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.
13 spots
Ciao Bella opened in June 2025. The Post and Courier describes a family-owned Southern Italian restaurant, a partnership between chef Gary Langevin and his children. Dinner only, closed Mondays.
An upstairs room at the beach with no ground-floor dining room to walk past. City Paper's Top 50 for summer 2026 says chef and owner Ken Vedrinski, formerly of the downtown restaurant Trattoria Lucca, built a second-story dining room with brick walls, reclaimed wood floors and, in what the paper calls a rarity for the Lowcountry, floor-to-ceiling windows on the Atlantic. Handmade pasta anchors the menu, including ricotta gnudi with mushrooms and guanciale.
Edison is owned and run by husband and wife Chef Joel and Chelsea Lucas, and the site says it is now in its tenth year on James Island. The menu is seasonal and changes. Dinner only, with a shaded patio the site calls secluded.
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.
A small Folly Beach room with a courtyard out back that the street does not show. The saloon quotes Charleston Magazine on its own site: 'a haven for vegetarians, vegans and omnivores alike, with sidewalk booths and a sunny back courtyard'. City Paper's Top 50 for summer 2026 says co-owner and chef Lesley Carroll rotates the menu with the seasons, with dishes such as red curry mac and cheese and Tom Kha Gai gnocchi. The Post and Courier's food editor calls it his Folly Beach favorite.
The venue calls it 'Chinatown BBQ made with Southern Smoke': Chinese roasted and chopped meats given what it calls a gentle smoke. Owners Shuai and Corrie Wang also run Jackrabbit Filly; the venue says a fire closed King four months after it opened and that Shuai was then cast on Top Chef season 22. Wang means King in Chinese, which is where the name comes from. The venue lists Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurants 2024. Counter service, first come first served. It says it has no high chairs but a few booster seats. Wood species not stated; not whole hog.
A Sichuan kitchen attached to a music hall. City Paper's Top 50 for summer 2026 says it is set next door to the Charleston Pour House in the space once occupied by The Lot, and that nothing about it is subtle, from the food to the music to the chef. The menu is sorted into blocks labeled 'Loud', 'Hot' and 'Vibes', and the paper recommends starting with the crescent dumplings.
Chef and owner Patrick Owens opened Langdon's in 2003, and it has stayed a dinner-only fine dining room in the Shelmore Village shops since. The site describes classic fine dining that fuses Lowcountry cooking with wider influences. It sits under Owens Dining Group, which also runs Opal in Mount Pleasant.
Chef Maryam Ghaznavi and her husband Raheel Gauba, co-owner and creative director, call Malika the first Pakistani restaurant in South Carolina. Maryam was born in Pakistan and grew up as her family's 'chief taste tester'; the couple met in Canada and later moved to the Lowcountry. They started with a pop-up at The Daily in 2019 and opened Ma'am Saab at Workshop in 2020 before Malika. The menu is Pakistani street food: biryanis, karahis, saags and kababs.
Chef Raul Sanchez has cooked around Charleston for more than 15 years, including at R. Kitchen. In February 2026 he moved Maya del Sol from Reynolds Avenue near the old naval base to a space behind The Starlight Motor Inn on Rivers Avenue, with a handful of tables and a long chef's counter facing an open kitchen. Lunch is tacos, burritos and daily specials ... at night there are two seatings of a five-course menu built on family recipes, with occasional Indian and Chinese dinners. Charleston City Paper keeps it in its Top 50.
Owner and executive chef Chris Stewart is an eighth generation Alabama native who learned to cook from his grandmother, who ran a meat and three in Birmingham through the Depression. The dishes he grew up on, country fried steak, fried chicken, deviled eggs, pies and cobblers, turn up on the menu. Locals name it more than any other room when asked for a good dinner that is not downtown prices.
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.
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.
The same over 50 spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
Recommendations from real Charlestonians, always attributed to whoever wrote them.
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