167 Raw moved from a tiny room at 289 East Bay Street, now 167 Sushi Bar, to a long narrow 19th century building on King Street with original brick walls and a walnut bar. It takes no reservations. City Paper readers voted it Best Oysters and Best Raw Bar in 2026, and on r/Charleston the tuna burger is the dish people name.
167 Sushi Bar is the sushi and yakitori room from the 167 Raw group, in the East Bay Street storefront where 167 Raw itself began before moving to King Street.
39 Rue de Jean is a French cafe, brasserie and bar on John Street just off Upper King, with exposed brick, a patio and a private room upstairs. Explore Charleston reported in spring 2026 that it was marking its 25th anniversary with themed wine dinners and expanded lunch. It belongs to Holy City Hospitality, a Charleston group, and City Paper readers voted it Best French in 2026.
82 Queen is the Lowcountry restaurant on Queen Street that City Paper readers voted Best She-Crab Soup in 2026. The top answer in a r/Charleston she-crab soup thread agrees. Opinion on the rest is split: it is offered as the most Charleston restaurant in one thread, and in the same thread a commenter says it is not as good as its reputation.
BellyUp! Charleston / Over 50
Good places to eat and drink in Charleston, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
50 spots
82 Queen is the Lowcountry restaurant on Queen Street that City Paper readers voted Best She-Crab Soup in 2026. The top answer in a r/Charleston she-crab soup thread agrees. Opinion on the rest is split: it is offered as the most Charleston restaurant in one thread, and in the same thread a commenter says it is not as good as its reputation.
Acme describes itself as a no-frills beach grill with a full bar and deck serving Southern coastal cooking. City Paper readers voted it Best IOP Restaurant and Best IOP Brunch in 2026. A regular on r/Charleston says they always plug it for dinner and brunch that is not high-end.
Explore Charleston describes the aim as seasonal, local produce cooked to be nourishing, with a wide range of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes and a staff trained to guide guests through allergens. There is a dedicated kids menu ... almond butter and jelly, veggie sticks, fruit bowls.
Brasserie la Banque is a French brasserie at the foot of Broad Street, at East Bay, from Charleston-born group The Indigo Road. Upstairs is an event floor called a l'etage that holds up to 90 people, and the group's Bar Vaute is in the same building.
Church and Union serves inside a former church building on North Market Street. The kitchen is led by chef partners Jamie Lynch, a Top Chef alumnus, and Adam Hodgson, with Doug Watson as executive chef. Brunch runs Friday through Sunday. The same group has Church and Union rooms in Charlotte and Nashville.
A Coleman Boulevard gastropub with 16 rotating taps that calls itself a Mount Pleasant institution. It serves lunch, dinner and brunch six days a week. Its sister is Maybank Public House on James Island.
Daps opened in 2018 on Ashley Avenue and calls itself a beloved neighborhood spot for breakfast, brunch and lunch. It also caters.
Early Bird is the West Ashley diner locals name for chicken and waffles. City Paper readers voted it Best West Ashley Brunch in 2026 and runner-up for Best Breakfast across the whole area. Older regulars on r/Charleston miss the years when it stayed open late on weekends.
Eli's Table is a Charleston Hospitality Group restaurant on Meeting Street named after the owner's son, Eli. Weekend brunch is served in a courtyard.
Five Loaves says it goes to great lengths to run a healthy, sustainable and more responsible menu. City Paper readers voted it Best Lunch Spot in 2026 and runner-up for Best Restaurant for Vegetarians. A r/Charleston commenter calls the Mount Pleasant room affordable and delicious; another misses the old downtown one on Coming Street.
Frannie & The Fox is the wood-fired Italian restaurant in the Emeline hotel on Church Street, a block from the Market. It has a courtyard and a greenhouse with open-air seating, and the menu is built around shared dishes. The Den, its lounge, runs to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Félix is a cocktail bar and small plates room on Upper King, with a kitchen that stays open until midnight every day. City Paper readers named it Best Place for a Girls Night for 2026.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
Chef Frank Kline owns and runs Grace & Grit, which he opened in August 2017. The kitchen works from local seafood and produce, and its calling card is the Grit Flight, a sampler of the house grits. Tables sit inside or under the oaks on a dog-friendly patio.
The Hall family opened Halls Chophouse on King Street in 2009. It took eight wins in the 2026 City Paper readers' poll, including Best Restaurant, Best Steak, Best Wait Staff and Best Downtown Brunch. On r/Charleston it is the answer for an over the top Southern steakhouse, known more for service than anything, with some saying a newer rival now cooks a better steak.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
High Cotton is a Lowcountry dining room on East Bay Street with live music in the bar, weekend brunch and private dining rooms. The bar opens at 4pm every day.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
A small bistro on Middle Street that describes itself as casual fine dining with an eclectic American menu. It runs three formats: dinner, a Tuesday tapas night and Sunday brunch.
Husk has been cooking Southern food from local purveyors since 2011, and the Charleston room on Queen Street is the original; Nashville and Savannah came later. Sean Brock was the founding chef and is no longer involved, as The Post and Courier notes. Charleston City Paper lists Ray England as chef in its Summer 2026 Top 50. The Bar and Patio sits next door in a nineteenth-century kitchen house and pours a deep list of bourbon and Southern spirits, first come, first served. The Post and Courier ties the kitchen to biscuits, country ham and Carolina Gold rice. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.
Indaco is the Italian room from The Indigo Road, the Charleston-born group that also runs O-Ku, Oak Steakhouse and Shokudo. It serves dinner nightly with brunch on weekends and a bar-only happy hour on weekdays. The venue notes there is no valet and that the lot behind the building is monitored by a third party.
Owner Heather Greene opened Lillian's in the corner building that used to be Harold's Cabin, and City Paper calls it a comfortable follower for that much-loved room. It runs all day ... a coffee bar from 7:30am, weekday breakfast, a market selling flowers, prepared foods, wine and goods from local makers, then happy hour and dinner. Executive Chef Todd Garrigan works with local growers, fishermen and ranchers. Private parties use the Jackalope Dining Room, the Jackalope Bar or the upstairs terrace.
A neighborhood seafood restaurant in a small shopping strip on Palm Boulevard. It says it is known for fried seafood platters, fresh oysters and Seafood Steamer Buckets packed for the beach. Lunch runs Monday to Saturday, brunch on Sunday, and a raw bar it calls IOP Raw opens at 4:30.
Lost Dog is a breakfast and lunch cafe a block off Center Street that calls itself 'a long time Folly Favorite'. It opens at 6:30 in the morning and closes mid afternoon. City Paper readers voted it Best Folly Beach Brunch in 2026.
Dave and Chrissy Lorenz of Epic Hospitality, who also own Islander 71 and Mex 1 Coastal Cantina, opened Lou Lou's Tavern on the Tracks in May 2026 at The Refinery, in the space where Cleats used to be. The Post and Courier describes approachable small plates such as Aleppo pepper wings, harissa-glazed shrimp and Spanish croquettes, with a patio that looks onto the amphitheater. Weekends bring brunch.
Justin and Iryna Moore's restaurant sits in an old Navy building beside Riverfront Park on the former base, looking over the Cooper River. The tourism office describes the house as a historic Panama-style home from the naval base years and says the kitchen buys from local fishermen and farmers. The patio has heaters and a fire pit facing the water.
Magnolias reopened a damaged East Bay Street building in July 1990 after the Parsell family bought it in December 1989. The venue says the site appears on a 1739 map as Charleston's original Customs House and that the building was hurt in the 1887 earthquake. Kelly Franz is the culinary director. The upper-level gallery holds two private dining rooms.
Millers All Day serves breakfast, lunch and brunch on Lower King Street, with a second room on James Island. Charleston City Paper readers named it Best Breakfast and Best Weekend Brunch in Best of Charleston 2026.
This is the second room of Millers All Day, the breakfast and brunch restaurant that started at 120 King Street downtown. City Paper readers voted Millers Best Breakfast, Best Weekend Brunch and Best James Island Brunch in 2026.
Chef Andy Clay's breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant on Daniel Island. The site says Clay 'brings more than 25 years of global cooking back to Daniel Island'. It opens for Friday happy hour and for what it calls pre-concert dinner and drinks.
Chef Nico Romo's oyster and seafood room beside Shem Creek, the first of the Nico Romo Hospitality Group rooms that now include Bistronomy by Nico and Laura's. The week runs on rituals: half-price oysters on Monday, an oyster class on Wednesday, Wine & Brine on Saturday afternoon. Its press page lists Charleston City Paper's Best Mount Pleasant Restaurant for 2023 and 2024.
A family owned and run Southern restaurant on Coleman Boulevard serving breakfast, lunch, supper and weekend brunch, walk-ins only. Its signature is Ashleigh's Shrimp & Grits, which the restaurant says has been voted Best Shrimp & Grits ten years running. The family has since opened a second restaurant in Summerville's Nexton and runs a food truck in Moncks Corner.
Poogan's Porch has served Southern cooking in a restored Victorian house on Queen Street since 1976. The venue says it is named after Poogan, a neighborhood dog who stayed on the porch. Its own site leads with shrimp and grits, fried chicken and biscuits, and brunch is served every day. The venue says the house has resident spirits. It is run by Poogan's Hospitality, a Charleston group that also has Poogan's Smokehouse on East Bay Street.
A restaurant and small inn in Mount Pleasant's Old Village that calls itself a coastal tavern. The building at 101 Pitt Street went up in 1896 and was for 16 years the Old Village Post House, which closed in February 2019. Kate and Ben Towill of Basic Projects redesigned it and reopened it as Post House in August 2020, moving the dining room to the back and turning the bar to face Pitt Street. Indigo Road Hospitality Group, the Charleston-born group, bought the restaurant in March 2025. City Paper's Summer 2026 Top 50 points to the raw bar, fresh pastas, a local seafood massaman curry and Anson Mills cornbread.
Prohibition is a bar and restaurant on Upper King with music most nights: bands on Thursdays, DJs on Fridays and brunch sets at the weekend. It has a large heated patio and a private room for up to 150.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Rita's sits at the foot of Center Street, steps from the Folly Beach Pier, and its site calls it a family-owned restaurant of the Hall family. The site lists scratch-made American food, house-smoked barbecue and seafood, a patio, live music, and a separate puppy menu for dogs. Breakfast runs on weekdays and brunch on weekends.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
A Southern take on Southwestern cooking, with a wood fire in the kitchen, fresh-juiced margaritas and a long tequila list. The bar is built from a reclaimed cotton mill. Sunday brunch comes with endless mimosas. It is a small local group with other Charleston-area rooms.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
A seafood and barbecue house on the Shem Creek docks, opened in 2017 by Wade Boals, Brett Yearout and Joel Olindo. Wade is the son of Ronnie Boals, who opened R.B.'s Seafood Restaurant next door in 1985 and was one of the people who turned the creek into a place to eat; the menu still carries the Boals Family Crab Dip and a coconut cake. The restaurant closed from 5 to 12 January 2026 for its first major renovation, with a food window called The Wagon serving at the Mill Street entrance in the meantime. It has a Gazebo Bar and prints a dog treat menu.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Sunrise Bistro is a breakfast and lunch restaurant on Main Road that City Paper readers voted Best Johns Island Brunch in 2026.
Tattooed Moose is known for Mike's Famous Duck Club, which the site says was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and for duck fat fries. City Paper readers voted it Best Fries in 2026. The kitchen runs late ... to midnight most nights and 1am on Friday and Saturday ... and the bar stays open to 2am.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
A Shem Creek restaurant with an indoor bar and a waterfront dock bar, owned by Andy Palmer and Jeff Condon; the site credits Dianne and Cecil Crowley as co-founders and Denis Crutchfield as executive chef. Live music plays on the creek Friday and Saturday from 6 to 9 pm, and the T&T Room seats up to 32 for private dinners.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
The Crossing is the second-floor dining room of The Cooper, the new hotel beside Waterfront Park that opened its restaurants in 2026. Executive Chef Nick Dugan cooks what the hotel calls coastal Mediterranean cuisine with a Lowcountry twist, with harbor views and interiors by Meyer Davis. It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
The Darling is an oyster bar on Upper King with a second room in Savannah. It publishes a separate brunch menu and will take its raw bar on the road for oyster roasts, Lowcountry boils and parties.
Kimana Littleflower, a longtime Charleston food and beverage professional, opened The Junction in 2015 because she saw a need for something different in the Park Circle community she calls home. The plan was breakfast all day, sandwiches, an eclectic brunch menu and cocktails. Charleston City Paper readers voted it Best North Charleston Brunch in Best of Charleston 2026.
The Lick opened in March 2026 in the South Windermere shopping center. It pairs a steakhouse with a raw bar ... wagyu and USDA Prime beef, East Coast oysters, crab cakes, and a house bread with honey butter. The kitchen is open to the room and there is weekend brunch. The Post and Courier called it a swanky American restaurant.
The second Longboard ... the first opened on 1 May 2015 in Cruz Bay on St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The Sullivan's Island room is a hybrid of that original and its sister restaurant The Easterly on St. Thomas: seafood-led, with a raw bar, weekend brunch and Caribbean-leaning cocktails.
The Obstinate Daughter opened in 2014 on the second story of a building on Middle Street, behind a live oak, per The Post and Courier. The venue says the name honors 'the spirit, sass and determination of Miss Carolina Sullivan'. Chef Jacques Larson, a two-time James Beard nominee, cooks Lowcountry seafood through Italian, French and Spanish habits, with a wood-fired oven, a plancha and house pasta. The restaurant holds Green Restaurant Certification and buys from local farmers and fishermen. Beardcat's Sweet Shop is downstairs. It is the only Michelin-designated restaurant in the Charleston area off the peninsula: Recommended in the inaugural American South guide.
Chef and owner Ben Berryhill's restaurant, which the site calls 'the intersection of South by Southwest' ... Southern cooking crossed with his Texan background. It bills itself as the islanders' hangout, with a bar that opens at four and a Sunday brunch.
The Moose is known for the Duck Club ... duck confit, applewood smoked bacon, hickory smoked cheddar and garlic aioli on a Hawaiian roll ... and for a long craft beer list. Guy Fieri featured it, and the venue notes a 2024 return on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Its own site now lists two rooms, Park Circle and Johns Island, and the tourism office says it has been a local favorite since relocating to Park Circle.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
Three Little Birds Cafe opened in August 2007 in the Windermere shopping strip in West Ashley, with indoor and outside seating and carry out. City Paper readers voted it runner-up for Best West Ashley Brunch in 2026. Locals name it for breakfast, with one saying the prices keep it from being a regular stop.
Tideland is a North Charleston brewery on Dorchester Road with a 5,000 square foot beer garden, a fire pit and a full kitchen that does lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Bethany and Dano Heinze opened Vern's in 2022 in a converted corner grocery store at Bogard and Ashe streets, according to The Post and Courier. Dano Heinze is the chef-owner. The room is known for escargot with tarragon and Gruyère, handmade pastas, roast chicken and house sourdough. It earned One MICHELIN Star in the inaugural American South guide on 3 November 2025, with the food and the wine program both cited in local coverage.
A Shem Creek seafood restaurant on Shrimp Boat Lane with an outdoor bar on the lower level facing the creek. Sunday opens with a brunch buffet from 10 to 2.
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