Charleston BBQ is not one thing. Pick by what you want on the plate: a whole hog, yellow mustard sauce, or Texas brisket.
Whole hog BBQ in Charleston
Cooking a whole pig over wood is the oldest way in the Carolinas, and it is hard work. With Rodney Scott's closed since May 2026, these are the three we could source.
- Palmira Barbecue in West Ashley. The pitmaster was born in Puerto Rico and cooks on a smoker he built himself.
- Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint on James Island. West Tennessee style, over hickory for more than 20 hours. It is part of a Nashville group.
- Swig & Swine on Savannah Highway, which cooks whole hog on Thursdays.
South Carolina mustard sauce BBQ in Charleston
Yellow mustard sauce is South Carolina's own. Around here it runs through one family, the Bessingers.
- Bessinger's BBQ on Savannah Highway, open since the early 1960s.
- Melvin's BBQ on James Island and in Mount Pleasant. Locals say it has the best gold sauce in town.
- Dukes BBQ on Folly Road, a buffet with chopped pork and hash over rice.
Texas brisket and everything else
Lewis Barbecue serves Central Texas brisket, sliced to order, and holds a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand. It is the brisket answer in every local thread.
Home Team BBQ cooks a bit of every style. Locals talk about its wings more than anything else.
King BBQ in North Charleston is the odd one out, in a good way. It calls its food Chinatown BBQ made with Southern smoke.
Downtown, Poogan's Smokehouse is on East Bay Street. Up on Ashley Phosphate Road, Robert's Bar B Que is a lunch-only counter.
Styles and wood are listed only where the restaurant or a named source states them. Where a pit does not say what wood it burns, we do not guess.