Places to eat in Charleston

Best place I ate at while here.

Chicken breast on a big biscuit, covered in sausage gravy with cheese.

Plum-peach cobbler for dessert.

Go a little early or late for meal, there is a line but since it's a ways off the main drag it's not too bad.

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Famous restaurant, serve local food, sould food, etc....

I had a pecan-crusted chicken sandwich, with fried okra, and cole slaw. The fried okra was not that great, too greasy, but the rest of it was good.

For dessert I had Coca Cola, a very rich, moist chocolate cake. Terrific!

Go at an off-hour, there is a line to get in.

Favorite Dish: Jestine's Kitchen
(843) 722-7224

Peninsular Charleston
251 Meeting St
Charleston, SC 29401

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After learning the night before that not much stays open late in Charleston, the next morning we discovered that few establishments open early for breakfast. After walking around the historic district for 20 or 30 minutes in the rain, we finally stumbled up on the East Bay Meeting House. This nicely decorated establishment with an old fashioned classic vibe has a small bar and a tiny dining area, along with a few tables on the sidewalk out front.

We took a seat at a table on the side near the window and enjoyed huge cups of coffee of cappuccino. We scanned the breakfast menu, which is quite sparse, but containing several interesting, unique items. Laura and I both decided to get a quiche. Laura had the spinach with Parmesan quiche, and I the Portobello mushroom, ham and cheddar cheese quiche, both served with fresh fruit for $8. The quiches were absolutely spectacular; I'm not normally a huge quiche fan, but I could have easily eaten another. Delicious.

The staff was OK, just one bored waitress giving about 75% effort. She even got our bill mixed up with another table, after I viewed the correct bill and gave my credit card. Oh well.

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Fleet Landing Restaurant is a newish restaurant in a cool, historic location with great views. The concrete building on a pier was originally built by the US Navy in 1942 to process sailors from the ships. Later it was merely used for storage by the city of Charleston. In 2004 the current owners of the Fleet Landing acquired the building and opened this fine restaurant.

We started at the huge and crowded bar that is half inside and half outside. Here the bartender named Wes served us a few Yuengling Lagers. We asked for a menu, then he went on to ignore us for the next 20 or 30 minutes while our beers sat empty and we patiently waited to order. Finally we just decided to leave, because he seemed to be going out of his way to ignore us.

On the way out the door, we noticed there was no longer a wait, so we decided to give the restaurant a second chance, and we asked for a table for two. We started off with a few fresh Yuenglings, then decided on the shrimp and lobster stuffed hush puppies as an appetizer. They were huge, hollowed-out hush puppies full of shrimp, and with a piece of lobster somewhere--unique dish, great taste, but cheap on the lobster ($12)

For my main course, I decided to try shrimp and grits ($20). The dish consisted of a huge bowl of creamy grits in a special gravy with lots of shrimp and Andouille sausage. It was excellent! My dad had the grouper filet, which was the fish of the day ($21).

On our last night in Charleston we went a little above budget and ate here. Written several years ago unfortunately I can't remember every dish and just got rid of the food photos as they did not turn out very well, but just did find the sales slip.

I remember my overall impressions were very nice place, but again like a lot of the high end type restaurants they tend to be almost too attentive. The food was good and not overly expensive, but its not the place I really need to go back to again.

Favorite Dish: Our food for the evening was as follows:

Appetizers: We had a cheese trio for $12.00 and a bowl of peanut bisque for $8.00. The cheese was as you would expect it and the bisque was very tasty and something we wouldn't find in the Chicago area where we live.

Main: We both had fish that night. One of us had bass while the other had salmon. These were $24 and $25.

Deserts: We shared a chocolate desert which I remember being very rich. This was $11

The 2 glasses of wine we had were a bit pricey at $10 and $14, but went well with the meal.

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I am going to list this in the Charleston section (here) and also create the same tip for Folly Beach (where it is actually located - but not many people visit that page although they should).

Researching our trip to the Charleston, SC area we look at VT information and then go to our local library to get whatever books we can find. Looking through Lonely Planets guide to the Charleston area, Sue came across this unique little restaurant about a 25 minute ride from where we were staying. We decided to go to Folly Beach on our second full day in Charleston to catch a sunrise and then have breakfast. What a neat little place!! The weather was perfect that day, so after taking in a stupendous sunrise, walking down the beach and seeing a video being created, we hopped back in our car and headed toward the Lost Dog Cafe. I originally thought it was on the waterfront, but then not finding Huron Street finally asked a couple of surfers (COOL HUH) where the Lost Dog Cafe was and they directed me up the road and to the left.

You can take your meals inside or out, but I love sitting out in nice weather so that's where we partook our morning meal. There was a dog right by us while we were eating outside, but alas he was not lost. He belonged to the young couple with a baby sitting at the table over from us.

Take a look at picture #1 and picture #2. #1 is outside (the front porch area is where we sat) and #2 is inside (look closing at the surf boards with pictures of dogs).

Favorite Dish: We started out by ordering morning drinks. Sue had a large hot chai tea and I had the large cold chai tea, both of which were $3.95 and very large. For our main course Sue had the specialty pancakes of the day which were sweet potato with bananas, chocolate chips and fresh whip cream. I opted for something unusual for me, the Breakfast Burrito, as they recommended that in the Lonely Planet guide book. Neither of us were disappointed. Both were huge and we took a portion of each back with us to the hotel to put into the refrigerator. Take a look at pictures #3 and #4

Our waitress (darn her name's not on the receipt I kept) was very friendly and from what I remember was the girlfriend of the guy who ran the place. Background music was from the 60's and I made a note that one of the songs being played while we were there was Bob Dylan's - Times They Are A Changing.

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Anyway to continue. We really enjoyed lunch here at Rue de Jean. Jimmy was great and since it was a little late for the regular lunch crowd he had some time to spend talking to us about his sojourn to Charleston from Boston. Short story he wasn't sure where he wanted to go when he left Boston, so he took a train, got off in Charleston where he had never been before and decided to stay. Better winters, although the summer months get a bit steamy.

Favorite Dish: Sue had the Frissee Lyonnaise which is Frisee lettuce, bacon lardons, toasted hazelnuts, poached egg with hazelnut vinaigrette.

Rich had the 10 oz. Brasserie Burger with Gruyere Cheese (the other cheese choices were Roquefort or Cheddar) and great fries.

We opted not to have the speciality of the house which are mussels. But if you are a mussel lover they had over a half dozen varieties. They had many other options and a great dessert menu, but we noticed a Italian Gelato place right next store so we opted to skip dessert here and head next door. Who'd a thunk it was that short a trip from France to Italy? See the dessert in another tip.

Favorite Dish: Noisy Oyster Seafood Steam Pot. Described as a 'big ole iron pot full of steamy snow crab legs, lobster tails, shrimp, oysters, clams and mussels all in a spicy seafood broth. AND to make it even better, we toss in corn on the cob, potatoes and country sausage.' And it's just that! The broth is absolutely delicious! A tomato base and slight spicyness to awake the senses!

We dined here on our first night and was such a good find, we went back the second night!