Charleston, SCSeafood

A James Beard America's Classic that has sat on the marsh at James Island for more than seventy-five years. The draw is the oyster roast, where shovelfuls of local clusters are dumped onto plywood tables for you to shuck yourself as the sun drops over the water. Garden and Gun and the Post and Courier oyster guide both point here for the roasted-cluster experience. Go at sunset and plan to get messy.

Chef James London runs a forty-seat, walk-in-only room in Cannonborough where the menu is rewritten daily around whatever comes off Atlantic and Lowcountry boats. The MICHELIN Guide listed it as Recommended in 2025, and it sits on the Charleston City Paper Top 50. A handwritten chalkboard drives service toward lesser-seen fish and shellfish. Arrive early, since there are no reservations and the line forms before the doors open.

Jesse Sandole opened this no-reservation oyster bar as an offshoot of his family's Nantucket seafood market, and it draws a line down King Street most nights. The half-shells run to East Coast oysters, and the short menu covers lobster rolls, a tuna burger, and raw and fried plates. The Post and Courier oyster guide and the Charleston City Paper Top 50 both list it. There is a Mount Pleasant sibling if the downtown wait runs long.

Mike Lata and Adam Nemirow's second restaurant fills a 1920s bank building on upper King with a soaring raw bar. Executive chef Tori Schumacher sends out sky-high seafood towers of local oysters, clams, shrimp, pate and caviar, and the crispy oyster sliders are a fixture. The Post and Courier oyster guide, Garden and Gun and the Charleston City Paper Top 50 all point here. Come early for the raw bar or settle in for the towers.

A former auto-body shop on upper King that reopened in 2014 as an oyster-and-fried-poultry counter and became a neighborhood constant. The kitchen turns out charbroiled oysters, fried seafood platters and fried chicken, and the MICHELIN Guide named it a Bib Gourmand in 2025. It also lands on the Charleston City Paper Top 50 and the Post and Courier oyster guide. Order the charbroiled oysters and a bird, and sit out back if the weather holds.