Charleston has a lot of respect for tradition, and the food scene there is no exception. whether its focusing on Lowcountry sourced produce, bringing back long-forgotten heirloom ingredients, or keeping alive the tradition of whole hog barbequing, Charleston's best chefs have not forgotten the roots of the Lowcountry, or that of Southern cooking as a whole. This is not to say, however, that the City is devoid of innovation. Far from it. Indeed, the many talented chefs of Charleston's best restaurants are finding ways to create and concoct without losing sight of history, without eschewing that which makes Charleston it own. The City is equally comfortable offering up eat-with-your-fingers fried chicken, as it is a stunningly plated black sea bass crudo. Slow cooked barbeque, Spanish tapas and Bao buns are all, quite literally, on the menu. What would seem to be otherwise bifurcated concepts (casual and sophisticated, new and old, Southern and international) feel equally respected, somehow familiar with and to one another, like cousins reconnecting over a holiday. It's not an "us or them" food city, or a place where you must choose a camp (haute cuisine or traditional family recipes eaten over a plastic tablecloth), and stick with it. It's a "both" city. Charleston, to the extent that you can ascribe a single culinary ethos to an entire municipality, wants you to know that gastronomy can be as exceptional in a newly constructed modernist building as in a renovated gas station.
So what does that mean if you're trying to figure out where to eat in Charleston, South Carolina? It means you've got options!
Husk.
Let's start with one of the big names here: located on Queen Street. between King and Meeting Streets, Husk has been a staple of the "new" southern food scene since Sean Brock first opened it in 2011. Although Chef Brock has since left the restaurant group (to start a new empire in Nashville, with The Continental, Audrey, Joyland and june), the philosophy Chef Brock infused into Husk remains alive and well. With a focus on the rebirth of heritage ingredients and locally sourced components (almost to the point of being exclusionary (as they say, "[i]f it doesn't come from the South, it doesn't go on the plate")), as well as an expansive in-house pickling and charcuterie effort, Husk offers an impressively crafted modern revival of Southern cooking. The menu changes often, and is heavily dependent on seasonality (as you would expect), but might include dishes such as Blue Ridge Rabbit (with Benton's ham, local mushrooms and white grits), Nashville hot lamb dumplings (with peanut collard romesco and pickled apple) and Wreckfish (with Nostrali Rice risotto, honey glazed turnips and turnip greens). Husk is, in a sense, the perfect symbol of Charleston as a food town -- with one foot firmly planted in historical space and time (a tip of the hat to those who came long before and to what was), the other, stretched out towards an ever-advancing future, an example of what could be. To say that we are fans of what Husk is doing is a bit of an understatement (we made sure to visit their Savannah location as well (and have written about same in our Savannah blog post) and have their Nashville location on our immediate radar).
Leon's Oyster Shop, located in the former body shop of it's namesake Leon Ravenel, tells you, upfront and without equivocation, what it is and what it's doing. Fried chicken (two piece, half, whole or on a sandwich with pickles) and oysters. A fish fry (with catfish, shrimp, clam strips and hush puppies). The southern staple that is char-grilled oysters. They sell Pabst by the pitcher, but spruce up the place with champagne, sparkling wine and some craft cocktails. Leon's is, unabashedly itself, and Charleston is the better for it. It's been written about by pretty much every food-focused magazine or website worth it's salt. It would, at this point, be sacrilegious to visit the Holy City and not hit Leon's up for lunch. You've been forewarned.
Located in an unassuming converted gas station, Xia Bao Biscuit, offers an often spicy break from some of the more traditional, southern-style cooking that Charleston might be more wildly known for. Don't let the faded veneer of this old service station fool you, though. This place is anything but outdated. Of course they offer some of that sweet, savory goodness that is the restaurant's namesake (bao buns, with fried pork belly, nam prim Lao, cucumber and cilantro) as well as steamed and fried pork dumplings, but the menu expands outward from that obvious (but no less delicious) starting point to some broader pan-Asian dishes like the stir fry Pad Kra (Thai-style beef and basil, with a chili garlic sauce and local veggies), and, one of our favorites, the Okonomiyaki (a Japanese-cabbage pancake, with furikake mayonnaise, sweet soy, chili garlic sauce and a sunny-side up egg). They've also just recently opened a Nashville location, so the Xiao Bao Biscuit love is, happily, spreading.
Both an acronym and a truism (F.I.G. -"Food is Good"), FIG has been a powerhouse in the Charleston, S.C. food scene since it opened in 2003.
Named one of Eater's best restaurants in America in 2016, and helmed by two James Beard award winning chefs (Mike Lata, Best Chef: Southeast 2009 and Jason Stanhope, Best Chef: Southeast 2015) with a James Beard award for Outstanding Wine Program (2018), you'd be hard-pressed to walk out of FIG unhappy or unsated. As with many of the great restaurants on this list, the menu is heavily seasonal and, so, changes regularly. Nonetheless, we can assure you of this: FIG absolutely shines when featuring its seafood dishes. Look for exceptional plates like slow baked Black Sea Bass (with celery root velouté, fall vegetables and roe) or their bouillabaisse (with white shrimp, Carolina gold brown rice, piquillo and croutons). Twenty years on, and FIG remains a stunning example of creativity.
Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ.
Headed by the winner of the 2018 James Beard Best Chef: Southeast award, the eponymous Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ is reason enough to visit Charleston. Barbequing like this, whole hogs cooked low and slow, takes patience and a certain level of obsession (timing, temperature, coal placement - each are central to converting a hog into, dare I say it, a bit of juicy, fat-dripping-down-your-chin heaven). Chef Scott got his first small bite of whole hog barbequing when he was 11 years old and hasn't looked back since. In terms of what to eat while you're there - everything is great and they offer salads, fish, etc., etc., but you didn't come here for a salad or for unsaturated fishy fats. You came here for slow-cooked BBQ pork. So quit dilly-dallying and head straight to the Rod's Original Whole Hog Pork Plate. Or, if you're feeling particularly gluttonous (or brought along a few friends), try the Pitmaster Combo (heaping piles of whole hog, pork shoulder, chicken, turkey, brisket and ribs, with a choice of sides). The man's a genius when it comes to this stuff, so sit back, loosen your belt-buckle one notch, and let him do what he does.
Maybe you had a few too many cocktails last night. Maybe you burned so many calories the day before, walking the historic streets of this beautiful city, that you're in need of a big time Southern breakfast. Maybe you just really love breakfast. Whatever your reason, when it's time for the most important meal of the day (whenever that might be for you), beeline it to Millers All Day. The classic biscuits and gravy (turned up a bit with with pepper jam, okra and an optional serving of fried chicken) is an obvious choice. As is our selection for the day: the Millers Plate (two eggs, Jimmy Red Corn Grits, biscuit, bacon and some pickled veggies). They do breakfast, they do it right, and they do it all day. And they've got two locations (the original at 120 King Street) and a newer location on James Island (1956 Maybank Hwy, Suite A), as well as a traveling food truck. So, clearly, they've made it easy to get to and enjoy. Now go do your part.
There are so many respectable and duly respected culinary destinations in Charleston, S.C., that it would be impossible to list all of them here. It has so many amazing eateries that one wonders whether this small (but growing) city, with its population of just north of 150,000 residents, might have the highest ratio of high quality restaurants per capita in the country. To name just a few of the many other excellent places to eat in Charleston:
Malagon is a Spanish taperia and market (meaning: you can take things with you!) offering Spanish cheeses, charcuterie, wines and other travel-worthy treats, and is the sister restaurant to the equally well-regarded Chez Nous, with its focus on Southern French and Northern Spanish and Italian food and wine. Both restaurants do an impressive job of transporting your palate a few thousand miles away and both deserve a visit.
Chubby Fish, focuses on (you guessed it!) the myriad magic and diversity that is seafood, pulled, more or less, right out of the ocean a few short miles away. Nominated in 2019 as one of Bon Appétit's 50 Best New Restaurants, Chubby Fish is firing on all cylinders with its trigger fish tempura (with soy beurre blanc) and grilled oysters (with crab fat curry and cashews).
Edmund's Oast, is a brewpub and taproom offering an eclectic mix of edible goodies, from the spicy Korean meatballs, to the fried po'boy sandwich, to some pickled shrimp on grilled rye. It's focused on conviviality, good drinks and solid snacks and is a great weekday happy hour destination.
You could, in short, spend a seemingly endless amount of time traversing the cobbled streets of Charleston, eating your way through history, marveling at nuance and preparing yourself for an inventive, gastronomic future. We strongly suggest you do.
These are just some of the best restaurants and bars in Charleston, South Carolina, but there is so much more to see. Start planning your visit today!
Planning a longer trip to the region? Savannah, Georgia is only about 2 hours away. Check out our blog post here for some of the best places to eat while you are there!
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