Wicked Tuna Grill, Sushi, Bar — Restaurant in South Carolina

A detailed review of Wicked Tuna plus some tips on ordering!

We have been going to the restaurants in the MarshWalk area and in Murrells Inlet since I was a baby, and I am now in my mid 50s. We have seen a few favorites come and go, and we still bemoan some of our favorites that survived for 20 or 30 years, only to be taken away by Covid. We were in need of a new favorite, and we are creatures of habit! We thought we would give Wicked Tuna a try. And....we were completely blown away by the experience from start to finish. Five star server Five star food Five star location.

I usually list the pros and cons, but since there are no cons, I will go straight to the tips on what to order!

Menu items that were a solid 10 The oysters, the oysters, the oysters, the oysters! They were only two dollars each, and they were gigantic! Look at the photo of my hand in relation to the oyster. Sometimes when oysters are really big, they’re a bit grainy, tasting or funny, and these were delicious! In fact, I probably should’ve just ordered a second dozen and had them as my meal. That’s how big and filling these were.

We got one of the last dragon eggs. So if you arrive, and this app is something you are craving, go ahead and order it when you sit down! It sounds like an odd combination, but it is avocado and spicy crab, and it has a little bit of crunchy on the bottom because of the sweet potato noodles, it’s really delightful, and the table next to us had one as well, and their young children enjoyed it. It’s almost like a deconstructed sushi roll, but don’t worry if you don’t like raw fish, this is all cooked.

The fresh fish is pulled out of the water every day! They have their own fleet, and so I had a side of the fresh fish with my salad, and it was totally worth it. It was fairly expensive ($19 extra) just to have a side of fresh fish, but my goodness, it was so fresh!

The salads! I know it sounds odd to go to a seafood restaurant and order a salad, but they all looked so intriguing, and our server told me that their salads were really large, and they were indeed large. So if you are craving a big salad, get the salad, and just get a side of seafood or the fresh fish on top.

Bang bang grouper was very good. The grouper was super flavorful, and was not completely overwhelmed by the bang bang sauce. It also wasn’t too heavily breaded. Because of this, next time I will try the fried seafood platter, as the breading tasted great.

The drinks! My "Wicked Punch" came in a plastic pineapple that was actually super cute and can be reused and taken home. It felt really festive and fun and refreshing, and I was happy that I ordered it.

Dishes that were not as good, but were a solid 7 out of 10.

My daughter ordered sushi and it was okay, nothing to write home about, but nothing that was subpar. We have had sushi in Japan and Honolulu and a lot of other places, so this was very good sushi, but nothing that was special.

The tuna pizza was okay, but not exciting, and seemed small for the $21 price. Concept was good, and I've seen similar executed elsewhere, but this was just okay.

Server/atmosphere The atmosphere was wonderful, and if you have the opportunity, you should sit outside, it was really starting to rain, so we requested a table inside, and we were happy when we saw the storm blow in. Not happy for the people stuck outside, of course, just happy that we made the decision to sit inside.

Server was very attentive and she told us that the sushi bar and the regular bar were backed up so that our drinks and sushi would be later than our food. I love it when the server communicates like this, so our expectations are set. I am never upset when the bar or kitchen is backed up, but I am upset when the server does not notify us and is hard to flag down, so you're left wondering what is happening. Our server was super communicative!!

OK, I lied, there was one “con” and that was that our seat was very low. The banquet we were seated at was sinking quite a bit and could use a new cushion or...

It was early Saturday evening and we decided to head for Murrells Inlet to check out all the positive comments we had received from the people of Surfside Beach. The last of the evening sun was beginning to set and it was fairly busy. I have to say this location surprised me despite all the feedback we had received, there were so many places to choose from. Most if not all offered outside waterfront dining views, others had music some had both. Even though there were many people doing the same as us there were still plenty of seats available. We followed the half mile long Marshwalk which is a a wooden boardwalk which runs along the waterline past many of the restaurants. It reminded me of a an old fishing village the walk itself was a nice thing to do. We walked by quite a few possible venues until we decided to try a separate location of the Wicked Tuna main restaurant further along the boardwalk. Here is a down to earth basic bar where you order your food and drink by giving your table number to the bar staff, your drinks you take out yourself, your food arrives from a shared kitchen in takeout boxes at your table. The staff were friendly, the prices are reasonable despite being a waterfront eatery. The food was prompt and was pretty good despite its journey from the kitchen to the table. I was told this particular location will have its own kitchen very soon, which looked like it is going to be a modern “portable trailer”. Having had food cooked in the keys from one of these trailers after the last hurricane it would hold no fears for me and would not put me off. The whole inlet was very vibrant and not just because of the restaurants, there were also a variety of boats that were heading out for different cruises, one on a sunset cruise with music and dancing, another for what looked like an eco tour. I wish we had more time to enjoy this location but we had to move on, however I will ensure if we pass by here again we will definitely go back. I have added a couple of photos of the boardwalk and the beach scene is nearby Pawleys Island, a beautiful and peaceful place.

I read something when we were at the Inlet, it said;

“Murrells Inlet Marshwalk where the music and the view are always free”

I couldn’t agree more. A thoroughly...

We were visiting in the area and stopped in to check out menu around 4pm. The host staff was not outwardly welcoming or friendly, and one girl actually came off as quirky and odd. This was enough for me to think, let's check out the other places next door and pass on this place. We did just that, however my teens girls wanted to go back here. So we came back later to eat, week night about 5:30, not at all busy. We sat inside the covered patio area due to wind, the views were still nice of the Inlet. The waitress was friendly, provided detailed information about the menu, answered questions and was prompt, so very good service over all. The food is definitely pricier comparative to other similar places, as many others here have mentioned. I know it may be a post covid and overall poorly run liberal economy thing but everyone is affected and hurting, We're all stuck with these people in Washington awhile longer. So I'm not on board with the ongoing trend of passing it on to customers any longer, it's no longer appropriate and probably never really was. During WW1 & WW2 everyone did their share and part, should have been no different with all this and right now. So I'll say this to the ownership of this establishment and any others reading this... It's way past time to put your corporate big boy pants back on and roll up your sleeves like the rest of us! At least be willing to meet us half way on this and skim a little from those hefty profit margins. Try to entice people back to restaurants and stores, not make it more difficult to do for so many by jacking prices. Seems the way to go and correct management philosophy to actually raise profits, especially given as many primarily empty dining rooms as I've observed whenever I've gone out to eat. Clearly, the writing is on the wall. Anyway.... we had 2 sushi rolls (shown), priced around $19 and $17 & a Fried Chicken Sandwich with Fries. The sushi here is obviously not much considering the price, yes we were still hungry after eating this and wishing we had ordered something else. One of the rolls was very good, the other so so. Sandwich was pretty good (says my 17 yo) and the fries were excellent ( we all 3 tried them and agreed), crisp throughout and seasoned properly, the way they should...