CITY GUIDES | SOUTH CAROLINA
The 12 Best Restaurants in Columbia, South Carolina
Once known mostly for state politics and football, Columbia now draws crowds for its food scene too.
By Eric Barton | Aug. 18, 2026
Coa Agaveria y Cocina
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
For years, I knew Columbia mostly as South Carolina’s capital, a city of government buildings, college bars, and Saturday afternoons when 80,000 garnet-dressed people shouted at a football field. Then I began paying closer attention to what was happening at the table. A wine bar won the city’s first James Beard Award, a West Columbia pitmaster became one of the South’s most celebrated names in barbecue, and Michelin inspectors found their way to two downtown dining rooms. Football still commands the fall calendar, but these 12 restaurants give people a reason to visit Columbia all year.
Bodhi Thai Dining
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It takes about 20 minutes to reach downtown Lexington from Columbia, which seems like a reasonable investment once chef-owner Nivit Tipvaree begins sending out dinner. A native of Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, Tipvaree gives crispy duck, massaman curry, fried prawn cakes, and pork ribs braised in honey-whiskey sauce the careful presentation of a formal dining room. For the full experience, watch for his multicourse tasting dinners, some stretching to eight or nine courses with wine pairings.
Best for: A Thai tasting menu outside the city
City Limits Barbeque
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On weekends, the smoke rising over this rambling West Columbia compound comes from Robbie Robinson’s all-wood-burning pits. Saturdays lean toward Texas, with brisket, beef ribs, spareribs, and hot links made in-house. Sundays belong to brisket hot dogs, chili, and, on select weekends, South Carolina whole hog. Robinson was a James Beard Award finalist in 2024 and 2025. Southern Living then ranked City Limits the South’s best barbecue joint, confirming that the lines form early for good reason.
Best for: Barbecue worth setting an alarm for
Coa Agavería y Cocina
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The mezcal collection gets plenty of attention at Coa, although stopping at cocktails would leave much of the evening unexplored. The kitchen pulls from several regions of Mexico for plates meant to circle the table: grilled octopus marinated in guajillo chile, duck breast with salsa pasilla, and roasted bone marrow accompanied by carne asada, grilled corn, and a stack of tortillas. Order the marrow and watch how quickly everyone becomes comfortable eating from the same bone.
Best for: Mezcal and Mexican shared plates
Di Vino Rosso
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The Michelin Guide found two Columbia restaurants for its inaugural American South edition, and Di Vino Rosso was one of them. The kitchen rolls potato gnocchi by hand, piles wild boar and Italian sausage Bolognese onto pappardelle, and serves South Carolina shrimp over linguine in pinot-lemon butter. Three- and four-course menus provide the structure for a long dinner, while the Italian-heavy wine list supplies the necessary reason to stay for another course.
Best for: A proper Italian dinner
The Dragon Room
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At The Dragon Room, chef Alex Strickland takes familiar Asian flavors and rearranges them until they become something else entirely. Tom kha gai turns up inside dumplings. Pad Thai becomes a crisp egg roll loaded with tamarind, peanuts, and lime. Bao buns, noodles, and specials arrive as soon as the kitchen finishes them, often in an order no one at the table predicted. The tropical cocktails follow the same logic, mixing rum with yuzu, and calamansi.
Best for: A late dinner with plenty to share
The Hollow
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A canopy of greenery hangs over The Hollow’s dining room, an appropriate setting for a menu where elk, duck, venison, and rabbit regularly appear. Chef Dante Serra turns elk into both a filet with wild mushroom risotto and a Bolognese folded through radiatori pasta, while the duck Reuben comes stacked with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and stone-ground mustard. Begin with the wild-game tasting board. It saves everyone at the table from pretending they planned to share.
Best for: Dinner on the wilder side
Ladder 13
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A floor-to-ceiling brass light fixture evokes a fire pole inside the former fire station that now houses Ladder 13. The kitchen’s fire comes from a wood-burning oven, which chars Calabrian sausage pizza and anchors a menu created by James Beard Award-nominated chef Kevin Johnson. Executive chef Joseph Wolfson handles the daily cooking, including orecchiette with beef-shank ragù and grilled lamb shoulder with feta and mint. Begin with the Fluffy Cheese, a whipped feta-and-ricotta mound filled with spiced honey.
Best for: Dinner in a former firehouse
Lula Drake Wine Parlour
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When Lula Drake won the 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, it became the first Columbia business to bring home one of the foundation’s national awards. Owner Tim Gardner’s cellar deserves the hardware, but chef Rachael Harrison makes sure dinner keeps pace. Her shifting menu might include jamón Ibérico, seasonal conservas, cacio e pepe, and Korean fried chicken lacquered in a sweet, spicy glaze. Ask questions about the wine. The answers often lead somewhere unexpected.
Best for: Letting someone else choose the bottle
Motor Supply Company Bistro
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Motor Supply began serving dinner in the Vista in 1989, back when the surrounding warehouse district required considerably more imagination. The menu still changes daily, following whatever arrives from South Carolina farms and fishing boats. Local vegetables, wild-caught seafood, and meats butchered in-house move through dishes shaped by French, Southern, Asian, and West African cooking. Michelin included Motor Supply in its inaugural American South guide, decades after Columbia diners had already worked it into their routines.
Best for: Seeing what South Carolina produced today
Spotted Salamander
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Lunch is the main event at Spotted Salamander, where chef Jessica Shillato turns what South Carolina farmers grow into sandwiches, soups, salads, and a daily board that rewards regular checking. The deviled eggs have become the signature, changing toppings often enough to encourage repeat visits. Shillato was a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2023. Still, the strongest argument for going may sit inside the dessert case, especially when coconut cake or an oatmeal cream pie appears.
Best for: Lunch followed by an unnecessary dessert
Terra
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Cross the Congaree River into West Columbia and Terra appears at the corner of State and Meeting streets, with the city skyline visible beyond the windows. Chef Mike Davis has been cooking here since 2006, using Anson Mills grains, Manchester Farms quail, local vegetables, and Carolina-raised meats in a menu that moves comfortably between the South and Italy. Pizza, pasta, steak frites, and a grilled pork chop have kept the dining room full through two decades of changing restaurant fashion.
Best for: A date across the river
The War Mouth
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The War Mouth cooks food that belongs specifically to the Midlands. Whole hog smokes over hardwood embers. Chicken bog comes with onion sausage made in-house. Local vegetables arrive according to the season, and South Carolina fish fills whatever space the farmers leave behind. Executive chef Harold Pendleton folds his own family recipes into that regional vocabulary, adding dishes such as smoked corned beef without sanding away their origins. This is Columbia cooking with its hometown left intact.
Best for: Learning how the Midlands eats
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