Best Restaurants in Charleston South Carolina

When we visit Charleston every year,we usually stick to our list of 5 to 6 restaurants that we simply cannot pass up. In addition to the charm and beauty of this beautiful history city, there lies some good quality restaurants that need mentioning. My list does not really capture any steak houses. If you a pursuing a juicy steak in this city, then go no further than the Oak Steakhouse on Broad Street or even check out Mustard Seed mentioned below. When in town even a brief visit, try and check out some of these gems.

1. Sticky Fingers Barbecue - Yes, this is a small chain in the south. The barbecue ribs are second to none. We stop in to this downtown charleston barbecue joint every year and leave with happy full bellies. If you have time to squeeze in a little extra food, try starting out the meal with some Savannnah Dip with nacho chips.

2. Mustard Seed - This restaurant is a little off the beaten bath and boasts some excellent daily seafood specials where the food is always tasty and the service is friendly.

3. The Charleston Crab House - There are a few of these sprinkled throughout the Charleston area. The atmosphere is always fun and happy with different ocean fish hanging on the walls in addition to beautiful aquariums in the lobby. The downtown Charleston restaurant is fun and weather permitting, opt for a roof top table to take in the sights and sounds of downtown Charleston while enjoying some shrimp or crab.

4. The Noisy Oyster - This is one of our favorite lunch stops. The restaurant is at the end of meeting street across from the historic market. This is usually my lunch standby when I have a taste for a grouper or mahi sandwich. If room permits and your table size consists of a few diners, check out the mile high chocolate cake. You may need a ladder and snow shovel to dig into this behemoth size dessert.

5. Hominy Grill - This food is so so good. The menu is not too large and everything and I mean everything is made from scratch using locally grown and caught ingredients whenever possible. I always enjoy the shrimp and grits and manage to leave room for the buttermilk pie.

6. Bessinger's - This barbecue shack lies just west of the downtown Charleston area and boasts some of the tastiest barbecue pulled pork and chicken I have ever found. The barbecue sauce has a sweet mustard based sauce that is out of this world. I always buy a few bottles of this sauce to bring home every year. Another great lunch stop.

Dog Friendly Vacation Accommodations

So I booked my 2009 trip to Kiawah once again. The vacation this year is under a little bit different set of circumstances as we decided to include our dog into our vacation. She is considered family so we do not have the heart to send her off to the kennel for a week while we play on the beach. We are accustomed to renting through the resort on Kiawah which has successfully met our lodging needs every year. This year we had to obviously find dog friendly vacation accommodations, as the resort does not allow pets in their villas. After numerous searches on the web, we finally came across a great vacation rental network, www.VRBO.com. The “VRBO” stands for”vacation rental by owner”. This website has vacation rental properties all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Vacation property owners simply use this service to advertise their unit and feature pictures and lists amenities of the desired vacation property. The site also lists those vacation properties that cater to pet owners. We were able to get ourselves a unit for a week and I couldn’t be happier as the owner answered all my questions immediately.