South Carolina

Tacos? Curry? These family-owned restaurants are open on Thanksgiving Day in Columbia

The Thanksgiving feast will be different this year. Coast restaurants are doing the cooking, making smoked and deep fried turkeys and the trimmings. The casino restaurants will be open Thanksgiving and offering holiday specials.
The Thanksgiving feast will be different this year. Coast restaurants are doing the cooking, making smoked and deep fried turkeys and the trimmings. The casino restaurants will be open Thanksgiving and offering holiday specials. Getty Images/iStockphoto

If you’re looking to honor the Thanksgiving tradition of sharing a meal with neighbors from different origins or are simply away from the family feast this year, these local restaurants in the Columbia area are open on Thanksgiving Day.

Pull up a seat, order a taco, a chicken curry or some ox tail and celebrate community with a new group of friends at these three eateries around town.

Moctezuma’s Taqueria

In the cozy eatery located at at 506 Beltline Blvd. in Columbia, you can order tacos with lengua or tripa inside them, cow tongue or intestines, if you’re feeling adventurous. Otherwise, just go for the classics. They’ll be serving tacos, burritos and fajitas, too.

As soon as you get thirsty, you can order an agua. That’s the Spanish name for a light drink mixed with water. They’ll serve homemade horchata, a cinnamon rice milk that tastes like the holidays. And their pineapple agua is also home-made, said Osbaldo Velazquez, who works at Moctezuma’s Taqueria.

Moctezuma’s will open at around 9 a.m. and close at about 4 pm. or 4:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

Two corn tortillas are normally served with a Mexican taco.
Two corn tortillas are normally served with a Mexican taco. JULIAN BRUNT Special to the Sun Herald

The Reggae Grill

If you’re in the mood for Caribbean food on Thanksgiving Day, try The Reggae Grill in Cayce.

The store will be serving “just the amazing food we always have,” said Tilly Whitt, the restaurant’s bartender. She recommended the crowd favorites: Ox tail and jerk chicken.

The restaurant will open around 1 p.m. and close at midnight on Thanksgiving Day. Find it at 901 Holland Ave. in Cayce.

Shalimar Curry House

Indian-Style Vegetable Curry with Potatoes and Cauliflower uses garbanzo beans as the protein.
Indian-Style Vegetable Curry with Potatoes and Cauliflower uses garbanzo beans as the protein. Christian Gooden TNS

Located at the University of South Carolina, on 631 Main St., Shalimar Curry House serves build-your-own bowls with classic Indian ingredients. Order samosas, small, fried dough pockets with vegetables inside, or a biryani, a rice dish.

Bushra Ghazi, an employee at Shalimar, said the restaurant would open at around 11 a.m. or noon and stay open until around 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Tacos? Curry? These family-owned restaurants are open on Thanksgiving Day in Columbia."

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