Yes, we have strong opinions about dining in this beautiful Holy City, and I cross my heart this is not a complete list of all the delicious and tough-to-get-into restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina, the city I’ve happily called home for the past thirteen years. What follows: tips for snagging a table at a handful of recent award winners, personal favorite spots, places where the manager answered my emails and calls for insider details, and restaurants I often hear visitors ask about—or comment on the lines around their respective blocks.
Get Due South
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167 Raw
11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday
This seafood haven on King Street does not take reservations and stays slammed with walk-ins. “Once the restaurant is at 100 percent capacity inside, we begin to generate a waitlist with a name, phone number, and party size,” says general manager Greg Mest. “The good news is, you need just one person in your party to come down and sign up on the waitlist.”
Timing tip: “Tuesday is the slowest day, and Monday night tends to be a bit slower,” Mest says. “Friday lunch begins to get busy around 12:30, but if you come before noon, you can generally walk right in. On the weekends, I recommend coming by around 5:40 to add your name to a waitlist to ensure a spot between 7:00 and 8:30.”
If you’ve heard about restaurants that are hard to get into in Charleston, the 38-seat Chubby Fish is quite likely the example given. Known not just for its fun wine list and inventive seafood menu, Chubby Fish famously does not take reservations until the day of, once open. Its massive queue along Coming Street has even inspired a start-up economy of college kids and neighbors who take payment to line-sit and book a table for diners…