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.
22 spots
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.
Babas on Wentworth is the newest room from the Charleston cafe that started on Cannon Street. Explore Charleston says it opened in January 2026 as a European-inspired cafe in a 1931 building with an outdoor patio. It runs from morning coffee into evening drinks. The group's Meeting Street cafe was reported closing at the end of September 2026, with a move to 1011 King Street.
A basement bar, which is rare in a city that floods. The venue's own site calls it 'one of the only below-street-level bars in the city' and a 'bar clandestin', located beneath the French restaurant Brasserie La Banque at 1 Broad Street. Guests go down the building's original historic staircase into a room with soft lighting and Art Deco influenced furnishings. The menu is crepes, cocktails and champagne, and walk-ins are taken first come, first served.
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.
Circa 1886 is in the original carriage house of the Wentworth Mansion, built in 1886. Executive Chef Marc Collins has led the kitchen since 2001 and the room offers two six-course tasting menus beside an a la carte list. Executive Pastry Chef Ashley Cardona was named Pastry Chef of the Year at Stars of the Industry 2025. The Garden Room seats 8 to 12 for private dinners. Owned by Charming Inns.
Delaney Oyster House is a raw bar and seafood restaurant in what the venue calls a quintessential historic Charleston home on Calhoun Street, with a second-floor porch. Elliot Cusher is executive chef. It belongs to The Neighborhood Dining Group, the owners of Husk.
Fleet Landing sits on the harbor beside Waterfront Park and bills itself as Charleston's best waterfront dining and raw bar. The venue says it has been open for two decades. It reports three Post and Courier Charleston's Choice wins ... Best Downtown Restaurant, Best Waterfront Restaurant and a tie for Best Seafood Restaurant. The largest party it can seat is 10.
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.
Tae Woo Lee and Peter Marcus opened Kyn in September 2026 in a brick building on Cannon Street that the Post and Courier says once housed a YMCA established in 1866. The menu is hand rolls, sashimi, crudos and small plates, and Lee's Korean heritage shows in the chojang sauce and in herbs grown outside the restaurant. The owners call it the most untraditional sushi restaurant you are going to find.
Lowland is the restaurant of The Pinch hotel, run by Method Co., and it spreads through an 1834 house: a tavern with a copper bar and a wood-burning fireplace, a small parlour room, and an upstairs dining room with hand-painted murals. James Beard winner Jason Stanhope opened it and left after about 17 months for Sullivan's Island, per The Post and Courier. Executive chef Matthew Dion, a New Englander who cooked at FIG and The Ordinary, runs it now. Across the alley, The Quinte is a nineteenth-century room used for large parties. The Post and Courier points to the biscuits, crudos and the tavern burger. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.
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.
Oak Steakhouse fills three floors of an 1848 bank building on Broad Street. The venue lists arched windows, 20-foot ceilings, original ironwork, working fireplaces and 150-year-old heart pine floors. This is the original Oak, from Charleston-born group The Indigo Road, which has since opened Oak rooms in other cities.
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.
The newest room in the sector, open by late September 2026 on the roof of Storehouse Nine at Navy Yard Charleston, the redevelopment of the naval base that closed in 1996. It belongs to Charleston's Indigo Road Hospitality Group, the people behind Oak Steakhouse, Indaco and O-Ku. Executive chef Sean McMullen came from Luminosa in Asheville and cooks coastal Italian ... crudo, head-on shrimp, handmade pasta, whole fish, pizza ... with the Cooper River in view.
The Establishment opened in May 2018 in the James Gregorie House, built around 1791 and named for the Scottish merchant who lived there. Executive chef Elliott Howells has been in the kitchen since opening and took the top job in 2021; he came to Charleston in 2002 and trained at the French Culinary Institute, per Charleston Wine + Food. The menu centers on sustainably sourced seafood and changes daily. The house has two dining rooms, a wine cellar, two private rooms and a chef's counter on an open kitchen, plus live music on Saturday nights. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
The Restaurant at Zero George is the dining room of the Zero George boutique hotel in Ansonborough, and it works out of an unusually small kitchen. Chef Vinson Petrillo runs a tasting menu that The Post and Courier describes through technical dishes such as a liquid-nitrogen shrimp cocktail and wagyu over Japanese charcoal. The hotel also runs The Caviar Bar, which draws on Petrillo's time as chef de cuisine at Caviar Russe in New York, and a cooking school with chef-led classes. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.
A bar and music room in an old ironworks on the upper peninsula. The venue says it is in the Ole Charleston Forge building and has served food, drink and live music since 2011, with the kitchen open until 1 a.m. every day. The Post and Courier's 2026 itinerary sends readers there for $5 pitchers of Miller High Life on a patio that faces the Ravenel Bridge, and City Paper (June 2026) points to the $13 disco fries and the $12 patty melt.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
A wine bar in a house, not a storefront. The Post and Courier's 2026 itinerary (14 January 2026) describes it as tucked inside a 150-plus-year-old single house in Cannonborough-Elliotborough, steps from Chez Nous and Chubby Fish. Sommelier Matthew Conway opened it in October 2021 with his wife, Carissa. Micah Pearson runs the food menu. The same owners run The Press, a burrito window next door.
Two Blokes opened its second taproom on August 11, 2026 in a restored 19th-century building on Cannon Street near MUSC, the Post and Courier reported. It has a small-batch system for experimental beers, wine from Grassroots Wine, and a kitchen doing hand-cut fries, pretzels with beer cheese, wings and flatbreads.
Xiao Bao Biscuit has been at the corner of Rutledge and Spring since 2012, in a former gas station, and the venue still calls it the origin location. The Post and Courier credits Josh Walker, Duolan Walker-Li and Joey Ryan with opening it. The kitchen pulls from Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese cooking, and the okonomiyaki is the dish most often named. The house rule is on the site in capitals: no reservations, just come, with one large-party booking a night on a fixed shared menu. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.
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