Cherrywood BBQ & Ale House — Restaurant in Kiawah Island

I'll parrot others in the complaints about needing a reservation. We tried to make one the same day and never received a call back. When we turned up, to get takeout, the place was dead but we were informed it was booked up solid for several days. I can't help but think there is either a staff shortage or something else going on.

Regardless, the food. It's expensive but then everything is on the island and a quick Google will tell you that ahead of time anyway. The problem is the food just isn't very good. The pulled pork was ok, but you have to try to screw that up. The ribs were the highlight. They were tender and had a decent smokiness but the sauce, and all the sauces we were given, had no real flavor. They were all just varying levels of hot. The brisket was the worst. It was more like beef roast, fatty and tough, beef roast. Now this isn't Texas but I've had good brisket in SC and I know what's good. I'd give this to a dog to chew on.

The pickled veg was good but again, mostly just spicy. The mac and cheese that they laud is well mac and cheese. Yes, it is a cheese sauce with noodles but I don't really get the inclusion of what I think is spinach. And, once again it's just a bit too spicy to taste much after the first bite. Oh and there was cornbread but that is a hotly debated topic.

I'd give the place a pass if you want BBQ. It should be good for a quick beer after a while on the driving range but expensive and BBQ should never...

I eat here at least twice every time I'm in Kiawah Island for vacation! The food is absolutely amazing! I typically stick with one of their four BBQ meals (chicken, ribs, brisket, pork) and lather them in one of their awesome BBQ sauces on the table (the fire roasted onion is my favorite!), and I'm never disappointed.

The only issue I came across this year (2016) was in the service. Our food took a bit long to come out and to waited on. The one night we had our 1 year old with us and it's really tough to wait a long time with a small child to get your food. In the past (last two or three years) we have had Paul wait on us. He is great! This year, Paul was there, but he was not our server. I highly recommend asking for Paul as your server! He's extremely friendly and knowledgeable. I thoroughly enjoy the draft beers he pairs with my food when asked to do so!

There is indoor and outdoor seating here. Since it's always blazing hot when I'm in Kiawah, I always sit inside, but the outside seating has a great view of the Osprey Point golf course and a pond full of alligators (put you will be 100% safe seated outside)!

This place doesn't take reservations unless your party has 8 or more. However, you might want to call if you are NOT staying on Kiawah Island as there are security gates you will need to go thru to get there and the restaurant may need to notify those security gates that...

If you enjoy crowded, very very noisy restaurants then this would be a good place for you to go. The wait staff was excellent, but there was only one bartender for the bar, restaurant and evidently one or more private parties in other rooms. It took over 15 minutes for our drinks (2 beers, 1 wine and a Bloody Mary) to be served with numerous apologies from our waitress every time she passed our table. We finally asked her to take our food order before the drinks arrived, and that did come out in a timely manner. We ordered our second round when the first was finally delivered, and that came a little sooner than the first. One of us ordered a wedge salad which was prepared beautifully with chopped egg, onion and bacon, and Roquefort dressing of course. She said it was delicious. She ordered nachos for her main course and the plate was huge and she enjoyed it. I ordered a rib eye steak that was strictly mediocre and cost $48.00! For that price I expected perfection, but it was extremely fatty and what meat there was happened to be tougher than it should have been. The brown mushroom gravy over the mashed potatoes under the steak was flavorful, but the potatoes were almost runny and an unpleasant consistency. The few asparagus spears on the plate were also lost in the potatoes and gravy. The other two meals, briscuit and ribs, we're just okay. Nothing to...