Charleston Day 1

Matt and I celebrated our second anniversary in Charleston over Halloween weekend. This was our second year celebrating our anniversary in Charleston and will surely not be our last. Charleston is such a beautiful historical city but what I love about it most of all is the food! Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you I talk about food way too much and read cooking magazines or cookbooks far more regularly than I even think to pick up a novel. In all honesty food and cooking is a passion and a hobby of mine.

This year we stayed in the Double Tree hotel on Church St. This hotel is right downtown and allowed us to park our car on Saturday and not touch it until we left town on Monday. All in all Matt and I estimate we did 13-15 miles of walking!!! My feet might have hated me come the end of the day but walking is really the only way you can enjoy Charleston's charm.

For the past two years we have experienced record breaking/matching weather in Charleston. Last year there was so much rain (I forget the number but remember is was a record) that the fire dept was running boats down many of the streets downtown. This year is was 85 degrees on Halloween!!! This would have been great if my summer clothes still fit :) Oh well, the sun was shining and it was gorgeous out so I wont complain.

Okay, on to what most of the our blog followers (or at least those related to me) are really interested in.....Restaurant Reviews!!!

Day 1 Lunch

We ate at Cru Cafe for lunch on Saturday shortly after our arrival. I should probably go ahead and mention that Cru is 1 or 2 places Matt and I enjoyed so much last year that we came back this year. Cru cafe is an charming historical home converted in to a restaurant. The chef at Cru is a total control freak. This year and last he was the one to greet us when we walked in the house and the one to seat us. This man seriously does everything from seating you, ensuring your meal is cooked properly, to cleaning your table when you leave. This guy would have a total meltdown trying to run a larger restaurant where he couldn't see and hear all of his patrons at once.

Matt and I split two plates at lunch as we didn't want to commit ourselves to just one dish (this is our typical style of ordering). One plate was the Coconut Fried Oyster Wrap with Chipotle Mayo. The oysters in this wrap are amazing. The chef does a great job of giving the oysters just enough flavor in the breading that you can still taste the oyster. I feel pretty safe saying this is a staple on the Cru menu as we ordered it last year as well and it was just as phenomenal. Our second dish was Open-faced Turkey Cheddar on English with Fried Onions....Yum! It may sound simple but this isn't your ordinary restaurant. The English muffin was freshly baked and the spicy mustard with the turkey and melted cheese was amazing. And did I mention there were Fried Onions!!! The were super thin and a perfect accompaniment to the plate. On thing I saw coming out of the kitchen a lot (but have yet to try) were the shoe string potatoes that you have a side option. Both times we've been to Cru we knew a heavy dinner awaited us so we tried to go light with our sides but if the number of orders they serve of this side dish are any indication of they're flavor they must be out of this world.

Cru Cafe definitely did not disappoint us this year and lived up to our memories of last year. This restaurant is staying on our list for next year.

http://www.crucafe.com/restaurant_menu_lunch.php

Day 1 - Dinner

For a pre-dinner appetizer we went to the Noisy Oyster Bar where we had an oyster sampler platter with Oyster's Rockefeller, BBQ oysters, and pesto oysters (they of course called them something better!). The oysters were good (not to die for) and appetizers are half off here until 730/8 so I wasn't disappointed in our pre-dinner choice.

For dinner we went to Hank's Seafood. Here we didn't split our dinners as usual b/c Matt ordered a fish that is off limits for me (for now!). I ordered the Pan-Seared Sea Scallops and Matt ordered the Red Snapper special. Both of our dinners were really good, but in all honestly I wanted more...I can't pin point what was missing but I just wanted it to be better. I guess I was still coming down from my lunch at Cru. Also, I know some of you that are reading this are trying to plan your own trips to Charleston and I am not saying I wouldn't recommend this restaurant, but it had a lot of hype and for me it just didn't live up. Like I said the food was great, but I was looking for a home run. My dad has heard that the shrimp and grits at Hank's are some of the best but the description sounded just like the dish my dad makes and I wasn't even going to give them a chance knowing how much I like my dad's version of this dish.

http://hanksseafoodrestaurant.com/menu.cfm

After dinner we went to Pearlz Oyster Bar. I had water....it was cool and refreshing (ha!) I watched Matt drink a beer and take back an oyster shooter. We are definitely going to go here next year for a pre-dinner appetizer. They have a raw oyster sampler here that is paired with beer that Matt and I both wanted to try but he was nice and didn't make me watch him enjoy it.

http://www.pearlzoysterbar.com/