Snow Monkeys — Restaurant in Charleston

We were greeted quickly by our waitress. Her service through the evening was exceptional. She was attentive without becoming overbearing and had a great personality.

The decor and layout are both nice. Unfortunately there was no air conditioning the evening I attended so the atmosphere is a 3 because it was uncomfortably humid and hot at the table.

There are both positives and negatives regarding the cuisine. I found the dishes to be inconsistent; several were excellent and others complete misses.

The pistachio dip is an absolute must order. It’s creamy and nutty with some light citrus notes from the yuzu. The “from scratch” seed crackers were fantastic. I was also impressed with the oysters. The sake and lemon snow paired well. The other show stopper was the braised pork belly and silken custard dish. This had complexity in flavor and lots of texture. The aromatic notes were perfect as well. I could’ve ordered this dish 3x The black cod was a great piece of fish. Buttery. Velvety. Excellent

The duck was a complete miss. The accompanying sauce was good but the duck itself was mediocre. It was gamey in flavor. None of the fat was rendered, and this left a fairly large deposit of chewy fat beneath the skin. The skin also had a fairly chewy texture. I was unimpressed. It was disappointing because I often gravitate toward duck on a menu.

The hamachi was also somewhat mediocre. It didn’t have the cleanest flavor - I’ve had better hamachi at both 167 and chubby fish. Its accompanying sauce was ok - nothing that was “knock your socks off”.

It’s worth a visit but is not worth the 4.8/5 rating. I’d settle...

I don’t think that I have posted a Google review of a restaurant in years, but here it is.

We were staying at a hotel on Kiawah, and we were given the suggestion to try a brand new restaurant on John’s Island called snow monkey. We were also told that it is walk-in only (no reservations). So we arrived early on a Friday night.

The waitress explained that the menu is small plates and meant for a sharing. She suggested we order at least 5 items for our table of 2 people

We started with the raw oysters with meyer lemon snow

We also had the beef tartare and bigeye tuna tataki from the raw menu

4th course was the pistachio dip

Then the seared bay scallops with roasted mistake mushroom,

and finally the roasted duck breast with charred plums

In review of the food. The food was exceptional. I felt like this was a “fine dining” experience….yet we were in this “casual” little restaurant.

Also note : those Meyer lemon raw oysters were probably the best raw oysters I have ever had. They were so refreshing and bright. and for me; sets a new standard for how I want all raw oysters to be served….in my future.

The owner talked with us and thanked us, on our way out, which I also thought...

My husband and I had great expectations for a new restaurant on John’s Island but unfortunately we came away seriously disappointed. My husband is hungry and I’m nauseous. We were told that we should order two or three dishes each, which we did. I requested the dressing and sauces on the side but was informed that “the chef won’t do that”. So I asked that they be lightly dressed. My salad with tuna was literally drowning in a heavy dressing, probably used to disguise the fact that there was no discernible tuna to be found. My fish dish was also drowned in a cream sauce that could easily have been on the side had they wanted to be accommodating, but apparently the “chef refuses to do that” according to our very sweet and apologetic server. I tried to wipe away as much excess sauce as possible but I am still feeling this over-sauced, undersized and overpriced fish repeating on me as I write. My husband is still I shock over the 3/4 empty plate of gnocchi that he was served. It was tasty, but the portion even for an appetizer was embarrassingly small. Needless to say we are heading home for a snack for him and some...