Flying Fish Public Market & Grill — Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach

Okay. This might be semi-lengthy but it is important. My wife and I are both foodies. We travel A LOT and Myrtle Beach is one of those locations that we visit every year, so we are quite experienced with food and restaurants.

With that being said, we went to Flying Fish because we were given gift cards to it or Tbonz or their Brazilian Steakhouse and we debated on where to use them. Unfortunately we ended up at Flying Fish.

For starters, we went on a Wednesday because they had BOGO Entrees and we figured it would be a good way to try them out, unfortunately it wasn't.

The Good: They have a Mahi Mahi table dip that they serve (in place of like bread or chips) and it was served with Lance Crackers. This was probably the best 👌 thing they had and it was the free table appetizer.

The Bad: The wait was quite long and with so many people there, and the good reviews (4.5 stars) we had high hopes. Unfortunately this was the worst meal we had all weak. My wife ordered a Salad because she was tired of eating a bunch of rich food. I ordered the Seafood Linguinie and my kids ordered the Salmon and one ordered Barbeque Chicken (off the adult menu) we also ordered some drinks too.

We tried 2 of their Big Fish Bowls (or whatever they call them these were advertised as coming with a souvenir bucket to take home, but due to issues with their suppliers they didn't have any but also didn't tell us this when we ordered but only after I questioned it, because we never received them. It just gets worse because the whole bucket taste like drinking Juice. It was not good, tasted like it had no alcohol and never got a souvenirs bucket. They also charged fully price for it (during Happy Hour)

I also ordered a Margaritta (hoping it would be better, because who doesn't and like a Margaritta) well, if you order one from here, you may not like it. Because it too was like drinking juice and therefore I only took 2 sips and gave it to my wife. We also had 2 oyster shooters. This was probably the best drink but even then, the first thing my wife said is, No we don't want Oysters from here. (Yes it's that bad) they also charged fully price for ALL of these drinks, which were on the Happy Hour menu.

Recap on Drinks: I refused to drink much of any of them so my wife had Two (2) Shareable Buckets, a Margaritta and an Oysters Shooter, said she didn't feel like she drank any alcohol at all. Like nothing. That's $50+ in drinks or should I say Juice?

Now back to the food. Wife didn't like the Salad, despite the dressing being unique it still wasn't good. My seafood linguine was good for like the first 3 bites and that was it. My daughter ate half her BBQ chicken so I tried it and it was just bland and dry 😅 🙃. So I also tried my kids Salmon and same thing, bland and dry.

I truly wish we could go back in time and spend our gift cards at Tbonz or their Brazilian Steak House in hopes of a better experience because I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone.

I did a brief scroll through the comments and it looks like they've been aware of their food issues for quite some time now (At least 4 months) and despite their owner addressing it in responses here, they've done nothing in the restaurant.

Update: Management reached out and made things right, after leaving this review. I have updated it from 1 star to 3 stars (which I consider very generous) a 6 out of 10 is very fitting for this establishment. 4.5 stars or 9 out...

Very disappointed.. I had expected much better food & service from this place. With the amount of high reviews and praise.. it just didn't add up whatsoever. We wanted to eat here one night and the table wait time was over an hour. No big deal, we knew it was a popular place and it would probably be worth it. However, we went another day for lunch when there wasn't a wait time instead. Our waitress was very sporadic and didn't know the specials, oyster varieties or anything else for that matter.

They give you a mahi mahi fish dip with crackers - first three are on the house. It was probably the best part of our experience.

When I had asked about the raw oyster specials, she ran down the stairs to find out the names.. but I had expected to find out more, like the flavor profile or textures. At most places that offer specialty raw oysters, this information is printed on a sheet for the guests to review on their own. I finally decided to just ask for a half dozen of mixed specialty oysters.. she said they're not offered that way. Again, this is something normally offered at other places. Not knowing the profiles of the varieties, I opted for their house oysters. A larger table behind us arrived shortly after and had the exact same conversation with their server. They asked about the varieties and the server knew nothing. They opted to ask for 4 dozen mixed, they were told as well - "we don't do that here". So they got a half dozen of each variety. When they arrived to the table, they weren't even sure which half dozen was which, they were just placed on plates and brought up. This is not the norm for raw oyster selection or consumption. When mine came to the table, there was only lemon wedges & cocktail sauce served with them - no gin sauce or horseradish. They were very small but tasty but I probably wouldn't order them from here again.

My drink was in a pint glass and cost more than my half dozen of oysters.

The chicken salad ordered in our party (not pictured) was simply bagged ice burg lettuce mix with grilled chicken and some goldfish crackers on top. Super basic and not worth the cost. The kids mac n cheese was just Kraft easy Mac on a plate. Didn't even include a drink or side. My daughter didn't even eat it. Why not have better prepared meals or better ingredients that match the level of dining or pricing you're trying to portray?

When we got our bill, we had nearly 20$ alone in taxes. Including a tax for alcohol - I haven't seen this anywhere else during our visit in Myrtle beach. Food and service sucked all around. We won't be revisiting, it was a total waste of...

We visited here during a soccer tournament weekend. The ambiance is exactly what the name implies. There is a small fish market you walk through to the dining are and then up stairs or outside on three levels. There is plenty of seating and it accommodates everyone.

Our server was this cute and bubbly gal with a wonderful laugh. She was the perfect person for our experience. She brought out smoked tuna dip and it was such a good way to whet the appetite. We ordered two items from the market fish of the weekend, grilled tile fish and grilled Mahi. The portions were agreeable sizes. The sides were green beans and rice pilaf. Everything was cooked to perfection.

The Mahi was grilled in Cajun seasoning and served in a chipotle-butter sauce where the fish was tender and flaking away as you pierced it. The green beans were so soft and juicy and dressed in a light butter sauce.

The tile fish was cooked well and had these exceptional grill marks on it. While we had never had tile fish before, everything you can read up on flavor states it to be "mild, sweet, and buttery like lobster or crab," but the piece we had was nothing like that flavor. It had a very harsh, fishy flavor that was pungent and aggressive. We needed to drive back several hours and I explained the situation because we weren't sure if it was bad filet or not. They ended up taking it off our bill and offered to cook something new, but we didn't want that and were truly inquiring about the flavor and if it was typical. The manager handled it very professionally.

Our kids had the salmon and mini hot dogs. Both of their entrees came with fries. The kids devoured everything!

On our way out, we bought a 12oz portion of the smoked tuna dip.

I cannot recommend this place enough because of the excellent service, fantastic food, and professionalism of everyone we interacted with. Don't miss this...