Come to Myrtle Beach with a crab-leg plan. Keep a few meals unassigned. A plate of chicken bog in Conway, a pot of broth at the table or a server offering another carving of picanha can earn a place between the big seafood evenings. The buffet itinerary can get pleasantly out of hand.
Explore Buffet Authority’s curated Myrtle Beach-area collection and make room for a country lunch, sushi rounds or a tableside-carving dinner. Its restaurants stretch beyond the city into neighboring coastal towns and inland communities, including Conway, Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island.
The Seafood Buffets Have Earned Their Evening
Start with Captain George’s, where the standard buffet menu includes she-crab soup, Norfolk Special and Oysters Rockefeller. The prepared dishes give a seafood evening room to unfold beyond cracking shells. Soup deserves its own moment. So does an oyster that has already had some work done on it. Crab legs can keep their place in the evening while a few prepared dishes get a turn.
Then there is the theater of The Original Benjamin’s, with shipwright Jimmy Frost’s nautical models and an 18-foot Queen Elizabeth II. That is a substantial ship to encounter while contemplating another plate. The big seafood buffets have earned their place in the Grand Strand imagination. They can comfortably share an itinerary with lunch in a barbecue schoolhouse.
Home Cookin’ and Barbecue
At Big D’s BBQ Trough in Conway, vinegar-based pork and sweet-mustard pork invite a side-by-side comparison. A second plate may be necessary to settle the matter. Chicken bog brings chicken, rice and sausage into the same lunch. Near Aynor, Radd Dew’s Bar-B-Que Pit serves its weekend barbecue buffet in a former schoolhouse. Repeat helpings of barbecue are an encouraging development in adult education.
Judy Boone’s Family Traditions Kitchen in Murrells Inlet puts chicken and dumplings and pulled-pork barbecue among its country-buffet favorites. Its Tuesday fundraising evenings give a portion of sales to a designated community organization. There are worse ways to support the neighborhood than showing up for dumplings. These country spreads also give the buffet enthusiast a different sort of decision: how to arrange the main dishes and vegetables when every combination is your own doing.
Breakfast With a View—or a Gospel Soundtrack
Sea Captain’s House has an unlimited morning worth knowing about, with eggs and omelets among its breakfast-buffet choices. Its oceanfront building began as a family cottage in 1930. The restaurant’s history recounts the guesthouse years and the restaurant conversion that followed a postponed demolition plan. The supposedly temporary restaurant has lasted more than sixty years. A respectable run for an interim arrangement.
Sunday at House of Blues Myrtle Beach, physically in North Myrtle Beach, adds live gospel music to an AYCE breakfast-and-Southern spread. Brunch becomes an outing with a performance attached. Farther south, Applewood House of Pancakes in Pawleys Island offers a Saturday and Sunday breakfast buffet with a live omelette station. Its regular menu remains available, accommodating both the person who knows exactly which breakfast they want and the person who would like to inspect several possibilities.
There is room for the familiar, too. Shoney’s on North Kings Highway gives its Fresh Food Bar a breakfast-and-lunch role, while Golden Corral on Oak Forest Lane serves breakfast Friday through Sunday. Sometimes the morning calls for a straightforward buffet and a tableful of people making their own selections.
Sushi Rounds and Dinner You Cook Together
At Ichiban Sushi & Hibachi in Conway, another helping begins with another order. Sushi and kitchen dishes arrive in rounds, and dinner expands the selection to include sashimi. Sunday uses the dinner menu all day. The whole table chooses AYCE or à la carte, so agree on the plan before someone develops a private attachment to one roll. Once settled, the next order can follow what everybody especially enjoyed in the last one. A successful roll gets an encore without becoming the entire meal.
Blaze Korean BBQ & Hot Pot brings ingredients to the table for broth and tabletop grilling. Snow crab belongs to its Diamond hot-pot option; the menu tier matters to the dinner you are planning. Shared cooking becomes part of the evening, with plenty to select, cook and pass around. Nine Spices Hot Pot & BBQ offers another unlimited hot-pot-and-barbecue outing, with two karaoke rooms adding an obvious possibility for a group. Ingredients first. Song choices later.
Dinner That Comes to the Table
At Rioz in Myrtle Beach and Rioz in North Myrtle Beach, full Rodizio combines the market selection with continued tableside carving. Salt-seasoned picanha, garlic picanha and lamb give the meat service variety. Turn the card to green for another carving, red for a pause. A little authority over the arrival of more beef. The market leaves room for independent trips between carving visits.
Gauchos Brazilian Steakhouse puts rock-salt and garlic picanha alongside cheese bread and cinnamon-grilled pineapple in its unlimited dinner. The pineapple belongs to the meat-service program, ahead of separately charged desserts. A sweet helping can arrive while you are still considering another carving.
At Broadway at the Beach, Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen brings country cooking to the table in family-style bowls. Choose the allotted mains and four sides, then ask for more of those selections. The table’s first order determines the meal everyone will share. Getting the family to agree may be the most strenuous part; passing another bowl around is the reward.
Square-Cut Pizza and Several Pasta Possibilities
Massey’s Pizza in Pawleys Island brings Columbus-style thin pizza, square cuts and toppings extending toward the edge to its lunch buffet. The squares suit a sampler’s appetite. At Pizza Inn in Conway, an all-day buffet includes pizza, pasta, salad and dessert. Its Pizzerts allow the last helping to remain pizza. Affectionate consistency.
Angelo’s Steak & Pasta makes an Italian buffet part of its daily dinner service; the sizzling steaks are a separate menu choice. A pasta buffet is accommodating to the diner who would otherwise negotiate bites of everybody else’s order. Several dishes can share the plate, and nobody needs to surrender a forkful.
A Few Appointments With Ribs
A regular restaurant can join the AYCE itinerary for particular days of the week. Quigley’s Pint & Plate in Pawleys Island offers Thursday AYCE shrimp and Saturday AYCE baby-back ribs. The pub’s ordinary menu continues around those particular unlimited main courses. A return visit can have a completely different purpose.
At PopStroke Myrtle Beach, Monday brings unlimited tenders with a sauce flight, and Thursday brings unlimited ribs. Its full-service restaurant sits beside two putting courses. The sauce flight gives the tenders a small tasting project; the setting gives the meal an optional activity. Golf is a separate purchase. Dinner can be the whole outing.
Weekly offers and seasonal schedules deserve a check before setting out. After that, leave a little room for an unexpected meal. A country lunch, sushi rounds or breakfast by the water might earn a place between the seafood evenings. Explore all-you-can-eat dining around Myrtle Beach and see what belongs on your next visit.
