FOOD

The pork is the organizing principle. South Carolina barbecue is traditionally pork, and Radd Dew’s serves it in two versions. The signature preparation is vinegar-forward, sharpened with mustard and Worcestershire and worked into the chopped pork while the meat is hot. Beside it is a red, tomato-based barbecue with a rounder, sweeter profile. Boston butt cooks slowly for hours, so the first plate should begin with both pans before the side dishes start competing for space.

Chicken bog may be the buffet’s most important regional food after the barbecue. This Horry County dish combines chicken, rice and smoked sausage cooked until the rice stays moist and almost stew-like. It is related to pilau or perlo, but ‘bog’ is intentionally softer and wetter. Historically it was crowd food, made in large pots for farm and community gatherings. Here it is not a novelty side; it is one of the clearest signals that the meal belongs to northeastern South Carolina.

Hash and rice carries the same local specificity in another direction. Radd Dew’s has long served a Pee Dee-style pork-liver hash gravy over white rice, a rich spoonful that belongs beside pulled pork. Rice with sausage and locally made link sausage reinforce the region’s habit of turning rice into something substantial rather than treating it as a blank starch. These are foods to sample in smaller portions first; they explain the place.

Fried chicken is the major counterweight to the barbecue, crisp and familiar enough to build a second plate around it. Fried fish and catfish extend the buffet toward coastal Horry County, while fried shrimp adds seafood without turning Radd Dew’s into a Calabash buffet. Current takeout choices also include turkey and ham, but the more revealing move is to keep the plate centered on pork, chicken and the regional rice dishes.

The vegetables and casseroles turn the spread into full Southern supper. Macaroni and cheese, collard greens, lima beans, cabbage, sweet potatoes or sweet-potato souffle, broccoli casserole, corn, potato salad and cornbread dressing give the plate its soft, savory backbone. Fried okra adds needed crunch, while okra and tomatoes bring an older country-table combination. These sides are not filler around the meat; they are a large part of why the buffet feels complete.

Bread and condiments keep the meal grounded in barbecue-house habits. Hush puppies and biscuits catch sauce and hash gravy, while coleslaw gives a cool, sharp break from richer foods. The best plates work by contrast: vinegar pork against macaroni and cheese, fried chicken beside collards, chicken bog next to something crisp, then a return for the sweeter tomato pork once the first plate sets the baseline.

Dessert stays in the same home-style register. Banana pudding is the obvious classic, with pecan pie and peach or blueberry cobbler fitting the country-buffet identity. The current dessert menu also reaches into church-supper territory with Oreo pie, banana-split pie and chocolate eclair-style sweets, while wedding cake has appeared among recent favorites. After vinegar, pepper, fried crust and greens, banana pudding is the natural final move.