BLOSSOM

She says:
When you step off the charmed streets of Charleston you want to step into a place like Blossom. With wood tables, warm lighting, and a wood fire grill in the center of the open kitchen, Blossom is both elegant and comfortable. The service also surpasses the usual expectations. One of our friends asked about the vegan-friendliness of the menu and our waiter didn’t bat an eye at his queries; on the contrary, he was very accommodating, bringing olive oil for our friend to dip his bread in and ensuring that all cheese was left off of his food. He also made excellent suggestions about what dishes to order and a bottle of wine to compliment them all. Now that’s good service!

And then there is the fish. Blossom specializes in seafood, almost all of which is locally caught. Maybe that’s not unusual for a town so close to the sea, but it’s not everyday that you experience the quality of fish served at Blossom.

He says:
The steamed mussels Uptown Girl and I shared were outrageously good. They were unusually plump and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I couldn’t get enough of them. The broth of white wine, tomato, capers, and garlic was the perfect complement, bold yet not so overwhelming as to distract from the mussels. As Uptown Girl can attest, I was happily dipping my bread into the remaining sauce until my entrée arrived.

Our two dining partners chose the chilled beat salad (mache, basil, almonds, champagne vinaigrette) and the porta bella mushroom salad (arugula, apples, garlic aioli, and lemon shallot vinaigrette) and both were very happy.

She says:
The mussels were a tough act to follow, but the grilled yellow fin tuna firmly stood its ground. Seasoned and seared lightly around the edges, the remainder of the thick steak was left rare… a perfect grill job. The port wine reduction added a complex contrast which I loved, although the friend who I shared the dish with thought it was too sweet. The tuna came with Carolina rice (long-grain rice) that was slightly saccharine and tasted a bit creamy, although it had been cooked into a patty so that the edges were almost crunchy, sort of like sticky rice. Delish.

My friend and I also shared the linguine with clams. The homemade pasta was a welcome treat, and the clams were very fresh. My only complaint was that the clams were a bit over-salted, whereas the pasta was a little bland. A bite with pasta and clams was wonderful, but otherwise the dish was slightly off balance.

He says:
I went with the special of the day, a local critter called triggerfish. I’m not usually a fan of mild white fish, but I am definitely a fan of whatever the chefs at Blossom can cook up. The triggerfish was superb, the delicate white flakes of the fish prepared in a mild butter sauce for a result that was by turns light and rich, graceful and awesome.

The one letdown of the night was our vegan friend’s wood-oven grilled vegetable pizza (sans mozzarella). The pizza dough already starts out thin, and without the cheese to retain its moisture, the end result was awfully dry. I suppose this highlights Blossom’s one flaw, its dearth of vegetarian and vegan options. It’s difficult to offer stellar vegan at a seafood joint, I admit, but if a restaurant could pull it off, I’m sure it would be Blossom.

We say:
When in Charleston, eat at Blossom.




Blossom
171 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC 29401
http://www.magnolias-blossom-cypress.com/