Coastal Wing & Spirits Co. Surf City — Restaurant in Surf City

I can't recommend this restaurant highly enough. I could write sonnets to those collards, I could write love ballads to the roasted Brussels sprouts, the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich left me speechless. The chicken was so thick and juicy and the breading was insanely crisp and FLAVORFUL. My gosh, like, I had to sit there and take a giant bite of just the chicken and stare out the window to parse all the rich, robust, insane depth and complexity of flavors I was getting; they're so well balanced it was like spicy symphony that made my eyes water. It may have been the spice or it may have been involuntary tears of joy. The cilantro aioli is the perfect cooling balance to the spicy chicken and the macaroni and cheese on the sandwich sounds like it would be a messy disaster, but it's that good, thick, creamy southern mac 'n cheese, so it stays on the sandwich great. Perfect amount of pickles to soothe the burn. Dang, I'm going to be dreaming about that sandwich for a long time. The collards are brilliantly seasoned and just a teeeeeensy bit sweet which is exactly how my dad likes them. I like 'em a little spicy, but these were perfection. Tender without being mushy, they were the perfect texture. The roasted Brussels sprouts were the exact same way. Smoky, perfectly tender, but still retained such a wonderful texture and flavor... I would take a bucket of those roasted Brussels sprouts over a bucket of popcorn at the movies any day. I was literally eating them like popcorn out of my to-go box on my way home. No shame in my food game. Service was just a teensy bit slow, but I understand everyone's understaffed these days and my server Samantha was very attentive not only to me, but to the other tables I saw her waiting on. She did a fabulous job and was very sweet. That kitchen back there is killing it. Please let FOH and BOH know that they're doing an amazing job and I cannot wait to come back again. This was not my first time and the food has never, ever disappointed. But today... man, today I just feel like I won the...

Honestly, I have a few things to nit-pick, but otherwise - this is a pretty good place to eat and drinks are priced fairly! Not gonna knock them down a star bc it's not that serious of an infraction to me. We had the pork belly to start, my husband thought it was okay, but I LOVED it. I grew up with lechon and love the fatty bits. I felt that We were given a fair amount for the price, but that's just my opinion. We had the boneless wings with a Thai chili? Or Korean? And Alabama white sauce. The sauces are fine, but the chicken nuggets (haha) were breaded heavily. Get bone in. I've had them before and they're of great quality. My husband doesn't like bone in, so serves him right lol. I also ordered the ahi tuna BLT tacos on a corn tortilla. They didn't skimp on the tuna (thank you!!) I prefer corn tortillas, but these were really dry and chewy. I can't accurately describe how disturbing the texture was - get flour if you can or use the tortilla chips that come with it. Beyond that, the dish was bland and I wasn't going to give up on my plate, it needed something. I asked for a few slices of lime and woah! That's EXACTLY what it needed, the acidity tied the dish together like a nice rug. Seriously ASK FOR LIME. The dish isn't a lost cause. My husband had the cuban + tots and he said it was okay. His plate was completely clean, so I'm sure it was pretty good. The bread looked looked really good (I may have been a little envious). I snagged a few tots bc ... wife-tax and they were cooked perfectly.

We had the banana foster cake to-go. Husband said it was dry, but I disagree. I felt like it was a little dense, but stayed true to its name. I took home one of the tacos with lime, it was lovely dinner.

Oh, their blueberry smash drink is soooooooo refreshing (husband had one too!) I think it was $10? Definitely worth it.

Oh, service was wonderful at the bar 😊 I hope to...

Current 1 ⭐️ review: Food is still great. Service is abysmal. We eat here on average every other week. One of the servers in particular is awful with a “I do not care” attitude. Server “S”. Every time we have her the service is terrible. She takes orders to refill beers and the beers appear after we’ve received food and completely finished the meal. “Here’s your beer that’s been sitting ready at the bar for 15 minutes.” OR the beer will never appear. Tonight we asked for refills on our beers and only one of us received the refill, a solid 15 minutes after the request. She walked away before I could ask where mine was. Our food was brought out by a food runner and not surprisingly, there were the exact same errors as the last time she was our server. The runner said he’d get the right items. Several minutes later server “S” goes to a table nearby and tries to fly by us without stopping even though it’s obvious we’re trying to flag her down. We asked for silverware, ketchup, napkins, the original extra plate we requested when we ordered. And water refills we had requested 15 minutes ago. She came back with the ketchup and walked away again. I go to the host stand and ask for silverware, napkins, all the things and ask if a manager is around. The very young man at the stand said sorry I don’t seem them right now. He then had to help several customers as they do a busy carry out business. I gave up on speaking with anyone else.

Previous 5 ⭐️ review: Great food. Excellent beer with NC options. Service seemed a bit overextended but the place was packed so we were patient. Can’t...