It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year — Restaurant Week!

One of the tricks to Restaurant Week is getting the best bang for your buck since some restaurants do more of a tasting menu and others just give you full portions for half the cost.  With locations downtown and in Mt. Pleasant, brunch on Sunday, half off wine nights and my best friend is the manager,  it’s no secret that Five Loaves is one of my favorite restaurants in Charleston.  I’m pretty sure my entire family has been to the restaurant multiple times (even twice in a day for Rollene).

Well, Five Loaves is probably the BEST deal for Restaurant Week.  For $20, you get a 3 course meal, that other restaurants charge $30 or even $40 for.  After looking at this year’s menu, I was sold — we were going the first weekend.

Hunter and I told our buddy Troy, and last Friday night the three of us got spots at the bar, with our favorite bartender, Julie.  For the appetizer round Hunter ordered the local strawberry bruschetta with mozzarella and a balsamic reduction, while I had the mascarpone stuffed figs with crispy proscuitto and a honey vinaigrette.  The figs were so light and delicious and the salty proscuitto was perfect on top!  Sadly we ate these too fast to take a picture…

For the main course, Hunter went with the grilled sirloin and I had chicken and dumplings.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a bite of the sirloin before it was gone, but by the looks of Hunter’s clean plate, he enjoyed it.  I really enjoyed the chicken and dumplings.  The dumplings were done as a potato gnocchi and were great in the same bite as some chicken, sauce and carrots or celery.

Finally, dessert.  We both ordered the sweet cornmeal cake with peaches and caramel on top.  Thanks to The Grocery, I am now always willing to try anything on the dessert menu with corn, so this was the obvious decision to me.  I couldn’t get enough of the cake with peaches and caramel — so many flavors that taste so good together!

Another great meal at Five Loaves..