Anyone who knows me knows that “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” is one of my favorite shows. Every time I travel to a new city, I look to see if Guy Fieri has been to any of the restaurants in that town. Now, I don’t mean to sound like a hipster, but I ate at (and loved) Tattooed Moose long before Guy Fieri ever did. And if any restaurant in Charleston actually deserved to be reviewed by DDD, it’s Tattooed Moose; it’s the very definition of a Dive bar with awesome food.
I just really wish he’d do something with that hair.
My absolute favorite thing at the Moose is the Roasted Garlic and Bleu Cheese fries. You may remember me talking about this amazing nectar of the gods in my Favorite Blue Things post. The fries at the Moose are hand cut and fried in duck fat, which makes them extra delicious. Then they top those delicious fries with blue cheese and a whole bulb of confit garlic. It’s decadent, and delicious, but definitely plan on hitting the gym afterward, for like 6 hours or so.
Man, I really shouldn’t blog while I’m hungry.
Obviously, you have to get the Duck Club. It’s divine. In the words of Josh Campbell, “on a scale of 1 to 5, it’s a TWENTY FIVE!” A triple decker filled with duck confit, apple smoked bacon, and smoked cheddar on sweet Hawaiian bread with garlic aioli, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. Yum, yum, yum. They also serve each of their sandwiches with their house made garlicky dill & spicy sweet green tomato pickles, which are really yummy.
Also, they let you draw on the tables/walls, which is AWESOME
I also recommend the smoked chicken BLT. It’s similar to a traditional chicken salad, except they house smoke their chicken and top it with bacon, romaine, sweet & spicy green and red ripe tomatoes on toasted wheat bread. It’s very, very good. Lots of people think chicken salad is a healthy sandwich alternative, but not at the Moose. If you’re looking for healthy, you should probably just pick a different restaurant. They also have a bacon bleu cheese slaw that, which was really tasty. It had a really creamy consistency (rather than vinegary as you sometimes see), and you could really taste the bleu cheese, which I really liked. It also tasted kind of smoky, like bacon, which we really enjoyed. It was enough that we had leftovers to take home with us.
Man that looks good.
Recently, when we went to the Tattooed Moose for Casey’s birthday, I branched out from my usual Duck Club and ordered the Thanksgiving “Leftovers” Sammy, which is fried turkey breast, stuffing & cranberry mayo on toasted wheat bread, served with duck gravy for dipping. It was really good. The duck club is still my favorite, but this sandwich is definitely a close second. Mike ordered his without the cranberry mayo, because he’s a crazy person who doesn’t like cranberries. But I wouldn’t recommend that, unless you’re a crazy person like Mike.
Not pictured: personal bowl of gravy for dippin’
I love Tattooed Moose, but it’s definitely not a restaurant I’d want to visit more than once or twice a month. It’s very rich, and not even a little bit healthy for you, even though it’s damn delicious. But it’s definitely worth the miles on the treadmill.
The keyword here being “Dive.”
Tattooed Moose
1137 Morrison Drive
Charleston, SC 29403
(843) 277-2990