South Carolina's Fine Dining Restaurant In Charleston Is Top-Rated, Classy, And Serves Elegant Dishes

If you could only eat at one restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, High Cotton would be a wise choice. With its white tablecloths and exposed brick walls, High Cotton is a distinguished setting, just right for romantic dinners and special occasions. The restaurant is well known for its haute cuisine and thoughtful presentation — even in a food-forward town like Charleston, High Cotton stands out with its expansive menu and well-reviewed customer service.

"I was so impressed by the friendliness of the staff," wrote one visitor on Tripadvisor. "The hostess was so wonderful, she walked us to [the] road our hotel was on and then came all the way to the hotel later to give me my credit card I had left." It's hard to find a more shining example of Southern hospitality.

Opened in 1999 as a traditional steakhouse, High Cotton was well anchored in the Charleston dining scene before Hall Management Group took it over in 2015. The company's owners, the Hall family, were well acquainted with this culinary genre: The late patriarch Bill Hall had worked for four decades in the restaurant business, and his family had opened Halls Chophouse Charleston only six years earlier. Yet High Cotton has evolved in the past decade; porterhouse steak and prime ribeye are still served, but the menu also leans into "Lowcountry" specialties like seafood bouillabaisse, shrimp and grits, or whole fish (pictured above). One of High Cotton's hallmarks is the she-crab soup, one of the five must-eat dishes when visiting Charleston, according to local food guides.

High Cotton is located in the city's historic French Quarter, amid a constellation of high-end restaurants. It's also embedded in Charleston's energetic arts scene: Within a few blocks, you'll find theaters and art galleries, and you're in reasonable proximity to the five must-do things in Charleston if you only have a weekend. High Cotton's hours are generally between 4:30 and 10 p.m. (11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), so the dining room is best known for its dinners; yet brunch is also served on Saturdays and Sundays, with such decadent offerings as crab eggs Benedict, tuna tartar, and broiled Atlantic salmon salad.

High Cotton also boasts an elegant bar, which has long been a fixture of Charleston nightlife. The bar has its own menu with elevated pub fare — think parmesan-truffle popcorn, fish tacos, and the High Cotton lobster roll — and the cocktail list is imaginative, including the lemonade-based Charleston Cocktail and citrusy Cool as a Cucumber. Wines, beers, and mocktails are also available. As a bonus, a rotating list of musicians performs live almost every night. High Cotton sets tables on the sidewalk in warm weather, but you can visit anytime of year, and you could easily add it to a list of the best things to do in Charleston during the winter.