293 King St. Asian, street food $ How to save $$: Eat here, not at Basil. I love Thai food. And I (used to) love Basil. But, then I started eating at more authentic Thai restaurants (think: hole-in-the-wall with lots of Buddahs), and realized Basil might be good, but cheap Thai food is better. Fire may not be decorated with Buddah’s and it serves food other than Thai (which, I’d argue, is a good thing)… but this is the new place to go for Thai food on King Street. The best part? One-third the price of Basil! Fire is
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Taziki’s Cafe
306 King Greek/Mediterranean $ How to save $: Use either FREE HUMMUS coupon, CHICKEN ROLL UP FOR $5.95 coupon, or Restaurant.com gift card. If John Stamos were coming to Charleston, I bet he’d eat at Taziki’s for lunch. The name gives it away: Taziki’s Cafe is a Greek not-so-hole-in-the-wall, literally busting at the seams at 12:30 p.m. on a weekday with co-workers and families grabbing a quick lunch. Don’t waste time waiting to be seated, just grab the only empty chairs you can find (we sat on the stools overlooking King St.). Once seated, you can go up to the
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Tasty Thai and Sushi
350 King Thai: Lunch, Dinner $$ How to Save $: It’s on Restaurant.com, so be sure to print off a coupon before dining Looking for some ethnic food on a budget with a good atmosphere? Look no further than Tasty Thai & Sushi, the sister restaurant to Taste of Thai in West Ashley. Be sure to sit in the front of the restaurant, so you can people-watch on King Street. If that’s what you’re after, I’d suggest going on a Thursday through Saturday night, when things are a bit more “interesting.” Tasty Thai and Sushi looks pretty cool from the
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The Grocery
4 Cannon $$$ – Dinner & Happy Hour Southern/Soul, International How to save $: Get a good sampling at Happy Hour where apps are between $5 and $7, wine is discounted and beers are BOGO The Grocery, located on Cannon Street, is one of the new up-and-coming restaurants in Charleston. Well, according to Charleston City Paper or really any other food blog for that matter. But, if you read Eat King Street, you’ll see that it’s not one of our favorites. I mean, if you like stuffy atmospheres and high prices, this might just be your place. I don’t mean to
Fast and French
98 Broad French $$-Mid How to save $: Specials are offered each night (Thursdays are Fondue Night) Craving some French food but not craving the prices of La Fourchette or even 39 Rue de Jean? Look no further than Broad St. (right off of King). This hole-in-the-wall restaurant isn’t too hard to miss, what with all the blue and red French flag decoration on the sidewalk. Commonly known as Fast and French, don’t walk past it just because it’s real name is Gaulart and Maliclet. Tricky. The best time to go is on Thursday night because that’s fondue night –
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Basil
460 King Thai $$$-High How to save $: You can’t. Ohhh herro… (is it more or less racist since that is a Chinese impression and this is for a Thai restaurant? THINK ABOUT IT.) We’ve found the best Asian cuisine on King Street. But apparently, lots of other King Street-ers have found it, too, given the long waits. It has been rated the #1 Restaurant in Charleston on Urbanspoon for some time now (still holding 87% with over 1,300+ ratings!). Paired with no reservations or call-ahead, this makes for a restaurant you can only visit if you don’t have any plans for
The Macintosh
479B King American $$$$ – Plan on dropping some cash here Part of Indigo Restaurant Group: Includes Oak Steakhouse, O-Ku, & The Cocktail Club The Macintosh is Charleston’s highest-rated restaurant right now on Urbanspoon. Coming in with a 90% rating, you’d expect the food to be good. The good news is: you’ll be right. It may very well get my vote for the best dinner in Charleston. At the very least, it’s secured a top-three rank. And, this past week, it earned a nomination from Bon Appetit magazine as one of the 50 Best New Restaurants in America. Located on Upper King, the big glass doors showcase the inside from the street, but, when we first
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Burger Babies
NOTE: Burger Babies is now closed. 293 King Lunch, Dinner $ How to save $: Grab a CofC campus coupon book (available for non-students like us if you can find them) and use the BOGO The restaurant opened about a year ago, offering baby burgers — or simply hamburger sliders to the untrained eye. The employees make the burgers pretty fast (I guess these “babies” don’t have to cook as long as the larger-sized ones) and the variety of beef, turkey, chorizo and tofu burgers are sure to please even the pickiest of eaters. They offer
Butcher & Bee
654 King Lunch daily & until 3am Thur-Sat $-$$ If you haven’t heard of Butcher and Bee, you’ve surely been living under a rock. Opening in October 2011, the relatively new restaurant on Upper King has made a name for itself quickly — even the New York Times has encourages its readers to try out the sandwich shop on a weekend get-away to the Holy City. Despite being located on King Street, you’ll have to plan to go there because you won’t just walk by. It’s on upper-Upper King, as in: north of Hwy 17. AKA: in the hood. Past Barsa. With that
Osteria la Bottiglia
420 King $$$ – Dinner every night Italian Italian food is my very favorite genre of food, so I’ve been wanting to try Osteria la Bottiglia for the past few months. We’ve recently walked by and heard live music, so we made sure to call ahead to see when the band is there. On Wednesday nights beginning at 7:30, they have live music playing in the front of the restaurant. When we arrived, we weren’t sure which of the two doors to enter from King Street, but decided on the open one– even though we had to walk straight through the
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