jestine's 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. theplaceis 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.

thisplaceis 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.

greatplaceto experience low country authentic food at reasonable prices, dana is beautiful and willing to share her story. def recommend as a must.

pros: quality sides, certain main dishes, history, generous portions (value)
cons: avg service, inconsistent (certain main dishes), waiting (potentially)

so we decided to hit this littleplaceup on a whim, as we saw the line of people waiting for aplacethat wasn't even open. for starters, many people complain about waiting and the big line, but it wasn't an issue at 11:00am on a saturday.
we ordered some sweet tea, which had good flavor and wasn't too sweet, aka good. we also got an order of corn bread. it had good texture, was slightly dry, but good overall. the honey and butter combo they serve with it was welcome.
for our actual lunch, we decided to try the pecan fried chicken breast, with fried corn on the cob and mashed potatoes.
first off, the chicken was amazing. super moist, tender white meat, with a great outer crusting that had some sweet flavor infused. the cream that came with it wasn't the best, however (gravy aka). the mashed potatoes were also pretty good; good texture, and the skin is always welcome. gravy was a standard brown.
the corn was perfectly seasoned, but we felt the frying kind of masked the flavor. still good though.
our friends dishes weren't anything special, though.
one got the crab cake, the other fried oyster po-boy.
the crab cake didn't really have any flavor and tasted kind of heated up from the freezer.
the sandwich, while the oysters were good, had too much bread and that took away from the overall flavor. and the fries were overly greasy, with no flavor.
the service was okay, but just average really.
overall, this was a coolplacewith some good history, but certain dishes seemed to outweigh others!

jestine is as rude as they come. so much for southern hospitality at this place. we were there just after they had opened at 11:30 am and there were only 2 tables occupied in the restaurant. jestine seated us basically on top of a family with small children and an infant. we couldn't even push our chairs back an inch. when i politely asked to move to another table(mind you the whole restaurant was empty but one other table), she sat us at another table and slammed the menus down in front of us and declared " there is a family with children over here, is that going to be ok", very sarcastically! the only other table that was occupied was what she was pointing out, but they were about 6 feet away! i was mortified at the customer service of the owner, as well as the 21 year old server who had witnessed the whole ordeal. the server came over and immediately apologized for her boss's actions!!!!!! it was jestine the owner! we got up and left! i will never recommend thisplaceto anyone! i travel for a living and have never encountered such rude behavior from an owner of a restaurant for absolutely no reason. if you are looking for southern charm and class, look past this restaurant!!!!!!!

a hoax. thisplacedoes not have good food. do not believe the reviews, the experts, or anyone else who says it is good. cheap products, poor execution. go get better southern style food at ryan's.

gross. i can cook better than thisplaceand i can't cook.

so-so. as you might guess, i'm a fried chicken fanatic and because of that jestine's has been on my wishlist for quite a while. you can't be a fan of southern cuisine and not heard about thisplace- it's on almost every 10 best list i've ever seen and maybe that's why i thought it was just so-so. maybe my expectations were just too high. while the chicken was moist, the crust was almost burnt and that was the flavor that it imparted as well. the mashed potatoes were good, but consisted of half peel/half potato. wifey enjoyed her greens. the cornbread wasn't too sweet, but was dry and served cold. the pecan pie and the coca-cola cake aren't really worthy of mention. judge for yourself, but i think that a onetime giant is just resting on it's reputation.

embarrassing to call this soul food. the family and i went to jestine after being told it was not good. how true!!!! thisplacehas been highly over rated but i think it's due to its appearance on several tv shows and it now must have new owners because the original owner would be embarrassed.

i love to cook and have made much better tasting, flavorful chicken than what was delivered to me today. the plus here was it was hot.

the fried green tomatoes lacked seasoning. they were retrieved straight from the garden, sliced, dipped in cornmeal, and fried. that's about it.

the okra gumbo was just okra mixed and cooked with canned diced tomatoes. lima beans were good, not excellent.

lastly, dessert - coca cola cake was very delicious.

warning: do not waste your money on this place. trust me, your own soul food cooking is much better.

i visited jestine's kitchen and experienced what are some of the aspects that make thisplaceso popular. we waited in the famous line around the block for a table for starters. the wait is not as long as you may anticipate. we ordered the original fried chicken & that day's "special" of the fried wings plate, splitting the two. the original fried chicken was superior in flavor as this is what they are known for. however i was surprised that the wings were seasoned or cooked differently than the original breast recipe. overall it was a pleasurable experience and is a sure go to.

good experience. the mrs. and i had a taste for low country food. this was the joint. good solid food, great service. i will admit, the fried green tomatoes were good, but still not even close to those at the whistle stop in ga. chicken and meast loaf were good, the sides were very good. traditional southern mac&cheese. skipped the sweets. charming littleplacefor a meal to get you through a day of walking through the holy city.

what are you people thinking?. i can't believe the good reviews thisplacegets. how do you mess up meatloaf?! the sides were small, expensive and tasted like institutional quality food (i have had better food in the hospital). the staff was overworked and either rude (ours wasn't but i wanted to smack a different waitress for being so rude to the people at the table next to us) or just too busy to be friendly. my wife ordered baked chicken which so dry it was inedible. my 8 year old made the mistake of ordering the worst mac-n-cheese in the south. seriously how do you mess up meatloaf? i ordered the meatloaf, if you can't tell, and it was awful. how does anybody mess up meatloaf?!?!?! especially, any self respecting southern cook!

she had the grilled pork chops, with a coca-cola based bbq sauce, on a bed of fried collard greens, fried okra, and greens. i had the died flounder on a bed of grits with herb butter fried green tomatoes, green bean casarole, an mac n cheese. southern food second only to the wilkes house in savannah, ga. i highly recommend thisplaceto anyone from anywhere.

one of the most popular places in peninsular charleston is jestine'€™s kitchen. theplaceis full, you usually have to wait for a table, their motto southern food with lots of soul. however, if you see reviews from locals they seemed not to like it, too many tourists, not the real thing, etc. we gave it a try, simple decor, family style, friendly staff, the kind of homily feeling you will look for a soul cuisine place, but hectic and packed for service. theplacewas named after jestine matthews, an african-american woman born in the low country in 1885, who raised dana berlin the owner of the place, her goal trying to recreate the food that she grew up enjoying. we had a fried delight, started with fried green tomatoes, they were simple, tasty, and good, then i had the fried seafood platter, oysters, shrimps, and whiting, all good and nicely done, finally we share a fried chicken, really nice flavour.

don't believe the hype. at the end of our trip to charleston i wanted to stop by to sample this place. i had heard a lot about it, and read several items singing it's praises, so i didn't think the trip would be complete without sampling it.

first thing when you sit down is you get a bowl of sweet pickles. bt they're a little deceptive, as in addition to being very sweet, there are also whole black peppercorns sprinkled throughout. so you have a very sweet items, then you get blasted with a burst of heat when you catch a peppercorn (maybe by mistake) or when you get the remnants of one. it's very intense, and not a welcome sensation if you aren't expecting it.

the next thing i noticed was the lack of any kids menu or kid-sized portions. this really surprised me, as thisplaceseems to pitch itself as a family restaurant. it's sitting on meeting street, just down the street from a hotel, in a high tourist area, but yet it doesn't have anything for children? i'll buy that at husk, but not here.

so my wife, son, and i order our food, and it comes promptly. my wife orders the meatloaf, and while she ate it, she's thought it had a little too much green pepper flavor for her liking. as she said, to each their own on that.

my four year old son was forced to get the full sized turkey sandwich. he ate the turkey, which by itself was a tad dry, and had the fries as well. i thought the fries were cooked ok, but i've had better. plus they were seasoned with copious amounts of seasoning salt--the same thing you an get at the grocery. not all that good, really.

then came my meal. fried chicken, okra gumbo, and mashed sweet potatoes. in reverse order, i thought the potatoes were fine enough. it's kinda hard to screw up sweet potatoes. mash a potato, add brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. easy.

then there was the gumbo. to me it tasted very bland. i didn't expect it to be extra spicy or have a nice kick to it (i wasn't in a cajun place, after all), but i expected there to something. and there just wasn't. i didn't finish it, which is painful for me to type.

and finally there was the chicken. it tasted exactly like the fried chicken i get back home from the grocery store's deli counter. exactly like it. i wish that was a compliment on how good my grocery is, but alas it is not. the chicken was fine and juicy, but the breading and seasoning were very disappointing.

i didn't expect to walk out if jestine's kitchen proclaiming, "oh lordy, lordy! now i know i have done been to the south, child!" but i thought i might get a dash of southern authenticity i can't get at home. barring that, i felt sure i would at least get a good meal. sadly, i don't think i got the former, and i know i didn't get the latter.

this was easily the most disappointing meal of the trip.