A.W. Shuck's Seafood Shack — Restaurant in Charleston

Aw shucks, as in mistake to come here. Line is out the door to get in to this restaurant. And from my experience it wasn’t because of the outstanding food and service. Theres a long line because theres 1 person at the front door that is the hostess AND takes your food order and payment. It’s VERY time consuming. The same person also oversees the ever popular frozen alcoholic drink dispensers for “froze all day” and of course the machines are painstaking slow. Not sure why there isn’t a separate line for grab and go beverages. I ordered the crab cake sandwhich with a side of potato salad. Once you pay you are given a number and seat yourself. We sat outside. People who ordered after us got their food before we did. When the sandwhich finally arrived it was more like a crab salad, similar in consistency to tuna salad. It wasnt a “cake” by any means in consistency or form. And it also wasnt hot. Not even room temperature. Being that you already ordered and paid and sat yourself theres no staff coming by or available to help or get refills or anything. I went back inside and stood at the kitchen counter area for a few minutes before flagging someone down to let them know the crab “cake” was cold. Kind of got an “oh. Ok.” And was told I’d get another one brought out to me. Meanwhile my husband ate and finished his lunch in the time I git the replacement crab cake. It wasnt as cold but still wasn’t hot or even warm. My husband’s meal was fair he said. The potato salad I had as a side was good. Also, its not clear to many patrons who walk up from the street to the outdoor dining area that you need to go inside to place your order and that wait staff don’t come around outside to give you menus or take your orders. Several tables around us just sat and sat waiting for a server to come by. It wasn;t until we told them they needed to go inside to place their order that they realized how...

Food was awful. With a name like AW Shucks you'd think they would be providing the best oysters in the area especially with how much they charge. Ordered 6 raw oysters, all were a bit past prime and had little moisture. Three were quite dried out and smelled of low tide, did not eat. I ordered fried platter of oysters and fish. The fish appeared to be a food service frozen cod, in Charleston, a coastal town. I ate three fried oysters out of the 9 I was served. The third stopped me in my tracks. It was so rotten that I had to eject it from my mouth immediately. The other person in my party ordered shrimp and grits. The grits were cooked properly and nothing was past date but was served with either cheap food service brown gravy or quite burnt roux based gravy, it was hard to tell. I ordered half and half sweet tea, it smelled of oyster shells in the sun, could not drink. The can of beer we got was warm because, according to the cashier, he had just stocked the warm drinks in front of the cold ones in the cooler - got a replacement. Food was ordered an hour before kitchen closed and there were a few orders after us so they can't blame this on it being end of the day issues. The total for this horrendous meal before tip was $74 and change. I didn't bother to bring this up to Stevie the cashier because he appeared to be relatively clueless, he was the one who stocked the beverage cooler incorrectly. There did not appear to be a manager on...

Wanted to try this place out while in town on a business trip. Walked up to the counter at 1745 and the greeting I received was an unpleasant gentlemen with a condescending tone pointing to the menu sign in the window saying "we're actually closed dude"... I remembered the hours (open until 1800) and questioned, "oh, you are?".... he replied smuggly with, "yeah man, that's why we have the sign up" again pointing to the menu which was flipped around and had 'closed' written on it with a red crayon..... can't make this up.

Instead of inquiring about closing early and if it was possible to get a to-go order, I politely thanked him and walked away, noticing several groups out on the patio still eating - I just wanted a quick bite of some calamari to go, but with customer service Iike that and SO MANY other options in Charleston AW won't be getting my business.

Having worked in restaurants, I totally get that no one wants to serve a group that walks in 15 minutes before close.... we always still did. To add to that, keep in mind I was looking for a to-go order. Instead of politely explaining that the kitchen had closed early (in which case I would have returned the next day), the gentleman I dealt with was rude and condescending, and put a bad taste in my mouth for AW's. If you value customer service, I advise against...