Leon's — Restaurant in Charleston

I was really excited to visit Leon's when I was in Charleston last Thursday, I thought it was strange that they didn't accept reservations on the day you wanted to dine there. When we arrived I was told for our party it would be a 30-35 minute wait. I was like no big deal i'll go to the bar and order me a drink while waiting,. I walk to the bar and I see all these reserved labels on the tables. That's when I met the rudest bartender ever. Who informed me that the bar tables are reserved for customers that have a reservation.......

WHAT !!!!! Now i've been to NY, San Francisco Chicago, New Orleans. I've never seen reserved bar tables.I had him repeat it to make sure I was hearing him correctly. Yep that's correct. I looked around because I figured I must have walked into a white table cloth restaurant. Nope this was Leon's a gas station turned into a restaurant.

At this point I was ready to leave because this place was not the place that I felt I wanted to spend my money at but we had driven almost 2 hours and everyone was hungry so we stayed, Big Mistake.

We finally got seated and everyone ordered My wife ordered the Chicken, I ordered the Clam Strips, someone else ordered the Catfish.

Let me start with my clam strips, I could have went to the grocery store and purchased frozen clam strips and went home and deep fried them to the point that they were over cooked and hard, like these were for less than $18.00. Which they charged.

My wife asked me to taste her chicken, It looked really good then I bit into it and I was like Wow this is really bland. I took another bite and I was done, there was absolutely no seasoning on the chicken at all. Another guest sent their catfish back because it was overcooked. At that point we couldn't wait to get the check and leave this over priced pretentious place.

Now I've visited Charleston several times and this was my first...

Beyond thrilled I learned about Leon’s. I visited mid afternoon. avoiding the rush. I got seated at the bar where the bartender couldn’t have been more gracious.

I started with the grilled oysters, which are one of their specialties and they were wonderful. I think they’re going to give New Orleans a run for their money on this dish. Then based on his suggestion, the shrimp sandwich. Basically it was fresh shrimp, cooked and tossed in the horseradish mayonnaise sauce wrapped in a butter lettuce, and served in a lobster roll bun and topped with crushed potato chips. It was out of this world, the saltiness, the crunchiness, the bitterness of the horseradish, the sweetness of the shrimp. It just came together like a party. I knew I would be hungry later and would not want to go back out, so I took home some smoked mahi dip with fried saltines. Oh. My. God. I would say those saltines are the closest thing to savory food crack I’ve ever had. They paired wonderfully with the mahi dip, the crispiness and salt is playing great with the smokiness of the mahi. I didn’t get a drink because it was the middle of the afternoon, but the bartender could not have been more kind and told me about some of the beers they had anyway.

The atmosphere is like a vintage filling station meets an indoor patio. Fun and casual. You can sit outside, inside, but may wait because they don’t take reservations. Absolutely though,...

Leon's offers a nice atmosphere. The parking situation is not good, there's a very small lot that you have to practically "fight" to get in - it's first come/serve. I had to to sit and watch for someone to leave and swoop in to grab a spot before someone else. The plus is that it's a short walk right down the sidewalk from the restaurant. If you can't get in, not sure where you would park. We arrived around 7 and the wait was about one hour for party of 2, so they put your name on the list and suggest that you go across the street to Melfi's for a drink (separate review) which we thought was odd. The atmosphere at Leon's feels like a backyard cookout on a balmy summer evening. They had the garage doors open to let in a breeze. The music is so nostalgic, old school jazzy blues. Service was excellent and pricing is average for the area and type of restaurant. Honestly it's hard to say the restaurant was "clean" because it's a converted garage/gas station. By all appearances I would say it's sanitary, the ladies restroom was clean, well decorated and our table was clean. It is dimly lit w string lights hanging but I believe this adds to the whole vibe which was fine to me. The food was good. I loved the scalloped potatoes, fried chicken was a little burnt but okay. The chicken sandwich was good as well. I definitely recommend Leon's if you come down...