These South Carolina restaurants rank among the nation’s most romantic places to eat
South Carolina is home to two of the nation’s best restaurants for a romantic night out, new rankings show.
Circa 1886 Restaurant in Charleston joins Charlie’s Coastal Bistro on Hilton Head Island in being named among the top places to go for dates, according to lists that restaurant review websites published ahead of Valentine’s Day.
Circa 1886 Restaurant ranked as the No. 1 most romantic restaurant in South Carolina. To come up with the findings, the website Yelp searched for restaurants with date-related comments “then ranked those spots using a number of factors including the total volume and ratings of reviews” over time.
Meanwhile, Charlie’s Coastal Bistro landed a spot on OpenTable’s list of “100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America.” The reservation-focused website said it studied more than 13 million reviews that U.S. customers left in the year leading up to December 2022, considering “unique data points, such as overall diner rating, user klout, total number of reviews, and regional overall rating.”
What makes the restaurants special?
Circa 1886 Restaurant, located on Wentworth Street in the tourist hot spot of Charleston, occupies an old carriage house. On Yelp, several users said they were fans of the ambiance and the customer service, helping it earn more than four out of five stars.
Other customers loved eating dishes with Southern flare, including caviar-topped pimento grilled cheese and shrimp and rice grits. The chef “draws inspiration from many cuisines around the world to create a menu that is truly unique to the Charleston restaurant scene,” according to the dining spot’s Yelp page.
Circa 1886 Restaurant isn’t a stranger to receiving wide acclaim for its food and intimate atmosphere. Last year, the travel website Tripadvisor named the restaurant the nation’s sixth-best place for date nights, McClatchy News reported in September.
Also earning repeated praise is Charlie’s Coastal Bistro on Hilton Head Island. The dining location held a spot on a 2022 OpenTable list of most romantic restaurants as well as on another highlighting the nation’s top places to enjoy a meal.
Charlie’s Coastal Bistro also recently was named among the best outdoor dining destinations in the country. This time around, the restaurant was recognized after several OpenTable users said they couldn’t get enough of its top-notch setting and quality ingredients, helping it earn nearly five out of five stars.
The restaurant, located on New Orleans Road, says it focuses on serving “fresh local seafood with a French, Lowcountry flare.” The European influence is evident in the eatery’s former name “L’Etoile Verte,” which means “the green star” in French.
The rankings come as OpenTable data shows people are expected to flock to restaurants and spend big for Valentine’s Day.
OpenTable, which didn’t organize its list of most romantic places to eat in a ranking order, said the state with the highest number of date-worthy restaurants was California, which boasted 13.
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