Three Days Eating Our Way Through Charleston

Charleston really is all about the food (and least for this blog post)

For my birthday this past year, hubby and I took a trip to Charleston, SC. It was my first time there and his first time in many, many years.

We were supposed to leave Friday afternoon, but our flight, first delayed and later canceled, meant we didn’t get out until Saturday morning. This did require some last-minute pivoting of plans as we did have reservations that needed canceling. 

When you are only going to be away for a long weekend, losing even one evening is a bit of a bummer. We stayed focused on the positive which was still making it to Charleston for lunch on Saturday. 

While I will do more posts on Charleston and South Carolina, for this one, let’s keep it to one of the best things about the area – THE FOOD.

Day 1:

Lunch: Meeting at Market (attached to the beautiful Belmond Charleston Place hotel). Sat at the bar and had a great meal and drinks to toast our weekend away. Great location, right across from the city market and lots of great shopping and sites.

Dinner: First dinner away called for seafood of course. The Amen Street Fish & Raw Bar was quaint, casual and delicious. Definitely some good southern seafood – we started with the Baked Oysters and were not disappointed. In fact, I probably could have just ordered more and had an amazing meal on those alone. But as a lover of shrimp and grits I had to give that a try and it was a great take on the staple menu item. Highly recommend!

Post-Dinner Drinks: When you are married to a musician, you tend to always try and find some local live music and we were pointed to High Cotton just down the street from Amen Street Fish. The restaurant is popular so if you are looking to dine there you definitely need a reservation, the bar area is small but first-come-first served and we got lucky and found a table for two available just as the live music was starting up. We settled in with their world famous (according to the menu) espresso martinis and enjoyed the musical duo performing that night. Staff was very friendly and we stayed late into the evening despite an early rising for our flight.

Day 2:

My birthday! Jazz brunch – Charleston has several options for Jazz Brunches on the weekends. I chose High Cotton about a month earlier and having been there the night before was happy to head back for a full meal. Mimosa’s, eggs benedict, steak and eggs, delicious food and live music was a great way to start my birthday.

Late afternoon snack before our cruise – Tempest – located right across from City Market and next door to the well known restaurant Church and Union. We had about 90 minutes to kill before we had to head out for our Sunset Cruise so we grabbed two seats at the bar and ordered a few appetizers and some wine. Really great place and would love to try dinner there in the future – you can not go wrong with any of the seafood small plates!

Dinner: After a really full day, including a lot of food and walking, we took an Uber from the harbor for a late dinner at Le Farfalle Osteria. Quaint, friendly, delicious Italian fare. Every course was prepared well and full of flavor. While not the overall best meal of the trip it was a great place to end a long day and top off my birthday celebration.

Day 3:

Our last full day in Charleston had a little quieter start to it, choosing to just eat breakfast at our hotel before walking to meet up with our bus tour of the area. When we returned in the mid-afternoon we were ready for a little lunch and it was a beautiful April afternoon so we decided to check out one of the many Charleston rooftop bars.

Purely based on the location being so close to our hotel and being a little tired of all the steps we were tracking, we hit the rooftop at the Dewberry called the Citrus Club. Large outdoor lounge setting with a beautiful view of the city and water, it is worth the trip even just for one fancy cocktail.  We really enjoyed their edamame hummus and tried a couple of their signature cocktails. It does get pretty crowded, especially on weekends and evenings, but for us it was a perfect way to relax on our last afternoon in town.

For our final dinner in Charleston we actually decided to leave downtown and hit up Mt. Pleasant, specifically the area known as Shem Creek, and it was a great place to end our trip. We were ready for a more casual vibe but also wanted one more seafood heavy meal and Water’s Edge was a great choice. Being from a coastal area in New York and New Jersey, the vibe was familiar which is always nice when you are traveling. Staff was friendly and you can tell a lot of locals are eating there. Our food was fresh and tasty but best of all, we got to see dolphins frollicking in the creek right outside the restaurant. Now that was a picture perfect ending to this quick Charleston getaway!

While this blog focuses on the restaurants, a few final takeaways on Charleston overall. Hope you find this helpful as you plan your own food adventure!

A Few More Charleston Tips:

Lots of walking so wear comfortable shoes. I opted for comfortable dresses with either good flat sandals or sneakers.

Amazing food and drinks but some places get crowded and can be pricey. Do your research before going anywhere to see if you can get reservations and know the vibe and price points. 

Take a tour (or two) – so much history in downtown Charleston and the surrounding area. It is worth the tickets to learn more.

Venture beyond downtown – we loved Shem Creek and really all of Mt. Pleasant. There are also beautiful beaches, golf, rivers and lakes to be seen.