SC has 5 of most legendary restaurants in the South, according to Southern Living – The State

SC has 5 of most legendary restaurants in the South, according to Southern Living

By Lyn Riddle, Mon, March 23, 2026 at 3:00 AM PDT, 5 min read

Southern Living is out with its list of most legendary restaurants in the South and of 32 named, five are in South Carolina.

“A great restaurant is never just a place to eat — it’s a keeper of stories, traditions, and generations of regulars,” Southern Living said.

Three are in Charleston — Poogan’s Porch, Hyman’s and 82 Queen. The other two are Sea Captain’s House in Myrtle Beach and Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks in Hilton Head.

Poogan’s Porch, poogansporch.com, 72 Queen St, Charleston

If the food doesn’t draw you in perhaps their tagline will — your guide to the haunted history of our iconic restaurants.

Once a home built in 1891, the building was transformed into a restaurant in 1976. When the last residents left, a little dog named Poogan stayed behind. ​

“He was no purebred fluffy puppy; he was a good ol’, down-home Southern porch dog,” the restaurant says on its website.

He died a couple of years after the restaurant opened and some say they can still feel a gentle brush against their legs.

“This building is his monument. We still miss him,” the website said.

But that’s not all.

There’s also Zoe Saint Amand, born in Charleston in 1879, who lived with her sister, Liz, in the home in the early 1900s. ​​After Liz died in 1945, Zoe was reported to have sat in an upstairs window at 72 Queen Street calling for her sister.

“Sometimes late at night, guests looking out from their rooms at the Mills House Hotel glimpse an old woman in a black dress waving from the second floor window of the restaurant,” the restaurant said.

Workers have heard her and felt her presence.

But the food. Carolina crab cakes, pimiento-cheese fritters, and bone-in fried chicken. They have brunch every day.

“No matter the time of day, end your visit with a cast-iron skillet full of peach cobbler topped with a biscuit streusel or choose banana pudding made with a secret ingredient: bourbon,” Southern Living said.

Hyman’s hymanseafood.com, 215 Meeting St, Charleston

Longstanding just doesn’t say it. This Meeting Street restaurant is owned by the fifth generation.

“They have owned their Meeting Street building for well over a century,” Southern Living said. “The business inside has changed with the times, but its most recent iteration, as a seafood restaurant since 1987, has been one of its most successful.”

It is beloved by tourists and locals alike, looking for all manner of fish — fried, chilled, barbecued, glazed, jerked, broiled, and spiced.

And be prepared. They don’t take reservations.

The list of celebrities who have eaten at Hyman’s looks like an encyclopedia of entertainers, and they’d be honored with the brass plaques on the tables and plates hanging on the walls.

Here are a few: Oprah Winfrey, Senator John McCain, Pat Conroy, The Eagles, Sandra Bullock, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Danny Glover, Barbra Streisand. The list goes on.

82 Queen, 82queen.com, 82 Queen St, Charleston

Located in Charleston’s French Quarter, 82 Queen is its name and its address. It also opened in 1982. The story is that the three owners were focused on cooking not naming so they went with simple.

Nothing’s simple about their cooking though, which has come to be known as Lowcountry Cuisine, dishes influenced by the African, French, Caribbean and Anglo-Saxon tastes of the area.

The restaurant has 11 dining areas, including a brick courtyard. Southern Living — and other reviewers — recommend shrimp and grits and she-crab soup and do not forget the fried green tomatoes. The recipe is so good it’s been shared by popular magazines.

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