XO Brasserie

The Best New Restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina - AFAR

"“I honestly fought against doing Chinese food in Charleston for a long time,” Herman Ng says. “I thought people viewed the cuisine as cheap, and I didn’t know how receptive Charleston would be to an elevated Chinese restaurant.” The XO Brasserie chef and founder might be projecting—he grew up in a Chinese American household, craving pizza and burgers while his parents prepared dishes from their native Hong Kong and Guangzhou—but either way he puts the lie to any notion of cheapness with his sleek, art deco–inspired space. While Ng may have once yearned “to fit in with American culture,” he eventually came full circle, and he now serves dishes such as steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce that are inspired by his mother’s cooking. He says he’s not seeking to “reinvent the wheel,” but he does incorporate certain high-end ingredients and techniques: The steak in the chow fun is Angus beef rib eye, for instance, while the Chilean sea bass, which is traditionally steamed, gets a touch of sear."