Early Bird Diner

I've been to Early Bird Diner probably 50 times. When I lived in Charleston I'd come for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or post drinking! It seems now they are no longer open late but still a great place to get breakfast or lunch!
No frills diner with a counter and great service. I always order the sweet tea and the chicken and waffles. Well not always, but usually! Pecan crusted chicken with the honey mustard and syrup is just amazing. Oh yeah the fried green tomatoes are great too!
Every time I visit Charleston now I make sure that one of my meals is here

Just ate here for the first time - Sunday breakfast, hit the gap after early birds and before church crowd.
Delicious food and good coffee is the general review. Tables were being turned over at a good rate, didn't have to wait, they handled their traffic really well, pleasant and efficient service from a waitress who had been with them for a decade.
Wife had the chicken and waffles- legit. Chicken was juicy and crunchy and perfect. Honey mustard sauce two thumbs up as well as the waffle. I had banana pudding pancakes and OH MY GAWD. Also my side of scrambled eggs was cooked in enough real butter that I could taste it.
In short, highly recommend looking for elevated diner in West Ashley.

Easily the best meal we ate in Charleston.

We found it after a friend recommended we check the DDD website for ideas during our roadtrip.

Service was on point, ambiance was everything you want in a sweet lil diner, and food was delicious and you could tell made with love!

Plenty of vegetarian options on the menu, including a vegetarian gravy for biscuits, impossible sausage, even a couple of the specials for that day were vegetarian.

I'm updating this because I forgot to post pictures with my review. What made the chicken and waffles so popular could be that they added pecan to the fried chicken so that it has a sweeter taste and the waffles are cinnamon. Make sure you use that honey mustard bbq sauce, it helps balance out the flavor. They were able to split the entree onto two plates if you're sharing. This version of the shrimp and grits has bacon, scallions, and grape tomatoes. Definitely one of my favorite versions. That tomato gravy was very creamy and delicious.

11 years later, I have returned!!! Still love this place. There were lots of regulars, which is always a good sign. Service was very fast and friendly. Our server was named Daniel, and I really appreciated his calm energy.

We ordered the shrimp and grits and the fried pork chop, which came with 2 sides. We chose Mac and cheese and corn cakes.

Shrimp and grits were delicious, and this is coming from my husband and I, who don't typically like shrimp and grits. But when in Rome!

The fried pork chop was delicious -- crispy and super flavorful. This is also not the type of thing we typically gravitate towards. The only reason we ordered it was because I apparently ordered it 11 years ago and loved it. Still love it. The red pepper jelly adds a nice freshness to the fried pork chop and lots of flavor.

The only reason we're giving it 4 stars (and not 5) this time is that the sides were a little meh. The Mac and cheese needed more flavor and the corn cakes were just okay.

Overall, highly recommend this diner if you're in the area!

This place gets packed! And for good reason. Their food is excellent and worth waiting for a seat on the weekends. They also sell their mustard bbq sauce which is stellar. Probably one of the best hole in the wall breakfast / brunch spots around!

Simply the best diner around!! Charleston is known for their shrimp and grits and Early Bird has THE BEST. The fried shrimp and grits with pepper jelly is flames. Their coffee is great and I have never ordered anything on the menu that I was disappointed in. Our server was really good too! This is my favorite breakfast spot in Charleston.

Pancake tasted like that one priceless pancake tik tok pancake pancake pancake pancake

Food was excellent, large portions
Service was great.
The place is small but cute, be prepared to juggle around in the parking lot- but worth it.

Looked it up and 1200 reviews and 4.5 star rating, so as we were in the area decided to go down here. We also found out it had been featured on Triple D.

Well considering its called the Early Bird Diner I didn't really see many breakfast staples on the menu. Even the specials on the board were about lunch not breakfast. I opted for the two egg breakfast with one side, now the kicker it was $11 which is quite a lot of money for 2 eggs and a side.

Wife had the cheese omelette, it was just an omlette with a couple of pieces of flat cheese in it , no veggies nothing. That was $12.

Coffee is extra and it tasted like diesel oil.

Also visited the bathroom (just one in the place) and it needs some work. Hand dryer didn;t work and paper towel dispenser was empty and a big roll of paper sitting right by the sink getting soaked from splashes and wet hands picking it up to tear off a sheet to use.

Would we go back - unlikely, there was nothing wrong with it really. It was just a lack luster breakfast and expensive as well.