Reservations recommended: These are the 10 most-booked restaurants in Greenville
If you’re looking for suggestions about where to eat in Greenville, Open Table creates a list each month of the most reserved places.
OpenTable analyzes nearly 500,000 reviews from people who have dined in restaurants over the past month.
“It’s a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review,” Open Table says on its website. “We listen ... and deliver the results.”
Here are the top 10 most-often reserved restaurants, six of whom are located in downtown Greenville, which has become known in recent years as a foodie destination.
Open Table found Soby’s was the most reserved among Greenville’s restaurants in February. The downtown mainstay has also been the Open Table’s 100 best brunch restaurants in the country.
Carl Sobocinski founded Soby’s New South Cuisine in 1997 back when downtown Greenville became a ghost town after 5 p.m. and restaurants mainly catered to business people needing lunch.
He took what was once Cancellation Shoes and turned it into a cozy brick-walled space with a richly hued wooden bar and a class front that can be opened during warm weather. There is also a special table — 301 — that overlooks the kitchen.
As Sobocinski grew the business, opening new concepts around downtown he took the Name Table 301 as the parent company.
Located on Woodruff Road, Firebirds is true to its name. If you can grill it they will cook it, from steaks to seafood.
STIR is located on McBee Street in downtown Greenville and is known for seafood — the seafood tower, especially — and its oyster bar.
Begun in Asheville in 2000, the restaurant opened on Main Street in Greenville in 2013. It calls itself “a revival of Southern food and traditions rooted in the Carolina mountains we call home.” The farm to table restaurants now has 27 locations in the South and Midwest.
O-Ku on Broad Street downtown offers authentic Asian cuisine. “From temaki, nigiri and sashimi to hot plates and signature rolls, O-Ku’s chefs showcase the freshest fish from the world’s finest markets alongside local sustainable sources,” the company says on its website. It has 12 restaurants in the Southeast. Travel + Leisure named it among the best sushi restaurants in the United States.
Located on Beacon Drive, just off Interstate 85, Chophouse 47 is known for its steaks and lobster in a New York–style steakhouse. It’s been open since 2001 and features broiled USDA prime aged beef, seafood and shareable sides.
Fork & Plough is in the Overbrook neighborhood on East North Street that says you won’t find a “restaurant anywhere near Greenville doing what farmer Roddy Pick and Chef Shawn Kelly set out to do: provide both neighbors and visitors alike the Upstate’s freshest and most plentiful meats, produce, and products, both as a dine-in and carry out option.”
An Italian restaurant on Broad Street in downtown Greenville, the restaurant is the work of executive Chef Josh Begley and is part of the seven-restaurant chain, The Indigo Road Hospitality Group. IT features hand-made pastas, pizzas, and an in-house pastry program. “Italian for “indigo,” Indaco’s charm extends beyond the menu and into the modern space with wood-paneled ceilings, deep indigo tile accents, chef’s counter seating, and an outdoor patio where guests can enjoy live music, specialty drinks, local brews, and other small bites outside the main kitchen hours,” the restaurant says on its website.
Located in Camperdown Plaza, where The Greenville News used to be, CAMP is amid a development in downtown Greenville that overlooks Falls Park and is home to the AC Hotel and stores. CAMP says on its website “Here is a gathering place that captures the essence of downtown Greenville perfectly — cool, comfortable, lively — with food that is insanely delicious and flavorful.” It is one of the Table 301 restaurants.
Rotie by Stella’s is the third restaurant in a Simpsonville-based chain and calls itself “classic French Rotisserie meets the American South.” Stella’s Restaurant Group opened its first location, Stella’s Southern Bistro, 16 years ago focused on locally sourced southern cuisine. The second, Stella’s Southern Brasserie, opened in 2017 in the Hollingsworth Park neighborhood of Greenville.