Park & Grove — Restaurant in Charleston

We throughly enjoyed an early evening dinner during restaurant week at Park and Grove. We began with Carolina White Grits and Beef Tartar to start. The mushroom vinaigrette was a perfect foil for the creamy grits with a perfectly cooked poached egg atop, made this starter a winner. I confess I am a long time lover of Beef Tartar, if it’s on a menu, I order it. The crostini was crisp and spread with chicken liver mousse, a lovely surprise. The beef was moist and fresh, seasoned perfectly. The unique garnish of arugula, crème fraiche, radish and capers made for a variety of tastes with each bite, absolutely delicious. Our entrees were wonderful. The Braised Beef Short Rib was fall off the bone tender. The crispy potatoes were just that, flavorful and crisp, the carrot purée an unexpected treat. The chimichurri gave the dish that bright burst of flavor. The Crispy Fried Local Fish was sweet flounder, lightly battered and perfectly crisp. The flounder was served on a bed Carolina Gold Rice Pirlou, which was creamy and deliciously seasoned. We finished with both desserts. The Cinnamon Bread Pudding with golden raisins, topped with toffee sauce was absolutely yummy. The Chocolate Budino with cookie crumb and caramel sauce was heavenly. My husband enjoyed a local craft beer from Carolina Brewery. I highly recommend the gingerale, if that’s your thing, it’s made with fresh ginger juice and it rocks. Always a treat! Our server was Sophie, who was friendly and attentive. The space is so beautiful - the plants, the art, the color palette and the warm lighting, it just has that comfortable ambiance. You can dine outside as well. There is parking right across the street. We came in early and as we were leaving the restaurant was filling up with folks, sure to be happy diners. Make your way to Park and Grove, once you do I promise you...

Overall really disappointed. Looked super cute online, really nice aesthetic and the concept of using fresh ingredients is important. Problem is, almost all the meals fell flat. Most of the flavors were too much—the smokiness of the mezcal, the bacon on the breakfast sandwich, the cinnamon sugar on the donuts—and completely overpowering everything else. Where those flavors overpowered all else, the mint/lavender/blueberry of the cocktail went entirely unnoticed, you couldn’t taste the egg and avocado of the sandwich, and the dulce de leche was too thick, didn’t have much flavor and didn’t add to the donuts at all. The donuts were also crispy on the outside but EXTREMELY doughy and hot in the middle, which was disappointing because they could have been really promising at the right temp with something like a chocolate sauce. The French toast was just okay—was cooked perfectly fine, but the flavor profiles didn’t really meld well together, and it seemed like the strawberries were frozen previously. The only good thing about the meal was the Sans Souci cocktail—very light and refreshing, no one flavor was too overpowering of the others. To add insult to injury, there was an instance where the waitress spilled water on the table and partially on my shoe, which isn’t a big deal because I worked food service and it happens sometimes, but still not necessarily the best impression. Was also given the option to switch out the grapefruit with a fruit mix but was not told there was an up charge. Also be warned: there is a charge if you’re paying by card (not a huge deal, but still worth noting as a lot of people don’t carry cash these days). Really cute place and really cute ideas, just not really...

I don’t know what rating to provide. It would’ve been a 5 up until a few weeks ago. Then a 4. Now, forget it. We’ve been loyals to Park & Grove since it’s first inception as Park Cafe. It’s a favorite in our rotation monthly. For years. And we love it. LOVE it. A few weeks ago, it was our first visit where the consistency fell short. The Shakshuka was cold and as I took bites I reached a large leaf of Bibb lettuce in the bottom of it taking up half the skillet resulting in less Shakshuka. Not once has the lettuce ever been an ingredient in the past. We brushed it off. Today - we had reservations for 2. I ordered the Vegetable Hash because last month it was exquisite. Today it was horrible. I choked on the cayenne and coarse ground pepper to the point of tears. It tasted like lemon purée with acorn squash and eggs. Not appetizing. I ate a few bites of the egg and then just ordered another latte instead. It was incredibly busy so nothing happened swiftly but this isn’t a rushed kind of place anyway. 1 hour and 15 minutes into our brunch, as I’m still drinking the 2nd latte I paid for, the manager I assume comes over to us, without greeting or introduction, and tells I us she needs our table for a reservation. She also says “but no rush” sugary sweet overly thanking us for coming as if she didn’t just tell us to leave. I was speechless. Nowhere ever when making reservations does it or has it informed that tables have a time limit. It was easier to sacrifice a party of 2 for the large party they wanted to put there. At no time, however, does lack of communication, notification, and planning on the restaurant’s part have anything to do with me. It was incredibly off-putting. We won’t...