495 King American, emphasis on locally produced $$$ If you’ve been living under a fricken rock (for the last month) then you likely missed King Street’s newest member of the culinary club. Stars has been one of the most highly anticipated restaurants to open in the area since The Macintosh or The Grocery—and, when you’re going up against those two for patrons, you’ve got your work cut out for you. Planning to open in August before the PGA tournament, it finally opened the first week of October – just in time for my birthday. And, while we’re comparing it to
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Mellow Mushroom
309 King Pizza, large draft beer selection $$ How to save $$: Go Monday from 4pm-close for a $5 small 1-topping pizza Mellow Mushroom has been keeping Joe College full since the ’70s in a college town near you. Currently, it’s sporting 120+ franchised locations (3 in the Charleston area) and, as of recently, has made a big push outside of its comfortable college-town-only business mode and expanded into larger urban areas in the Southeast. It has, for the most part, brilliantly branded the “stereotypical pizza joint.” And the pizza is freakin good. When you enter, you’ll find psychedelic décor,
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Virginia’s on King
412 King Southern/Soul: Breakfast, Weekday Lunch, Weekend Brunch, Dinner (except Sundays) $$$ How to save $: Use a Restaurant.com Gift Card. We did the $25 off $50 for some good savings. Virginia’s On King, which shares an owner with Coast and Rue de Jean, is the final restaurant of the trifecta that we needed to review. With this task complete, we can say that the guys behind these restaurants are doing something right as all are delicious (but, if forced to rank, Rue de Jean will take the cake 10 times out of 10). The only one of the
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Verde
347 King Salads: Lunch, Dinner $ The first impression you’ll have about Verde is “this place must be a chain.” It is just so well put together that you get this impression… Sounds like the owners of this place are on to a hot concept that appears to be easily transferable to other markets. I went into this one thinking, okay, let’s scratch this chick salad joint off the list. I left full, satisfied and eager to return. You’ll notice that the concept is essentially a packed salad bar with limitless options (well, not limitless—I counted 45+ toppings, which is
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Chopstick House
86 Society $-$$ Chinese, Asian How to save $: 10% off with coupon from CofC discount book Chopstick House has more than its fair share of good reviews, making me hopeful for a better-than-average Chinese restaurant experience. We gave them a shot at lunch during the week and found the tiny dining room to be about half-full – already better than most take-out-only places. I can’t say the interior was decorated by a “licensed” interior decorator, but it was decent enough and the atmosphere was busy enough that you didn’t feel awkward dining inside. We expected the menus to be
Circa 1886
149 Wentworth French/American $$$$- Fine dining experience How to save $: Best bet is to go during restaurant week but even that will put you at $85+ a person after wine, tax and tip! Eager to jump on Restaurant Week early, we made reservations at Circa 1886—a restaurant we’ve always wanted to try. Deriving its name from the construction of the Wentworth Mansion that it shares a property with, the restaurant is housed in a great historic building with lots of character. The first thing I noticed is that Circa 1886 is much more formal than I imagined. Plenty
King Street Grille
304 King Pub/Bar, American $$ King Street Grille touts itself as an “upscale sports bar,” which appears to be a very recent rebranding. They’ve attempted to “class up” the menu a lot: they’ve added a crown beside each and every one of the “The King’s Recommendations,” removed the beer list altogether (apparently Royalty drinks a red or white wine from their extensive menu that did make the cut). I guess that’s what separates the grills from the Grilles. From a quick glance at their website, it would seem that this is a perfect place to “bro out,” as evidenced from their MMA After
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O’Malleys Bar and Grille
549 King Pub/Bar Food, Irish How to save $$: Happy hour from 4-8 p.m. gets you half-priced apps and draft beers. There’s really no other time to go. We went looking for some quick food with cheap prices one night on King Street. Because Charleston is pretty snobby with food, it’s surprisingly hard to find a cheap, fast and good place right on King Street. If you’ve been using O’Malleys appropriately, it’s always involved a fake ID, cheap shots and a tab that Daddy is floating for you (along with your CofC tuition). Well, don’t be alarmed when we tell you it’s
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Moe’s Southwest Grill
381 King Mexican, Southwest $-Cheap How to save $: You can often find coupons online for BOGO Moe’s Southwest Grill: the place we’ve all been but never thought of as review-worthy… until we were forced to write one. If you’ve been living under a rock (or, even worse, just not in the South) Moe’s is an Atlanta-based chain with 350 locations focused mostly in the Southeastern US. It is the humble opinion of Eat King Street that in a head-to-head battle with Chipotle or Qdoba, Moe’s will kick their asses every time, hands down–but that might just be because I practically
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Wentworth Grill
68 Wentworth American, Southern/Soul $$$ How to save $: Use a restaurant.com gift card: we got great deal with $50 off a $100 tab. Ended up paying $67 (meal, wine, tax & tip) for much more expensive meal. I try to make it a point to not do too much research on restaurants before we go to them. I kept the same philosophy on our visit to Wentworth Grill–I had heard of it before from Restaurants.com (which is always a slight hint that they’re desperate for business). I had an inclination that it was attached to a hotel, maybe, but other than