Little Jack's Tavern — Restaurant in Charleston

We went to Little Jack’s Tavern for a date night while out of town. There was a $50 hold charge for a reservation on a Thursday night, which was a little odd to me, but we did have to make the reservations in advance to get in, and we’ve heard that Little Jack’s Tavern is hard to get into at times. We ordered two drinks, a Brown Derby and a Bee’s Knees. Both tasted great and we would recommend them. For appetizers, we ordered the Crab cake and the Shrimp cocktail. The crab cake was amazing, and the tavern sauce that it came with was tasty, like a mayo ketchup aioli. The shrimp in the Shrimp Cocktail were big and the cocktail sauce was mild but robust in flavor. I’d definitely recommend. For mains, we ordered the Surf and Turf, and the Tavern burger. The Surf and Turf came with a Tavern burger and a Shrimp burger, which I’ve never had before, but would highly recommend to those that enjoy shrimp. It was delicious. The fries on the side were a garlic and herb fry with more herbs than garlic, but were crispy and served with the tavern sauce to dip in. The tavern burger was served in the same sesame seed bun as the shrimp burger, which was nice and soft with lots of sesame seeds. The tavern sauce on the burger is quite enjoyable. I would agree with others that the burgers are quite small, but they are quite tasty. You should be the judge of whether they are worth it or not; I thought they were. Our total came out to $140, with the tip. Overall, I would recommend Little Jack’s Tavern to those looking for an upscale casual place to dine in the...

I was working in Charleston last month during the week of Valentines Day. On Tuesday after I was done with everything at customer sites I went back to Greenville and got my wife and brought her back down so we could still be together for Valentines Day. The plan was she could be at the hotel while I worked but we would at least have the afternoons and evenings for the remainder of the week. Another coworker was also in Charleston and texted me that he had some of the best Fish & Chips & grouper bites ever. I had another place in mind for Valentines Dinner but my wife and I were close by so we changed up. Well, the Grouper Bites were really good. My Fish & Chips was great but I thought the piece was small (I sent the pic to my coworker and he felt bad after the hype, said his covered more of the plate). It was Haddock and it was really tasteful. I travel a lot and grab Fish & Chips every now & then, this was the first place to serve the mashed peas, I am not a fan but that is me, maybe you like them, if so, provecho. Now for the Double Tavern burger that my wife got, although it was a winner of the 2017 Burger Bash it is now 2024 and the burger she got was not "the best I ever had" as asked by our server. It was two 1/4 oz patties of quality meat, but it was very salty. I expected more from a $21 burger. All in all it was a nice place to go. I get it, the economy yada yada yada but I thought it was a tad pricey. A different place the next day for the same amount of money, twice the food and took some home...

This review serves as an account of multiple visits to Little Jack's.

The (overpriced) burger is the order—many of the menu offerings are out of place for a self-billed "old-fashioned American tavern." But the burger is good. The cocktails are okay. The beer is usually cold. And the decor is comfortable.

The service is generally average, however, my most recent visit was far below that and actually earned the distinction of being my worst customer service experience in recent memory. I took some out-of-town friends, one of whom is a journalist for the NYT, to Little Jack's for happy hour drinks. I stood at the end of the bar while the others sat at barstools beside me. Most seats at the bar were occupied but the restaurant was not crowded. Then, some sort of self-important manager/host (this man does not deserve the title of maitre d) approached us and with a condescending guffaw asked what I thought I was doing. I told him I was fine standing, a comment which elicited another arrogant laugh from our host before he rudely informed me standing was not permitted. At this, one of my party suggested I pull up one of several empty barstools from an awkward middle area where they were being stored. Again, the host reacted as if it was a preposterous suggestion. "Absolutely not!" he snapped. By this point we all had quite enough of this man's delusions of grandeur and left for nearby Faculty Lounge—a much more welcoming...