Moore Street Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Southport

Moore Street is great! The food is delicious and the atmosphere is nice. I have been coming here for the last few years to indulge on the oysters and the southern steamer boil. However, I had an unpleasant experience this past Saturday, 01/04.

The restaurant was relatively busy for the afternoon with limited seating for two. So, myself and my s/o had sat at the bar. Upon sitting, my s/o had ordered a drink for me, to which the bartender had asked me to take off my glasses and for my ID because I do look quite young. She did not ask for my s/o's ID. After looking at my ID, I felt her demeanor had changed.

The bartender that was serving us was Vonnie (I believe her name is). After placing our food and drink order, I had asked for the Moore Street hot sauce for our oysters. She had picked up an empty bottle and stated "We are completely out." The couple sitting on either side of us had received the bottle in question. Throughout our time, I had seen other tables given the same bottle. Vonnie had neglected to check on us routinely, but making sure to check on surrounding patrons. At one point, she started on the end of the bar to check on people. She checked on the group beside me, skipped my s/o and I, and then checked on the couple next to my s/o. The couple said they noticed Vonnie's service towards us and commented.

Not a too big of a deal to me in the moment, but I had noticed an empty two top table in the corner of the restaurant (there was 1 seat at the bar, s/o was standing for an hour until a seat beside me had come available). I had went back outside to ask the hostess if we could be seated at the table. She responded that people were waiting for the table so she could not let us sit. No one had been sat at the table for the 3 hours we were at Moore Street.

Needless to say, I am very disappointed with Vonnie's service/attitude towards us. I am young, look younger, but I still deserve to be treated with as much respect as I had given. I am familiar with the food/service industry and I know a busy rush can be overwhelming, but it should not call for...

March 13, 2025-Update:

5 stars again to this place. This time my party was served by Gwen and she took the time to make us feel welcomed, and she was very attentive to the table needs. They accommodated my dietary needs well and their food was top notch. Tasty...tasty...tasty! I will be in the area soon and plan to eat there again. This time I spent more than before ($60) because wanted to enjoy more things.

March 7, 2024-Update:

Went with three coworkers today. We all had a similar experience, Definitely a great location for oysters and other food. Love the consistency in food quality.

Original review 10 months ago: Great experience in Southport, NC. This was my first time trying oysters. I could not have not chosen a better place to get introduced to this item. We explained our challenges to Alysa, our server, who took a great deal to explain the process and made excellent recommendations. We decided to try their sample platter with all their flavours options. As newbies in the oyster eating realm, we went with steamed versions. The wife and I shared the plater as an appetizer, great choice. We found we like oysters!

I also had their MSOB burger, mmmm..yummy, yummy. If you never had oysters but feel adventurous give this place a try. I get to visit Southport every 12 to 24 months so I will be back for more.

If you are like me, type 2 diabetic, know that their pork rinds side item was awesome. Get your teeth ready for crunching heaven.

The restroom was very clean and the wait for the food was normal. Food came hot from the kitchen. There was plenty of parking in the area, but we were there on a Thursday, I have no idea of the situation on...

So, went here for lunch on the last day of my vacation. Will fully state that the food was fantastic. However, the restaurant computers went down BEFORE we were even seated. I know this because I overheard the manager scolding our waitress to the side of us for having seated us. By this point we had already ordered our food, so there was no turning back now. If I had known that their systems were down, I would have just chosen somewhere else to eat, no harm no foul. Food was very tasty, no qualms there, but after putting in our main entree, the location refused to let us order any more drinks, due to them not being able to input the items into their system. I purposefully took my time, hoping that the systems would come back online, but after an hour of waiting and having finished eating, I finally asked for the check. Since all I had was my credit card, I was instructed to walk a few blocks over and go hit the out of network atm, so I got to pay a cash advance fee as well as the out of network bank fee… I understand that these things happen, and the food was really good, but I’m deeply disappointed by the service from the staff, lack of transparency, and inability to place any other orders once we had already been seated. They tabulated our charges on paper, but were unable to add anything else onto the paper bill? I digress. I doubt I’ll...