Caro M.
Yelp
I didn't come to Henrietta's with huge expectations, but it ended up a solid 3 star experience. I was with a large group of girls, and we planned to order numerous plates to share as a heavy pre-fashion week snack. I got there earlier than everyone and enjoyed spending time at the bar with Cain. He was hilarious and a great drink mixer. The bar isn't big, but I suppose they have major competition with the Living Room.
TL;DR: cocktails were great, fries, gnocchi, and salad were good, cool decor, the rest was not memorable.
I cannot find Henrietta's drink menu online, so I don't know the names. I started with the highball made with black cherry seltzer. It was good! At the suggestion of our waiter, I tried their vodka take on a dirty martini. Very interesting and a good dinner choice. I would order again. Finally, i tried another one that's in my pictures. It was beautiful and good! Very refreshing and definitely my favorite.
The inside dining room is beautiful. The whole setup reminds me of Mad Men, and I've always loved Don Draper, so I was into it. Our waiter, don't recall his name, seemed overwhelmed with our table. Because we had a few show up way later (thanks to awful Charleston traffic and a no-show Uber), by the time we were seated we essentially told him our plan was to order at large and run out and over to the event.
We ordered the fries, gnocchi, steak frites, salad lyonnaisse, flounder amandine, asparagus, and sweetbreads. The fries were very good. The steak was just average. Nothing stood out to me taste-wise, and i wouldn't go back and order it. I really loved the gnocchi. That was probably my favorite thing. Also, the salad was great for sharing and was also very good. The lardons were perfect! The asparagus was totally bizarre. It had what tasted like deviled egg filling or egg salad on top, and I didn't like the way the asparagus themselves were cooked. I had my first experience with sweetbreads, and I liked it. Obviously, I can't compare to another experience, so I can't comment more aside from I thought it was good. The flounder amandine was not good. I thought it was dry and tasteless.
The service was off. I ordered a drink (while seated at dinner) but it was forgotten. Forgotten as in, it was made, but neither the waiter nor the bartender brought it out until I asked (even when they both delivered drinks to our table in the meantime). And the place was far from packed. It's also small, so I was confused how this could happen. Also, all of a sudden, three waitstaff appeared and asked if we were done. While we initially told them we were going to pressed for time, in no way is it acceptable to have three people show up and ask if we were finished when there were plates of food all around and while we're all talking and clearly enjoying ourselves. When we said we were finishing up, they misunderstood and began gathering the plates. At that point, we didn't care. But what was even more crazy, was that they didn't bring the check. We had to flag them down and ask. Totally bizarre. Kind of ended everything on a sour note.
I may check them out again, but won't be running back soon. I would sit at the bar and order apps and drinks though.