Sports & Game Day Charleston

Hampton Park Terrace · $$ · sandwiches, american, cheesesteak

Berkeley's is a sandwiches-and-suppers spot at Rutledge and Huger from Marc and Liz Hudacsko, who later opened The Archer on Meeting Street. City Paper says it feels like going over to a friend's home for dinner. Readers voted its cheesesteak the best in Charleston in 2026.

North Charleston · burgers, american

Greg and Ellen Leonard's burger room near the coliseum and convention center. The tourism office says the buns are baked at Saffron Bakery, the beef is certified Angus, the ketchup is mixed by hand and the toppings are South Carolina produce. Fries and tots arrive in small fryer baskets.

Cannonborough-Elliotborough · vietnamese, sandwiches

Bon Banh Mi sells banh mi, salads and wings under the line 'Simple. Bold. Fresh.' from a small shop on Spring Street, with two more shops in Mount Pleasant. City Paper readers voted it Best Vietnamese in 2026.

Middle King · $

A King Street address with no King Street frontage. The bar's own site calls it a local dive bar, and its structured data gives the address as 354 Unit B King St. The local guide Exploring Charleston (8 November 2025) says it opened in 2006, sits down Burns Lane between Meeting Street and King Street, and is reached through a hidden entrance off King Street, with live music on weekends.

Mount Pleasant · seafood, southern

The restaurant of the Charleston Harbor Resort at Patriots Point. Every table looks across the harbor to the Charleston skyline, the USS Yorktown and the marina, and the Bridge Bar on the roof is the sunset perch. The kitchen is a member of the Good Catch program and says it sources locally and responsibly.

Upper Peninsula

Citrus Club is the bar on the eighth floor terrace of The Dewberry hotel on Meeting Street, which calls it the highest rooftop bar in Charleston. Lunch reservations run from 12 to 2. It was the Rooftop Bar runner-up in City Paper's 2026 readers' poll.

Mount Pleasant · american, burgers, pub fare

A Coleman Boulevard gastropub with 16 rotating taps that calls itself a Mount Pleasant institution. It serves lunch, dinner and brunch six days a week. Its sister is Maybank Public House on James Island.

Ansonborough · seafood, oysters, raw bar

Delaney Oyster House is a raw bar and seafood restaurant in what the venue calls a quintessential historic Charleston home on Calhoun Street, with a second-floor porch. Elliot Cusher is executive chef. It belongs to The Neighborhood Dining Group, the owners of Husk.

James Island · bar food, american, burgers

Garage 75 is a James Island bar on Folly Road full of games: billiards, skeeball, Golden Tee, bowling, Mario Kart and dozens more. It was the Arcade Bar runner-up in City Paper's 2026 readers' poll.

Mount Pleasant · southern, seafood, lowcountry, grits

Chef Frank Kline owns and runs Grace & Grit, which he opened in August 2017. The kitchen works from local seafood and produce, and its calling card is the Grit Flight, a sampler of the house grits. Tables sit inside or under the oaks on a dog-friendly patio.

Daniel Island · burgers, smashburgers

The Daniel Island room of a Charleston-born smashburger and margarita bar that calls itself a neighborhood burger joint. The group lists three rooms: Charleston, Daniel Island and Isle of Palms.

Mount Pleasant

Hobcaw is a Mount Pleasant brewery on Long Point Road with a warehouse taproom, outdoor space and a rotating food truck schedule.

Hampton Park Terrace · bbq, southern

Founder Aaron Siegel came from fine dining, per Destination BBQ, and Home Team cooks a multi-regional menu instead of one barbecue tradition: smoked wings, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey. The frozen Gamechanger cocktail is the house drink. The venue lists a kids menu and a sauce list; wood species is not stated on the pages fetched. Charleston-born group, also in Columbia, Greenville and Aspen. The downtown room has a fenced gravel yard with chalkboards for children, a large bar and a big courtyard.

Sullivan's Island · bbq, southern

Founder Aaron Siegel came from fine dining, per Destination BBQ, and Home Team cooks a multi-regional menu instead of one barbecue tradition: smoked wings, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey. The frozen Gamechanger cocktail is the house drink. The venue lists a kids menu and a sauce list; wood species is not stated on the pages fetched. Charleston-born group, also in Columbia, Greenville and Aspen. The venue says the Sullivan's Island room is a block from the beach, with band posters and island artifacts on the walls, an open window bar, a covered porch, and regularly scheduled live music from local and touring artists.

West Ashley · bbq, southern, wings

Founder Aaron Siegel came from fine dining, per Destination BBQ, and Home Team cooks a multi-regional menu instead of one barbecue tradition: smoked wings, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey. The frozen Gamechanger cocktail is the house drink. The venue lists a kids menu and a sauce list; wood species is not stated on the pages fetched. Charleston-born group, also in Columbia, Greenville and Aspen. The venue describes West Ashley as rustic, with tin paneling and gas lanterns in the spirit of old honky-tonks, two outside porches, Monday team trivia, and says it is home to University of Georgia alumni on game days.

North Charleston · pizza, new york style pizza, italian american

Joey Sakran moved from upstate New York in 2008, spent nearly two decades at Boeing, and retired to open the pizzeria he had wanted, with his daughter Rebecca, in December 2025. It sells New York slices and 14 to 18 inch pies, garlic knots, fried ravioli and meatballs from a family recipe. His brother Jason Sakran co-owns Bon Banh Mi and served on Charleston City Council. It is in the Shoppes at Montague Corners.

Cannonborough-Elliotborough · $$ · filipino

Chef Nikko Cagalanan and co-owner Paula Kramer ran Kultura at 73 Spring Street for two years, then moved it in the fall of 2025 to 267 Rutledge Avenue, the former home of Chasing Sage. The Post and Courier calls Cagalanan a James Beard Award finalist and lists snapper curry, arroz caldo, lumpia and ribs with banana ketchup. City Paper calls the cooking an homage to a Filipino grandmother's kitchen tied to the Lowcountry. Readers voted Cagalanan runner-up for Best Restaurant Chef in 2026.

Hampton Park Terrace · $$ · american, southern

Owner Heather Greene opened Lillian's in the corner building that used to be Harold's Cabin, and City Paper calls it a comfortable follower for that much-loved room. It runs all day ... a coffee bar from 7:30am, weekday breakfast, a market selling flowers, prepared foods, wine and goods from local makers, then happy hour and dinner. Executive Chef Todd Garrigan works with local growers, fishermen and ranchers. Private parties use the Jackalope Dining Room, the Jackalope Bar or the upstairs terrace.

Middle King · southern, new american, lowcountry

Lowland is the restaurant of The Pinch hotel, run by Method Co., and it spreads through an 1834 house: a tavern with a copper bar and a wood-burning fireplace, a small parlour room, and an upstairs dining room with hand-painted murals. James Beard winner Jason Stanhope opened it and left after about 17 months for Sullivan's Island, per The Post and Courier. Executive chef Matthew Dion, a New Englander who cooked at FIG and The Ordinary, runs it now. Across the alley, The Quinte is a nineteenth-century room used for large parties. The Post and Courier points to the biscuits, crudos and the tavern burger. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.

Mount Pleasant · bbq, burgers

Melvin's is the Bessinger family's barbecue house, and its style is the mustard sauce tradition. The family story on the site starts with Joseph 'Big Joe' Bessinger, who cooked pork in a pit dug in the ground near Orangeburg and opened the Holly Hill Cafe in 1939; his son Melvin learned the Golden Secret sauce at ten. The site says pulled pork shoulders are basted in that mustard sauce, and its shirts read 'All-Wood'. It lists Southern Living's Top 50 BBQ in the South for 2025. A second Melvin's is on Folly Road on James Island.

Hampton Park Terrace · $ · pub food, burgers, bar food, american, wings

A Hampton Park neighborhood bar north of the Crosstown, away from the visitor streets. City Paper named it the 2026 Best of Charleston winner for Best Meal Value, and its Fig Lebowski burger ... whipped feta, bourbon onion fig jam and crispy prosciutto ... won the most creative category in the paper's 2026 Burger Throwdown. Owner Mike Tronoski told the paper the kitchen runs a different burger special every day.

Hampton Park Terrace · cafe, sandwiches, coffee

Odd Duck's third shop opened in July 2026 in a former bank branch near Hampton Park, where the old drive-thru is now a walk-up ordering window. Owners Jared Hellman and Andrew Hare started in Park Circle; the venue says the pair ran Bubba Slye's deli in the early 2000s. It sells craft lattes, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, take-and-bake meals, ice cream and house-baked pastries, with a mural by Cara Fischer inside.

North Charleston · chinese, sichuan

Old Li's is the Chinese restaurant by the Tanger outlets that r/Charleston keeps recommending for family-style Sichuan dishes. A thread in August 2026 exists only to praise it, with regulars naming fuqi feipian, hong shao rou and spicy wontons. The Post and Courier notes it used to be in the West Ashley space that is now Chef Loong.

North Charleston · vietnamese, pho

A Vietnamese noodle room in a shopping center at the top end of Rivers Avenue. Its own site lists gluten-free options and a split day, closing between lunch and dinner. Nothing about the owners is published on the site.

North Charleston · pub food

Rusty Bull is a North Charleston brewery with a full kitchen; its site names the owners as Ben and Brian.

North Charleston

Snafu is a North Charleston brewery known for sour beers; City Paper readers named it Best Locally Brewed Gose/Sour for 2026. It serves snacks and brings in food trucks several times a week.

Upper King · bar food

The Brick calls itself a Charleston sports bar, on Ann Street just off Upper King, open until 2am every day. It was the Sports Bar runner-up in City Paper's 2026 readers' poll.

Daniel Island · seafood

The Indigo Road group's restaurant at the Daniel Island Waterfront, next door to The Dime. Indigo Road is the Charleston-born group behind rooms such as Post House in Mount Pleasant.

Cannonborough-Elliotborough · pub food

Two Blokes opened its second taproom on August 11, 2026 in a restored 19th-century building on Cannon Street near MUSC, the Post and Courier reported. It has a small-batch system for experimental beers, wine from Grassroots Wine, and a kitchen doing hand-cut fries, pretzels with beer cheese, wings and flatbreads.

Upper King · pizza, pub food

Uptown Social opened on Upper King in 2018 and calls itself a cornerstone of the King Street scene, with live music every night, pub fare and Brooklyn-style pizza by Anthony Falco.

Daniel Island · pizza, italian

A Neapolitan-style pizzeria on Seven Farms Drive, founded in 2009 on what its site calls a simple belief that great pizza starts with great ingredients. The menu runs to artisan salads, sandwiches and sweets.

Daniel Island · mediterranean, pasta, seafood

Nick and Kelly Ruhotina, the couple behind Nick's German Kitchen in Mount Pleasant, opened Vinea on 18 September 2025 in the space Sermet's Courtyard held for years. Sermet Aslan had retired; the Ruhotinas kept the layout and some of his artwork as a tribute. The Post and Courier reported housemade pasta, fish from local purveyors and lamb, beef and veal dishes, with the menu rotating every couple of weeks.