Amuse

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I don’t really understand the bad reviews I read on this restaurant… maybe since they were done a couple of years ago? I had a GREAT experience at amuse.
My husband and I used to live in Charleston, and went to Amuse probably once a week for over a year. It’s a family run place, and that really comes through. It’s nice to be greeted by the owner of the place at the door as opposed to going to one of the chains/​tourist traps so prevalent in Charleston.
The food is great, and super affordable considering the area. Favorites include the ceci salad and potatas bravas, as well as the asparagus risotto. We would often have a full meal, drinks and dessert and end up with a bill in the $ 50 area, which is hard to do in Charleston.
So… I’d say give this place a chance. I truly don’t think you’ll be disappointed. PS As I finish this this review my husband is insisting I mention the pork tendorloin… he’s a big fan :)

I am not Amused. How I wish I’d looked at this website before going to Amuse last night. It gets a 0.5−1.0 out of 5. We ordered foie gras with fig and proscuitto and asked the waiter where the foie gras was. The proscuitto was very tough and over powering. I doubt if foie gras was in the dish. The salmon tapas was edible but unremarkable… fairly basic and not very good salmon. The steak & frites would be hard to mess up, and it was okay. Crème brûlée tasted like it was from a mix but the torched sugar on top covered up a multitude of sins. The Heron Pinot Noir 2005 was tanic and not a good choice.

As for service, we asked our waiter three times to please turn down the music. There were only one other table occupied in the entire restaurant, so there was no need for the blaring and obnoxious music. After the fourth request, the volume was lowered.

When I made reservations, there was the big hoopla about whether we would get there at 7:15 or 7:30…at least 20 tables were vacant the entire night.

The apparent owner came in about ½ hour before we left. He stopped by the other occupied table (friends of his, we assumed) but never spoke to us. How we wished someone had asked what we thought of our dinner. Even when I asked the waiter about the foie gras, he didn’t ask how we were enjoying the dinner.

$ 90 later… we’ll never return. So much for exploring out of the way restaurants on Post & Courier recommendations! I don’t think Amuse will be in business much longer, and I will warn anyone I see about having made the wrong decision to go there.

I love tapas, so I was disappointed with this one. Much buzz, but delivery came up short.
We were impressed with very little of the food there. Wine selection was okay. Service tried hard to make up for the rest. Décor was nice (inside).
Unless you live right next to it (and I mean, you can tug on a fake candlestick on your wall and end up in the lobby), I’d go somewhere else and maybe work your way back to this one if you run out of tapas restaurants.

What a bummer. I’ve heard so much about Amuse, and I’ve been dying to try it out, but it was a big disappointment.
The main Post & Courier restaurant reviewer selected Amuse as one of her top 5 places to eat last year. Did I miss something? I can think of 10 places I’d rather go.
For starters, the location (strip mall beside Family Dollar) requires a hefty suspension of disbelief. The minimalist décor doesn’t quite hide the fact that a blazing neon OPEN sign and acres of parking lot lie just beyond the door.
Next, I was led to believe that this was a real tapas restaurant, which in my mind means tons of choices. The menu at Amuse includes only a few tapas dishes, a few pasta choices, and precious few entrees. I had a hard time deciding what to order because so few things jumped out at me.
I settled on the caponata tapas for starters and a small plate of four cheese penne as my entrée. My compadres selected the insalata caprese (mozzarella and tomato) and a scallops pincho. The caponata (marinated vegetables) had an aftertaste that reminded me, no kidding, of fingernail polish remover. I couldn’t even finish the tiny plate, and after a bite, no one else at the table would either. The caprese features generous slices of tomato and mozzarella swimming in balsamic vinegar. Tasty, but the tomatoes weren’t super high quality. The scallops were pretty good, served in a bubbling bowl lemon-​olive oil with individual sticks in them (pinchos).
Everyone else at the table ordered small plates of spaghetti and meatballs, which came out as one really huge meatball. They were generally satisfied but not blown away. The waitress mistakenly brought me one, too, and when I refused it, there was no apology; just a higher-​up coming by the table to say there must have been some «miscommunication.» The world rankled. For a miscommunication to happen, two parties must be involved. I very clearly enunciated «penne” – there was no miscommunication on my part. What she should have said was that the waitress made an ERROR, which is no big deal. I wasn’t even upset until they implied I was partly responsible for messing up my own order. They comped my glass of wine, though, which made everything better.
Overall, I guess my biggest complaint is that the place seemed a little amateur. From the under-​18 hostess to the paper menus, it just didn’t live up to the hype.