Have y'all ever had that one restaurant that you've always wanted to try, but never had a reason to go? 

Well Muse Restaurant and Wine Bar, over on Society Street has been that restaurant for me since the summer before my freshman year. One summer I went on a day trip to Charleston, just to get out of Charlotte and do something different for the day. Walking down the street, I passed by this restaurant that at first looked like someone's private home set up for a dinner party on the porch. I almost didn't even realize it was a restaurant until I saw the sign hanging above the door. Ever since then, I've wanted to go and see what it was like. Was it a good date place? Would it be good for celebrating something with friends? Was it one of those places where you would save for a special occasion to treat yourself, with someone else or alone, and to just soak up the atmosphere? Most importantly, how was the food? 

Last Friday, I went for dinner with an old friend and got to put all of these questions to the test. What did I find out? Most of my assumptions wound up being correct. When you walk in the door, the hostess stand is located at the bottom of the stairs with a great looking bar to the right. The room looks like it used to be the living room, with large windows looking out onto the street. You go up the stairs and into the dining room, where I ended up sitting, and cushioned booths line the walls for the tables. It's a small room, but putting the tables at the edges maximized space and gave a great opportunity for people watching. 

I had already looked up the menu online, since when I get bored I turn into an urban spoon junkie, and restaurant week is the time of year with the most "new reading" for me to get sucked into, but I still hadn't made up my mind by the time I sat down. Appetizer options were a bibb lettuce salad, chicken and rice soup, sweet grass mussels and a meze platter with hummus, feta cheese, olives, pepperoncini and pita. Entrees offered something for everyone, with grilled wreckfish, seared scallops, chicken confit (chicken cooked for a long time in it's own fat, put it in the same category as bacon -- it's just awesome), an orzo seafood paella, and marinated flank steak. For dessert the options were a Nutella and brie crepe, red wine velvet cake, and ricotta with lemon, basil and honey. 

That's where it got difficult to choose, but if you know me well you can probably guess what I went with. I started off with the mussels, which were cooked in white wine with Merguez sausage, parsley and peppers. Up next was the flank steak. The steak was great, but what I loved most was the roasted okra. Before anyone says something like, "Ew, okra, it's slimy," y'all should know that this was anything but, and if I could, I would go back just for a bowl of that, though I keep seeing bags of okra chips around so that may have just solved that problem. Finally, for dessert I went with a tried and true crepe. You almost never fail with this one and the brie was a good addition. 

For the restaurant week menu it was 3 courses for $30, which is nothing less than a great deal for the meal I had. On the regular menu entrees range from $20 to $30 which puts it right in that "save up for a special occasion" category, but I think it'll definitely be worth going back when some friends and I can make a night of it.