Yāallā¦Charleston did not disappoint. It tried to, by raining almost EVERY DAY we were there, but little did she know we can make and rainy day a sunny one! The drive from Georgia {Athens area} was aĀ breeze. We left around 6:00 am and arrived around 10:30, pretty good time!
One tip, if you are coming from our area, bring toll money! Luckily, Steven is always prepared so we were good. The tolls are between Ā $1.50-$1.75 EACH! We were stopped by two toll roads. Make sure to check your route or have change on hand when you make the drive! There is nothing worse than having to turn around to find cash!
Once we arrived, we could not check into our condo until 3:30 so we had to dillie-dallieĀ around Charleston. Torture, right? Ha! We decided to scope out the French Quarter by car and scratch off one of our restaurants off our list.
In this first installment, I will give you the ins and outs of where to we chose to eat and the outcomes. Remember these are all my husband and my opinions, given to you without any compensation or reimbursements from the restaurants.
In my previous post, where we planned what we would be doing, I told you, my husband, was at an obsessive point of using Yelp. You can check that post out {HERE}. Along with Yelp, we also checked to see if there were any restaurants in Charleston that were visited by Guy Fieriā¦boy were there, check those out {HERE}!
We always find it fun to see if this guy knows what he is talking about when we travel. Our fist stop and only restaurant on his list wasĀ delicious!Ā Guy got it right this time!
This was one of Guyās picks and I am glad we decided to stop here on the way in! As you can see from the picture, there isnāt much to this place. Real talk, one thing I was not fond of when pulling up was finding a parking spot.
There are minimal ānormalā spots and you MAY have to dig deep and remember how to use those parallel parking skills. They also have a very narrow area to pass through in the back to get to the other side of the parking area, I drive a 4-Runner and there were some close calls coming around the building due to others parking all willie-nillie.
But, donāt get me wrong, we didnāt have to look for over 5 minutes, I was just impatient and wanted to eat after our 4-hour car ride.
Upon pulling up, the sign made me laugh and sing {this song} in my head. I jumped out and took this pictureā¦please pause to look at the gorgeous sky in the background. That sight didnāt last long. :[
It took a good 30 minutes to be seated. There were a few larger parties who were already seated {and wouldnāt leave even though they were done eatingā¦instead decided to yell and laugh in this semi-tiny restaurant} and we wereĀ hangrily patiently waiting while giving the place a look over.
When waiting, patiently, I loved how many different characters were also waiting. There were businessmen; moms with their babies; teens with blue hair and tattoos; older couples drinking gallons of coffee; and many more varieties all there for delicious foods.
Entertainment area: kids books, coloring books, crayons, and toys. They also have adult literature for that possibly long waitā¦but only about 3 chairs to sit while you wait. This and the bathroom {YES, I SAID ONE BATHROOM} are points needing to be addressedā¦but that has nothing to do with the deliciousness that was on our plates.
They proudly hung their Guy Fieri sign {above the kitchen door}, as they should, signifying that they were indeed visited by this frosty haired food connoisseur. As you can see, this place loves to stick a sticker on something and promote local artists. Loving the arts myself, I found this to be an awesome and eclectic, way to decorate this space.
The art on the wallsĀ were from many mediums. The most predominant were graphic/comic style prints, followed secondly by good olā acrylic on canvas.
This place has some interesting hours. Make note!
Since we got there at 10:45, we were kind of at the turnover time from breakfast to lunch. Steven decided to get the meatloaf sandwich with a side of sausage. We started this trip pretty strong with our Ketogenic ways, skipping the bread on this one. As you will see when this post gets going, we slowly lost our Keto way and planned to start fresh when we returned home.
I got the blackened chicken sandwich with collard greens. This came with bacon, avocado, and chipotle mayo.
Check out Early Bird Dinerās social medias and otherās reviews:
This was Stevenās favorite restaurant, hands down. I enjoyed this restaurant as well, but I was still in the Keto mindset. I feel that when we travel back to Charleston, there are a few other things on the menu I will try.
The overall feel is very laid back but with a sophisticated feel. When you first walk in, you are greeted by a host who can find your reservations {which are highly recommended during peak hours} or seat you at their beautifully designed restaurant.
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Once we sat down, these pretty little flowers greeted us. I love that they matched my newly-dyed hair, ha! Another added touch was with the menus and the black acrylic backer they were attached to, keeping it classy! The architecture was also superb!
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We started off with the āHoly City Samplerā appetizer. This AWESOME dish consisted of pimiento cheese, boiled peanut hummus, flatbread to scoop them up with. It also came with deviled eggs and pickled okra {yum!}. I believe the stars on this plate were the okra and the pimento cheese. I would totally get this dish again.
I decided to stay on the Keto wagon and got the grilled chicken caesar salad with possibly the best dressing I have ever had! I did not eat the croutons, but they were interestingā¦they were baby cornbread cubes!
Steven is more of a seafood lover than I and got the grilled sea scallops, accompanied by wild caught shrimp in creamy white grits with mushrooms, spinach, lobster butter. This was his favorite meal of the entire trip, it was a little pricey but we will return!
Check Blossomās social media and otherās reviews:
This was my favorite restaurant but, like most of the places, we ate it was not in walking distance from our condo. We had to take a quick drive across the Ravenel Bridgeā¦please note the overcast sky.
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Once we arrived at Pageās Okra Grill, it began to sprinkle and thankfully they have a great covered porch to wait and eat, when the weather is better. They also had a fun adirondackĀ chair for a photo opportunity, there were a ton of people jumping off and on so I could only snap this quick photo.
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Once we sat down, we were greeted by an awesome waiter, Alban! He was very attentive and knew his stuff about the menu. After he took our order, he spun around, made a joke {one of many} and sped off to put our order in. While we were waiting, we noticed the music and how awesome it was as well. They played Jimmy Eat World, Semisonic, Nine Days, and some other 90ās and 00ās alternative rock bands. We were constantly singing and tapping our feet. While the atmosphere was great, the food was even better.
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The menus here in Charleston always need extra flair. That was no different, even though this restaurant was not as āfancyā as Blossom, they added a nice touch to the ambiance. Okay, on to the part you really care aboutā¦the food described clockwise.
Steven couldnāt resist the shrimp, crab and bacon chowder with the toasted cracker. After this appetizer, he decided to trick his body and up his carb intake and indulge in the chicken and waffles with delicious honey butter. I have to admit that had a nibble. I am not sure if it is because I have not had sweets in a month or so, but this was one of the best waffles I have ever eaten.
Next, I built my own burger. Now, with the Keto lifestyle, I have eaten a ton of burgers and I can say this was the best burger I have ever eaten. Their menu states their burgers are āa blend of ground chuck, brisket & rib-eye steak, ground fresh daily in-house & cooked to orderā. I added all the Keto-friendly toppings they had to offer: pepper jack cheese, bacon, grilled mushrooms, jalapenos, and avocado. I was in Keto paradise!
Check Pageās Okra Grill social media and otherās reviews:
Pageās Okra Grill Website
Yāallā¦we literally walked through the storm to eat at this place. In that walk, we came to the conclusion that when you visit on a rainy day/week, you need to pack a small umbrella. The sidewalks of Charleston are extremely narrow and when you have tons of people trying to pass each other, it is like a game of chicken. We were bobbing and weaving to get around people and jumping in and out of puddles.
Once we arrived, pretty soaked, we had about a 20-minute wait and took in the views.
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As you could tell from the picture, Fleet Landing is right on the water so we were able to see all of the wildlife and the ships passing by. I also love that the inside is nautical and their use of space, because it is on the smaller side, is great.
The photo below shows exactly what our view was likeā¦cloudy but gorgeous! We were on the outside of the restaurant and they were prepared to pull down a shade to keep the rain out.
Keeping all things real, I didnāt really see much on the menu I wantedā¦other than appetizers. That is not saying you wonāt like the menu, that is your call. Steven had his fill of seafood by this time and nothing really jumped out at meā¦other than these apps.
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Once again, the best way to describe the delicious foods is clockwise. The first, and most delicious in my opinion, were the seared blackened shrimp with pimentoĀ cheese grits and sweet creamed corn. The shrimp were HUGE and delicious. These grits too yāall were the bomb.com and I will have them again, ha!
Next, I had a simple Fleet Landingās house salad, but whoa, that creamy pepper parmesan though! One of the best dressings {along with the Blossomās caesar} I have ever had. Those cheese stick looking things in the top right arenāt what you would expect them to be.
These are actually crispy āsteakā calamari sticks with an apricot glaze and spicy red pepper remoulade. Oh, my squidā¦it didnāt even taste like squid. I highly recommend these if you love calamari or even if you are toying with the idea of trying it. You can tell from the photo that they give you a hefty portion too, we couldnāt even finish them!
Lastly, Steven ordered the pan-fried Carolina lump crab cake with pickled corn relish, red pepper sauce, and crispy fried onions. I have never seen a crabcake with so much crab. I am not a huge eater of crab, but I did take a bite to say I tried it. Steven ate it quickly, so I am assuming it was delicious, ha!
Overall, I am not sure if I would return when we travel back to Charleston. It may have also been that this was not one of the first places we visited so I was not wanting what I could have eaten at the other places.
Check Fleet Landingās social media and otherās reviews:
Callieās Hot Little Biscuit
This is possibly the smallest restaurant I have ever been inside but whoa, big taste. You might me saying to yourself, āArenāt all biscuits the same?ā. Um, no.
When we were walking down King Street {tons of pictures below} we walked right past this little shop. I wish they had an actual sign that sticks out from the building to alert people looking for this gem.
When you first walk in, you might be sticking out the door or becoming best friends with the person in front and behind you. It was packed like sardines yāall! They are smart and made all things white to help make the room feel larger.
Once we looked over the menu, we decided to eat brunch here to fuel our walk all over the city. Buh bye staying under 20g of carbsā¦we needed fuel.
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While waiting, I took a ton of photos and Steven sipped on his many liquids. I have to warn you the wait was pretty long, but it was well worth it!
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Okay, so the left picture shows what we really went to getā¦sausage, egg, and pimento cheese biscuit. They were absolutely delicious. If you know me, you know I love a good Golden Pantry biscuit and that is what this made me think of. All of their ingredients are fresh and made to order, that is why it takes a good minute to get these āhot little biscuitsā.
The little biscuits to the right were a little sampler to taste some of the other flavors. We decided upon the black pepper bacon filled biscuit, plain and cinnamon filled {this was my personal fave}.
One of the best things is that these little biscuits are also available in Atlantaā¦closer to me than Charleston. One hour and 15 minutes from my house to be exact! That is a lot better than 4 hours!
Check Callieās Hot Little Biscuits social media and otherās reviews:
Callieās Hot Little Biscuit Website
This was not a restaurant that was on our original list, but we threw Keto to the wind by this time and were resetting our bodies. We decided to splurge a little and hit this place on the way out of Charleston.
The parking situation was limited, on a Friday at 11amā¦that shows you how popular it is. Thankfully, we are not a large party so we were sat fairly quicklyā¦this place was packed!
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I absolutely love the decor, simple and clean. They had flowers on the table were great, a running theme here in Charleston. The building {shown in the top left } is only on the lower floor, the second and third floor are apartments.One flaw was that there was no guest wifi, most places had this. While it wouldnāt make me not ever go back, it would have made it easier for me to take more IG storied and pretty much give them free advertisements!
One flaw was no guest wifi, most restaurants in the area had this. While it wouldnāt prevent me from going back, it would have made it easier for me to take more IG storied and pretty much give them free advertisements!
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Look at all of these people! This was about 1/3 of the people in the entire restaurant, we were packed like sardines!
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Iāve said it before and I will say it againā¦I keep it real, with my views here at entirelyerika. While I love the aesthetics; the waitstaff was wonderful; the food tasted greatā¦ the portions were smaller for the huge price. Can we also talk about how this place was NOT in the immediate downtown Charleston area? You couldnāt walk there like some of the other places with comparable pricing. That should account for slightly lesser pricingā¦just my opinion.
To give you an example, I ordered the shrimp and grits with sautĆ©ed shrimp, scallions, mushrooms & bacon over cheese grits on a plate larger than a tea saucer, but smaller than a regulation dinner plate for $17. Steven ordered the āCharleston Nasty Biscuitā with fried chicken breast, cheddar cheese & sausage gravy for $13.
Now, $30 for two people in Charleston is not terrible, but this biscuit size was comparable to the ones we ate at Callieās Hot Little Biscuit {CHLB}. Keeping all things real, the biscuit we ate at CHLB were better.
Both tasted great, but I think I can honestly say when we travel back to Charleston, this will not be on our list. Check out what others have said below.
Check Hominy Grill social media and otherās reviews:
I hope these recommendations help you plan as you travel to Charleston and eat your way around the city!
Do you have a favorite place to eat? Have you eaten at these places?
[bctt tweet=āCheck out @entirely.erika and her favorite restaurants to visit in #Charleston !ā username=āentirely_erikaā]
CHECK OUT PART TWO: WHAT TO SEE COMING SOON!
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Charleston, South Carolina Travel Guide Part One: Where toĀ eat Y'all...Charleston did not disappoint. It tried to, by raining almost EVERY DAY we were there, but little did she know we can make and rainy day a sunny one!
