jestine's kitchen

..definitely be the most authentic southern food that has ever entered your mouth, and you will come out of the restaurant happy that you went.

over rated. saw jestine's listed on msn as one of the best places in the usa to get fried chicken. i made a point of going there while on my vacation. three of us went for lunch and were seated rather quickly and didn't have to wait to order. the wait for our food though was, at 25 minutes, longer than i thought it should be.
when the food finally arrived, i have to say i wasn't that impressed with the fired chicken. it was, in my opinion, not even above average. i've had better fried chicken that cost a lot less at more than a few places.
just my opinion.

excellent! fried chicken was better than my mom's - and that's saying a lot because my mom makes *the best* fried chicken. try the coca-cola cake too. it's delish!

chicken was good but not as great as we expected so a little disappointed. the vegetables were cold and tasteless so we decided to stop after a few bites. green beans, butter beans and what was supposed to be green bean casserole (they only added fried onions to the regular green beans) but the fried corn on the cob was very good. tried justines because of all the hype but won't be going back.

like being at grandma's house. this is primarily a tourist restaurant, as reflected in the prices. however, the food remains high quality. many complain because they simply don't have a taste for real southern food. i like southern food and i have liked everything i've ever had here - so does my hedgehog, which the owner has made tiny meals for.

soooooooo good - worth the wait!. we arrived right before 1pm for lunch (tuesday) and stood in line for 30 minutes, but it was worth every sweaty moment in line! we both ordered the daily special, sweet chicken, which was a first for us. it was excellent! daiy special was $8.95 which included three pieces of chicken!
it was a tough decision on dessert! the server felt our pain and brought us a complimentary slice of their famous coca-cola cake along with our banana pudding and peach/blueberry cobbler - sugar overload, but sooooooooooo delicious!!
when we departed at 230pm, the line was even longer than the one we stood in. all the time we were eating, there were empty tables; at one time i counted five and there were people standing on line. just didn't make any sense to us!

really good food and backstory to this restaurant great lunch spot to hit up. i will definitely come back to try some of the other fixin's justine is cooking up in the kitchen.

a charleston tradition

we had been here many years earlier. on our most recent visit to lovely charleston, we returned to jestine’s for dinner. the place is usually busy and we waited on some outdoor benches for about 15 minutes. this line should have moved more quickly but the staff ran around lots of empty but dirty tables. the maitre d’ is also kind of useless and not at all gracious.

anyway, it’s mostly about the food. we started with some nice fried green tomatoes. then aw moved on to a very tasty meatloaf plate, a very nice bowl of shrimp of grits and a really good plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and turnip greens.

this was solid, good southern food. nothing was particularly outstanding or creative. but the do a super job of what they aim to accomplish: provide good southern food at a reasonable price. they succeed.

we ate here while taking a mid-day tour through the markets.  it was recommended on roadfood.com and several other places, and my wife and i can say that the recommendations are spot on.

we started out with their complementary cucumber pickles and fried green tomatoes.  there were 4 slices on the plate, along with some sweet pepper relish.  i didn't think it had a strong enough flavor to add anything to the meal, but my wife enjoyed it.

i ordered 2 pieces of dark fried chicken with butter beans and coleslaw for my meal.  she ordered fried catfish with deep fried corn on the cob and fried okra for her meal.   we shared a taste of everything.  the fried chicken was lightly battered.  we both thought that it could have used a heavier seasoning, but it was piping hot and otherwise delicious.  the fried catfish was lightly battered and also tasted good.  their coleslaw is dressed with a vinegar based dressing that was one of the better ones i have eaten.  the deep fried corn on the cob was a disappointment.  apparently, the end result of deep frying corn on the cob is the same as for roasting it on the grill.  it is easier to eat the the kernels, but it still needs butter, salt, and pepper.  after adding these condiments, it was a delicious piece of corn.  the butter beans were not hopelessly mushy, which is the way that i like them.

the service was quick and efficient.  we arrived at 11:45 am for lunch on a thursday and we are glad that we arrived when we did.  when we left about an hour later, the dining room had filled up.

i was very disappointed in the food and the service. we had fried chicken and meatloaf, while they were both okay the sides were far from it. the only good thing was the coca-cola cake (next time we'll just do dessert). our charge (including tax and tip) was $60 which was the most expensive meal during our whole week in charleston, hilton head, and savannah; and we ate at several nice restaurants during this trip.

i had very high expectations going into here due to the impressive reviews on sites so i was a bit disappointed to find their fried chicken average at best. there was a very long line to get in so i assumed it must be great but that only added to the hype which it failed to meet. the chicken was lightly breaded and did not stand out as anything spectacular, the sides were okay, just average sides you would find at a dive barbecue joint. hopefully if i go back it will be better.

amazing fried chicken! corn bread was a little dry, but the sweet tea was perfect. we had easter lunch at a great local classic southern dining spot.

this place is a charm for southern food. fried green tomatoes were amazing. all of the desserts are great too, cannot go wrong. my service was not the best, but the food made up for it.

good "home cooked" comfort foods. much more crowded in past few years. once the delucious "southern fried chicken" was too dry, or i would have given a 5 rating. try the side dishes, mac n cheese or green bean casserole. for dessert the coke-a-cola cake( frosting and batter has coke in it.... delucious!

great southern food. our first dinner in sc and we were not disappointed. fried chicken and fried fish with great collards and grits and over the top desserts... what else can i say!