johns island Archives - Queen of the Food Age

Wild Olive

April 5, 2013

So, I’ve mentioned before that Wild Olive is my mom’s favorite restaurant in Charleston (and possibly all of South Carolina), but I’ve never actually taken the time to write it up before. Since I had the pleasure of dining there a couple weeks back, I made sure to take lots of photos to put on this blog. Looking back at the photos, the’yre pretty terrible (low light + cell phone camera = crappy pictures), so I’ll just have to woo you over with my words (and pictures I find on Google). Here’s an interior shot I took before the sun set.

And this is one of the better ones.

I’ve been with my mom a couple of times. She absolutely loves the “marinated warm olives,” so we always end up ordering those.

This picture comes from the Wild Olive website and makes me really wish I liked olives.

I love the “house cured salumi with mozzarella, caponata, chicken liver rustica crostini” appetizer because it is delicious. I know a lot of people see “chicken liver” and get grossed out, but trust me. It is so freaking good. I also love the fresh mozzarella, but let’s face it, I am a sucker for fresh mozzarella. Plus, salami/salumi is delicious, and they give you a bunch of different kinds of salami on a platter, so how can you go wrong with that?

As you can see, I took this from the Wild Olive website. I wish my pictures looked this fly.

I also really love the arancini balls there, or as they’re listed on the menu, “suppli al telefono risotto fritters stuffed with sausage, spinach, parmesan, mozzarella.” So delicious. They’re not big like the ones they make in Boston, but they’re still really yummy. When you bite/cut into them they’re hot, cheesy, and really delicious.

Also, I am always a huge fan of anything deep fried and stuffed with cheese.

The most recent time I went with my new friend Regina, we started with the beef carpaccio (beef carpaccio with parmesan, horseradish aioli, melba toast, arugula, Sicilian sea salt). It’s basically like a beef salami and I really loved it. I think the sea salt and horseradish aioli added a nice element to the dish as a whole. The consistency kind of threw me off a little bit, because it’s very soft. I’m glad they gave me the crostini to balance it out.

As you can see, I took a piece from the middle of the plate before I remembered to take the picture.

We also got the bruschetta which is different than normal bruschetta as it came topped with rapini, purple cape beans, chile flake, garlic, and pecorino sardo. I think they change it out seasonally, because I’ve seen different pictures online. It was kind of weird eating bread with beans on it, but I think I really liked it. They did a really good job of balancing the flavors of each ingredient.

I’ll have an entire salad on my bread, please. Thanks!

I usually try to be adventurous, so I was intrigued by the “squid ink linguine with local shrimp, tomato, garlic, fresh spicy red chile, basil.” However, I’m not crazy about shrimp pasta, but I really wanted to be able to say that I’ve had squid ink pasta before. I asked the waiter how it was and he said “It’s good, but it basically tastes like seafood pasta. If you don’t like fishy tasting food, don’t get it.” So. Instead I was lame and basic and opted for the chicken parmesan. I know, I know. But it’s SO GOOD. It comes with “potato alfredo, marinara, mozzarella, arugula,” and it is SO good.

This picture I grabbed from Charleston Crafted

Last time we went, my mom got the “Grilled Stevenson Place Farms grass-fed steak with smashed fried and truffled Yukon gold potatoes,” but she doesn’t love truffle oil, so instead she replaced the potatoes with an order of potato gnocchi in marinara sauce. As I recall, she loved it.

Even though that steak is the size of her whole head.

Regina and I also got dessert, because apparently she considers herself something of a tiramisu connoisseur. Luckily for me, she was nice enough to share it with me, and let me say. Wow. That tiramisu is damn good.

This picture I grabbed from Urbanspoon.

I’ve always had a really positive experience every time I’ve gone to Wild Olive. From the food, to the ambience, to the service, to the wine, it’s always a good time. It’s definitely worth driving out to John’s Island!

Ok. Time for my lunch break.

Wild Olive
2867 Maybank Highway
John’s Island S.C. 29455
(843) 737-4177

3 Comments

Charleston, SC Restaurant Reviews

JB’s Smokeshack – Closed

February 29, 2012

Update 5/10/18 – It’s with a heavy heart I report the closure of JB’s Smokeshack. The owner retired and tried to sell the business, but no one bought it, so it’s officially closed up shop.

JB’s Smokeshack is the epitome of great barbecue, there are no two ways about it. It embodies all of the characteristics I look for when selecting a quality barbecue joint:

Sweet Tea. Homemade, Paula Deen sweet, and ice cold.
Baked beans with meat in them. Seriously. PUT SOME MEAT IN DEM BEANS.
Pulled pork that tastes delicious before you even put sauce on it. If your meat doesn’t taste like anything before you put the sauce on it, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.
And on the subject of sauce, being a southern girl, I prefer my barbecue sauce to be mustard based. But I’m not opposed to vinegar or tomato based sauces. I just like to have the mustard base sauce as an option in case your other sauces suck.
A buffet, so that I am able to shove as much meat into my face as humanly possible… and then some (that’s what she said?).

JB’s does all of this exceptionally well. You know it has to be good for me to be willing to drive 25 minutes out into the middle of banjo country to get there. Their sweet tea is amazing. The perfect level of sweet, in my opinion. But then again, I subscribe to the Gospel According To Paula Deen (Our sacraments are butter, sugar, and butter….it’s pretty great), so to each his own.

You can’t argue with Paula, ya’ll

When it comes to baked beans, I’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten anything like JB’s. They have some of their pulled pork in the beans, so they’re beany and meaty and sweet and savory all at the same time. Their pulled pork is amazing all on its own. I’ve been to plenty of barbeque places that really rely on their sauce to give the barbeque all of the flavor. And while I agree that the sauce is an integral part of the barbeque equation, I don’t think it should be the main flavor factor. The flavor of the pork should complement the sauce and vice versa, each adding its own flavor profiles to the mix, so it’s like a barbeque party in your mouth. JB’s definitely does this superbly. I could seriously eat their pork without any sauce on it at all. But that would be unfair to their fabulous sauces, which I also love. I like to mix the mustard one with Mama’s Sweet and Spicy (which I’m pretty sure is vinegar based), and it’s AMAZING, trust me on this.

We’re gettin’ a little saucy up in here.

And finally, their buffet is outstanding. I love their beans (obviously), macaroni and cheese (although I’ve definitely had better mac n cheese), collards (spicy and meaty, just the way I like it), green beans, fried okra, and fried creamed corn bites (seriously, those are amazing… I could probably eat 100 of them in one sitting).

This is what I imagine heaven looks like.

They also have a meat station which they alternate the offerings of regularly. They’ve had brisket, ham, etc., which they carve for you right there.

Ron Swanson would get teary-eyed looking at this delicious hunk of meat.

They also have some salad on their buffet, which I’m pretty sure they put there just to taunt you. It stares as you judgementally as you load up your plate with meat and beans and macaroni and meat like “Hey fatty. You know you should just be eating salad. You know you’re going to hate yourself later” but I can never actually hear what it’s saying to me over the sound of my own chewing. I usually make three trips to the buffet, loading up on meat and beans, and then collapse on the table, praying for death….

Sweet, meaty death

So I’ve never actually eaten dessert at JB’s. But I’m sure it’s delicious, because everything else sure is. I really want to try the “pluff mud pudding,” which reminds me of the dirt pudding I used to eat when I was in kindergarten. You know, chocolate pudding, crushed up oreos (to look like dirt) and gummy worms. It’s awesome. Ben got the banana pudding but was unimpressed (but once again, CANADIAN).

Man, feels like kindergarten all over again.

So basically it’s awesome. I would recommend fasting for three days or so before visiting, so that you can truly appreciate the meat cornucopia that is JB’s Smokeshack. They’re also really great people who truly take pride in their food, so how can you go wrong with that?