Myrtle Beach food

We are heading to Myrtle Beach next week for a multi-generational family vacation. Is there any hope of finding good food? We all prefer unique local places, but I do have a 8 year old son that will be going (actually he is why we are going), so any suggestions would need to be kid friendly.

I liked this place last time we were there:

Benito's Brick Oven Pizza Pasta
1538 Highway 17 S, North Myrtle Beach, SC
Tel: (843) 272-1414

Edited to add website: http://www.benitosnmb.com

We just came back from that area! We were very happy with Crab Catchers on the Waterfront, which is about 10-15 minutes north of N. Myrtle Beach in Little River. It has Calabash style seafood and everything was very fresh. Not fancy at all and we fit in great with our four kids under age 5. We asked for recs from the locals - Myrtle Beach is chain heaven.

If your looking to cook, Berry's Seafood Express on Sea Mountain Hwy. has wonderful seafood and great people. Check it out!

We go alot...here are our favorites

1. The Library in downtown (?) Myrtle Beach. This place is upscale sort-of from the 60s. They do lots of tableside service etc. Steak Diane,
fresh Dover sole, awesome steak tartar. They have really fresh high-end ingrediants. Relatively short on creativity but high on quality.
Shad and Mindy are the owners and they will treat you well. Plan 2 hours for dinner.http://www.thelibraryrestaurantsc.com/


2. For Italian it's Chianti South in Little River which is about 30 minutes south of Myrtle Beach. Top notch family style Italian-
American food. The osso bucco is to die for...good wine list. The owners moved here from New York.http://www.myrtlebeachscrestaurants.com ... River.html

3. The Parson's Table, also in Little River. A really cool restaurant in an old church. Stained glass windows and really nice food.http://www.parsonstable.com/menu1.htm

We tend to stay away from the clap-trap along restaurant row. And we are not fans of the seafood buffets that proliferate the area.

Have a great trip.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions so far. You have given some good choices to stay away from the chains and the buf-fats.

Definitely head up to Calabash NC. There are many small seafood restaurants on the waterfront there that have great shrimp (it's where the term calabash shrimp came from). It's not a very long drive and the scenery is nice.

Just a word of caution, very very few restaurants in Myrtle Beach have nonsmoking areas. This is the heart of the tobacco belt and they have little respect for people who don't like smoking. It's one of the main reasons we very seldom visit this area.

Travel down to Murrel's Inlet..."Seafood Capital of SC". There are great restaurants there/

Drunken Jack, Capt. Dave's Dock Side, Creek Ratz (very kid freindly)

For a great meal go to Pawley's Island...at the Hammock Store Go to "Louis's at Pawley's" or the outside restaurant "the Fish Camp"...http://www.louisatpawleys.com/

"For nearly three decades, James Beard “American Express Best Chef Southeast”, Louis Osteen, has been defined by his passionate devotion to the foods of his Southern ancestry and the Lowcountry. Widely recognized for leading the charge in the preservation of Southern cooking traditions and an early proponent of using local ingredients, Esquire magazine called Osteen “the premier interpreter of New Southern Cuisine”.