Full Moon Oyster Bar-Southern Pines — Restaurant in Southern Pines

My wife and I went to dinner, based on the excellent Google ratings. We simply don't understand how they got a 4.5 as there was not a single aspect that reached those lofty that should be reserved for best of class.

Food - We started with a dozen raw oysters on the half shell. There was no indication as to the type of oyster we were being served. The oysters were properly schucked and were presented on a platter, with a little plastic (to go type) container of horseradish and another of cocktail sauce. There were also three wedges of lemon. The oysters were cool but not cold. They were not served on a bed of ice and no attempts were made to deliver a nice presentation.

My wife ordered a Tuna Poke Bowl. The rice served with the Poke Bowl was completely the wrong type for an asian dish. I believe they used arborio rice, most commonly used in risotto. The wasabi and drizzling of chili crisp were near undetectable. The wonton strips were cheap and stale. This combination of issues led to an odd tasting dish lacking in appropriate asian flavors.

I had the seafood risotto, which seemed to lack an appropriate quantity of arborio rice or it was so overcooked that it had disintegrated. When it came, I thought, at first they had sent the wrong dish. It was extremely watery/soupy/thin. While I was okay with the flavor (hard to make butter, cream and seafood taste bad), it was not in any way what a risotto should look like, taste like or the consistency that it should have felt like. A complete fail on this dish as well.

The entire tap beer system was down, leaving their usually extensive beer selection inept.

I had a glass of Chardonnay, which was acceptable. My wife had a sparkling wine and plum infused drink (an offering on their drink menu). The sparkling wine was clearly bottom shelf and the plum never made a good showing, rendering this drink pretty much tasteless.

We noticed that the group of three on our right side were there to celebrate their daughter's acceptance into a particular college. The three barely touched their food, their stay was short and they left 90% full plates without requesting take home containers. Who knows what that means. What I did notice, is that the person closest to us had the Jambalaya. I've been to many great Louisiana restaurants and this did not look like Jambalaya should look. It looked like hamburger helper with noodles. That's right noodles.

I love creative iterations of popular dishes, but this isn't creative, it's just a menu of substandard food that fails to represent how these things could and should taste, look, smell and feel like. I hope the patrons of this restaurant have an opportunity at some point to taste a real New Orleans Jambalaya, a great Poke Bowl from Los Angeles, San Francisco or Honolulu and a Risotto from Burano, Italy.

This is a chain, and while the atmosphere is fitting for a bar/seafood type restaurant, all seats are at the bar and those seats are simply too close. They were obviously understaffed, making it difficult to catch anyone's attention for things like condiments, water, etc. There are condiment trays for hot sauces on the bar, but the bottles were so dirty and greasy, that the couple times we reluctantly reached for anything, we were careful to use napkins to pick up the bottles and immediately followed with hand sanitizer.

We got the bill for the two of us, which was just over $103, before tip, which added another 3.5% charge for using a credit card. After tip, we came in at just under $125, which isn't super expensive, but it is enough that I would expect excellent food and service.

In summary, don't waste your time or money here. There has to be be far better...

Only waited maybe 2 minutes for a seat. Once sat we were first helped about 10 minutes later. Put in 2 drink orders (1 was a water) & 1 cold appetizer order right away. We receive our small slaw and small potatoes. Once the drinks came we put in a second appetizer order (hot) and ordered a half dozen oysters. 1 of the 2 of us eats raw oysters. 15 minutes later the raw oysters are presented. One of has them, the other watches. Approximately FIFTY FIVE minutes later our cold appetizer and hot appetizer arrive. The raw appetizer was tasty but not prepared according to the menu. The hot appetizer was supposed to be cooked oysters with cheese and spinach on top. The 1 of us who doesn't eat raw oysters digs into one to discover it to be a warm raw oyster with cream cheese and spinach on top. We were then asked about entrees. No thanks!!! In summary, we had one drink, 2 appetizers and a few raw oysters. All was ordered within 10 minutes of arrival. We left maybe 10 minutes after the food came out (warm raw oysters sent us running). We arrived at 7:47PM and left at 9:22PM. An hour after ordering to receive raw tuna and warm raw oysters. Not pleased. Our server did the best she could. Even comped the warm raw oysters and gave a few extra cold raw oysters to the one of us who eats them. Left there starving and went home to cook dinner. It just wasn't...

Road trip to visit our Fort Bragg daughter. Wife wanted oysters and was intrigued by the Google description. We stopped in shortly after they opened on a Sunday. Warm, friendly greetings from all the staff. The place starts to fill up after noon, varying sizes if groups that they easily accommodate and keep up with. We had the crab stuffed mushrooms (sorry no pic, we were salivating too much from the smell to not tuck into them immediately) as an appetizer. Wife had a Bloody Mary (Sunday special btw). I had the Perfect Painkiller. Both adult beverages were tasty and matched well with the food. My wife had a dozen chagrined oysters. I had the 1 pound of shrimp build a boil (Sunday special). Food was perfect and exceeded expectations. My wife felt bold so she did the Quarter Moon Shot Challenge. 4 raw oysters on a saltine with horseradish, black pepper, cocktail sauce, jalapeno slice, and a double dab of Dave's Insanity Sauce. She soldiered through it and got a captains bell announcement and a free t-shirt. There are 2 more levels to the challenge for better t-shirts (another "shot" per each level) but my wife knows her limits so four it is. A very enjoyable experience overall. I...