Art's Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Mount Pleasant

Art's is a slice of classic Lowcountry Americana. I recommend stopping in for lunch or an early dinner for the best "restaurant" experience. The down to earth, classic, Southern fishing village ambience is rare in our modern age of homogeneous culture and trends. If you are a gourmet snob, or uptight curmudgeon, Art's may not be for you.

An international traveler, sincere tourist, hardcore foodie, or anyone seeking an authentic experience will be thrilled to find this joint. It harkens from a bygone era that refuses to go quietly. If anyone had a bad experience, I can only wonder why.

The all you can eat oyster roast on the weekend is my favorite time to go. The oysters are usually from Bull Bay - rare treat - special, thin shelled, sumptuous and sweet.

The amazing flounder sandwich is something for the true, veteran foodie looking for that special something you won't see anywhere else. The best technique for conquering the overloaded beast is to use the bun as a grip as you nibble away the overhanging edges of flaky flounder, rotate the sandwich, nibble the edges, rotate the sandwich, and so forth. When you get to the bun, you will find that the pressure of your grip is now gently mashing out the double decker flounder smothered with rich goodies that garnish the fish. Continue to rotate and nibble until the last bite . . . it's the best.

Did I mention fresh Shem Creek shrimp (seasonal)? The local shrimp is sweeter than Florida shrimp (less iodine) and may be the best in the world.

Whenever I have walked in the door, I have been greeted with nothing but Southern hospitality. I can be patient if I see the place is packed and everyone is running their asses off. It's part of the fun to be in the middle of that scene. If you come in too late, sorry about your luck, have a drink, a snack, or peel and eat shrimp from the bar menu.

Art's is a national treasure and should be listed in the...

Just got back from there where my family took me for my birthday. I had heard from several people they had the best shrimp around. Horrible! Five adults, 3 of us had "fresh" fried shrimp and the other 2 had combos with shrimp. Shrimp was so tough none of us could eat it. I went and talked to the waitress who offered to have them make more but honestly didn't seem that upset by it. She said shrimp was out of season and it was frozen. It was definitely overcooked. Then the waitress comes back and says the cook and manager discussed it and is giving us 2 shrimp dinners off our bill. That to me was a joke. NONE of us could eat it. And she said that it was overcooked. So, admitted it was their mistake and still we had to pay for the rest which with tip over $100. She never during this time even offered to refill our drinks. The manager or cook never came to our table and we were the only people there. He did pass by and come out a couple of times. Never..ever again. Very disappointing. I'd also like to note that on the menu it was listed as "Fresh Local Shrimp" so basically that was a lie in itself. I have read so many of the great reviews of this place. Hard to imagine with customer...

So I feel sorry for the owner of this place, we walked in and stood there in an almost empty restaurant while the two waitresses didn't say a word to us, they made eye contact, walked by twice, but didn't say anything. After standing there for more than 5-10 minutes the girl from the bar outside, looking at us annoyed told us we could seat ourselves. At that point I had just started to wait to speak to the manager/owner, who wasn't in. We ended up leaving without eating. We were visiting from out of town and were really excited when we saw the taco special but with servers that rude and disrespectful it wasn't worth even trying the food. They clearly didn't care about the business at all, and they weren't even busy whatsoever. I've worked as a hostess/waitress and that's just unacceptable service. If the owner wants to thrive he really should look into hiring new wait staff.

On a separate note it did look really nice inside and very clean, with good games on the TVs. Would have really looked forward to being there with...