Introduction

Beaufort's food identity is Lowcountry cooking built around local shrimp, oysters, and rice-based dishes with roots in Gullah Geechee foodways — shrimp and grits chief among them, alongside she-crab soup and fresh Port Royal Sound seafood. Based on current restaurant listings from Beaufort's official tourism site, here's where that shows up best.

Downtown on Bay Street

Saltus River Grill (802 Bay Street) is an upscale, seafood-forward kitchen with Beaufort River views, blending Lowcountry staples with locally sourced ingredients. Plums (904 Bay Street), a riverfront kitchen and oyster bar a few doors down, leans toward breakfast and lunch and is a reliable stop for a casual coastal meal rather than a full dinner production.

Port Royal's Shrimp Docks

A short drive from downtown, Port Royal has its own dining cluster built around the town's working shrimp docks. Fishcamp on 11th Street (1699 11th Street) serves seafood and steaks with sunset water views in a genuinely historic dockside setting. Madison's (925 10th Street) was named Best All-Around Restaurant in Beaufort.com's 2020 "Best of Beaufort" readers' poll, with shrimp dishes as a signature.

Lady's Island

Dockside Restaurant (71 Sea Island Parkway) is a casual, family-friendly waterfront spot overlooking the Woods Memorial Bridge into downtown Beaufort — a straightforward option if traveling with kids or wanting simpler pricing than the Bay Street restaurants.

What to Actually Order

Shrimp and grits is the dish to judge a Lowcountry kitchen by, and it shows up on nearly every menu above, often in both a traditional and a Cajun-style version. She-crab soup is the other regional standard worth seeking out. Because Beaufort is a small town with a limited number of serious dinner-hour restaurants, book ahead for Friday and Saturday nights during spring and fall, when regional tourism peaks.