces of fat from the beef that weren’t dry but we weren’t interested in eating those. I can’t remember the cut of beef that was in there so maybe that’s on us for not paying close enough attention.

The staff asked how our food was and while we’re not ones to complain, we were about to spend almost $50 on two dishes that we didn’t eat much of so we felt it was necessary to let them know our true thoughts. They did what they needed to make it right and we definitely appreciated that. I looked around and the noodle dishes did look very good and because of the 5 star service, I’d happily return and give other...

My husband has come in for lunch several times and has talked it up. Loved it. Went in tonight and was excited to try it. We ordered general Tsos and the fried rice. Orders did not come out at the same time (was not told that’s what would happen). The fried rice was extremely salty I really couldn’t eat it. Brought it up to the bartender and she said “you didn’t like it?” I told her not really, I guess I’ll take it home and see if I can do anything to counter the saltiness. She just smiled and walked away.

Update for owner response: if the flavor was going to change that dramatically from asking for no vegetables, that should of been mentioned as I was ordering and then I may of decided to go with something else. Also, the owner really needs to work on the responses for some poor reviews. I went back and read some of the responses and they are so rude. Any chance of trying to change a bad review and experience into a different one by trying the place again is out the window. I wouldn’t have minded coming back to try again if this response had been tactfully said, or maybe not one at all. I completely understand backing your staff no matter what, but things could have been worded a lot differently to “recover the...