Bowen's Island Restaurant is a Lowcountry institution about three miles from Folly Beach, sitting on a marshy island at the end of a dirt road. The specialty is roasted oysters — brought fresh from the surrounding tidal creeks and roasted in batches on a steel plate over a wood fire, served with crackers and hot sauce. You shovel them open yourself at a shared table.
The setting is deliberately rough — a tin-roofed shack on the water, with a battered dock and marsh views on all sides. Bowen's does not take reservations and the wait can be long on weekend evenings, but the experience of eating roasted oysters at dusk over a South Carolina marsh is not easily replicated. Cash is preferred. Open Tuesday through Saturday from late afternoon.