Honeysuckle Rose — Restaurant in Charleston

As a passionate foodie from LA who eagerly travels for meals, and with a couple dozen Michelin-starred meals under my belt, I had great expectations of Honeysuckle Rose based on the price point, the requirement of a prepaid booking on Tock, and the reviews waxing poetic about the experience. I had misgivings when we entered a restaurant built to accommodate maybe 20 but with 30+ seats packed in, worsened when the chefs described their foods as containing far too many elements and seriously mismatched ingredient lists, anticipating I’d be facing a horrendously confused palate. This is a strong warning to passionate foodies: the food is unbelievably bad, demonstrating the gross ineptitude of the too-young and terribly inexperienced “chefs”. One particular dish stole my appetite: it was supposed to be pasta with escargot and a popover with bacon jam. (“Skye”, one of the chefs, introduced the dish by saying she hates bacon, but her fellow chef “River” insists people like it, so…?) I had requested a gluten-free option for this dish; my popover tasted like moist cardboard, and my “pasta” was missing escargot…and was made of nearly-raw and crunchy potato ribbons. When I asked the server to remove my dish because the potato “pasta” was uncooked, she returned two minutes later with a message from the chefs: they HAD to be prepared that way, because if they had been cooked, they’d have become mashed potatoes. OBVIOUSLY; I was simply bewildered by their choice to substitute raw potato for pasta instead of using literally anything else that could actually be cooked. Moving on, we were then served scallop-crusted halibut. You read that right: they thinly sliced scallops and laid them atop hunks of halibut, searing the whole thing scallop-down, placed in a puddle of “bread sauce” with (wasted) caviar stirred in. It was served with red wine. Why? Because the sommelier is the former spirits director at another establishment…not a sommelier. Add to that when I commented on the color of one particular wine, he confessed he’s colorblind. At one point I excused myself to the restroom to discover its decor consisted of dozens of framed topless playboy pinups…one of which was just the staring eyes of a centerfold framed and set on the back of the toilet tank, ostensibly to watch the patrons use the facilities. Beside the toilet was a nightstand featuring an open jewelry box displaying available Tampax tampons for those in need. I returned to the table and told my husband I was on the verge of walking out, just as our lamb course (that, yes, followed a beef course) arrived at our table. I took a bite of the lamb; it was fine, but utterly unspecial. It was accompanied by a chunk of lamb sausage, which I also sampled. The casing was so tough that I had to pry out a piece of sausage, which left the casing lying on my plate partially attached to the sausage and resembling a used condom. (Fitting with the bathroom display.) The sausage itself was so heavily spiced it was inedible. I stood up, told a server we urgently needed to leave, and we made our escape. The meal was a depressing and painful disaster for anyone who truly loves exceptional food and real fine dining. If, like me, you’re willing to spend a small fortune for a great meal with your sweetheart and prefer peaceful places with elegant ambiance and deeply experienced, professional staff…AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE. Two stars for their effort. But this was amateur hour with inexperienced chefs mimicking fine dining and failing miserably. You’ve...

If I could give this experience 10 stars I would. I wanted to treat myself to a nice dining experience for my 33rd birthday and I’m SO glad I decided to come here. The last tasting menu experience I had was at a 1 Michelin star in Italy so I tried not to keep my hopes too high but I was excited.

Before you show up, you get several texts and then a phone call to ask if you prefer still or sparkling water which I’ve never been asked prior.

I was greeted by a lovely hostess at the front door to check in and get walked to my seat at the chef’s counter. I was sitting in between 2 people and to my surprise the lady next to me was the owner’s sister. The place is so cute, low lighting and the decor was chic and sexy. The bathrooms are some of the coolest and nicest I’ve ever been in. 🥰🤭 (make sure you try both 😜)

There’s a card with my name on it and inside you find the menu which I thought was super personable and cute. Before they started service, the owners Kelleanne and Ryan came out with their team and just shared some words and then the Sommelier poured our first glass of champagne 🍾 🥂

Each chef took turns before each course talking about the dish and the intention behind it as well as the somm for each wine poured.

I cannot begin to describe how intuitive the service was, seamless and utter perfection. The attention to detail was impressive. In between courses you see the ENTIRE team working together in the back - polishing glassware and silverware, garnishing, dropping off dishes and all working together. Getting to see the owners assist in all of that was humbling to see that they were not above doing the tedious work and that they lead by example.

Each course was perfect and paired with delicious selections of wine. I didn’t think I would get full from this dinner because they were small tasting portions but man by course 6 I was getting close. First of all, I’ve never had a popover and holy cow it was delicious! She even packed a handful for me Togo as an extra bday touch! So thoughtful! The BEST thing ever was the slices of buttery, melt in your mouth first time ever served there - Japanese A5 Wagyu. 🤤

At the end they brought out these mini cupcakes with candles for all the guests celebrating all things including me. They really know how to make you feel special. 🥹 We also all got to leave with their special chocolate covered Oreos made by grandma which was a nice touch.

They really know how to create a memorable experience and they made you feel like family. A plus was the bomb playlist that Kelleanne played during dinner. I thorough enjoyed myself and this in fact took first over my Michelin experience in Italy. I loved every aspect of it and it’s totally worth every penny! I will be back with hubby! Thank you to the entire...

This restaurant visit was supposed to be THE visit of our trip. In the end it ended up being quite a disappointment.

First it started with them making us wait for 15 minutes outside before even starting to seat people.
Later on we gathered that it was because a customer was proposing inside, but then have them come 15 minutes earlier, and not have the whole restaurant waiting outside.

Then the whole weird seating procedure that they seat one table at a time was annoying and the hostess kept apologising to everybody. It’s a small place, but have been to many small places in my life and have never encountered that.

The food overall was just OK, in all honesty just a bunch of expensive ingredients (to justify the price of the dinner) in smallish portions (even for multi-course menu experience), done in a poor execution. Temperature wise it all came wrong, really the whole night…oyster was lukewarm, while most of the dishes served were cold, and the halibut was dry inside. Cold wagyu is not something that normally should be served. The lobster was the best savoury dish, and the dessert was fantastic.

The issues with food temperature is probably because the kitchen is too small to cater so many different courses to the number of people that they take each night.

While pretty much all of the wines were fantastic the sommelier however was NOT! And that's why I took two stars off the service. One course we got our wine just as we were taking the first bites, and for the wagyu we didn’t get any wine at all. He was standing right next to me, discussing for 5 minutes with a couple seated behind us on how he has never been to Pacific Northwest and then was taking notes. When I told him I would have preferred to have my wine with the food, there was no I am sorry or any sort of apology, just a snooty “Thank you for your patience!” That’s the sort of treatment you get for $250/person. We were the only table that didn't get the wine for that dish and while he was pouring our wines another guy was pointing that he wants second, upon which sommelier gave him a nod.

Also, while I can appreciate that they are trying to be funky and cool, because they even apparently want you to sing and dance during dinner, I really think that having the music so loud that I cannot hear a person across from me the whole night is particularly cool, because after all I did come there to socialize with my party.

Honestly, I do not think a conclusion is necessary after everything I wrote above as to whether I recommend the place.

The place is quite dark, hence the photos are...