Jack’s Cafe

Food and service was outstanding… very, very clean… will definitely be back. Blueberry pancakes were over the top delicious.

Randomly walked into this place and boy was it DELICIOUS! The food was amazing, just be prepared for your waiter to only spend a few seconds with you since they’re so busy. But trust me, the food is worth it!

Came in for breakfast. My boys had the waffles. I had the shrimp and grits. It was by far the best I’ve ever had. Service was good and the music was awesome. This is my 2^nd visit. It’s a hidden gem away from the tourist restaurant in Charleston

The best breakfast we’ve had in Charleston. Just had bacon, eggs potatoes, but the potatoes are incredible.

A good introduction to local Charleston food .Had grits with everything but the kitchen sink. Really good service. The place was packed. The coffee was only ok.

The food is decent, not a poor choice for a quick although not so cheap breakfast. It doesn’t take a genius to tell that the head chef/​line cook doesn’t give much care to the food. They focus on volume. We miss Doug!

Great little café downtown. Different than the original; still a gem. The waitresses are friendly and often funny. The current head cook, James, makes a bomb burger. Love meeting friends here between classes for a bite to eat. Weekends are always packed — it’s reasonable to expect some wait time due to demand Sat/​Sun.

This was a fun place to get breakfast. It is obviously popular, because it was packed when we got there and we snagged the last table (must be living right!) I asked about the roasted tomato avocado hash and the server have a great description, and it lived up to it. I don’t know that we will go again, only because there are so many places to try in Charleston and so little time, but if I lived here then I would be a regular I love a place with the ‘been around forever’ feel.

Ok, I’m giving Jacks only two stars for breakfast. I had two eggs, bacon, and a «homemade» biscuit (they didn’t say when it was homemade). Very average at best, not impressed. Food was ok, but I’m not coming back.

Jacks has it all. Even craft beer! Great food, great price. Can’t wait to visit again. The owner is very personable and actually enjoyed talking to his customers. We ate there three times. If we were there a fourth day we would have been there too.

Solid diner food. Our go-​to for breakfast after a long walk around the city. From the breakfast sandwich to the French toast to the pancakes to the hash … all good. Served hot. Only comment is one piece of toast (sometimes a sunny side needs two).

Disgusting food, disgusting restaurant. The place is filthy. Ordered a full hot breakfast, ate the toast and left. Ordered «homemade» corned beef hash, two eggs and toast. Corned beef hash consisted of some potatoes that were already on the grill, toss in some hand torn corned beef and now we have homemade corned beef hash. The eggs were cooked on a dirty flat top, the eggs had black specks of whatever on them. Only one piece of toast on the plate. $ 13 for one slice of toast and coffee. Like my opening line stated, disgusting.

This place was simple, good, and cheap. French toast was yummy as were the grits (but super buttery). Seems to be a college hangout but the atmosphere is nice with the traditional diner vibe. Would be a nice place for a hangover cure breakfast. College students and older people alike were inside so nice mix of patrons.

I had a horrible experience at this «restaurant» and would discourage anyone who enjoys good food and reasonable prices to steer clear. I ordered the «Hangover Cure,» an overpriced $ 11 plate of watery grits, two small pancakes, a sad lump of sausage and a diminutive pile of egg (the additional toast included on the menu did not come). I had a small bite of everything on the plate and none of it passed for anything close to tasty. I explained to the manager my dissatisfaction, as evidenced by my untouched food, and his response was a cold «sorry.» I now feel ill from the few bites of food I had and question whether this establishment practices responsible health precautions (I glimpsed an open mini-​oven stuffed with toast packed in so beyond the oven’s capacity that it was overflowing onto the counter). AVOID THIS «RESTAURANT» AT ALL COSTS!

Was visiting my college daughter and dropped in for breakfast on a very busy Sunday morning. We thoroughly expected to wait, and are as a rule very patient and kind to busy waitstaff during peak serving hours as everyone in our family has worked in restaurants and we know how it can go. But the treatment we received here was stupendously awful, perhaps the worst I’ve ever had. We were seated fairly quickly, and the waitress took our order and delivered drinks in a timely fashion. That was the last time she EVER visited our table, except when she dropped off the check BEFORE the food arrived, without making eye contact. Literally set the ticket on the table with her back to us, and walked away. It was almost funny, except it was downhill from there.
I had to go to the counter to get a coffee refill after trying desperately to catch the attention of anyone — the hostess, the waitress, or a man who I assume is an owner or manager (?)… He’s the one who dropped off our food shortly after we received our check. As he was hurriedly walking away, we stopped him to ask for silverware rollups. He made a friendly crack about «not understanding why we would need those», which we all chuckled at, and he grabbed some from the counter. Looking at our food, we immediately noticed we were short a side of bacon, and stopped him from leaving again. I guess that was what ticked him off. I don’t know if he thought we were making it up, or if we should have waited for our MIA waitress, but regardless, a good manager ought to at least ACT thrilled to help diners out with whatever they need or want to make their breakfast everything they want. He was clearly annoyed by being asked about this missing side of bacon. And then, as he was trying again to rush off, I broke the news that we were going to want to place a to go order before we left (since we’d already gotten our check, I figured I needed to speak up soon), and at that he turned around and said «REALLY??» I was staggered, didn’t know what to say. I kind of fumbled, and said, «Uh, nope, never mind, we’ll just… pick something up somewhere else». He recovered, realizing that his reaction was inappropriate I suppose, and came back to the table pulling up a chair, as if to show us he had all the time in the world for us. We asked for the breakfast sandwich to go, and he left. We didn’t see him or the waitress again. My daughter would have liked to order another hot chocolate, but as she said, she was afraid of what the reaction would be.
We finished our meal, and I kind of thought maybe someone (perhaps the waitress??) would come over with a revised check, or let me know that the to go order was ready, but there were people waiting, so I told my daughter we should get up and let them clear the table and if our order wasn’t ready we could wait on the bench by the door. As we stood, the man came over immediately to clear our plates. I had not finished my sausage, which he commented on, (apparently it’s made in house and that’s why it’s pink, NOT because it’s raw — which wasn’t why I didn’t eat it, but whatever). He asked if the waitress had «explained the sausage to us», which I thought was kind of hilarious in light her absence, and I pointed out that, actually, no, we hadn’t seen our waitress since she took our order. He probably should have remembered that he was the one who delivered our food. He turned and shouted to the waitress «EXPLAIN THE SAUSAGE TO THE CUSTOMERS!» Ok…, I thought — that’s maybe not the most important skill she needs to work on, but ok… I then went to the register, and he pulled a bag out with the breakfast sandwich, which had obviously been ready for some time. I handed him the bill that had been dropped off earlier, fully expecting to have our little breakfast sandwich comped after the abysmal service, but he actually took the time to rework the bill to make sure it was included. This is honestly the straw that broke the camel’s back for me — I understand that they were busy, but come on. He obviously realized we had been treated badly, that he had goofed by showing his irritation at us wanting to place a to go order, how hard would it have been for him to comp the breakfast sandwich and apologize for how busy they were? It would have made all the difference, and would have kept me from writing this review, and we might have even gone back there, as the food was really pretty good.
But rude service, a staff unable to handle a Sunday morning rush, and a defensive owner/​manager? Sorry, there’s a lot of room for improvement here.

I had dinner there yesterday, I was the only one there but I shouldn’t have been, it was excellent. They have only been open for dinner for about 3 weeks and you get a free PBR, champagne or mimosa with their dinner special, it was worth it. My only complaint would be that the pie that I got was very small for $ 5.

After coming here a few times, their food has been consistently good… actually really good. Their Onion Strings are awesome… a creative take on onion rings. Their Reuben is fantastic and probably the best I’ve ever had. Their milkshakes and rootbeer floats are also above average.
Earlier today, I tried their Pina Colada French Toast which was absolutely terrific. As someone who usually puts syrup on anything breakfast related, I actually preferred eating this piña colada infused french toast without it.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t super enthused with their sausage patties though. While really healthy (ie no preservatives nor antibiotics, made in house), it just didn’t taste like what I am used to. Also, their pie slices were ok but not anything super special.
All in all, I highly recommend checking Jack’s out.

Very busy place; servers seem overworked, since it takes a while to get waited on… or seated. Very nice, once you have their attention. Food was okay — nothing to rave about, but just «ok».

Cool diner with a busy atmosphere. Average food and bad service. Took 20 minutes to even get our order taken. May have been a bad day. I will try it again because there is a lot of potential.

Great local’s place. Friendly staff. Good food. Always fresh. One of my favorite places for a quick and casual breakfast in Charleston.

Great Breakfast right off of King Street! The Waitress and were nice, and the food was great!!!

Was visiting the area last week and ordered a pretty simple breakfast … coffee, OJ and a ham & cheese omelet. The coffee was only fair; the OJ was very good; my omelet, home fries and toast were all cold. The soft butter provided on the table didn’t melt even a little when spread on the toast. Since the place was super crowded I chose to finish the meal and inform the staff afterwards. To their credit they went out of their way to make things right and discounted it accordingly.
A couple of side notes … the floor was super slippery from front to back and I almost fell down when entering the café. You guys gotta do something about that before someone splits their head opened. Also, I love the Grateful Dead as much as the next person, but playing a radio station dedicated to the Dead all day long might not be the best choice for a breakfast/​brunch/​lunch café. But then again, it’s way better than the Taylor-​Swift-​Miley-​Cyrus-​Justin-​Bieber pablum heard around most colleges.

Stopped by for breakfast. Great service and good food. Try the stuffed French toast. The price was right about $ 8 per breakfast.

Went it twice today. Once for breakfast and I came back for lunch. This place is awesome. First, they are downtown and kinda hidden right off of the corner of King Street. Very nostalgic atmosphere and great oldies music playing. Also, their menu is easy to read and has classic «American» items. Overall the experience and small business feel is what drove me to come back. The food was also good and tasted great. I will definitely be back.

Nostalgia plays a big role in the experience. Jack’s is still there, unlike so many other establishments that have been lost in the great takeover, and I was happy to sit in the same booth from my youth. The place has been gutted, painted and is now clean and shiny. However, the food was mediocre. I ordered a grilled cheese with tomato on rye. It came on pumpernickel and was just not tasty. My friend had a big plate of fries covered in gravy with an egg on top. He seems happy with it. The floors are still a little slippery towards the back. Made me smile to know some things never change. I’ll try this again for breakfast someday soon.

Favorite neighborhood breakfast /​lunch spot with the best hours of operation in the city. Been going here for a long time and the ownership changed over. The new ownership and team have brought new life to Jack’s legacy. We all miss Jack, but the new team is very friendly and has brought a great concept and product to the peninsula. We now know them on a first name basis now and have great times conversing while we eat.
The menu has something for everyone. I recommend avocado hash if you want something a little more veggie for breakfast. If you want to go all out, get the burger with everything and add the chili. Boom!
To the Jack’s team, I salute you and thank you for the great service and becoming great neighborhood friends. You make my Friday and Sunday mornings awesome.

I went to the old Jack’s a lot, and really enjoyed the greasy spoon atmosphere and old school diner feel. When Jack retired and sold the place,
I didn’t know what to expect.
I think the new Jack’s has done a great job of carrying on the legacy while being its own place. The space is renovated and spotless, and while the prices are higher they’re still reasonable.
Doug the new chef has a great menu and I really haven’t found anything I dislike on it. Particular favorites are the scratch made biscuits and chicken gravy with medium eggs, and the fish sandwich with onion straws for lunch. As an early bird, I love that they are open for breakfast at 730 on Sundays.
If you’re looking for some tasty diner fare that’s reasonably priced, it’s hard to go wrong here.