clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Critic Appreciates the ‘Smuggled’ ‘Loveliness’ at the Barbadoes Room

Plus a look at the Royal American menu

The Mills House
Erin Perkins is the editor of Eater Carolinas, covering the food and restaurant scene across North and South Carolina.

On the recommendation of a Post and Courier reader, critic Hanna Raskin visits the decades-old Barbadoes Room at the Mills house hotel. While the tourist-filled eatery is often overlooked by locals, Raskin enjoys her meal there. “Over the course of three visits, I was impressed again and again by the loveliness that executive chef Justin Hunt is smuggling on to plates,” she writes.

While there are some misses, like the service, Raskin says:

... the successes far outnumber the disappointments. The Barbadoes Room is especially adept with seafood, as evidenced by exquisitely seared scallops, paired with rye-dusted farro, pocked with peas, to balance out the dopey sweetness that scallops usually exhibit. And if the char on a loin of “sword,” as my server casually referred to it, wasn’t sufficient reason to order the fish, it’s served in a corn veloute that’s sunshiny enough to worry three out of four dermatologists.

Charleston City Paper critic Vanessa Wolf also visits an old favorite with a new menu the Royal American. She dismisses the Disco Fries and Loco Moco, but the hot shrimp and muffuletta are stand-out choices. Wolf does mention that if one were to down enough rum punches, it would all taste pretty good.

The Mills House’s Barbadoes Room Serves Surprisingly Trendy Food in Stately Hotel Setting [P&C]
The Royal American Serves Up Stellar Music, Boozy Punches, and Solid Bar Bites, With a Few Standouts [CP]