Charleston’s food scene has flourished in the five years since the pandemic, but not in the traditional sense. This mecca for hearty Southern fare has been bolstered by a diverse collection of chefs who have brought new energy to the Holy City.
By now, you’ve probably heard of Chubby Fish, Vern’s and Kultura, three tiny restaurants in the Cannonborough-Elliottborough neighborhood that have been highlighted by national news outlets and nominated for awards. They’re loved locally, too.
While chefs Dano Heinze (Vern’s), Nikko Cagalanan (Kultura) and James London (Chubby Fish) have entered the national conversation, so has a restaurant on Johns Island.
An escargot, tarragon and Gruyère dish is served at Vern’s restaurant in downtown Charleston on Feb. 24, 2023.
File/Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
Lost Isle’s fully outdoor 23-foot kitchen and “dining room” behind a small building on the outskirts of Charleston instantly set it apart, but its food is what has helped it amass a steady following of loyal regulars. Chef Josh Taylor’s collards are exemplary of the global inspiration that adds a surprising twist to what’s already a one-of-a-kind restaurant.
Taylor trades the typical smoky, vinegary surroundings of Southern collards for a sauce that instantly transports me to Thailand. Each bite is jolted with a sweet heat that mellows the inherent bitterness of the greens, which gain crunch from toasty breadcrumbs.
The dish demonstrates how countries across the world are represented at some of the city’s top new restaurants, where chefs are infusing their food with flavors that speak to their upbringing.
Chef Maryam Ghaznavi and her husband Raheel Gauba opened the Pakistani Ma’am Saab in May 2023, bringing a new type of cuisine to Charleston. Within a few months, the city gained a restaurant offering West African food, also hard to find on the peninsula.
Saint-Louis, Senegal-born Binta N’Daw Young is blending Senegalese recipes with food from across the African continent at Bintü Atelier. The West African plates are just as delicious as they are culturally significant; Charleston’s vibrant culinary scene would not be what it is today without the contributions of enslaved African Americans who brought food from Senegal, Gambia and other countries along Africa’s western coast to the Lowcountry.
Italian influx
If Charleston’s dining scene had a theme over the past year, it was the rise in local Italian restaurants. Following Costa’s stunning entrance on the peninsula, the city has gained Pelato, Volpe and Legami, each of which have become the talk of Charleston.
Pelato walks the line between casual and upscale, with a buzzing atmosphere muted by tall ceilings. Its outdoor pergola with a fully retractable roof feels Italian, but the food and service are straight out of Brooklyn.
A king crab tagliolini dish at Legami, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Charleston.
File/Henry Taylor/Staff
With that culinary inspiration as a backdrop, Pelato brings a different type of Italian restaurant to the Charleston area, one where appetizers and plates of pasta are meant to be shared. Chicken Parmesan is a Pelato specialty, as are house-made pastas that pair wavy, flat and tubular noodles with pesto, sausage, shrimp and plenty of garlic.
Volpe is similarly rooted in shareable plates, but Ken Vedrinski’s new restaurant takes communal dining to another level. Nearly every guest who fills Volpe’s renovated Rutledge Avenue space opts for its family-style meal, which welcomes multiple antipasti selections, one pasta, two main entrees and dessert to the dinner table.
Golden cauliflower rests in brown butter, which collects inside the florets to bring a burst of nutty warmth to the chilled vegetables, while the paccheri bolognese features a rich ragu that curls inside tubular ribbed noodles.
Culinary finesse is catapulted to the forefront of Volpe’s dining experience, just like it is at Legami on Upper King Street, where pasta is made using shrimp and scallops, perched atop a red mound of almond pesto with sun-dried tomatoes.
Legami pushes people’s boundaries with ambitious ingredients and preparations. It’s a common theme among the new Charleston-area Italian restaurants listed above.
Longstanding essentials
There is still plenty of room for the longstanding Southern staples, of course.
Descendants of enslaved Africans who brought their cooking techniques to coastal plantations across the region continue to pay homage to their ancestors’ cuisine at Gullah-Geechee restaurants in Charleston.
Trying fresh fried whiting, okra soup, red rice and other essential Gullah dishes is a must when in Charleston. Bertha’s Kitchen and Hannibal’s Kitchen are exceptional places to do just that.
Reservation availability permitting, it’s also worth making time for a visit to FIG, led by James Beard Award-winning chef Mike Lata. The restaurant remains just as relevant as it was when Lata was crowned Best Chef: Southeast in 2009, with its blend of Lowcountry ingredients and countryside French cooking.
A half-mile away, Slightly North of Broad, known locally as SNOB, has kept up with the times since opening in 1993.
The barbecue tuna topped with fried oysters, country ham butter, green onions and “mustard Q” at Slightly North of Broad on July 22, 2024.
File/Andrew Whitaker/Staff
Day and night, the Charleston restaurant hosts guests who can be seen spooning up butternut squash bisque and cutting into chicken Milanese hidden by a tangle of greens.
To the delight of many diners, SNOB’s white tablecloths, free cornbread and precise service signal the restaurant is from an era that focused heavily on guest experience. That hospitable style of treating customers with care lives on today, making it one of many Charleston restaurants worth visiting for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Dining and Cooking