Barbara Jean's Restaurant & Bar in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina: Easy Southern Dining

It's all about great service in the south and at Barbara Jean's Restaurant & Bar (1440 Ben Sawyer Blvd Mt Pleasant SC - 843-884-6655) from the moment you walk in you are treated like one of the family and you feel totally at home. With the bustling crowd from the Friday regular dinner rush as well as the overage from the Charleston Air Force base, we figured we may have to wait for a seat; but our clever hostess navigated her way through the throng of people and found us our very own table and my wife and I were able to sit down and select form the Barbara Jean's offerings.

With seven locations in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida you might think that Barbara Jean's would end up suffering some growing pains but not so for their Mt. Pleasant branch who we recently visited for dinner. Barbara Jean's is known first and foremost for their seafood but my wife and I were in no mood this night for any seafood. We'd just been to my uncle's clambake a couple of weeks ago and I'd had more seafood at that occasion then I'd probably had since my mother used to shove fish sticks down my throat as a child. Besides, from their elegant menu, the offerings that were available looked and sounded so good, that I needed to give some classic favorites a try.

My wife got the meatloaf (with tomato sauce) and she'd asked for brown gravy mashed potatoes, corn, and a serving of Barbara Jean's Pumpkin bread. I opted for Barbara Jean's pork chops; 2 grilled and marinated, boneless chops with rice and stewed tomatoes.

When my wife's dinner came out her mashed potatoes came with white gravy which is more often served with the tomato sauce, apparently. This began to make me a little upset, however our server whisked her mashed away and returned with a fresh serving and apologized profusely (he hadn't brought the food out and asked our forgiveness) I've worked in food service and I figured that a hurrying server who was just trying to help had made the mix up; so his apology, while not necessary, was accepted.