Ristorante Abruzzi — Restaurant in Charleston

This place is consistently great. We’ve had nothing but pleasant dining experiences at Abruzzi.

The bread they serve from the Charleston bakery is SO GOOD, especially the olive bread!

We’ve been twice in the last couple of months, had the antipasto appetizer both times. It’s what you expect, sliced meats and cheese, would prefer olives, but the sweet grapes were a nice reprieve from the salty meats. The pickled veggies were really good!

The Prosciutto and Burrata Salad was also good, I would say great but it’s a big salad with a ton of arugula, it needed more dressing for sure. I’m accustomed to a creamier and more buttery burrata, this was a little drier and leaned closer to mozzarella, but still good.

I would say the appetizers and salads are “good”, but the entrees are legit! Recently, we’ve had the lobster ravioli, frutti de mare risotto (basically, seafood risotto), mushroom campanelle and spring carbonara and our family had the chicken parm, crab cakes and Alfredo… they all raved about their plates. I’m convinced you can’t go wrong with any entree.

I have to call out the frutti de mare risotto… the scallops probably rank top 3 I’ve ever had, and that’s insane because this is Charleston, WV, we aren’t near any coastline, that’s for sure. I’ve lived on the Chesapeake bay in MD, on Topsail Island, NC and Savannah, GA. How some chef in Chucktown is cooking better scallops than coastal restaurants in coastal foodie destination cities is beyond me. My only reservation is the portion of seafood to risotto… 2 shrimp and 2 scallops weren’t enough to have a bite of seafood with each bite of risotto, maybe throw in some calamari or clams to round it out.

We make homemade pasta and we do it well, on both a manual Marcato Atlas press and a kitchen-aid pasta press, we know homemade pasta. Once you have tried it you can easily identify it on a plate, it’s texturally different and more flavorful. Abruzzi is definitely making their pasta in house. The texture is divine, and the bite it perfect, every time. Now I need to find a campanelle attachment for our pasta press, it’s such a great shape for sauce to cling to!

There are other local Italian restaurants that serve great food, but Abruzzi does it better.

As a local, here’s my tip… look at the Charleston Dirty Birds schedule and visit when they are out of town, parking is readily available across the street when the team isn’t hosting a home game. If you have to park in the parking garage it’s going to ruin your dinner, urban campers use the stairwells as their...

Major Improvements Required!

Four friends met here for dinner on Saturday, July 19, 1925. We made a reservation, but no reservation was necessary as the place was not busy. We began with a glass of the 2021 Tiziano pinot grigio and the featured blackberry old fashioned cocktails. The cocktails were nothing special, a well-made classic old fashioned would have been more enjoyable. The pinot grigio was bland and at 4 years old was likely beyond its prime drinkability.

Menu prices are high and the restaurant sadly does not offer half-portion salads so we skipped the starter / first courses. Main course orders were crab cakes with potato and corn succotash, scallops carbonara, fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, and Bolognese pappardelle. The pastas are homemade, but were flavorless and overcooked. The pasta dishes would have been much better if made with "De Cecco" pastas. The crab cakes and scallops were good, but the Alfredo and Bolognese sauces were far from their delicious potentials. All of our entrees were served in dishes that had not heated prior to the foods going in them. As a result the entrees were only warm when served, a major failing for a restaurant in this price range ($40 to $60 per person). We finished with a tasty ricotta cheesecake with a blackberry sauce.

Service was not friendly, a major problem at these prices. Our server began removing empty dishes while we were still dining. She stopped when told the table should not be cleared while guests were still eating. The bills came offering discounts for cash payment. I strongly believe the bill should be the same whether cash or credit card. We will not be returning or recommending this restaurant. The food quality, cocktails, and wine programs all need more work. And the service issues must...

One of the biggest wasted opportunities for a great restaurant in Charleston. Excellent food but a management that doesn’t want customers. They post hours online that they are open into the 9pm hour but don’t let it fool you, management wants you seated and gone well before that.

Called to make a same day reservation for our daughter’s birthday yesterday (Tuesday). Was immediately told that a 7:30pm reservation was late for them as they close at 9! Sat promptly at 7:30pm and rushed thru a meal that ended at around 8:10. We had app, salads and mains served ($300+ meal) in under 45 mins all while the staff rushed around us to close the place down. Plates were thrown in front and taken away like we were on a game show. Could tell staff felt pressure to get us served and out the door by their manager. It’s such a shame as the food here is really wonderful. The place is already at disadvantage as its “trattoria” style restaurant is already challenged by the room of concrete floors and metal ceiling it is in. Warm, welcoming management would go a long way to improving the environment instead it’s as brutish as the sound of the scraping of their chairs on the concrete floor.

Ownership of this place should be aware. Either have a welcoming environment or don’t offer food service mid week. We won’t be coming back here for a long time. Especially with a new Italian option opening up on the hill recently. It’s a shame, as the food is very good.

I will add that we addressed the issues with staff at the time of dining and they did offer a $100 credit and an apology. This was appreciated but failed to ameliorate the situation fully. Just enough to placate us and be sure we were out their door...