Upper King Street Culinary Tour in Charleston, SC: A Review
If you're interest in Charleston SC food tours, you need to add the Upper King Street Culinary Tour to your next trip to the Holy City.
Even as a born and raised Charlestonian, it's tough for me to keep up with what's new and exciting on the culinary scene since there are SO many new Upper King Street restaurants that have opened over the last few years. I partnered with Charleston Culinary Tours to better recommend the best King Street food to my readers.
So, was the tour worth it? Could even a local learn a culinary trick or two?
Yes, and yes.
Charleston Culinary Tours provided 2 tickets to this tour. My review below is unbiased.
This post contains affiliates. If you choose to purchase through the links, I will receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.
Updated 5/2022 | Written 4/2016
Upper King Street Culinary Tour Agenda
I went on the Upper King Culinary Tour, which promised a visit to 3 or 4 restaurants on King Street in Charleston.
The exact restaurants that each tour visits aren't revealed until the start of your tour since the locations change daily based on availability, guest dietary restrictions, and each restaurant's schedule.
However, I’ve been to most of the restaurants on their partners list, and they are all fantastic!
For our tour, we visited four places: HōM, R. Kitchen, Lana, and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, none of which I'd visited before (or even heard of before the tour!).
PIN ME!
2022 Note: Since I took this tour, HōM and Lana have sadly closed. In the sections below, I have suggested open restaurants if you’d like to try similar food.
Starting Point
The tour meets inside of the Charleston Visitors Center at 375 Meeting Street, and then winds its way through the Upper King Street district.
You won’t be able to miss the guide, who will be wearing a Charleston Culinary Tours badge.
Parking
Parking can be a nightmare in Charleston, especially in the summer months. Try for a spot in the parking garage attached to the visitors center (the easiest entrance is via Mary Street).
If that’s full, head south on Meeting Street and turn right onto John Street. There is another parking garage between the Charleston Music Hall and the Hampton Inn Charleston-Historic District.
First time in Charleston? You’ll find everything you need in my visitors guide to Charleston SC!
Food Tours in Charleston SC
Within the last decade or so, Charleston has exploded (not literally, thankfully).
Not only has my lovely hometown been named the number one travel destination in the world by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine for four years running, the Holy City has also come into its own with new restaurants, multiple James Beard-award winning chefs, and cutting edge menus.
If you're from elsewhere, figuring out where to eat while visiting might be a little intimidating.
After all, Charleston has enough restaurants in the historic area that you could eat at a new one every day for nearly a year and a half.
So, where do you start?
That's where an experience like the Upper King Street Culinary Tour comes in handy. Instead of spending $50-100 on a meal just one restaurant that you may or may not love, you get to sample multiple dishes at several restaurants.
There are a few food tour groups operating these days in Charleston, but after taking several tours by Charleston Culinary Tours, I'm convinced that they are the perfect combination of history, education, and high quality food.
These tours are a must for any foodie visiting Charleston.
[See my review of another offering from Charleston Culinary Tours: the wonderful Farm to Table tour!]
Upper King Street Culinary Tour: the Experience
Before we started chowing down, Guilds Hollowell, a fellow Mount Pleasant native and our knowledgeable tour guide for the afternoon, greeted each of the 28 guests for the tour at the door and let us know this was a talk with food and history.
He then explained that the larger group would be broken into 2 groups of 14. Each group would have their own personal tour guide.
Our tour would leave from HōM restaurant and proceed over to Rutledge Avenue, while the other tour would go south after their tasting at HōM.
I really liked having a smaller group for this type of tour since it makes the experience seem more personal--and you don't have to jostle anyone while sampling the food.
To bond us together a bit before setting out, Guilds had each member of our friendly group introduce themselves: our fellow foodies were from elsewhere in South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa.
Guilds also shared a bit about himself: over 5,000 people have walked with him along the streets of Upper King in the past four years.
When you consider that nine of Charleston's chefs have recently been nominated for the James Beard award, it's no wonder that the popularity of culinary tours in Charleston have exploded over our guide's tenure.
HōM
In the hands of our capable guide, we dove into our first tasting session at HōM Restaurant (pronounced "Home") Restaurant at 563 King Street.
[2022 Note: HoM closed during the pandemic. If you’d like some high quality bar food in a funky atmosphere, try The Tattooed Moose at 4854 Chateau Avenue in North Charleston, SC.]
HōM restaurant was named because the owners wanted their guests to feel as if they were dining out in their own houses.
The owners are former chefs with extensive formal dining experience, but both felt they needed to provide the public with casual dining with food made with care and with locally sourced ingredients whenever available.
The specialties here are creative burgers with fun sides. Our first offering was calamari with sundried tomatoes and goat cheese. The calamari was so tender and delicious. The second dish was Dixie Flatbread.
Dixie Flatbread at Hom
This bread was topped with pimento cheese, pork confit, caramelized onions, maple bacon and arugula. Even though I'm a person who is not usually a fan of pimento cheese, I ate every bit of my serving--it was a unique dish that I would definitely order again!
The final offering at HoM was a menu item called the “Green Gobble’n," a freshly ground turkey topped with braised kale, Swiss cheese, green goddess aioli and green apple. The tangy apple balanced out the creamy cheese for another tasty combination.
And when you're finished with your meal, you can challenge your dining mates to a game of ping pong at the table in the back of the restaurant.
R. Kitchen
Our group of 14 made our way down King Street, Cannon Street and on to Rutledge Avenue towards our second stop.
On the way, Guilds offered many comments about architectural contrasts in the old and new that co-exist in the same area. The vibrancy and life of this area is returning after many years, and the streets are alive with people.
I can remember when this area of downtown was filled with boarded up shops, so it is refreshing that the downtown Charleston culinary tours are embracing the positive changes happening on Upper King Street.
Guilds shares a bit of his knowledge about the revitalization of downtown Charleston.
After our quick architectural interlude, Guilds guided us into R. Kitchen at 212 Rutledge Street.
Each morning, the chefs at this restaurant begin their menu selections by stopping by the Vegetable Bin downtown on Spring Street for fresh items for their dishes.
By serving time that evening, they have prepared a five course dinner which is offered at $55 per person.
Dinner guests do not choose what they are served; instead the food is served at the bar in front of the chefs, so you will feel like you are in Mama’s kitchen eating dinner.
The architectural review board in downtown required that R Kitchen keep the original, historic facade, so the owners incorporated it into their decor!
There are 2 seatings each night, one at 6 PM and one at 8 PM with room for 15 each time. This restaurant does not advertise, has no outside sign, but still manages to have a three week waiting period for a reservation.
Our tastings at this location consisted of Beef Wellington with mashed potatoes and a lamb lasagna. Both dishes were served on an eclectically decorated plate with a choice of wines (available at $9-12 per glass).
Of the two dishes at R Kitchen, I preferred the extremely tender Beef Wellington to the lasagna--I'm a huge fan of spicy foods, but the latter dish was too spicy even for my taste buds.
R Kitchen's Beef Wellington (left) and the lamb lasagna
The best (and worst) part of R Kitchen would be that every night is a completely different dining experience: you have no idea what to expect from the chefs, which is half of the fun!
[2022 Note: Since I went on this tour, R. Kitchen has opened a second location in West Ashley at 1337 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC.]
R. Kitchen Quick Facts
Address: 212 Rutledge Avenue, Charleston, SC
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 6 PM and 8 PM seatings, reservations required
Get another classic Southern recipe here: Charleston’s bread pudding.
Lana
Our third stop was right next door to R. Kitchen: Lana, a European-styled eatery, is located at 210 Rutledge Avenue.
Using Mediterranean-inspired recipes, Chefs Perig Goulet and John Ondo have made this restaurant a Holy City favorite. Goulet, a native of France, and Ondo, a native Charlestonian, have tried to marry their love of Italian and Spanish food with the charm of the Lowcountry.
[2022 Note: Lana sadly closed in 2017 after 12 years of serving Charleston foodies. However, Chef Perig Goulet has since opened up another European-inspired bistro in the same space named Goulette.]
The interior of Lana was tastefully decorated (and includes a wine rack that Ondo himself painstakingly stained and sealed), so you feel quite cozy in the space.
Spicy curry soup at Lana
Rabbit Cacciatore
At Lana, our group was presented with a squash carrot coconut curry soup followed by rabbit cacciatore. The curry soup was served cold as it was supposed to be a light soup for the springtime.
It was a bit on the spicy side, but, unlike the lamb lasagna at the previous restaurant, the spiciness in this dish complimented the flavors instead of overpowering them.
The rabbit cacciatore came with a rich tomato sauce and linguini noodles. The noodles were a little hard to eat in the small bowls that we were given, but the struggle was worth the delicious flavors in this sample.
Neither of these dishes are on the current menu at Lana, so if you want to try them, you'll have to hope that they make an appearance on the every changing Chef's Choice Tasting Menu.
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
Last but certainly not least was a trip exclusively to satisfy our craving for something sweet: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.
We were led by Guilds back to King Street for our icy dessert which, at the time, was the only recipient of the James Beard award for ice cream!
We were all given samples of our favorite flavor followed by either a cone or cup of excellent ice cream: I chose the black and white cookie ice cream, while my mom went for the chocolate chocolate chip.
Interior of Jeni’s Splended Ice Creams on King Street
This isn't your usual ice cream shop: there are some super creative flavors that you're not going to find anywhere else like Wildberry Lavender, Churro, Brambleberry Crisp, and Brown Butter Almond Crisp.
The owner is always introducing new flavors, so you never know what you're going to see on the menu.
Normally, the ice creams are $5 for a scoop: it might seem like a lot, but the scoops are gigantic. We each were given a half scoop, which was nearly too much to eat alone.
You could easily split the regular scoop for an inexpensive dessert idea.
It was such a perfect end to a grand culinary delight of an afternoon!
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Quick Facts
Address: 501-A King Street, Charleston, South Carolina
Hours: Monday-Friday 12 PM-12 AM, Saturday-Sunday 11 AM-12 AM
King Street Food Tour Tips
You definitely need a reservation.
These tours were named the #1 food tours in Charleston SC, and they fill up fast.
Plan ahead and book early to nab a spot.
Older kids are welcome on the tours.
If you have an adventurous eater like my 8 year old, you’re welcome to book a spot for the kids, too. The tour age minimum is 8 years old since there too much sitting and walking for younger children.
Tours are held rain or shine.
Come prepared for anything, even if the sky doesn’t look particularly threatening.
The Charleston summer, the weather can shift suddenly, and you’ll be wishing you’d grabbed an umbrella.
While most of the activities are held inside, you will need to walk from place to place, which could result in getting soaked mid-summer rain storm.
You'll be stuffed by the end of the tour!
Do not attempt to eat beforehand or you'll be missing out on some tasty morsels.
You'll get more than just a tiny sample at each place--the tour website does not lie when it promises that a tour can easily make a meal for most.
Wear comfy shoes.
Downtown isn't the most forgiving of places for high heels or wedges, and I've gotten my fair share of heels stuck in grates and in cracks in the sidewalks.
Throughout the downtown area, the sidewalks are uneven, and you don’t want to trip and fall.
Trade in the fancy shoes for something that will go the distance. You cover a decent distance on the tour, and your feet will thank you at the end.
There was a complimentary recipe book available for each guest.
The paperback Signature Taste of Charleston by author, Steven W. Siler, is an awesome souvenir and has many of the recipes that we tasted on our tour in it.
Be on the lookout for my versions of a few of these in upcoming posts of the Tasty Travels series!
Would you be interested in going on the Upper King Street Culinary Tour? Have you taken any Charleston SC food tours?
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