Heirloom Eats, Mt. Pleasant, SC

Great Recovery Just A Bit Too Late 

Heirloom Eats is a new restaurant (opened in December ) and is located in the Mount Pleasant Town Center next to Five Guys.

I have to say that I love to see a local guy or gal do well in a restaurant endeavor, so we thought we’d give it a go and hoped for the best.

We arrived at about 7:00 on a Friday night and we were one of two tables. Not a good sign, but in the spirit of March Madness, we decided to give it the old college try.

Inside Heirloom Eats

Our server was friendly and knowledgeable and the restaurant itself is quite pleasant featuring mason jars throughout – lights, garnishes, pickled items, etc. Cute.

The menu is creative and they offer many blackboard specials. I went for one of the blackboard items, a tossed salad with local greens, herbs, watermelon radishes and fried cheese. My husband selected the slow braised pork belly over jalapeno creamed corn and lemon arugula salad. That dish sounded very intriguing.

Here’s where it started to go south. Don’t forget that there we were one of TWO tables in the restaurant… My salad was overdressed and over-herbed which was a shame. Although the fried cheese was tasty it was cold and when I inquired if it was supposed to be hot the server said, “Yes”. Not so much.

tossed salad with local greens, herbs, watermelon radishes and fried cheese 

slow braised pork belly over jalapeno creamed corn and lemon arugula salad 

The pork belly was served over the creamed corn in a crock. For someone that NEVER complains about meals this was one that was a challenge for my husband. The thing that both dishes had in common was that they were both bland, zero flavors. If there was jalapeno in the cream corn it was overpowered by the cream and the lemon arugula never came through at all.

When our server delivered our meals they looked appetizing with an aesthetically pleasing presentation. My Mahi however, smelled so fishy that I was a bit overpowering. It was served with an interesting combo of jasmine rice, corn and spinach, and a spicy carrot relish, “it could have been a contendah.” Unfortunately the rice was undercooked and the dish itself was lukewarm. How does this happen when there are four people in the restaurant for goodness sake?

Mahi

Slow Braised Short Ribs

The Slow Braised Short Ribs served over a pistachio, white bean and dumpling ragout sounded terrific, but again failed to deliver. The ribs (in this case singular) were tepid and the ragout was a cool, lumpy, flavorless mess.

A gentleman that we believe to be the chef stopped by to see what we thought about our dinner. Our comments were honest, but probably not what he wanted to hear. We explained that the meal, while appealing to the eye, was extremely bland and lacked even the basics for seasoning. He was very apologetic and offered to bring us new meals. At this point we were almost finished with our meals so we declined the generous offer. When the check was delivered he had taken ½ off our meal, which was really not necessary, but certainly appreciated.

I thought, overall dinner was a bit pricey (no drinks, $59.00 plus tip ($12.00)) and not a great value. We’re most likely not going to run back there anytime soon, but I wish them well.

We gave Heirloom Eats 2 out of a possible 5 plates.