The Barge is literally a floating restaurant, with fine dining upstairs and downstairs is the bar and outdoor patio. We chose to sit at the bar, which has A/C, thank God! It was a bit hard to find this place, as there aren't many signs to direct you into the nondescript parking lot and down to the water. If your timing is good, there will be a guy around the lot to drive you up and down the hill to the restaurant so you can make sure those calories stay on your waistline.
The service was smiley and young (think teens on summer break), but they got the job done mostly. I ordered a crab cake sandwich and a sweet tea. The tea was tasty and actually too sweet for my northern tastes, but yummy nonetheless. The crab cake sandwich was okay. It was really... squishy. Everything about the sandwich was so soft, I could have eaten it with a spoon. The flavor was okay, but I doubted the crab cake was made in-house. Oh well.
I can't comment about the "fine dining" but I can see how sitting on the deck in the summer for lunch would be the only thing keeping this place hopping. Its a great view and breezy feel, so maybe just go for happy hour.
This is what you get when you have a beer joint in the bottom of a fine dining establishment. The food is bangin'. I had the turkey caprese wrap with homemade potato chips and the hubs had the cajun black and blue burger. The turkey caprese wrap was surprisingly good, considering tomatoes aren't in season here yet, and mediocre tomatoes can ruin caprese. They were chopped up in the wrap, with some fresh spinach and italian dressing, in addition to the mozzarella, basil and balsamic. The hubs said his burger was the best he's had in a while. It had blue cheese cole slaw on it. Homemade chips were pretty good, too. Get there REALLY early if you want to sit outside on the river. Tables fill up fast. We didn't get there in time, so we ate inside at the bar, but our bartender was really friendly and gave us outstanding service. Thursday night happy hour was $9 buckets of Landshark, which I thought was a really good deal.
Review Source:I've only experienced the downstairs section.
Ok, but don't expect anything great. Â
Decent place if you want to just hang out and eat something small. Â The food is nothing to brag about, it's just decent. Â Make sure you get there early so that you can eat outside. Â Eating inside here would be just pointless. Â
While this is place is nicely located on the river...it's on the Kanawha River. Â Don't be surprised to see pieces of garbage floating by as you sit outside.
I've never been to the upstairs "fine dining" but I really have enjoyed my experiences in the downstairs pub. This place has a great buzzing atmosphere during nice summer days, with lots of boaters, etc.. It's one of the few places in Charleston with a really nice outdoor space, which is something I crave when the weather warms up! You're literally floating right on the Kanawha River. I had a blackened mahi sandwich special for lunch that was amazing, and the wings are huge. I also love the seasoned fries. Highly recommend.
Review Source:My last experience here I asked three times if they had any drink specials, each time i was denied. Â When I moved from the outside area to the inside area there on the floor was a chalkboard elucidating them for me. Â But hey, thats the speed of the employees (them and the service they provide).
The food is decent but nothing special. Â You really want to go here with a few friends and drink on the pier- its the only way you'll have an enjoyable experience.
I had lunch at the Barge this past weekend while visiting friends in Charleston. Â It was a beautiful day so we ate outside on the water while watching the boats. Â I had a tasty buffalo chicken sandwich with some onion rings and a couple of beers for a reasonable price. Â Can't say anything about the 'fine dining' upstairs, but I'd certainly recommend the downstairs for lunch. Â
One quick note -- there were a couple of guys in golf carts offering rides from the parking lot. Â We had never been there and couldn't see the restaurant from the parking lot so we thought it might be far or down a steep hill. Â Turns out the ride was about fifty feet down a gentle slope and the guy was jingling his tip jar. Â Trust me, you can walk.
Not all that great, way too expensive. We were not all that impressed with our recent visit to The Barge in Charleston. Food was OK at best. The $7 lobster bisque was a bowl of liquid salt, the $9 duck/pear/walnut salad had duck as tough as shoe leather on a greens mix that obviously was shook out of a plastic bag and was cold, the ribeye with sauce was an OK cut at best, NOT worth $35, the salmon was good but typical and the creme brulee desert was decent but boring and plain. Dinner, an appetizer, a few wines and desert was about $150 for two. The food did not warrant such cost. Better idea to sit outside on the pier and order from their bar menu.
Review Source: