Ridge Shrimp & Oyster — Restaurant in Oak Ridge

The experience here started off great, but began to nosedive faster than a collapsing building.

We were greeted with smiles and offered a table for 2, but we lacked menus. We were seated outside, and that would prove to be our demise.

After quickly scrolling on my phone, we placed both soft drinks and our entrée orders.

The sweet tea tasted like regular tea, and my Dr. Pepper was flat. My wife got the catfish, and I ordered the snow crab legs. My wife's dish looked great but contained an interesting flavor. Her grits were a bit too cheesy and salty. For the catfish, she could only taste the breading. The only upside is the bread as her second side.

As for my crab legs, unseasoned. Only water and crab meat. Mind you, I had a morsel of crab meat on every other leg. I've eaten better crab at Asian spots for less. At least my dish came with butter 🤷‍♂️ some of this could have been overlooked, but our waitress was MIA.

There were multiple people seated outside who were given amazing service. However, my wife and I didn't even get a single refill. It's like as soon as we got our food and requested our bill right after, we became invisible. Tbh, it didn't help that we're a minority interracial couple because we stood out like a sore thumb, yet we experienced subpar service.

For $74, we came away utterly disappointed. There won't be...

First time eating there. I had potato crusted grouper and my husband had shrimp. The food was very good, including the fries and collard greens; the coleslaw was just okay. The tables are tiny - and I mean small - and the interior is small and crowded. This is obviously a popular local haunt, as there was a wait line at 5 (when they open) and a wait line when we left, after 6. Handheld menus are not available, and there is no website. Choose your food, wine and beer from the wall-sized chalkboard menu. Quite a few people who were waiting came in and snapped a photo of the board to peruse their choices while they waited outside. NO excuse for this. You can build a simple WordPress site for FREE and host it for 3 bucks a month, then you make a Qcode (again free) to scan for a menu. My biggest objection, and the reason I won't return (they have plenty of customers and will not miss us) is the TV set to a channel of a specific political persuasion. Sorry. Keep your politics to yourself: I do NOT care which 'side' you're on; I do not want to have it staring in my face while I dine. We'll go elsewhere where the food is just as good and we don't have to put up with being squished into a small room and forced to watch political garbage (either 'side'), But if you don't mind it, the...

My grilled tuna was good, even though I asked for a medium center and it came out raw. The side order of bread was really good. fyi - the potatoes are just steamed, no seasoning. My husbands grouper (one of the specials for $35) was not good. It had a strong fishy smell & taste and was not seasoned. Yes, it's fish but it shouldn't smell or taste like that. Our friends ordered shrimp & grits (really good), steamed shrimp (overcooked) and fried oysters (really good). Hushpuppies were good. Our waitress was nice but kept forgetting things. Overall, most of our food was really good but the grouper was terrible and overpriced. We probably won't return but I...