Charleston Restaurant Recs
- Thread starter fsugrad06
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Most of the places I like such as Husk tend to be pricey so I'll let the locals speak to cheap options. The only place I've been that would qualify is Sweatmans BBQ about twenty minutes outside of town. It's amazingly good South Carolina (i.e. mustard) style pulled pork BBQ. Anthony Bourdain is on record saying it's his favorite pork dish anywhere on the planet. I'm partial to Western NC style and even prefer Eastern NC over SC style so I'm not going to wax on.poetically about it Like Bourdain but it IS the best SC bbq I've had and worth the drive.
I don't know which part of NC I had but it used a combination of vinegar with added spices as a sauce. I did not care for it at all. The mustard sauce is a nice break from the typical southern traditional sauces which I enjoy too.
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We went to Charleston over the 4th of July weekend. Here are the restaurants we decided on:
- 176 Raw - no reservations & fills up fast; oysters and local beer selection were great
- S.N.O.B. (Slight North of Broad) - recommend going for lunch (same menu but cheaper)
- The Macintosh - Our favorite & would definitely recommend
- Poe's (Sullivan Island) - would recommend for a good beach restaurant
- The Grocery - newer restaurant; food was great but service could have been better
- The Gin Joint
- Spectator Hotel bar
- Prohibition
- Rooftop bar at Market Pavilion Hotel - great views but gets crowded
Bowen's Island Restaurant is worth the drive out from Charleston. It's a local favorite that serves all the deep fried specials. I wouldn't recommend it more than once per trip, but it's a great spot and not expensive.
From your description that was Eastern Carolina style. The coast of North Carolina is where barbecue started and it started as just slow smoked pork seasoned not sauced with vinegar to cut the fattiness of the pork and some red pepper flakes and other spices. It comes already perfectly seasoned and the whole hog has a lot of fat compared to just the shoulder cooked most other places use for pulled pork. Eastern NC bbq is about maximizing the pork flavor and it already comes preseason so you shouldn't be drenching it in more vinegar like it's a Georgia style sauce to cover up the pork with sugar and seasonings. What I imagine happened is that you treated it Like Sonnys and immediately dumped a bunch sauce (i.e. vinegar) on it and ruined it. I never add more than a teaspoon of seasoned vinegar on a eastern NC Pulled pork Sammy.
Really an eastern nc pulled pork Sammy is more like a Philadelphia roast pork sandwich than it is a pulled pork covered in sweet sauce at most deep south bbq places. Instead of mayo which is just oil, eggs and vinegar whipped together the eastern nc Sammy has a ton of rendered pork fat from the belly and elsewhere in place of the oil nd eggs and opposed to the strong and sharp provolone cheese you get the skin crackling heavily flavored with smoke.
Now in western nc they traditionally only use pork shoulder which has a lot stronger porky flavor than the loin and other parts from the whole hog but it's also dry as it has nowhere near the fat content of a whole hog chopped fine. So you need to replace the missing fat and they do it in two ways, one is to add ketchup to the vinegar and the added sugar and tomatoes from the ketchup tones down the vinegar allowing you to add a lot more of the sauce to the meat which keeps it wet from liquid rather than just fat. And two tomatoes can be used just like Apple sauce as an oil replacement in baking recipes so it mimics fat on the tongue without actually adding fat. Then in western Carolina they also add red slaw to the Sammy to give it the crunch that's missing from the lack of pork skin crackling from the whole hog.
But western Carolina style is still about the pork first and the ketchup added vinegar is still more seasoning than a smothering sauce.
Halls Chop House - Expensive but worth it, best service I have ever had anywhere. Their waiters were almost like stalkers, only thing they didn't do was feed me!
Husk - it was a little to funky for my liking and a tad overrated, but still pretty good.
Hanks Seafood - was good, but definitely make a reservation if its a weekend.
I know you asked for cheap and none of these are, but when I vacation I eat breakfast/lunch cheap............and live a little for dinner. So this is all I got for Charleston.
Husk - it was a little to funky for my liking and a tad overrated, but still pretty good.
Hanks Seafood - was good, but definitely make a reservation if its a weekend.
I know you asked for cheap and none of these are, but when I vacation I eat breakfast/lunch cheap............and live a little for dinner. So this is all I got for Charleston.
Yeah, I more so said the cheap part to mean kid friendly. I know a lot on here don't post with kids in-tow, so, I asked for the cheap route.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUse..._Lou_s_Kitchen-Charleston_South_Carolina.html
hole in the wall with pics of Reggie Jackson and other famous peeps visiting. Chicken is great, prices are low. I'd go during the daytime.
hole in the wall with pics of Reggie Jackson and other famous peeps visiting. Chicken is great, prices are low. I'd go during the daytime.
If you are going in September, and you have a restaurant or two targeted, it may behoove to make reservations now. Dinners at many get booked well in advanced.
Lunch is a good alternative to try out some of the booked, great restaurants.
Good suggestion. We hit Magnolia's at lunch and there were tables open. The grilled tuna was very good. Hank's was good too but that was for dinner. Just my personal opinion, Hyman's was ok, but just about any seafood place in Fl is as good, not worth the wait if the line is long outside. It's been a few years, but there was a Hagen Daaz store in the Market St area, and behind it there was a Belgian chocolate place that had handmade chocolates. If the chocolate store is still there be sure to get some of the truffles.
How do you save a thread? I'd like to save this, I'm heading up there for a long weekend in September.
