Charleston - in Baltimore

I had a wonderful meal at Charleston in Baltimore recently, to celebrate Sasha's birthday along with her parents, April, and Meri. Every bite was awesome...especially my 2nd course tuna tartare, shown in the photo.  It was tuna, cucumber and chive - with some caviar and a potato chip on top. I'm not a fan of caviar, but most people at the table tasted it...some liked it, others thought it was too salty. The restaurant website is: http://www.charlestonrestaurant.com/ - check it out!

It's a tasting menu, where you choose 3-6 courses, and the price includes dessert -- not included in the number of courses you choose.  I had 3 courses (plus dessert of course), which was plenty of food.  I was scraping the plate/bowl on each course.

I started with a cauliflower/leek/potato soup that was creamy and soooo good.  Then I had the tuna, followed by buffalo tenderloin (cooked medium rare, per their recommendation) with polenta, oyster mushrooms and crispy shallots. I can still taste it. It was one of the best meals I've ever had.  We also had good red and white wine, plus an assortment of good rolls and cornbread, plus a great dark chocolate ganache dessert, with ice cream that was melting by the minute -- don't worry, I still ate it all.  They also gave you a very good amuse bouche, about 5 bites of creamy mushroom soup - not the most creative amuse bouche I've ever seen, but definitely delicious - and I don't usually like mushrooms. And, along with the desserts we ordered, we received 3 plates with 4 more types of desserts....we definitely left the restaurant full! I must thank the Oshrine's for introducing me to this fabulous Baltimore restaurant.  I have read about it for years in the Amtrak Arrive magazine...they frequently have adds for it and articles about it and the chef (who has 4 restaurants in Baltimore), but I'd never been.  I'll definitely be going back!

# of dishes: 5 out of 5