Janelle W.
Yelp
Our visit to Aspen Grille for our one dining night out in SC was excellent. We made reservations that same day without issue, for 8pm. The ambience of this restaurant is very much fine dining, so my sister and I appropriately dressed in a way that made us feel fancy, yet still vacation comfy. The dim lighting, candles on the tables, and the jazz guitarist (I think he was) provided such a beautiful feel to the room.
Our server Blake was very professional and had a great pace. We never felt that he was gone too long, or that he was rushing us. He got us started with some water (sparkling, in a bottle, per request) and we perused the menu. All in all, we ordered the Domestic Golden Fried Calamari, the Organic Field Greens Salad and the Roasted Beet Salad, and Seared New Belford Scallops, and the shrimp and grits. Let's start from the top.
The Calamari was the BEST calamari I have ever had. Calamari is the food I get at nearly every restaurant that offers it because its either really delicious or trash lol. Whereas in the past, I've had super chewy, overly breaded, soggy, not enough breading, etc. - this calamari had the perfect amount of breading, was perfectly crispy, not excessively oily, and just delicious. I mean, wow, bravo! I've never had the opportunity to really rave about calamari. But Aspen did it.
My sister and I had a salad each and boy were they both fantastic. Both salads had caramelized walnuts and holy crap, amazing. I don't know if they did something to perk up the balsamic vinegar on my salad, but it was so good, not too vinegary. The greens were perfect, not wilted, and the pear didn't do much. It was really really good. My sisters beet salad surprised me! I hate beets. They just have so much of an earthy taste to them. But somehow, in preparing these beets, they made the beets neutral and able to absorb all the other flavors of the salad, especially that citrus tahini dressing.
Lastly the entrees. Why did I order scallops? I've never enjoyed scallops, but I guess I was feeling bold. I also hate mushrooms, lol. So I ordered scallops with mushroom risotto. Here's the conclusion. These scallops were not rubbery, which was so refreshing. And the mushroom risotto had a good flavor and the mushrooms added a nice texture. Some of the spinach had a slight bitter taste to it, but overall the dish was nice. Happy to have tried it.
The shrimp and grits were excellent. The grits were embedded in a gravy sauce filled with chopped sausage and a generous amount of shrimp topped off with two slices of grilled bread. This was an EXCELLENT meal. Absolutely worth every dollar and I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a top notch meal worth every dollar!