Pawley's Raw Bar — Restaurant in South Carolina

During any other market I would have given this a three-star rating, but given how hard it is to hire people now I will give that a pass.

Raw bars are now a luxury restaurant selection, not a cheap 'dive' selection. As such, the level service should reflect the price.

We stood around during normal business hours around 7:00 p.m. on a Sunday night at the host stand for quite a while before anybody bothered to greet us. When they did, they had to go looking for a hostess.

We were finally seated and greeted by a cheerful waitress. However, over half of the six pack of condiments were literally empty and we had to ask for each and every one of them to be brought out in turn, instead of just being able to receive a fresh set of condiment bottles.

Avoid the she crab soup. It has no flavor.

We purchased both the small and the appalachicola oysters. The Apalachicola were free of shards. The more expensive ones were littered with glassy sharp shards. Ask for an extra glass of water with no ice to rinse off the shards.

Margaritas were pretty good, and 'correctly priced'.

All in all, I was hoping for a lot more out of this place. I haven't been there in several years, but I guess after Covid we get what we get, should be grateful their business is even open.

In other words, we should just be thankful any of these places managed to make it through and stay open to the other side of covid.

I only make the other complaints, since they are made in Good Faith so as to avoid this from becoming...

Server was sweet and tried to be helpful. Not her fault the food and atmosphere were horrible. Best advice, don't eat here. Other advice...don't stay in Pawley;s Island on a Sunday or Monday night. Most restaurants are NOT open (same in Georgetown nearby). Those that are open are swamped with no parking and long wait lines. If you do have the misfortune of eating at Pawley's Raw Bar, don't let them sit you on the enclosed porch or whatever it is. It was extreme HOT and the sun was blaring in. No air circulation. No A/C. It was cooler outside. The whole restaurant smelled bad, like old shrimp. The place is DIRTY. They do a terrible job of "cleaning" tables. Basically they just slap some brown paper down on top of the dirt and mess the last party left there. Gross. Food is terrible. Sweet potato fries took up most of my plate and they were COLD and stuck together, right out of the freezer? I have no idea what my grouper tasted like. I ordered grilled grouper and it was blackened. There was so much pepper on it, I could not taste anything else. I did not send it back because we had waited a very long time to get our food to begin with. Cole slaw was like something from Sams Club. The best thing on my plate was the hushpuppies and I'm generally not fond of hushpuppies. Stay away.

EDIT: I tried messaging them per their reply, however no one got in touch with me. They say this after...

This is a sports bar environment. Party of four. We were pleased that we were seated immediately at prime time of dinner hour. Our server taking care of us was courteous, thorough, patient when we asked questions about menu. This was our first time visiting Pawley's while in Myrtle Beach. Ava was amazingly wonderful and accommodating. She was serving multiple groups in her area. But what put me and my group aback was the fact that we were given plastic fork pack and others around us were given actual silverware 🍽. But WHY, we did not ask for them. We ask for silverware. Further, the orders were mixed up and delivered to our table incorrectly. They were given to wrong people in our party. After one of our party members had begun to eat from his plate, one waitress attempted to grab his plate and give to another member of our party. Frekin Unbelievable. Not only that, but I only had a salad ordered. It was the last meal served. I did not eat it. I ask for a Togo box. Not only that and after, the check was f'ed up. This was a simple all on the same check...Check. Y'all decide if you want to go or not. Pictures are definitely deceiving though the food looks good. Not tasty at all. Prices are reasonable. Handicap ♿️ accessible. Relatively Clean facility. Playground for kids. Ample parking....