Dining Reviews	Lunch Counter	Restaurant Guide

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Fine Dining

Deidre Schipani

Wade Spees
The Post and Courier

Executive chef Tarver King’s homemade charcuterie, an appetizer with 24 individual tastings at the Woodlands Resort and Inn.

The gastronomic epicenter of all of our fine-dining establishments is their commitment to excellence. They are mindful of the many reasons people go out to restaurants: to eat, to dine, to be entertained, to celebrate; to participate in glamour and to feel a rush of excitement. They are gods and goddesses of details, from their design to their decor; from their commitment to the farm, to what appears on your fork.

They provide menus that balance culinary adventure with an equal measure of edible comfort.

Mindful of their heritage, they absorb global influences, temper them with local refinement and serve them with the calibrated knowledge of their audience.

Service is attentive, not hovering; unobtrusive, not perfunctory.

These are restaurants with ambition in the highest sense of the world.

Planters Inn

112 N. Market St., downtown

723-0700

www.peninsulagrill.com

$$$-$$$$

In an age of rock-star chefs, Robert Carter of the Peninsula Grill is an archetype. He brings to his cooking the rigor, the passion and the limitless labor that transcend the textbook.

He has embraced the terroir that is Charleston and imbued his dishes with Southern civilities. His creativity in the kitchen enunciates the local idiom and can be seen in dishes such as the wild mushroom grits with Lowcountry oyster stew, butterbean ravioli, benne seed-crusted rack of lamb and crab cake with fried green tomatoes.

You may never want to leave the Champagne Bar Menu that sparkles with Rockefeller-style oysters in an arugula and Asiago gratin, or lobsters spun three-ways: in tender ravioli, veiled in a sheer lace of tempura batter or gently sauteed and in a nage of tomato-basil vinaigrette. But you must.

You can sample the trio of seasonal soups tasting of the forest (mushroom), the sea (lobster-corn chowder) or the fields (sweet potato) or experience the playful wedge of iceberg lettuce dressed in a tangy buttermilk dressing punctuated with bacon "jerky." And move on to the Chefs' Suggestions — entrées that parlay his talent both as a consummate chef and a skilled culinary artist building plates of color, form, texture and taste that will have your taste buds resonating.

Your service will be gracious and attentive. And rest assured, when you see chef Carter conducting the "orchestra" in his open kitchen, the meal will be beyond reproach.

McCrady's

2 Unity Alley, downtown

577-0025

www.mccradysrestaurant.com

$$$-$$$$

McCrady's has a history that goes back to 1778. A few years prior, Benjamin Thompson began investigating the chemistry of food and the physics of heat. He invented the cooking range, the pressure cooker and baking powder. We know him as Count Rumsford.

In 2006, Sean Brock began cooking at McCrady's. His tools are sous vide, methylcellulose, vacuum marination, exotic starches and liquid nitrogen. Who would have thought that the burnished bit of history that was McCrady's tavern would be our local altar of molecular gastronomy? Who could forget that cooking is about chemistry and physics?

With exposed brick walls, open fireplaces and graceful arches, McCrady's charms with the well-appointed luxury of a finely set table. And as you walk into its past, you taste the future.

With his feet planted in the terra firma of Southern foodways, Brock is our local Mr. Wizard in the universe of food. A poached Maine lobster retains all of its briny flavors served with the sweetness of parsnip puree and sweet-tart Satsuma tangerines. Short ribs are long on beef flavor served with artisanal Anson Mills grits and an acid dash of pickled mushrooms and a splash of truffle jus (juice).

Whether Berkshire pork, Keegan-Fillion Farms chicken or local fish caught by hook and line, Brock and his staff balance innovation with respect and care for their local and seasonal ingredients. Clint Sloan will be sure that your meal is perfectly matched with wine.

McCrady's feeds you well, with food for thought.

Woodlands Resort and Inn

125 Parsons Road, Summerville

875-2600

www.woodlandsinn.com

$$$$$

Woodlands is an immaculately restored 1906 classic revival mansion. Its setting is pristine and, as you enter the property, you are captivated by its peace and beauty.

The main house has been lovingly restored and improvements continue. The dining room is spectacular, neither precious nor pretentious. It is a room designed for the pleasures of the table.

The menu is prix fixe and you may select from a three-course or four-course menu or a tasting menu that changes with the season. Whatever you choose, executive chef Tarver King, pastry chef Sheree McDowell and sommelier Stephane Peltier will deliver a meal of memory.

The service has all the elements of a Baryshnikov ballet. Well-choreographed and well-timed, the grace and finesse of the service staff are not often seen in today's restaurants.

King's commitment to his menu can be seen in house-cured charcuterie, creative and playful presentations, quality ingredients and a genuine affection for feeding his guests. Try "tuna on rye" — a tartare of tuna with rye emulsion, foie gras that is roasted, a mushroom salad with a peanut vinaigrette, Kobe beef, or cobia that is both smoked and brined. Plates are well-constructed and seasonally positioned. King embraces his food in an authentic, genuine, playful way.

Circa 1886

149 Wentworth St., downtown

853-7828

www.circa1886.com

$$$-$$$$

It is a carriage house and, as such, it is a wonderful vehicle for the talents of executive chef Marc Collins and pastry chef Emily Cookson. Circa 1886 is a Lowcountry treasure. Never straying far from its 19th-century roots and the culinary influences at that time, chef Collins transforms the historical into the contemporary, always mindful of the season and considerate of the global influences that crafted the era in which the Wentworth Mansion and Circa 1886 are grounded.

Collins spins modern cooking, Southern vibes, culinary memories and seasonal and local ingredients with the deft touch of a well-schooled technician.

Quail ballotine, plumped with a stuffing of peaches and cornbread, dials up local flavors with the long-distance spin of a stuffed French classic. Pot-au-feu, a dish of slow-simmered meats and poultry, is turned inside out with all seafood ingredients at Circa. Those sweet and salty culinary cousins — pineapple and ham — reverse their roles with the pineapple as broth and ham as garnish. A cobbler gets a savory spin with tomatoes parched of their water, only their essence remaining. Salads and entrees change with the season. Thoughtful compositions with playful juxtapositions command the center of the plate.

Save room for dessert. Pastry chef Cookson hits all the sweet spots of sensory engagement and makes it look pretty, too.