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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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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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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