Bar 101

Always a great atmosphere. Food is on point. Great live music and DJs. All the bartenders, Kevin, Tiffany, Nicole, and yes even Lance, always make sure you're taken care of and feel like family when you're there. Never disappointed with the service at this establishment. Always my first stop in Charleston.

This was a disappointment. I arrived for an early dinner at 4:30, as I’d missed lunch and was starving, and discovered that despite the website information saying it opens at 11:15, Ichiban wasn’t open. I was told to go sit in the Bar 101 side and the full menu was available, which sounded fine, so I did. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, someone finally asked me what I’d like to drink, as they were all too busy getting drinks for people arriving after me whom they knew. After finally ordering a beverage, it only took another 10 minutes for it to be actually brought to me, and an additional 5 minutes to get the menu for which I asked. By now, it was well after 5pm. I probably should have gone back to the Ichiban side at that point - or to some place down the street. For a restaurant that advertises itself as serving steak, and which used to have good options for it, there wasn’t a whole steak anywhere on the menu. I went for the Sea Bass, but made a mistake by ordering fried rice. It was gummy, tasteless and at best lukewarm. I really wondered if it were leftover from the day before and had been nuked. Its consistency made me suspect so. I tried asking for salt and pepper, finally getting up to search for them myself (I could not find them, but the server eventually noticed me searching and asked if I needed anything). I discovered nothing could make the fried rice edible. While the sea bass itself was good, the “Asian vegetables” were mainly just onion, red peppers and green peppers in a teriyaki sauce. Trying to call about 4 ounces or so of sea bass dinner didn’t hack it, especially for $30.