Every Michelin Star, Bib Gourmand, and Recommended restaurant in Charleston — from the 2025 inaugural American South guide.
Charleston entered the MICHELIN Guide on November 3, 2025, when the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South named 15 of the city's restaurants — three with Stars, three with Bib Gourmand, and nine in the Recommended tier. The entire haul fits inside the peninsula plus one Sullivan's Island holdout, and three of the Stars sit within a two-block radius on Spring Street and Bogard. Charleston's Michelin Trail is the most walkable in the country.
This guide covers all 15 in one canonical list — Vern's, Wild Common, and Malagón Mercado y Taperia for the Stars; Leon's Oyster Shop, Lewis Barbecue, and Rodney Scott's BBQ for the Bib Gourmand value tier; and Chubby Fish, The Establishment, FIG, Husk, Lowland, The Obstinate Daughter, The Restaurant at Zero George, Sorelle, and Xiao Bao Biscuit for the Recommended slate. Where it matters we've called out reservation lead times, walk-in workarounds, and the dishes locals actually order.
Charleston's hardest reservation. Daniel and Bethany Heinze's 30-seat Bogard Street bistro earned the city's most-talked-about Michelin Star with charred sourdough, rabbit campanelli, escargot, and one of the South's most idiosyncratic natural wine lists. The bar takes walk-ins; the dining room books out a month ahead.
Charleston's most approachable tasting menu and a 2025 Michelin Star. Chef Orlando Pagán's $85 base seasonal counter-service stays roughly half the price of comparable city stars, with optional caviar and wagyu add-ons. The room is small, the wine list is wild and natural, and the kitchen is the most personal in the guide.
The Spring Street tapas room that turned the 2025 announcement into a surprise. Chef Juan Cassalett's short, rotating Spanish menu — paella, fried rabbit leg, rossejat negro, the cult la bomba — earned a star alongside a vermouth-on-tap bar that stays loud through midnight on weekends.
John Lewis brought Central Texas to Charleston: 14-hour brisket, weekend beef ribs, and the only sausage in the city worth queueing for. Bib Gourmand recognition makes the line longer; arrive by noon weekends or the brisket sells out before 1pm.
James Beard winner Rodney Scott's whole-hog Upper King outpost — pulled pork, vinegar sauce, hush puppies, banana pudding. The Bib Gourmand status is for the South Carolina pit tradition the menu is built around, not the volume operation. Weekday lunch is the move.
Walk-in only by design. James London's daily-changing 30-seat Coming Street counter pulls everything from local oysters and crudo to the night's lone whole-roasted fish — and the Michelin Recommended nod cemented what locals had said for years. Show up by 5:30 or take a seat at the bar across the street and wait.
Broad Street's seafood-forward special-occasion room — chef Elliott Howells' lump crab gnudi, gulf shrimp, and a wine program that punches well above the room. Michelin's recommended status confirms what the dining room already shows on a Saturday: this is one of the city's quiet best.
The room that put Charleston on the national map. Mike Lata's Meeting Street bistro has held its position for 20+ years on the strength of the chicken liver pâté, the seasonal tomato tarte tatin, and a service model that still reads as a neighborhood spot rather than a trophy room. James Beard hardware, Michelin recognition, no slip.
The Sean Brock-founded heirloom Southern temple in a 19th-century Queen Street house. It's polarizing among Charleston regulars but earns its Michelin slot — the bar burger remains the city's best, the hyperlocal ethos still drives the tasting menu, and the building alone is worth the visit.
The only off-peninsula entry in Charleston's Michelin Guide. Jacques Larson's wood-fired pizzas and house-made gnocchi made Sullivan's Island a destination for downtown diners; the brunch crowd makes it again the next morning. Worth the 20-minute drive across Ben Sawyer.
Vinson Petrillo's seasonal tasting menu in a four-room 1804 carriage-house courtyard hotel — and Charleston's most postcard-perfect Michelin recognition. $150+ per seat, $100 cancellation fee, and a Caviar Bar Forbes called the city's coolest reservation. Aspirational dining; book three weeks out.
Broad Street's three-story Italian — Roman pinsa downstairs, fresh pasta on the second floor, a rooftop bar above. The Michelin nod surprised some locals because the volume is high, but the kitchen turns out genuine handmade pasta at scale and the rooftop is the city's best sunset perch with a wine list.
A converted 1940s gas station on Rutledge that's been Charleston's pan-Asian standby since 2012. The okonomiyaki is the cult dish; the spice level is real; the Michelin Recommended status confirms what locals knew when they took out-of-town guests there a decade ago.
