Sears Landing — Restaurant in Surf City

𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

Overall, I believe this restaurant has the potential to be fantastic—perhaps even is at times—but our experience was mixed due to timing and quality inconsistencies. If you plan to visit, I highly recommend arriving right when lunch begins or opting for an early dinner to enjoy food at its freshest.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: The fried flounder, fried shrimp, plantains, hamburger, and grilled asparagus were mostly flavorful and well-prepared. Service was friendly and timely, even though the staff seemed understandably tired from what looked like a long, busy day.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭: Unfortunately, we never received a text notification that our table was ready, despite being told the wait would be 50 minutes. When we checked in after sitting outside for over an hour, we were told we had been marked as a no-show. Thankfully, after explaining, they seated us immediately and apologized for the miscommunication.

Food quality was hit or miss—likely due to the late hour. The fried green tomatoes and some of the shrimp were soggy (although there were a few pieces tgat weren't and they tadted wonderful). The grits were cold and seemed like they’d been sitting too long, the grilled scallops were underwhelming, and the peel-and-eat shrimp were rubbery. The cornbread was quite soggy as well.

Presentation also left something to be desired. Combo plates were served on small, overcrowded dishes where both fried and grilled items were stacked together. There was no room for dipping sauces, and no extra plates were offered to separate or rearrange the food, which made it difficult to enjoy everything properly.

We chose not to raise these issues at the time, as it was near closing time and we were simply too hungry to delay our meal any further.

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: I share this not to be overly critical, but in hopes that: Future guests can better plan their visit to avoid the risk of getting food that may have been prepared in advance or sat too long. Management might consider implementing a clearer cutoff for the waitlist—perhaps 60–90 minutes before closing—with signage and online notifications to prevent late-night quality dips and seating mix-ups. Thoughtful plating—especially for combo meals—could go a long way in improving the dining experience (e.g. offering baskets of cornbread for the table instead of putting them on the plates of food and serving fried items by themselves either in baskets or separate plates).

The staff clearly cares and works hard. With a few back-of-house adjustments and improved communication, this spot could easily live up to its promise every...

This is a great spot to have lunch or dinner over looking the sound, but some of the employees here were horrible. We went to have a late lunch here, and the restaurant was empty the day after Labor Day weekend. We had to set outside because we had our dog with us, which was not a problem at all. The views are beautiful! But we waited more than 40 minutes to get served while many employees looked over at us but ignored we were sitting there. When we checked in, the hostess said she would have someone at our table right away and told us were to sit, but nothing. Finally, I went in and ask if someone could help serve our table and got some smart asssss say to me "Well, you have to tell us your out there before we can help you ma'am" in an very jerky way. I said, "My husband did tell the hostess when he asked if they have sitting there with dogs." Some girl jumped in and said Tina is going to help them, and then they both turned and walked away with no "ooops I sorry" or "we will get someone over there right way." Meanwhile, as we were sitting on the upper back porch, we watched several employees talking, looked up at us from the deck, but just ignored we were there. When I did walk in to see if someone would help us, there were several employees just hanging out, talking to each other inside. FINALLY, a very, very nice older lady came out to us and apologized for the wait. She was wonderful ! I said to her that maybe you need to teach the young servers how to be nice and welcoming faster when the restaurant is totally empty. I don't know if she was tina, but she said she had only been there a few weeks, and from what we saw, she was the only one of maybe 10 to 15 people there working. We can understand if the restaurant was busy, but on tuesday around 3:pm with an empty restaurant, this is bs to be blown off like that. The food was ok, and the cornbread was great, but we will...

First dinner service here but we have had breakfast several times and this is our now our "go-to" spot for both breakfast and dinner. You have to time it just right to avoid a wait or just be patient and grab a drink from the bar and enjoy the beautiful waterfront scenery. Josh at the bar is great and no matter how busy got he was always pleasant, professional and generous. The good: the seafood rolls were fantastic with crunch on the outside and soft in the middle with great taste yet mild; the crab fritters were awesome much the same on the outside yet sweet and full of flavor fulfilling the promise of coastal crab. Our group was divided on what was better and all agreed they were both great. Two guests both had the grilled mahi, one served with fried green tomatoes and the other with cheese grits. Both loved the mahi that was cooked perfectly; flavorful and tender. Fried green tomatoes were not mushy and his favorite but the cheesy grits could have been a little more cheesy (or buttery). I had the fried seafood combination with option to have the scallops grilled which was pleasantly suprising. The flounder was great, tender and fried just right. The oysters were full of flavor but a tad overcooked IMO but still good and the scallops cooked perfectly. Scallops cut easily in half and not rubbery at all.....perfect!!! My side item was the collards and was forgotten when my meal was delivered by both me and the server. Midway through my meal she made up for that by bringing me two and I was glad she did because they were cooked southern style. Our server was fantastic, friendly and attentive even arriving just at the peak of the dinner rush. After dinner we walked the boardwalk and captured the evening with family photos...