FOOD

The buffet is built around two ideas: classic Calabash seafood and sheer range. All-you-can-eat snow crab legs are the obvious centerpiece, but the restaurant’s identity starts with the lighter-battered fried line: shrimp, oysters, scallops, flounder and clam strips. Those are the foundational Grand Strand plates, especially with hushpuppies, and they explain the Calabash in the name more clearly than any of the buffet’s more elaborate dishes.

Crab gets far more than a single pan. Along with standard snow crab legs, the current lineup includes Cajun crab legs, blue crab, crab cakes, deviled crab and Crab Imperial. Peel-and-eat shrimp, steamed clams, mussels and hot crawfish broaden the shellfish side, while coconut shrimp and jumbo shrimp give the shrimp category several different textures. This is the section to approach selectively; it is easy to build an entire meal before reaching the rest of the room.

The most Benjamin’s-specific choices are the dishes that move beyond the usual seafood-buffet script. Crispy Oyster Rockefeller, seafood wontons, Bam Shrimp and Bourbon Maple Trout give the line some house personality, while shrimp and grits connects the buffet to the Carolina coast. Grilled blackened mahi-mahi, teriyaki salmon, Parmesan tilapia, broiled shrimp and Cajun shrimp Alfredo matter because they keep the seafood story from becoming an endless procession of fried food.

For mixed groups, the non-seafood side is substantial enough to function as a second buffet. Fried and baked chicken, barbecue pork ribs, pulled pork, beef tenderloin tips, pepper steak and kielbasa cover the heavier plates, while the cook-to-order pasta bar adds something freshly assembled to a format dominated by steam tables. The broader operation also includes a carving station, giving non-seafood eaters more than token chicken fingers and salad.

The Southern sides are where the buffet becomes especially location-specific. Mac and cheese, corn pudding, fried okra, cheese grits and broccoli casserole are familiar comfort-food anchors, but tomato pie, Sweet Tea Collards and corn ribs are the items worth noticing because they give the lineup a stronger Carolina accent. Potatoes au gratin, stuffed mushrooms, garlic cheese biscuits and yeast rolls fill out the sort of plate that can make seafood feel almost optional for a round.

Dessert is not an afterthought tucked beside the register. Benjamin’s runs an in-house bakery, and the larger dessert inventory has included banana pudding, peach cobbler, cheesecake, red velvet and carrot cake, key lime shots, coconut cake, brownies, cookies and soft-serve ice cream. The bakery reinforces the same abundance as the main buffet, but it is also where restraint pays off: by this point, the restaurant has already offered enough savory detours to turn just one of everything into a tactical error.

The practical hierarchy is simple. Start with the snow crab and Calabash fried seafood, then use a second plate for the less expected dishes such as Cajun crab legs, Crispy Oyster Rockefeller, shrimp and grits, Bourbon Maple Trout or seafood wontons. After that, let tomato pie, Sweet Tea Collards, pasta or a bakery dessert prove how much of Benjamin’s personality lives outside the obvious seafood headliners.