Blue Drum Waterfront — Restaurant in South Carolina

This place isn't worth the trip to Little River and is another overrated Myrtle Beach restaurant. First of all nowhere that we saw on their website or on the menu was there any mention of a 3% fee when using a credit card. Poor business to not advise customers of this. The server Madison also seemed confused about the few questions we asked her as if it was her first day on the job. As far as the service and food. They don't even have house wine Merlot (the server didn't even know what this is LOL!), nor do they have a drink menu at all. How do you operate any restaurant without these? The calamari was decent, but the portion could have been a little bigger. My wife ordered the salmon entree with a side Caesar salad. Any good restaurant knows that it isn't good dining etiquette to serve the side salad when you do the entree itself which they did and is wrong. The Caesar side salad itself was not very good and included bacon (?) in it. The salmon itself was way overcooked and very dry, and they gave her a whole two pieces of asparagus. Sounds like someone needs to learn how to cook seafood huh? You would think that after as many times they have served salmon that they would know how to do this. I ordered the Cajun seafood pasta with blackened shrimp and scallops. The taste itself was average, but the shrimp were very small and the scallops cut in half to make it look like you got more of them than you actually did and there was very little andouille sausage to be seen. What bothered me most though is that they charged me $2 to blacken the seafood. Really? That is so, so petty!! It was obvious to us that their prices were high for people to pay for the view, but in our opinion not worth it at all. I guess now we know why the parking lot wasn't that packed because others must have found the same about this place. I would imagine that there have been a number of "once and never again" in this group after they dined here. 8/14/25: I heard back from someone at Blue Drum about my review and received an EXTREMELY hostile response from them attempting to defend their dysfunctionalities. Here are parts of it what they said and their accusations against me: "you were determined to find fault before even sitting down" and "your exaggerated critique sounds more like a vendetta than constructive feedback" and "we suspect no gesture will satisfy someone who seems more interested in complaining than enjoying a meal" and then proceeded and said that I was "whining" and using "theatrics" with our reviews. Everything they stated is completely false and not the case. They also claimed that there is a drink list on every table. In our case there absolutely and without any doubt there was not, nor did the server offer one to us. Based on this extremely unprofessional, defensive, and irresponsible response this is clearly an establishment that cannot accept any criticism whatsoever and should tell you everything that you need to know and validate the reason not to go there. Why would anyone want to support a place that reacts to a customer this way and really makes me wonder what this individual must be like in person. Most owners/managers would react in a totally different manner and try to find a way to welcome people back and to give them another chance. This just a extremely poor look. Can you only imagine what this individual must be like in person?

8/21/25: Regarding your response. Really? Did you really even read the review? I never mentioned any restroom issue in the entire...

Labor Day weekend is a busy weekend here at the beach and one to be planned for. Not making plans ourselves when we looked up this location they still had reservations available online so we thought let’s give it a try. Well, they were dealing with less than stellar customer behavior, the front to staff at the hostess stand were clearly stressed at an already overcrowded situation. We were seated at the railing, which was not a problem, considering we did not have reservations a beautiful view. Receiving drinks and deciding to quickly order, we ordered an appetizer only to have the flustered waitress looking around and telling us that she had it this entire lower section and if we didn’t mind waiting just a bit to place our order she would be right back. Our drinks were delivered by someone else in about 10 minutes later with no sign of our server again or appetizer arrived and we ask the gentleman if we can place our order and he said well I think there’s a hold on the kitchen for another 10 minutes …a hold on the kitchen? I’m sorry what? They’re not taking orders in the kitchen for another 10 minutes. No mention of this from our server, but thankfully we have received an appetizer at this point. Long story short, we get our servers attention again she apologizes takes a second drink order for my friend. Tells us that the kitchen should be taking orders again in about 15 minutes, and she would be again right back. Needless to say, the view is beautiful, but the overall atmosphere of people who are not being fed, not receiving drinks on time and stressed out staff can completely affect your experience. After a total of 35 minutes waiting to be able to put in our order for dinner, our server returned, took our order. The second drink never made an appearance during our meal, which showed up about 15 minutes after we ordered. At this point, my friend had started filling her wine glass with the water pitcher, which was easily and reached, because we had not seen our server since our food had arrived, and it had been delivered by another individual about halfway through the meal. She did run by and ask is how things were. Not can I get you anything else? How is everything? Just a really quick in passing how is everything hands full totally stressed out person being empathetic people at heart you can’t blame her for a restaurant that has clearly outkick the coverage with too many tables and too much seating for the capacity of their kitchen and their staff.

The food was possibly good, though our orders were somewhat incorrect with our sides. We ended up waiting again while the second drink was removed from the bill by the manager. And then, when the bill was read through HHI, our server had another item removed that had not arrived, which was a side of bread requested by my friend to go with her pasta dish. All in all, I was disappointed for the level of restaurant. This advertises itself to be to not have a manager, taking accountability for the functionality of the restaurant for the evening and speaking to people about what it is they could do better and taking some of the pressure off of their staff. There is a lot of work to be done here. As a local I had put off trying the restaurant for a few months, giving them time to find their “sea legs” so to speak. It will be a while before this one has tried before old...

Horrible Experience, Will Never Return

I’ve been a regular at the Blue Drum Waterfront in Little River, SC since I moved here last October, but after today, I will never be back. I was overcharged during happy hour, and the Manager refused to fix it. Here's what happened:

I asked for ice in my drink—it was a hot day (about 90 degrees), so of course I wanted ice. The bartender, who was new, rang it up as “on the rocks,” even though I never asked for it that way. The result? An extra $14 charge for something I didn’t request. When I tried to explain, the Manager Tina didn’t care and refused to make things right.

On top of that, I was charged for a house rum that I never ordered. I also got charged regular price, not Happy Hour Price for all 4 of my House Vodkas. Admittedly 1 House Vodka was before Happy Hour. I mentioned to my friend that I wasn’t leaving a tip after the mix-up, and the other bartender still had my credit card. I never said I wasn’t paying—just that I wouldn’t be tipping due to the terrible service. Then, the manager threatened to call the cops on me. I’ve never been so disrespected. I’ve always paid my bills and have a stellar credit rating.

This whole experience was just awful, and I’m beyond disappointed. I’ve been a loyal customer up until now, but after today, I will NEVER set foot in this place again.

Tina, In response to your reply, I suggest you review the camera footage. I provided Maria with my credit card prior to receiving my bill, and upon receiving my first receipt, I noticed the charges. I had already paid for the services rendered. I never stated that I was not paying. I am not that person.

I was conversing with a friend when you inadvertently overheard our conversation. I mentioned that I would not leave a tip due to being overcharged. The photographs of the receipts provide evidence of this. The first receipt clearly indicates that I paid by Visa. Subsequently, I questioned the charges. Maria removed one of the $7.00 rocks charges, which I should not have been charged, and offered me a $2.00 discount.

The first receipt also shows four house vodkas priced at $20.00. You suggested that I had arrived well before Happy Hour, which is not accurate. I had one drink before Happy Hour, and that drink should have cost $5.00. The remaining three drinks should have cost $4.00.

The Happy Hour Rum priced at $4.00 was not mine; it was charged to me in error. Additionally, my friend was overcharged as well. She was charged for a non-Happy Hour drink and did not have a drink until approximately 5:00 PM. She was also charged for the rocks. Her bill was rectified by the bartender.

A competent manager would actively listen to customers and endeavor to rectify any issues. Unfortunately, you have lost two customers, and the potential number may increase if I further disclose the treatment I received from you to my acquaintances. I am perplexed by your assertion that I was not paying, as I had already settled the...