You may have noticed in the post about our beach vacation that I left out the most important part: food! I am no restaurant expert but I did want to share where we ate on our vacation and what we thought of the food. Also, just to note, we typically ate a light breakfast at home and packed a sandwich lunch when we went out on the beach. We mostly ate out for dinner.
Here’s a rundown of some restaurants we tried…
Chez Fish
This restaurant is located on the main highway before the roundabout to get into Kiawah. We ate there the last night of our vacation but I wanted to put it first on our list because it was so good!
There were several specials that sounded really good, but I ended up going with tempura shrimp and grilled scallops over an asian sauce. This dish was so good! I love scallops and they were cooked to perfection. We got key lime pie and tiramisu for dessert. We split both 
I would say that if you are going to vacation at Seabrook or Kiawah Island that you really have to try this place. I would just recommend making a reservation because they were packed when we were there!
The Market
The Market is a little grocery store right around the street from Night Heron Park. We could actually walk there from our villa, which I loved. We got take-out dinner there the first night right after we arrived.
This place is the perfect place if you want a quick meal or something lighter. Despite appearing like a small grocery store, The Market actually had a great variety of food such as sandwiches, salads, soups and pizzas. There is a pretty spacious dining area where you can sit inside or outside. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of tortellini and K got a pulled pork sandwich with a side of potato salad. I didn’t even think about snapping a picture but we both enjoyed our food.
I read a review on trip advisor that was complaining about the prices. I really didn’t think The Market’s food was that expensive. We paid ~$10 for each of our meals, and that is about what I would expect to pay for something like a grilled chicken sandwich.
Red’s Icehouse
We decided to head up the road to Seabrook Island one night to check out Red’s Icehouse. I had heard good things about this restaurant and we were looking for a pretty chill, casual dinner.
We ordered grilled shrimp as an appetizer and I got a crabcake sandwich as my meal.
I was not impressed with Red’s at all. The hostess was kind of rude and the service was not good. K is the least picky person ever when it comes to poor service and he even commented about our waitress. We had a pretty early dinner (around 4:30ish) before the restaurant became crowded and we sat at our table for what seemed like forever before anyone came to get our drink order. My fries tasted were cold and tasted like they weren’t initially cooked all the way. The main redeeming quality was the beautiful view. This was our least favorite restaurant from our vacation.
Oyster Roast & BBQ at Mingo Point
Every Monday throughout the summer, there is a large outdoor oyster roast at Mingo Point. It was raining the day we went but we still had a great time!
The food was awesome. Some of the offerings included steaks, smoked chicken, pulled pork, salad, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, loaded potato skins, salad, collard greens, several desserts and of course OYSTERS!
There were several areas where you could stand and shuck oysters. It was so fun! K loves seafood, especially oysters, so he was basically in heaven.
We had a great time and it was nice to meet some other people vacationing at the beach.
La Tela
We were so full of seafood from Monday night’s oyster roast that we decided to change it up and get pizza the next night. We had seen a pizzeria at Freshfields called La Tela when we were driving through there earlier, so we decided to go there for dinner.
I really liked the atmosphere of this restaurant. It had a little bit of an upscale feel but was still very casual.
As for the food… I got the mushroom arugala pizza. I didn’t think it was bad but I liked K’s sausage pizza better. Mine didn’t have any sauce and I felt like there was too much arugula. And when a dietitian says there is too much arugula then that is a problem I would still recommend this restaurant, though!
Marble Slab Creamery
I am a firm believer that no beach vacation is complete without getting ice cream at least once. We tried out an ice cream shop at Freshfields called Marble Slab Creamery. All of their ice cream is homemade and they will mix any toppings for no additional cost.
I got a small cone (which didn’t seem that small!) with fudge and cookie dough mixed in. It was delicious!
Night Heron Grill
This is a casual restaurant with outdoor seating at the pool beside Night Heron Park. It was convenient for us to walk to because our condo was right across the street. Their menu consists of salads and sandwiches. I got the ahi sandwich with avocado and wasabi aioli. It was good!
We don’t have kids but for those of you that do, this restaurant seemed like a great place to bring small children. It’s outside by the pool so there are a lot of things to look at, and it sits in the middle of a park, nature facility (where they have some animals to look at) and a lagoon. K and I actually saw 2 different alligators in the lagoon when we were walking to and from dinner. We were not staying anywhere that included pool access, but if you were then this would be the perfect place to stop by after a day at the pool.
Bull Street Gourmet & Market
We drove into Charleston early one afternoon to go shopping in the city market. I had initially gotten several Charleston restaurant recommendations before our trip and we were hadn’t quite decided on which one to try. By the time we were ready for lunch, we were hot and pretty hungry and Bull Street Gourmet & Market was located right by our parking garage.
We stopped in and their menu looked pretty good. I got a smoked salmon sandwich and it was amazing. Seriously, it might have been the best smoked salmon sandwich I’ve ever had. I also liked that they had a fresh fruit cup as a side option. A lot of sandwich places seem to mainly offer chips, cookies, potato salad, etc. as sides and while that’s fine with me most of the time, a fruit cup hit the spot on a hot and humid day!
So- there you have it. Those are the restaurants we tried! We had a great time trying new places and would love to hit up some of the other places recommended to us on our next beach vacation
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