Liberty Seafood — Restaurant in Sumter

This is the WORST place to get seafood place in Sumter! Placed an order around 1pm for a 2:45pm pickup. Arrived 2:30pm, I was ignored by Randy while he acknowledged "regular" customers who came in after me and took their orders. It's now after 3pm and still no acknowledgement as to whether or not I placed an order via phone or in-person. FINALLY 3:20pm he asked me about my order and stated it was next. The order didn't appear until 4:08pm. The order in questioned was ONLY a black Bass fish sandwich that my mother wanted. I will NEVER patronize this business ever again! It's 2024 and the establishment is out dated, run down, and unsanitary. I can't see inside the kitchen, but I'm pretty sure the equipment is out dated too. Out of all the customers, only 1 was Caucasian (and the owner, Randy); he acknowledged her IMMEDIATELY even though I was in there long before she appeared (she asked whether he had any crab legs - no he doesn't). I didn't take pictures of the HVAC covered in duct tape, the dust covering the shelves, rusted cooler that holds fresh fish, old out dated scales, etc due to the NUMEROUS African American customers standing around and workers. Randy has never did any updates/renovations so he must know someone personally from DHEC in order to pass inspection. So to the African American residents/customers of Sumter County keep eating there at your own health risks & notice that Randy wears his facemask to protect...

If you want some GREAT tasting fresh fish this is the BEST place.

With that being said I give this place 4 stars because the fish is fresh and it's clearly good enough and popular enough to have a 2 hour wait on food orders. Considering that wait me and my family didn't order food but chose to pick out what fish we wanted and cook it at home. My main problem with the place is the workers,instead of working to handle the very large crowd of people waiting either for an order or for their fish to be skinned, filleted, cut, etc. They chose to talk to one another the entire time. This was not a problem until I found myself standing waiting over 45 minutes solely for some Catfish to be cut (one cut) and skinned. IT also became a problem when one of the workers got into an altercation with a customer, because she became frustrated with the amount of talking and so little working, and he decided to hold a knife up at her instead of ignoring her muttered complaints. The place has some of the best fresh fish I've ever bought and cooked but I just wish for more...

Updated review as of 2nd of May 2020: called in for an order, told it would be roughly a hour and fifteen minute wait. Arrived roughly a hour and twenty minutes later and the order wasn't even made. I get it, they're the only "current" establishment in which you can purchase a decent amount of cooked fish at a reasonable price, however I refuse to go back from this day forward. I'd rather drive a hour and fifteen minutes to an establishment that has a better system in place.

Original review: Decided to walk in and place my order because the phone usually rings off the hook. Bad move! Waited over a hour for my order to be prepared while other customers who called in slowly strolled in receiving their orders. There should be another cook hired if kitchen orders are overwhelming. As well, a priority system needs to be implemented. The staff is friendly, however it's unacceptable to keep customers waiting in the shop for...