Sienna

Description:

• Chef Ken Vedrinski is one of the most remarkable cooks in Charleston. You have to drive over to Daniel Island (once owned by the Guggenheims) to sample his wares, but it's worth the 5-mile trip from the city center. Although Vedrinski was born into a Polish-American family, he learned the culinary secrets of his Italian grandmother. The mixing of Old World and New World is the motif of the restaurant, the design reflecting traditional Italian style through brick archways and the Wine Cave. The chef likes flavors that pop off the plate, as exemplified by the braised veal-cheek stuffed shells in a porcini broth, and the grilled rib-eye with an olive-oil potato purée and smoked portobello mushrooms with a Barolo wine reduction. We returned again and again for the slow-cooked ranch pork in three preparations with dried-cherry barley risotto, and we fell in love with the highly perfumed Moscato vinaigrette. For some real Low Country eating, opt for the pork and shellfish combo: an intensely flavored dish of hog jowls and lightly cooked shrimp over hand-cut noodles.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Very Highly Recommended 2010