As a homage to British architect Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, a prominent Arts and Crafts adherent, the Kiawah Island Club designed its Cassique Golf Course clubhouse in his style and named the second-floor restaurant after him.
Not surprisingly, the clubhouse restaurant featured numerous golf-themed design elements, including this circle of old wooden clubs.
Just because Voysey’s harkened back to the Arts and Crafts era doesn’t mean there weren’t modern touches, like this intricate globe chandelier in the main dining room.
Chef Doug Blair translated Consulting Chef Tom Colicchio’s vision from New York to the Lowcountry, emphasing fresh, local ingredients. This multi-colored beet salad was a perfect example, incorporating thin-sliced beets as garnish.
Simple roasted Palmetto bass was joined by roasted onions. The crisp skin provided a nice textural touch to this moist fish.
Tom Colicchio helped to elevate mushrooms to a position of prominence, so Voysey’s always has a myriad of mushrooms on the menu. Here are roasted hen-of-the-woods,shiitake and portobello, all incredibly flavorful.
These tiny mushroom caps are tender braised mousseron, an unusual variety from France. As with the braised morels, these shrooms were saturated with butter, not that I’m complaining.
Pork two ways: roasted and grilled. Served in its own jus, this was seriously tender meat, salty in a good way, and very flavorful, served with more mousserons and sliced garlic.
This Wagyu hanger steak was an expensive cut of meat, but worth it, especially since I wasn’t paying. The beef was tender enough to cut with a fork due to its dense marbling. Incredibly, Wagyu actually has greater health benefits than typical cow meat.
These gargantuan sea scallops were caramelized and served in a pool of butter, then sprinkled with fresh herbs. Yes, they were rich, but they were also some of the premier scallops of my life.
Roma beans with chopped onions were snap fresh, simple but tasty.
Roasted baby carrots were another spartan specialty.
As if we needed more mushrooms, this wild mushroom risotto featured many of Voysey’s featured mushrooms, plus a dusting of parmesan. The dish was positively luxurious.
I prepared for the onslaught of desserts with a cappuccino dusted with cinnamon and served with a stick of rock candy, a much more fun form of sugar than the packet.
Pastry Chef Melissa Fritz was versatile, going dainty on this angel food cake with roasted lavender strawberries, topped with a sprig of lavender.
Chef Fritz showed her range, scoring comfort points with this root beer float topped with shaved chocolate and a decorative chocolate stick.
I was most excited about this mango rice pudding with cinnamon-sugar plantain chips, but it was disappointingly bland. Oh well. There were plenty of other flavor victories, such as…
This fluffy peach and ricotta crepe souffle nearly burned the roof of my mouth to the third degree, but it was worth the searing pain.
Another comfortable option was this banana split, featuring a scoop each of the evening’s Tahitian vanilla bean, sage, and white chocolate raspberry ice cream.
We were tanked up on sugar by the time the check arrived, but that didn’t stop us from attacking the complimentary, house-made caramel corn. It beat the hell out of Cracker Jack, even if we didn’t get a prize.