Millers All Day — Restaurant in Charleston

It's 8am on Valentine's Day and we're looking for breakfast in Charleston, SC. Did a quick Yelp search and Millers All Day is one of the first results to 'pop' up. Had no expectations, but left with feeling fulfilled and satisfied.

Millers All Day is relatively easy to find 120 King St. Short walk from most hotels and stay areas. There is a parking garage nearby, but I opted to walk as it didn't take me long to arrive.

Wait times can add up very fast at Millers. For my wife and I, it was about 25 to 30 minutes when we got there around 8:15am. Needless to say, get there early and always expect a slight wait time. The staff are very nice and efficient with getting customers in, and out in a timely manner. I don't believe we waited the full 25 mins before being seated.

The decor is very quaint and warm. It used to be an old pharmacy that was renovated to what you see now. Very simple style.

Food is a variety of light, to heavy when it comes to breakfast meals. Order as much as you like, but always finish what you start. At least, I tried to. My wife ordered the Lobster Toast which was excellent. She loves seafood and this was a great dish for her. I started with the Chocolate Brioche with vanilla cream French Toast. This didn't sit too well for me. Overall, the one word I would use is 'dry'. The vanilla cream definitely helps, but it doesn't save it completely. So my next choice was the one recommended and most popular with returning customers. The Waffles.

Banana, sorghum, caramel and meringue. Topped with an abundance of syrup and little pieces of popcorn. This was the highlight meal of my trip to Charleston. The mixture of flavors and crisp waffles are just amazing. I can see why this is so popular, it makes me regret not coming back for a second round before I left the city. But if I come back, I'm definitely returning for this waffle plate.

Thank you to the staff for being kind and helpful during these critical times. Everyone was distanced appropriately, and they made sure to request all customers where a mask when they are not dining. They clean thoroughly between customers, and also provide hand sanitizer. They wear masks and keep a positive attitude all throughout.

If you're in Charleston and you're looking for that hearty breakfast place. Millers is my top recommendation. Come early and come hungry.

If you read to the end of my review, please...

Millers All Day! What an experience. What a great find. Three of us just disembarked from Carnival Sunshine and decided to grab some breakfast before we hit the road back to Atlanta.

Originally we found three places and chose a different spot but quickly switched gears and decided on this spot. Best decision ever. Monday morning and clearly in a main shopping district, we didn't think we would get good parking. We lucked out.

We entered and we're seated immediately. Good timing because it was starting to get busy. The set up looks like it might have been an old school pharmacy with an eat in counter, booths and chairs. Our server Grace was so pleasant and information with great suggestions when we asked. She had the patience of a saint. There were a lot of questions, switching selections and adding extra stuff.

The place was a buzz with chatter and clinking of dishes. Always a good sign. Clearly we were new to this restaurant and the others had been here a few times. Looking at other patrons food selections we were amazed about how good everything looked including, the appeal of the dishes and the copious amounts of food.

The decor was so cute and light. Love the colors.

We ordered:

WAFFLES 16 bananas, caramel, popped sorghum, meringue

PANCAKES

FRIED CHICKEN 7

MILLERS PLATE 15.5 two eggs*, Jimmy Red Corn Grits or home fries, biscuit, bacon (sub chicken apple sausage for $3 upcharge), garnished with pickled veg

LOBSTER FRIES 21 home fries, bacon, mornay sauce, lobster, scallions, sunny-side egg*

PANCAKES 15.5 three cornmeal pancakes, Falling Bark Farms hickory syrup

All the food was pretty amazing. The waffles came with two pork sausage links. The highlight was the bananas, meringue and caramel. Undescribable! The home fries. Never had deep fried crispy potatoes like this. They had so much flavor and was light and airy. We also ordered two cinnamon buns to go. The frosting is in a separate container.

Special shout out to the manager JP walking around asking if we were cool or needed anything. He brought us more meringue and caramel. We had an awesome experience.

The restaurant is only open until 3pm.

Next time I will order special coffees because that is a humongous part of their...

Huge kudos for using locally caught shrimp, and hopefully sourcing the rest of the seafood locally. More kudos for using shell eggs rather than processed eggs from a bucket.

I ordered a latte, and it was far more like a cappuccino- not sure if this was intentional, as $tarbucks has convinced an entire generation that frothed milk is the same as steamed milk, or just a choice of their own.

To try the shrimp, we ordered the “add shrimp” from the salad section, and as advertised, they were good fresh local shrimp, and cooked well. We also tried the Deviled Crab fritters- these were disappointing, unfortunately; we really had to search for the crabmeat in the fritters, but the overall flavor was good.

For my main breakfast, I chose the steak and eggs. Their version has country fried steak and sausage gravy instead of a more traditional steak. It was well cooked, but not to my personal liking. The fried steak and the sausage gravy had an odd spice and sweet taste which for me brought these classic savory dishes down. Others may like that, after all, some people like honey on their ham. The scrambled eggs were clearly fresh cracked, and also locally sourced, overcooked for me, but that means just the way my guest liked them. Different strokes.

Our breakfasts came with ‘home fries”- these were not edible, neither I nor my guest ate them. Apparently the are baked, then frozen, then seasoned and fried. Overall the had very unpleasant textures both on the outer “crust” (possibly breaded?) and on the inside. It’s their way, but I can’t imagine anyone really liking a gritty exterior and an overcooked grainy interior.

I will return to try some other dishes- they can cook, and use quality ingredients!

Overall pretty good, and while I won’t repeat some of my choices, others I will. I definitely support the local...