Park Avenue Oyster Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Aiken County

My hubby and I decided to have dinner here for my birthday, and it was a great experience. We were greeted promptly at the door by the host, and seated right away. Our server was friendly and efficient without hovering over us. The food was amazing! We both had Berry Salads to start...mixed greens loaded with strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and cranberries, candied pecans and a nice vinaigrette. Then, for an appetizer, we tried the Shrimp Corn Dogs. Perfectly cooked shrimp wrapped in corndog batter and fried to pefection. Served with a Thai slaw and a smear of a nice, slightly spicy sauce. For dinner, my hubby chose the Combination Seafood platter....Fried flounder, shrimp and oysters with handcut fries, blue cheese cole slaw and seafood sauces. I had the Grilled Mahi with maple-bourbon glaze, pork belly, mashed sweet potatoes and wilted spinach. Everything was exceptional, and the prices were very reasonable for this area. When my hubby mentioned to the server that it was my birthday, she surprised me with a yummy Key Lime pie dessert on the house. The atmosphere was pleasant, quiet music in the background, in a well-decorated main room. They also have an upstairs area with live music on weekends, and space for events and larger groups. Overall, one of our best meal experiences in Aiken. We will...

I rarely ever leave reviews in general, let alone bad ones, because I understand the negative affect it can have on businesses, but this situation definitely warranted one for me.

This is such an amazing restaurant with amazing food, BUT please be wary of hosting an event in their upstairs room. It's an absolutely beautiful space, but, if you do, confirm confirm confirm with them. We were double booked for a huge life event we were hosting up there, and weren't told about it until MONTHS after "booking." I tried to pay a deposit multiple times and was denied every time due to their "system being down." I was also very much re-assured that I was on the books multiple times, and that my event would be taking place.

People have already booked flights, hotels, etc. for my event that will not be taking place. I am now stuck having to find a plan B. I am super devastated and upset. I fell in love with this space. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've been double booked in the Aiken area for what will be my wedding weekend. It's been such a headache. Now, I have to find a completely new spot and completely re-plan my event. I used to love this restaurant, but I can't say I will be eating here much in the future anymore.

If you book their upstairs room, I hope it works...

Please stop tinkering with the menu/prices! I've been to this restaurant about 7 times in just the last two months. At first, I was very impressed with the food, ambiance, and service - also the prices were relatively reasonable given the quality of the food. But have run into several issues more recently. One time the prices on the check didn't match the menu we had ordered from. Had to bring it to their attention and they said something about the system being updated and they had to manually correct it (I wonder how many customers didn't even notice). Another time they advertised happy hour on their website Monday-Saturday but then when we showed up we were told they no longer offered happy hour on Saturday as of that day. It was kind of disappointing that they had to be pressed to honor their website advertising (not our fault it wasn't yet updated). Most recently, I noticed that they raised the prices on their menu across the board, making it less appealing/reasonable as a casual lunch option. It just feels like they're making too many changes too often. You had a good thing going, please...