Red's Ice House — Restaurant in Mount Pleasant

First time there , my mother in law loves that place and I wanted some shrimp and crab. So we drove 40 minutes to get there. I ordered the large peel and eat shrimp ( shrimp was great no complaints ) . My mother in law ordered the crab cakes ( which I tried and I thought were pretty good as well ) and I ordered two snow clusters . They gave me an extra cluster so I had three total instead of two ( which I thought was as really nice to do) . At this point server was great . So upon receiving my food I did notice the crab was pretty brown and looked overcooked . I tried to eat it first just to make sure maybe it just looked bad but maybe somehow tasted fine . I was right , overcooked, dry , and grainy . Tasted old as well . I inform the server that it didn’t taste right. My mother in law asked if that’s how it always comes . Which she replied , yes that’s how it always is we never have complaints . I told her I couldn’t eat it. And she said well it’s going to come out the same way if we remake it ( in an attitude ) . I told her I would like something else and she replied do you know what you want or do you need to the menu . I told her I don’t have the menu memorized so yea I need the menu to look at . She just dropped off the menu real quick and left . Her whole attitude changed just because I didn’t want to pay $35 bucks for overcooked crab . With that being said I didn’t order anything else I wasn’t going to spend anymore money at a place where they treat customers that way . She probably didn’t think I was going to tip her either but I did leave her $10 on $45 which I shouldn’t have even done. Only did that because I work in the industry. You guys should probably tell your workers to lose the attitude because that’s how they make money is through customers coming in . Oh and by the way I looked at all other posts of yalls crab clusters from other customers , their pictures show their clusters looking orange, perfectly steamed and looked nothing like mine so the server was wrong about oh that’s how it always comes...

Just searching around for places to have lunch on the water and came across Reds, from the pictures it looked very SC atmospheric and very oceanic/beachy and I LOVE that. This place is now my favorite, #1 seafood restaurant in the Charleston area (and there are many areas lol). It was easily found via Google maps, when we arrived the first impression for me was maybe they were closed? But the door was wide open and you could hear some light music, well lit, very inviting! The host greeted us almost immediately, told us we could find any seat we wanted and someone would bring us menus. We found a very nice seat on the patio, and within a few minutes we had drinks and menus, including a dish in for our toddler to keep her preoccupied while we looked at the menu. Our daughter's dish came out in less than 5 minutes. We were early arriving for lunch at 12, within MAYBE 5 minutes the place filled, but the tables are far enough apart that you don't feel like you're in anyone else's space. There is a friendly hum across the outside patio of conversation and laughter, some light rock playing in the background just loud enough to enjoy. The patio is very clean but also gives off boat house vibes at the same time if that even makes sense? The menu is easily read, clear prices and ingredients listed on every dish, LOTS of customizable options but not overwhelming to read. Reasonable prices. Our waiter Tyler very very knowledgeable about the menu and popularity of the dishes, we really appreciated his suggestions. He was attentive but we never felt like he was overbearing, he was great! The presentation was beautiful and comforting simultaneously but it was the best tasting sea food that me or my husband and have had in our many years here in SC. When we were done with our dishes, Tyler cleared our table effortlessly and our check was ready when we were....

Thank goodness for our sweet server Julia, if it hadn't been for her...we would have left. I previously came to Red's for the yummy food but I will never return here again. I ordered the crab cakes that were full of shell and spat most of the 1 I ate out. I also ordered an add-on of crablegs, I returned immediately. Your gonna charge me $16.95 for 1 cluster of the smallest size crab and say that it is mkt price...I'm calling bullcrap! They were sad and pathetic looking at best. You knew you were wrong for sending them out that you offered an additional cluster to appease me and I still said no. Why would I pay for something with no meat?? Now my friend had it even worse...she didn't eat 3/4 of her food because it was overcooked and dried out. She had the shrimp, scallops, crab cake and fish plate. The fish was so thin and dry, it looked almost like it was smoked, she also had to spit out most of her crab cake due to shell, we sent the scallops back and the shrimp were rubbery...over all her entire $60 bill sucked. We literally left most of our food on the table. I was sooo embarrassed because 3 years ago they used to care about their food. It's mainly a "bar atmosphere" rather than a restaurant. Please do yourself a favor...go somewhere where they actually care about producing great food, especially if you are gonna spend big money. Thanks Julia for being so gracious, apologetic and willing to try to make it right. Red's do yourself a favor...just become a bar and stop serving food. Or read your reviews from 3 years ago until now...see the difference and start caring. You definitely need a new manager because this one has stopped caring about what comes out of...