Our Dining Guide offers reviews of various restaurants around town. Look for our Charleston Dining Reviews. Additional articles about hotels, inns, tours, history and events can be found by recommendations and interesting tidbits to help you find exactly the right place to stay, tour or special event during your visit to Charleston.
What's your pleasure? If it were one thing Charleston has in plenty, (and it's not just one thing but if it were,) it would be her restaurants. Like a fussing mother over her family or guests, Charleston strives to have a plate for all appetites. Unlike other cities though, Charleston does not have ethnic sections of town. There is no Little Italy or Chinatown. There isn't a particular area where you can get the best this or that. But to be sure, there is a restaurant to address any hankering for a particular type of food and likely several more, to introduce one to foods they never knew they'd enjoy so much.
Of course one will find good traditional Italian Restaurants like Garibaldi's with varying dishes originating from this or that province or perhaps Grandma's secret recipe or two. But then there is a lighter, more contemporary Italian flavor at Blossom with its brick wood fire ovens. Tristan or Rue de Jean will take you to France or if you prefer, The Library will bring you southern American cuisine with a French accent. Cypress will tempt you with an Asian flair. Fish, or Coast Restaurants of course, are the places where you'll find fresh and delicious seafood. Then again, fresh seafood is a relative term when whether it is cooked or not is a consideration. Japanese sushi or sashimi at award winning Wasabi or Tsunami is about as fresh as it comes! American cuisine is also a relative term hereabouts, but certainly from burgers to barbeque and filet mignon to filet of sole, everything delicious that can be imagined on a plate, Charleston likely has a restaurant where it can be found: USDA prime at Grille 225 or succulent lamb or pork at The Chophouse will satisfy the urge for a meat and potato meal but not without the enticing added touches found only at the hand of Charleston's hotel and restaurant's finest chefs.
No matter what type restaurant though, high end or sidewalk fare, most have been affected by the strong traditional southern influence in one-way or another. One may find southern favorites such as she crab soup, or shrimp and grits on any menu in any restaurant in Charleston. These are certain dishes that have come to be the trademark of the south, Charleston in particular. The historical and eclectic southern recipes of the peoples from the West Indies, Africa mixed with a dash of French cuisine have created a flavor, unique to Charleston's kitchens. From down home to refined fare, a selection of the quintescential southern foods can be found in just about every area of Charleston. And at some restaurants, like at the popular S.N.O.B. (Slightly North of Broad) the menu is almost entirely dedicated to its own variations of the regional cuisine. So popular are these type restaurants that one might think it useless to resist trying the southern dishes while in Charleston. It's almost unthinkable to visit the area without at least trying one of the regional favorites. And chances are, once you've had a taste, you'll be back for more.
Notable for sauces, possibly from the French influence, just about anything one can eat has been southern fried and doused or dipped in some type of sauce to create a decadent, sweet, crispy, salty combination that one can't help but enjoy. Sounding like Forest Gump's friend Bubba, the litany of southern fried foods can go on for quite a time: Southern fried chicken, fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried ochre, chicken fried steak, fried onions, fried hush puppies…the list continues. As they say, "When in Rome…" let the diet and guilt go for just a moment to allow yourself to sink your teeth into one of these southern fried delights, if only just once. (Betcha can't eat just one!)
Lunch or dinner, heels or flats, burger or Black Angus, black dress or jeans, beer or wine, jacket or tee shirt, sweet or salty, salad or steak, Charleston opens up her doors and always has a seat at her table with something mouthwatering for you…Y'all hungry?
Downtown Charleston Restaurants - Peninsula
