Samuel actually enjoyed last night's dinner at FLAMINGO SEAFOOD GRILL (71st Ave. North at Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach, SC 843-449-5388), and to top that he behaved like a gem. We stepped into the deco style family restaurant which had black tiles, lots of black enamel-style furniture, cozy black booths and some odd decorations from a giant silver tuna (which was real) to a motorcycle, ceramic giant fish and more.
Our patient and excellent server hailed from near back home in Northern Virginia and made Samuel completely happy and at home. While we sipped on a GROTH SAUVIGNON BLANC 2004 and ordered our appetizers Samuel enjoyed a tasty lemonade. His appetizer of BEEF KABOB turned into his entree since it was quite large and beautifully tender and medium rare as requested. The SAUTEED MUSHROOM CAPS in Wine Butter were unexciting, but the FRIED LOBSTER in BEARNAISE DIP won the prize for the evening. Succulent chunks of lobster were lightly battered and tempura fried and served with a fairly lighter style Bernaise that worked wonderfully.
we moved on to a bottle of 1999 DRY CREEK CHARDONNAY (we were surprised to find an older vintage in this town which does not tend to sport older wines, especially in the family-style places!) and it was yummy, oakey, vanilla-y and just right with our big fish entrees: My GROUPER with CRAB in a RED PEPPER HOLLANDAISE was again an excellent piece of fish with tasty chunks of crab piled high; it was so large I decided to take most of it back to our condo for dinner tomorrow! Each entree was preceded with a decent, but unexciting salad, but each was accompanied by a bowl of delicious SUGAR SNAP PEAS that were sauteed just right and GARLIC MASHED POTATOES as well!
The SALMON was another hit as well also piled high with CRAB and topped with the ever-present BERNAISE Sauce, but the CRABCAKES FLAMINGO with Red Pepper Remoulade was on the dry side and lacked that chunky tasty lump crab we love so much at home (yet they did use this excellent crab in the fish dishes--maybe it just got too mushed and dried out?). We did not even consider dessert as the options were minimal and unexciting.
Indeed, we have been very proud of Sam's excellent dining out behavior on this trip as again today at lunch at the forgettable pancake house downtown he ate most of his fried flounder and gobbled up the fries as well along with a whole glass of milk--without a whine or complaint! Tonight, our final meal out in Myrtle Beach--the top rated COLLECTOR's CAFE.
