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Restaurant Guide
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This 'Creek' will likely have whatever floats your boat
Mic Smith
The Post and Courier
Morgan Creek Grill
Morgan Creek Grill
Neighborhood favorite/night out Phone: 886-8980 Address: 80 41st Ave., Isle of Palms
Food: *** 1/2
Service: *** 1/2
Atmosphere: *** 1/2
Price: $-$$ Costs: Appetizers $5.75-$9.95, soups and salads $3.75-$7.25, pasta and grits $15.95-$17.95, chef's specialties $14.95-$23.95, fresh-catch at market price, seafood platter combination $15.95-$19.95, fried and grilled add-ons to salads and entrees $4.95-$6.95, children's menu. Vegetarian Options: Yes. Bar: Full service bar, specialty drink menu, wine and beer. Hours: Lunch served daily from 11:30 a.m., dinner 5 p.m.; Sunday brunch 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; hours subject to change with the seasons. Decibel Level: Lively; Upper Deck has live music, so if conversation is your goal, be aware. Wheelchair Access: Yes. Parking: Yes. Also complimentary boat dockage at the Isle of Palms Marina. Other: Private events, Lowcountry boils and oyster roasts, weddings, receptions, grounds available for tented events; happy hour is Tues.-Fri. 4 to 7 p.m. with half-price appetizers and drink specials at the bars; live entertainment; Sunday brunch features a "Build Your Own Bloody Mary" Bar. For info, see www.morgancreek.com or e-mail info@morgancreek.com. Restaurant also showcases the work of local artists. The Upper Deck sports a new bar, a more casual menu and live entertainment. Restaurant facts: Rating criteria include quality and presentation of food, service and ambiance, while taking into consideration the type of restaurant — elegant, night out or neighborhodd favorite.
Morgan Creek Grill, perched above the docks at the Isle of Palms Marina, provides water views in most directions. Sunsets are spectacular, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass windows provides most tables with a sightline to the Intracoastal Waterway, the marina and the area's marshes. Morgan Creek is a restaurant for all occasions. It easily welcomes groups of vacationing families and friends, boaters and landlubbers and even those casting for a special, romantic evening. Its food is more ambitious than it needs to be, with French reductions, compound butters, Thai ingredients, haricots verts and collard greens. There are flashes of the "continental" dining out experience meeting the coastal seafood emporium. A specials sheet allows the chef to toy with the seasons, take advantage of the markets and, in a sense, play with his food. The Crab Dip ($5.75) and She-Crab Soup ($3.75 cup/$4.75 bowl) and a special of Stone Crab Claws ($12.95) appeared to be the evening's favorites, judging by the tables around us. However, we were intrigued by Country Fried Oysters With Cilantro Sour Cream ($6.95). Think of oysters crisped in the fryer, dipped in a bath of peppery Buffalo wing sauce and cooled by a sweet drizzle of cilantro-flavored sour cream — tasty and generous, with around a dozen oysters in the portion. The usual suspects appear on the menu at Morgan Creek, but all are treated to a house spin that makes them unique to the grill: calamari with chow-chow; tuna crusted with cilantro and served with a sweet chile glaze; PEI (Prince Edward Island) mussels in a saffron and tomato broth, all evidence that the kitchen looks to ratchet up the guests' experience at the Grill. House favorites are the Fried Pecan Flounder ($17.95) served over stone-ground grits with a bourbon and chile flavored Hollandaise sauce. The sweet pecan nut-meat complements the lightly flavored flounder, and the bourbon and chile riff with culinary notes of New Orleans. Another popular dish and Chef's Specialty is the Potato Wrapped Salmon ($19.25). Think upscale fish and chips where paper-thin slices of russet potato girdle a fillet of salmon seared to a brown crisp and finished in the oven. The fish is plated over a bed of wilted spinach and shaved fennel and served with a toasted butter sauce salted with capers and brightened by lemon. It's a good flavor matchup for the fish and the spinach. The only quibble was that the potato lost its crispness and failed to provide the textural counterpoint that makes this dish a treat. Vegetarians will find not only many meat-free choices, but also a Vegetarian Plate ($14.95) featuring a toothsome cap of portobello mushroom topped with caramelized onions, Havarti cheese and a colorful posse of spinach, asparagus and roasted red potatoes. A dish of Linguini With Clams ($16.95) was colorful and substantial. Local clams were steamed in their own little sea of white wine, seasoned with leeks and topped with asparagus and sweet red pepper strips. The vibrant sauce then was tossed with linguine and topped with grated parmesan cheese. The menu has something for everyone. Whether you are craving the comfort of chicken, the luxury of filet mignon, the regional flavor of slow-roasted Carolina ribs or something as simple as a piece of grilled fish, it is likely on the menu at Morgan Creek. The Seafood Platters come with french fries and coleslaw, and you can mix and match most sides according to your appetite and order them fried or grilled. On a busy Saturday night with tourists in town and local spring breaks in high gear, the staff at Morgan Creek moved with efficiency and served with expediency. The culinary net at the restaurant casts wide. From simple bar fare to Sunday brunch, weekday po' boys and pulled pork sandwiches, you won't be disappointed. But as the season gears up for food with a water view, you will want to pull into this port with a reservation.
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