Blue Ocean Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in South Carolina

Our family has been loyal to Blue Ocean for over 15 years for every family event, birthdays, holidays, and more. After the last gathering, we are sad to say this will be no more. As a collective group of more than 20 people, we are done with the poor service, be it waitstaff or kitchen staff. The management just can’t tie it all together, and that’s unfortunate. We have tolerated a lot for the sake of our tradition, but after being seated 3 hours and receiving no meal, we were faced with the easiest way out. Personally, I received no beverage… and asked multiple servers numerous times for a mere glass of water. It’s hot out, and we had been waiting a long while. When I finally received not a glass of water but a glass of ice, the waitress watched to make sure I didn’t fill it with tea that was on the table for refills. I told her, “ma’am I’ll pay for the drink I’m very thirsty right now”. She had me wait for her co-server to bring me one glass of water. This was after more than an hour wait for the first glass of water while the entire table around me had drinks. Out of 20 people, only 4 received their meals. The rest of the party were left waiting, including children crying from hunger. When a manager came to speak to us, we were told that our tickets were found in the garbage in the kitchen and she would go prepare the food herself at that point… but the proceeded to take the orders AGAIN! We declined and left. She did offer a discount on the 4 meals that did arrive at the table, the drinks were removed from the tickets… 2 of the 4 had water and therefore received NO discount. I have never been so displeased by any restaurant, the staff, and the management all in one. I’m so saddened that one of my favorite places has become so horrible. My grandma is 80 years old, we’ve celebrated her last 15 birthdays at Blue Ocean… and now we must go elsewhere. Don’t waste your time or your money! I was a regular customer and this was not an isolated incident, it’s just the ONE I reviewed. The service and food have been declining for a while now. There’s better to be...

Blue Ocean has changed some of the prep people who make the slaw and the hushpuppies which has made us seek other seafood venues. We asked Pete (owner mgr) and several of the waitresses why the sudden urge to load the slaw and hushpuppies up with sugar. The cole slaw is so sweet it would cause a diabetic to have to take extra insulin! They used to put onion in the hushpuppies , now it's sugar. I don't know what your palate likes, but I don't want my food to be as sweet as candy. The seafood is still good and the people are still nice but until they change we will dine in west Columbia.

We live on the Chapin side of Lake Murray and make the drive up to the Blue Ocean once or twice a month. We have been going there for years! It's a 40 minute drive from here each way but it is well worth it. The Blue Ocean is not a fast food place where everything is sitting under a heat lamp. You enter and are seated at a location of your choice, booth or table. The servers are friendly and courteous and make sure you are taken care of. When you are seated they bring you some hush-puppies while waiting on your drink order and food. The menu offers a wide variety of seafood as well as steaks, kids specialties, salads and great deserts. You would be foolish not to eat the seafood! Get a platter, or make your own, you can also take advantage of the daily specials.

If you leave there hungry it's your own fault! The platters and plates are plentiful. If you are like us and trying a new place sometimes when you leave you feel like you wasted your money. You won't have that problem here. We have only had a couple of times in all the years we have been going there where we had any issues (over cooked fish) but both times it was resolved without any fuss or problem. I will say that the slaw is way too sweet since Pete let the new guy start putting sugar in it. We are not big fans of sugar in vegetables, if you have diabetes especially!

Go try it...

Walking into this establishment you see murals of sea life and a wide open seating area. We were greeted promptly and with a friendly demeanor. Leroy was our server and he was the nicest most patient person as he took our order as we debated what we wanted and what we were going to get. I guess we are those people. We ordered the snowcrab. The kids meals were an astonishing size. The kids got the baby fried shrimp and flounder. They ate the entire thing. They loved it. The flounder was a little more fishy than we are use to but its fish and it was cooked perfectly. The tarter was right on. Our crab came with baked potato and salad. The crab was cooked perfectly as I didnt even need the "crackers" as it pulled right out. The salad was a nice size and came with grape tomatoes, shredded cabbage and carrots. I didnt even finish it. The baked potato was a tad overdone and had that been in the microwave a little long look but it was still good. Added a little salt and it brought out the flavor. The bathrooms were very clean and I believe you can get a wheelchair in and out. Its a little tight but manageable. There was no heat so we were cold in the restroom. If you plan on having a big party there is plenty of room to accomidate. If you have a sweet tooth they have an array of beautiful cakes. Overall it was a get experience...