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.
24 spots
A Mexican restaurant in the middle of the East Montague strip in Park Circle. The city's tourism office is the only public source found for it, and it gives no owner or story.
Basil is the work of brothers Henry and Chai Eang, who came to the United States from Cambodia in the turbulent 1970s without speaking English and built a group of Thai restaurants across the Carolinas, starting with the original in Charleston. This is the Park Circle room, sharing a building number with the wine bar Stems & Skins.
Courtney Colangelo started Cakette in her home kitchen during maternity leave, baking birthday cakes for friends, then ran pop-ups ... including a Friday tent outside Prophet Coffee ... before opening the bakeshop at Durant Avenue and Simms Street. She writes that Cakette exists in part to make maternal leadership visible in the independent restaurant business. The Post and Courier notes its vegan and gluten-free pastries. It is open four mornings a week.
Commonhouse is the Park Circle neighborhood brewery, with an outdoor yard it calls CommonGround. Swig & Swine, the Charleston barbecue group, opened its fourth Lowcountry location inside the brewery as the food partner.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
The bakery arm of EVO Pizzeria, selling cookies, danishes, croissants and muffins, with cinnamon rolls on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It pours coffee from King Bean and Foresight Coffee Roasters and sells Brandon's Bread on Fridays. The city's tourism office points people to its patio for a latte.
Matt McIntosh and Ricky Hacker met in 2003 working at FIG in Charleston, left in 2005 and started EVO as a mobile wood-fired oven for catering. The East Montague Avenue restaurant opened in 2007, which makes it one of the rooms Park Circle's dining street grew up around. The venue says it sources locally and regionally. EVO Craft Bakery shares the address.
Firefly runs its distillery and tasting room on Spruill Avenue in North Charleston with a concert lawn that hosts a seasonal series. The site lists a food menu and food trucks. City Paper readers named it Best Distillery for 2026.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
The venue calls itself the little Italian place on the corner and its cooking Jersey Italian comfort food, from recipes it says were passed down through generations. It says it is family owned and run. A second Fratello's is on Folly Road on James Island.
The Post and Courier calls it 'the mecca of family-friendly restaurants': covered outdoor seating, picnic tables, and beyond them a large area for children with a basketball net and full-size Jenga blocks, on a property that sits along Noisette Creek. The Walrus is the in-house raw bar. The venue lists four event spaces, live music on Fridays 5pm-8pm and team trivia on Wednesdays.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Shuai and Corrie Wang turned their Short Grain food truck into this room, which the venue calls heritage driven new Chinese American. It started at 4628 Spruill Avenue and moved to East Montague Avenue ... the old space became Katsubo in May 2025. Charleston City Paper readers voted it Best North Charleston Restaurant and Best Chinese in Best of Charleston 2026, and the paper's Top 50 singles out the pork and cabbage dumplings and the karaage. Its sister restaurant is King BBQ on Carver Avenue.
Joe Nierstedt and Abby Leibowitz opened Katsubo in May 2025 in the room Jackrabbit Filly left behind. Nierstedt ran the fried chicken restaurant KinFolk on Johns Island from 2019 to 2023 and cooked at Mu Ramen in New York. The chicken is fried twice in Japanese potato starch, and the menu runs to ramen, gyoza, shishito peppers and okonomiyaki in a room of wooden booths and anime decor.
LoLA stands for Low Country Louisiana Seafood Kitchen and says it was established in 2016. It serves Louisiana Cajun and Lowcountry cooking in Park Circle with a colorful patio where pets are welcome. City Paper readers voted it Best Soul Food in 2026, ahead of Bertha's Kitchen and Hannibal's Kitchen.
Madra Rua has been the Irish pub on East Montague Avenue in Park Circle since 2003, with Irish fare its site says is made from scratch daily. City Paper readers named it Best Authentic Pub for 2026. A second pub is in Summerville.
No Bull opened in West Ashley in 2023 as a reworking of the Tex-Mex restaurant 3 Matadors, closed there without warning, and reopened in early 2026 in the former Southern Roots Smokehouse on East Montague. Owner Travis Glen runs it under the Lucky 17 Restaurant Group. The pitch is freshly ground burgers, hand-cut fries and hand-breaded chicken, with half-price burgers on Wednesdays and two-for-one on Tuesdays when The Post and Courier wrote it up.
A cafe and small grocery that stocks local meat, produce and dairy next to goods from small makers around the country, with coffee, breakfast, lunch, beer and wine. Co-founders Andrew Hare and Jared Hellman are old friends who built and sold a deli called Bubba Slye's in the early 2000s before coming back to food with this. Park Circle is the original ... there is a second market in Summerville and a third opened at 637 Rutledge Avenue by Hampton Park in July 2026.
A Park Circle coffeehouse at the foot of the East Montague strip. The tourism office notes it pours cha yen, Thai iced tea, alongside coffee roasted by Springbok Coffee and seasonal house-made drinks. Its name comes from the idea that a happy experience is your orange spot.
A homemade ice cream and waffle cone shop on East Montague. A second shop is in Summerville.
Pinky & Clyde's is an arcade bar on East Montague Avenue with original arcade cabinets, signature cocktails and snacks. Kids are welcome on Saturdays from 12 to 2. City Paper readers named it Best Activity Bar and Best Arcade Bar for 2026.
Bryson and Savanna Purcell started Prophet serving coffee out of a converted 1996 Subaru Sambar. Bryson, from Anderson, had spent seven years leading worship at a local church. They opened a tiny commuter cafe at 4411 Spruill Avenue in late 2023 and expanded in June 2025 into the former Wind and Waves Brewing space a few doors up. The Post and Courier's July 2026 guide lists it for coffee and baked goods.
A local build-your-own burger room that has been cooking to order for more than a decade, with a second Sesame in Mount Pleasant. Charleston City Paper's October 2026 burger feature gave its Southwest Black Bean Burger first place for best faux burger and named the Napa Valley, with bacon fig jam, blue cheese and a red wine reduction, as a runner-up. There is a burger named the Park Circle. Tuesday is $8 burger night.
Stems & Skins opened in 2016 on East Montague Avenue in Park Circle and pours natural wine with Mediterranean-style plates, tinned seafood, charcuterie and cheese. Its site lists a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Outstanding Wine Program, and Food & Wine called it one of America's most important natural wine bars.
A Southern breakfast and lunch counter built around grits bowls, with waffles and biscuits beside them. It is a sister to Grace & Grit in Mount Pleasant ... gift cards work at both Grit Counter rooms and at Grace & Grit. It stays open for dinner on Friday and Saturday.
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 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.
The same over 50 spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
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