Sermets Corner

Caprese was perfection!
Ambience was warm and relaxing!
Orange Scallops delish
Steak with cheese satchetti was good but pasta was a bit under cooked
Maple cheesecake & Triple white cake was worth the try.
We will definitely be going back.
Sunny was a gracious and diligent server who took care of our every need.

The food was fairly good. My wife had the orange seared scallops which were tasty. I had a fairly bland swordfish.
Sermets has decided to follow the fashionable trend that is all the rage in fine Charleston restaurants. They want to send all their customers home hungry. my swordfish was half the size I would have expected. They gave my wife four scallops.
From what I can gather, the philosophy is to give the customer high quality food rather than high quantity. I expect that when I eat at a good restaurant, they will give me high-​quality food. I cannot see how this justifies sending customers home hungry.
Charleston is well known for its Southern hospitality. The meager meal set before me was an insult to that gracious tradition.

The service initially started great. But once other guests starting arriving the service deteriorated. Wanted over 30 minutes for food after everyone at the table received their food. Will not return.

Wonderful food and great cocktail list! Pretty good wine selection as well! Live entertainment is also always a plus!

Stopped in this place during a business trip. The food was incredibly flavorful and beautifully presented. I can’t rave enough about the caprese salad and the shrimp starter which was shrimp with bacon, polenta cakes and a thyme/​Marsala sauce — amazing! The staff was friendly and they had a good menu selection. Wish I could have tried them on a live music night (they have live Jazz most nights).

I have been going here for a few years – and on a weekly basis for a couple of years before I moved out of Charleston. I love this place. Friday and Saturday evenings can be quite crowded, however the food is quite good.
The place was renovated fairly recently and has a fresh, romantic atmosphere to it – the artwork adds to this as well as the windows looking onto the street.
The waitstaff are always very friendly and the bar selection is pretty good.

We had the squash ravioli with bacon and chicken for dinner and it was delicious. We had the salted caramel cake for dessert and I can still taste how amazing it was. I would definitely come back to this restaurant again! The service was amazing as well!

Came here on a Tuesday for dinner. Didn’t know what to expect as just looking for somewhere to eat and this place was in the area.
The food was good; I had the scallops. Very fresh. Our waiter seemed really disinterested and I have had better service elsewhere.
Nothing really to rave about here. I would probably try another restaurant in the area before visiting again.

I was eating by myself, so I took a seat at the bar at around the same time as another gentleman. The bartender gave the other man his menu, took his order and brought him his drink all before so much as giving me a menu. After I had ordered (eventually — took forever), another woman sat down near me — and the bartender told her the night’s specials, something he hadn’t done for me.
I have no idea why I was treated differently from other patrons. I confronted the bartender and he gave me a lame excuse that I now can’t remember. I was really upset about this, however.
To add insult to injury, the food wasn’t even that great. It was passable (especially since I was really hungry), but that’s about it.
I really can’t recommend this place at all. I will be skipping it the next time I’m in Charleston.

Came in for a quick lunch and had to try shrimp and grits before we left Charleston. Divinely prepared with just the right balance of cheddar and bacon and a savory light sauce. I may have taken a year off my life expectancy given how rich and creamy it was but well worth the risk. I akso had a nice, basic salad that balanced it out. Located in the heart of the King Street shopping district it was a nice place to take a lunch break.

Not our first time here, but enjoyed it as much as we remembered. Terrific wine list and service in this quintessential Charleston bistro. Salmon cakes were moist and flavorful, salad greens were crisp and peppery tossed with just the right amount of a vinaigrette, and the shrimp and grits were divine.

I bestow a 4^th star because they made the extra effort to accommodate a party of nine on a busy Friday night after a College of Charleston graduation. The setting is beautiful and lends well to people watching on King Street. Our waiter provided excellent service. As I said, the service experience was first-​rate.
The food was ok. I and several others in our party ordered the sautéed filet beef tips with cheese tortellini. This dish desperately needs some seasoning. Garlic, herbs, something — maybe even just salt and pepper. It was bland.
Precious ordered the chicken sautéed with smoked bacon. This is clearly the dish to order. Bursting with flavor from the smoked bacon. Get this.
Odd there was no fish available the night of our visit. Mid-​May on a clear day in Charleston and no fish available. Struck me as odd.

As an occasional diner at Sermets over the years, its difficult to write something negative about a place whose servers are pleasant and whose King Street location is ideal, with an upgraded and attractive dining room. But the food – meh… We’ve tried a number of dishes over the years – mostly focusing on the vegetarian and seafood. And sandwiches and salads. The sandwiches are OK – if I go back, thats what I’d get. If I was writing a review for the sandwiches or salads, this would be a 3 star place. Similarly the fried green tomatoes with cheese curd are OK.
Unfortunately, the «specialty pasta» dishes have a number of issues. This is purely subjective, but over the course of a half a dozen dinners over the past few years (and going back over a decade), my dining partner and I have been disappointed with the quality of pastas at Sermets. The stuffed eggplant sounds wonderful, but both of us have agreed that its overly greasy, and the ingredients are mushy to the point of losing any sense of individual flavorings of the artichoke, olives, etc.
Similarly, the angel hair pasta with shrimp, sweet peas, wild mushrooms, cherry tomatoes in a parmesan cream sauce comes in oval pile, completely soaked with a sweetish parmesan cream sauce. Mushy ingredients with a overall off taste. Shrimp quality is subpar. Compared to Taste of Thai in West Ashley or Slightly North of Broad, whose prices for shrimp dishes are the same (SNOB) or less (Taste of Thai), the shrimp quality is really sad.
Its been awhile since we had dinner entrees at Sermets, so its hard to evaluate as easily as our more recent visit. The fish dishes are generally acceptable without being «wow» that you get at the same or lesser prices at places like the Glass Onion, SNOB, High Cotton, or Macintosh among other standouts in town.

I’m not going to lie. This is the most touristy thing I’ve ever done. I was in town visiting friends and might have requested a «Southern Charm Weekend» because I was on a mission to meet one William Shepard Rose III. Fortunately my friends obliged my crazy and we had dinner at Sermets, and despite not stumbling upon the Southern Charm cast I had one of the best meals I’ve had in a really long time.
Sermets is situated right on King Street, which in and of itself lends itself to great people watching while dining. We shockingly were able to get a 7:30 reservation the day of because of a large party cancellation. Once we got there, we quickly realized that the large cancellation was a prom party. Yeah, the majority of the dinner patrons were high school kids. It was really cute to see them all dressed up and on their best behavior.
The atmosphere is refreshingly crisp, clean, and white. When you’re from Atlanta and only have trendy overdone restaurants to choose from, it is a breath of fresh air to go to a nice traditional spot like this. Our server was on point on service and food recommendations. We had lobster bisque and caprese salad for appetizers. The lobster bisque had the perfect amount of lobster and cream to it — definitely could have eaten that for dinner alone. My friends had the filet mignon over tortellini and salmon entrée respectively. I had the shrimp sautéed over angel hair pasta, and it was declared the table winner after we tried each other’s entrees. It’s a very hearty serving of shrimp sautéed with tomatoes, sweet peas, mushrooms, and peppers tossed in a cream sauce over angel hair pasta.
Everything about dinner at Sermets made for a perfect downtown Charleston experience. It’s the kind of place that I’d like to go on a date (with Shep) or else take my parents. All and all, it’s a crowd pleasing class act of a restaurant. Consider me sold.

Not really my style. The place itself is really nice. Beautiful scene with big windows to watch the passersby, but the food was just OK. And for the price, not the best Italian option for downtown.
The waiters were nice and attentive, but didn’t tell us the specials, didn’t offer us a wine menu and brought the check before asking about dessert.
Overall, the scene seemed a bit old. The menu had some dated options, and the clientele seemed to match. If you’re in search for some good Italian or general Mediterranean food, I would check out some better options down the way.
We had the Artichoke Torta, Filet Mignon Tortellini and Eggplant Veal Parmesan and weren’t too impressed.
The jazz bar upstairs, however, is a different story. Fantastic. I believe there’s a separate Unilocal page for that (with higher star ratings).

Great jazz band and entertainment; but the service isn’t up to par and the food is «eh».
A note to Sermets — never let a guests water glass reach the bottom (especially not for 20 minutes) and always offer black napkins so the white lent doesn’t get on the guests black dress pants.
Restaurant 101 guys…

¹⁄₁₈: Hoo whee! What a spur of the moment pick for a 50^th birthday dinner! Awesome.
Lobster bisque starter had the correct amount of lobster and bacon. Followed with the filet, green beans and smashed tots. The filet was melt in mouth. Hated to see it end. The demi glacé made all 3 parts of the dish come together wonderfully.
Mentioned in passing to server Paul that it was my 50^th. As a great server does, he made note and returned with a superb chocolate dessert gratis. Thanks Paul!
Can’t say enough. Will most certainly return!

Went there this weekend, for, drinks. They may have a new bartender. Ordered martini, received it in a large glass that was only ¾ full. When I asked, she told me that she could make me a double … So, if that is the martini you make, then use a smaller glass, or fill up the one you do use. It looks bad when not full. By the way, I never received a martini like this before there.
Frank G

Such an interesting place to have a bevy of mixed reviews. Sermets was discovered while some of our group was strolling the streets of Charleston. I was hiding from the humidity and taking a nap. After we dressed for the evening, we strolled up to Sermets and were happy they were able to accommodate us seeing it was the last night of Charleston Restaurant Week.
Even though I’m lacking in pictorial evidence, it will be quite a while before I forget this menu (or what we dined on). We shared three appetizers at the table. The sweet potato fries were good, but nothing special. The hands-​down winner at the table was the salmon rillette. It was plated differently than what I expected, but it was delicious. It was like tuna salad made with the freshest of salmon instead. All of us want to try to replicate this dish at home.
For my entrée I ordered the parmesan and basil crusted salmon with yukon gold mash & roasted vegetables. The salmon was cooked to perfection; the crust was delicious and added tons of flavor. The mash was delicious as were the vegetables, but I was so full I couldn’t finish it all.
We definitely ate well in Charleston. I will have to say that my ‘yelp ability factor’ was truly tested the weekend we were in Charleston as most of the places we found were discovered while wandering the streets. Of course I always scoped them out on the app before ordering, but Charleston definitely still offers a lot to it’s adventurous/​non-​smartphone tourists.

The atmosphere was fantastic and the food was out of this world. I had the butternut squash pasta with chicken — it was so good! The service was slightly better than average and we would have ordered dessert but by the time the waiter came back around to ask if we wanted in, about 15 minutes had passed and we were all full at that point. I would go back — I liked the spot and the bar looked pretty cool. Did I just see this place on Southern Charm?