Pop's Place — Restaurant in Myrtle Beach

Let's start with the first thing you notice once you step into Pop's: the cigarette smoke. The cigarette smoke in there is visible and soaks through every fiber on your body. The ceiling tiles are all yellow as well. I would normally leave a bar or restaurant if it smelt that bad, but it was late, and we didn't have many options other than Pop's within walking distance from our rental. Had I read the 1 star reviews from numerous people, I wouldn't have trusted the quality of the 5 star reviews that come from their regulars/people who don't order food. So here's what happened - 4 of us got to Pop's and ordered at 9:47pm. We had a simple order of 1 cheeseburger, 1 chicken philly, 1 chicken quesadilla, and 1 order of onion rings. We stayed because the bartender said it'd be a reasonable 20-25 minutes. 10:30pm rolls around, and we start getting curious about where the food is. The bartender sees this and tells us that they are working on it and the cook is "only one person". She said it wouldn't be much longer, and that they had an order before us. We listened to karaoke as we waited more. Time kept passing without any indication that our food was coming. Then 2 bags of food get to the window, and we assume it's ours. Nope. Apparently an employee was getting that food. So we ask around 11 how much longer we should expect. Bartender says that the cook is boxing it up right now. Well, you guessed it, he was not. We tell her that the 25 minute estimate was fine, but we are almost at 1.5 hours. The bartender then says that the cook is "a little slow" in a tone that didn't seem to convey the speed to which he works, but rather his mental state. The way she acted towards us and him was very rude and out of line. Either she knew the cook was slow and quoted us something totally off base, or she was trying to make us drop the complaints by saying there was a mental deficiency. We said we would have understood if the wait was that long, but we were justifiably upset that we had been in there 3x the amount of time we were quoted without any hint of food incoming. Her response was that the cook was "literally boxing it up right now" and that the cook boxed up the wrong food, but they are working on it. 5-6 dine in orders come out of the window and get delivered to a table that had been there longer than us. 15 more minutes and she offers a refund that she never actually gave us because the cook was once again "literally boxing it up right now". At this point, we were so fed up with the hostile bartender, the long wait, and the smoke inside the place. I decide to ask the 2 women sitting in front of us at the bar how long their food took. They agreed that it was about an hour, but they were drinking, so the time didn't bother them. They asked our situation, which we explained. We told them we were about to leave and not even bother to ask again for the refund. If the food magically came out, it would be theirs. One of the ladies (it was her birthday the next day) offered us $40 for the food so we didn't leave empty handed. We declined that, but thanked her for being so sweet while they were also on vacation. While we were talking, the food finally came up in the window (at 11:46pm) from a surprise new cook. With that, we were off to see if the food was edible. Shocker...it was not. See the photos below to get a better idea. The cheeseburger was rock hard, the chicken quesadilla either had burnt tortilla or mushrooms in it, the onion rings were falling apart and sitting in grease, and the fries were flavorless. The chicken philly was the only somewhat edible food.

0/5 stars would be my review, especially because we waited for 2 hours just to shower the stink off of us when we got back, wash our clothes, and throw some odor be-gone spray on our cloth shoes. We are Midwest kind of nice, so it sucks to write such a scathing review for a locally owned business, but they get what...

Before I begin, I want to make it clear that this is NOT my first visit to this establishment. Each previous visit has had a similar outcome which has lead me to write this review. Went there with my fiance' for a drink and to sing karaoke. First, the huge Confederate flag on the wall is off-putting. That aside, upon entering the bar, there was an unattended tip where we sat. The bartender was helping someone else at the time but she kept repeatedly looking over to make sure I didn't take the tip. I felt like she was prejuding me based on the fact that I was a black man in a basketball jersey, when she came and took our order, she asked me was I paying with the money on the counter when she clearly knew it wasn't mine. I told her that it was not mine and I was totally offended because she knew that money was already there! When I went up to sing, the host was at the dj station, looking at the computer screen, but failed to notice that the song lyrics were not on the screen because it had frozen. The music still played and luckily I knew the song well enough to not need the words, but how could he not notice that with three screens surrounding him showing the same thing? After the song, when he did notice, there was no apology or anything which is totally unprofessional on his part. When my fiance' went up to sing he turned her microphone down to the point where she could barley be heard. He has done that to us both on numerous occasions. There was another dj who works Saturday-Monday which is why we went tonight but he was not working and this guys was. I refuse to eat anything there simply because I am just not comfortable enough with the cleanliness of the place. It is not in the best part of town and there were random suspicious looking folks just hanging in the dimly lit parking lot. Just be aware of your surrounding if you go here. I understand this place was voted best place for karaoke. What the criteria is for that I don't know but it can't be quality because this place does not deliver on that at all. Totally disappointed because it comes highly recommended. Your karaoke is only as good as your host, and their host is...

To me: I dont have any comparison to this place. It is a local karaoke bar in South Carolina and does welcome visitors and non-residents. Personally, when I go to places that are 'Perfect' that's my red flag and so expecting perfect is just not the best attitude at Pops and that's actually what I love about this place. This place will also surprise you with an unforgettable time. Smoking is allowed, food and drinks are priced right, service is dependent on the volume of customers understandably. Theres times when it's as quiet as a cricket and theres times when it simply takes a long time to get what you came there for. I can attest it has honestly nothing to do with discriminating at all so have a little humility and give the employees a chance to serve every customer. This place has a lot of very important qualities that leaves an impression able to last a lifetime. It will be a good decision to make a stop here and the longer you stay the more you...