Patio lovers, rejoice: Two SC restaurants rank among nation’s best for outdoor dining
If you love dining al fresco, you might find just your new favorite restaurant patio in South Carolina.
That’s because the state is home to two of the nation’s best places to eat outside, according to the restaurant review website OpenTable.
Charlie’s Coastal Bistro on Hilton Head Island joins Soby’s New South Cuisine in downtown Greenville on a list of “100 Most Popular Restaurants for Outdoor Dining in America,” results show.
To create the list, OpenTable gathered more than 13 million reviews in the year leading up to May. While looking at comments from “verified” users, it studied U.S. restaurants with a “minimum ‘overall’ score and number of qualifying reviews,” according to a report published Wednesday, June 28.
“The overall score is made up of unique data points, such as overall diner rating, ... total number of reviews, and regional overall rating,” the website wrote. “Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the percentage of reviews, for which ‘outdoor dining’ was selected as a special feature.”
Why people love the restaurant patios
Among the South Carolina winners was Charlie’s Coastal Bistro on Hilton Head Island. The restaurant said it focuses on “fresh local seafood with a French, Lowcountry” twist, so it might not come as a surprise that it had the former name L’Etoile Verte — French for “green star.”
On OpenTable, several people raved about the ambiance of the patio at Charlie’s Coastal Bistro. Some customers also praised the restaurant’s takes on escargot and other French classics, helping it earn almost five out of five stars.
It’s not the first time the restaurant on New Orleans Road has received wide acclaim. OpenTable named it a top outdoor dining destination on a similar list in 2022, and it more recently ranked among the nation’s most romantic places to eat, McClatchy News reported.
On the more recent outdoor dining list, the other top-ranking restaurant in the Palmetto State was Soby’s. The Greenville restaurant said it offers Southern comfort foods and al fresco seating.
Customers flocked to OpenTable to report that they received top-notch service while having meals outdoors. Many also loved the food, including the fan-favorite crab cake dish.
On its list, OpenTable didn’t share the winning restaurants in ranking order but instead organized them alphabetically. The state boasting the highest number of top places to eat outside was California, which had 31 in total.
“With many restaurants elevating outdoor dining spaces for summer and beyond, this list represents dining destinations with incredible outdoor — and culinary — offerings,” Susan Lee, chief growth officer for OpenTable, said in a news release, adding that outdoor dining was up 19% year-over-year for the first half of June.
This story was originally published June 30, 2023 at 2:27 PM.
