Flying Fish Full of Flavor
By Becky Billingsley
Spectacular sunsets, fresh fish and a flying fish show are all part of the package at Flying Fish Public Market and Grill, at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach.
Flying Fish is next to the Alabama Theatre at Barefoot Landing and sits on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway. The enormous space has upstairs and downstairs dining areas overlooking the waterway with floor-to-ceiling windows from where you can see the swing bridge, Barefoot Resort and waterway traffic.
Flying Fish is a member of the Sustainable Seafood Initiative, which is "Designed to promote the use of local and sustainable seafood in South Carolina's Restaurants," and "... helps ensure that consumers have fish for the future by teaching our partner chefs about sustainable and local seafood ..."
When you walk in the front door, to your right is a bright-white tiled market and kitchen where you can inspect many varieties of fresh seafood. This seafood is available for purchase to take home and cook yourself, or you can look at a menu and decide which fresh seafood you'd like to have cooked for you. Straight ahead is a fully stocked bar with 12 brews on draft, and they have the microbrewed Liberty Lager, White Ale, Raspberry Wheat and Nut Brown Ale most of us locals know and love.
To the left is a row of booths with good views of the waterway. If you're in one of the dining areas you can see that behind the bar is a mammoth 110-inch projection television screen that can be easily viewed from any seat in the house. Note the emphasis on "in" the house. You wouldn't be able to see the TV from either of the screened in dining areas that are on two levels, but there is plenty to look at on the waterway.
Menu choices are a seafood lover's dream. There are a couple of regional oyster choices including Gulf Flats from the Gulf of Mexico and Blue Pointe from Long Island. We tried a half-dozen Gulf Flats Char-Grilled with butter, and they had a slightly sweet flavor with crusty/crispy edges and juicy centers.
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Four sushi rolls are available - California Roll, Spicy Tuna, Philly and the Flying Fish Roll with eel, salmon, tuna, asparagus, avocado and cream cheese. A few other appetizers include Barbecue Shrimp, Crispy Calamari and Sweet Potato Fries topped with blue cheese crumbles, blue cheese sauce, diced tomatoes and red onion. Fried Blue Crab Fingers are little claws with meat attached that are battered and "Southern fried" and served with remoulade. Seared Ahi Tuna is rightly rare and served atop a mound of delicious savory sesame oil-flavored seaweed salad. The plate is drizzled with ginger soy sauce and the fish is crusted with white sesame seeds.
An especially popular recipe recently added to the menu is Poblano Shrimp Dip with fire-roasted poblanos, shrimp and three cheeses, served with tortilla chips.
Soups include New England Clam Chowder and Corn and Crab Chowder, while their four salads are Iceberg Wedge, Buffalo Chicken, Low Country Cobb and Classic Caesar that can be topped with chicken or shrimp.
There are also sandwiches: Fried Grouper, Naw'leans Po-boy (with shrimp on a Leidenheimer's French roll), Baja Fish Tacos, All-American Hamburger and Classic Chicken.
The Flying Fish Specialty is one of their Steamed Seafood Feasts. It's a platter with snow crab legs, jumbo shrimp, clams, mussels, one king crab leg, a couple of niblet corn ears and a pile of chopped steamed potatoes. You can also order snow crab legs and Alaskan King Crab legs.
If you have someone in your party who isn't in the mood for seafood, one of the Chef's Specialties is Baby Back Ribs in sticky-smoky-spicy-sweet sauce. Other specialties include Shrimp and Grits, Lobster Tails, a Fire-Grilled Sampler with mahi-mahi, scallops and salmon, and Barbecue Chicken.
You can also get fried seafood platters and fresh catches. Fish choices include Yellowfin Tuna, Atlantic Mahi-Mahi, Swordfish or Atlantic Salmon, and you can have it blackened, fire-grilled or cooked with the Flying Fish Signature Preparation, which is dusted in corn meal and seasonings and pan-fried. Then you can pick a sauce: mango salsa, honey lime butter, or fresh herb cream sauce.
Children have plenty to keep themselves busy with here, because friendly fish mongers in their rubber overalls will talk to kids, put on a flying fish show and/or make the fish "talk." It's definitely a camera-worthy experience.
Flying Fish Public Market & Grill is at 4744 U.S. 17 S. in Barefoot Landing, which is in North Myrtle Beach. It's open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, and the number is 843-663-3474.
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