'Seasoning Missteps' at The Kitchen and 'Best' Chicken Fingers at Ellis Creek

Southern-Cajun-Creole restaurant The Kitchen serves classic dishes from the Lowcountry and New Orleans, but fails to give critic Deidre Schipani the heat and spice she expected from the menu.

What was puzzling was the spike of cayenne pepper blocked in every dish that required its lift. A jambalaya, painstakingly prepped with the holy trinity of celery, bell peppers and onions, made Creole style with tomatoes, had no soul.

She's looking for traditional New Orleans' flavor, but finds "seasoning missteps" instead. Schipani notes, "'Peppa' sauce and hot sauce is readily available so you can easily adjust the heat of any dish but it was a prevailing flatness to the layered flavors of dishes like the jambalaya that was surprising."

City Paper writer Allston McCrady tackles the fried foods at James Island newcomer Ellis Creek Fish Camp and comes away with a declaration that "... the chicken fingers ($7) were the best we have ever had ..." For more grown-up fare, she recommends the " tricked out" hush puppies or the shrimp roll "piled high with succulent chilled shrimp and shredded basil encased in an airy brioche bun." McCrady laments that the restaurant is not on the water, nor is it really rustic enough to be an actual fish camp, but she does think it is a "welcome addition" to the James Island scene.