The Darling Oyster Bar

We had a great meal and a lovely waitress. We were coming in from out of town so we made a reservation. The restaurant was not very full. We were seated in an adjacent dark room. We asked to be sat in the main dining but were told that the only tables left were 6 tops and not available for our party of 3. So we sat in the dark room looking into the main area. The entire time we were there the remaking 6 tops were never sat. I say that so that you know to request the main room when making your reservation. The hostesses will not make concessions for you and it’s not as Darling in the dark room.

5 stars all around! Amazing Saturday oyster happy hour until 7 had us pleased from the beginning. Our server, Dan, was awesome. Drinks were great, food was delicious, and the atmosphere was fun. Highly recommend and would go again in a heartbeat.

Fantastic night. Service was absolutely amazing. Will be back on my next trip to Charleston.

Good food, short menus, small portions, acceptable service.

Excellent seafood and service! Would recommend highly!!

Birthday celebration. Everything was great. Menu was a bit limited but understood the philosophy of doing a few things well.

came through during a road trip- great casual chic place. food and service excellent . no issues requesting a simple modification to dish to remove a meat.

The food here was top notch! Excellent oysters on the half shell, followed by crab cakes and shrimp and grits, then ended with key lime pie. All of the food was outstanding, decor was beautiful and service was attentive without being intrusive. Cannot recommend enough!

Incredible. I can’t wait to go back and get the tower. Amazing.

limited menu but good food. Loved the fried oysters and shrimp, and the hush puppies were quite good. Prompt and very attentive service.

We were from out of town visiting and I picked this place and it did not disappoint. The food was outstanding, our waitress was great and the wine I had, was actually very good. I consider myself a foodie and we really wanted some good seafood and this hit the spot. My only complaint was the ceviche seemed like a bit of an afterthought and we didn't care for that or the hush puppies but everything else was great. I highly recommend the Tuna, Fried Clams, Baked and Raw oysters.

Amazing food, waaaaaaaaayy to expensive for what you get.

Great seafood, great service. Don’t have a bad thing to say. The lobster roll is to die for.

Our table of 4 had oysters, clams, shrimp, cocktail, shrimp and grits and fried clams. Everything was very good with the exception of the fried clams....which were ok but not great. The service was excellent. We highly recommend.

Waiter was not very friendly but food was excellent.

Lauren our server was outstanding

Very knowledgeable about the food and area

We would go back just because of her

Went for the happy hour, loved the oysters, the catch of the day awesome and Gabriella was great!

We had a reservation for 6pm. Other than the oyster bar the restaurant was pretty empty. They seated us at the back of the dining room - all together with 2 other parties along the back wall. No privacy for conversations, in fact you could hear everything each other were saying. I think it would have been more sensible to spread us out a bit.

Was hit with a blast of off putting fish smell combined with ammonia as soon as we walked in. I wanted to leave but the person who picked the restaurant wanted to stay. Retrospectively we all decided we would leave immediately. Tab greater than $400 for mediocre food at best. Fish tasted like straight from freezer- fishy taste. No one ate. Oysters tasted off as well. Not from Charleston but my fellow 4 diners were. We won’t be going back. Super disappointed.

The atmosphere was great. The service was fine. The food was kind of forgettable. The best thing was the fire

Awesome meal, great service. Scallops were fantastic.

Delicious! We loved oyster shooters, oysters, salad and scallops. Would definitely recommend. The ambiance was perfect and it is close to a few wine bars. Looking forward to next time!

Great service! Food was very good! Our server made great suggestions. The oysters were top notch...from presentation to quality to flavor,

Jill our server was terrific and the food was delicious! Thank you for seating us in a quieter area as requested we will definitely be back

The Darling never fails to disappoint. Food and beverages always outstanding. Had a wonderful time with family and friends.

I was a little disappointed, I found this restaurant on Yelp and chose it based on the good reviews. I ordered the lobster and king crab roll with fries for the side. The roll was more bread than meat and was very greasy. The fries were overly salty, so much so that I had to order a side of ranch to try to tame the saltiness.

Great food, atmosphere and service.

Terrible experience. We ordered fried clam strips and they came chewy and room temperature. Told the waiter, takes them and brings a new plate but placed them on table next to us, who starts eating them. When, sometime later they tell the waiter they did not order them the waiter brings them to our table ( already half eaten). We let him know we saw them eating them, he takes them “back” to the kitchen and supposedly brings “new ones” two min later but they look like same ones and have the exact same dipping container with already used sauce.

The hushpuppies were reheated from day before ( chewy and room temperature).

Do not waste your time, best thing we ate was salad.

The raw bar ( oysters, clams, shrimp, are very fresh. Excellent happy hour deals! The regular menus were just ok for us . We ordered the avocado toast ( too much cucumbers ! ) , mussels ( broth not tasty , kinda watery)

The Darling Oyster was okay, but not great. It was definitely too expensive for what it delivered. I would not recommend that anyone go out of their way to visit the Darling, especially with some other much better restaurants nearby.

Everything felt rushed - which is a huge turn-off at a restaurant billed as "up-scale". Our server was very friendly, but at times unattentive. Since the restaurant was out of the fish entree, my wife and I decided to order a number of appetizers instead of entrees (I think we had five appetizers in addition to our oysters). Our server offered to stagger the appetizers, which was great because we were about to make the same request. However, all of our food came out within a five minute window. Our table was so crammed it was hard to pick up our wine glasses. In addition, many of the hot items were no longer warm by the time we got to eat them. Also, several of our dishes were over-salted (which I generally wouldn't mention, but on top of everything else, it was disappointing).

Surprisingly, after the flurry of food delivered to our table, our server was then hard to find - resulting in a couple of occasions where we were searching for her to order another drink.

There is obviously room for improvement, and it wasn't close to living up to the hype. Considering the price and the other great restaurants in the area, I would recommend going somewhere else.

Had a Reservation for 8:30pm on New Year's Eve. We were seated prompted. Joe was our waiter.
We ordered the Seafood Tower. It was outstanding! We each had several different cocktails that he recommended. Enjoyed them all. Overall eating there was an outstanding experience. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

New Years Eve my brother and his wife visiting Charleston

Service very slow. Felt oysters were very overpriced.

Our second round on this trip. It’s that good! Kid friendly but a nice spot for a quiet dinner. Oysters are amazing. The fresh fish basket is insane. Ask for the house hot sauce. Amaze!

Service was first rate, very attentive staff. The food was amazing loved the shrimp and grits.

It took a long time to get our meal. No explanation why but they comped us some cocktails. The food was very good. Some of the best scallops we have ever had.

Amazing! Would highly recommend.

Great service from the staff. Food was great, and not too loud in the dining area.

The food was excellent. Joe our waiter was excellent..very knowledgeable and guided us in the right direction when it came to our tastes. We ordered the octopus appetizer and the cajun shrimp appetizer, which were so incredibly flavorful. The rice cake in the shrimp dish soaks up the sauce beautifully and the legumes laying under the octopus were incredibly flavored. Our entrees comprised of shrimp and grits and the scallop entree. The roasted brussel sprouts in the shrimp and grits were perfectly crisp and the scallop dish was not shared with me, but I was assured the dish was incredibly delicious. Next time we are in town, we will definitely revisit.

We went there at happy hour and had a delightful experience. We will add it to our annual Charleston dining agenda!