Pirate's Alley Cafe

I just returned from Surfside Beach and must say the food at Pirates Alley Cafe was good in my opinion. It was competitively priced across the board (comparable to IHOP and Chilis). No it is not a four star restaraunt but it is a very clean, nice cafe with modern decor, an outdoor deck with great atmosphere (i mean youre by the ocean whats not to love), and the food was very good. We ate there three times over the two days we were there and had both breakfast and dinner there. Breakfast consisted of eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and pancakes that were hot, fluffy, and so good. Dinner was the shrimp basket and had fries and cocktail sauce and tarter sauce with it. The shrimp were cooked perfectly, the fries though probably frozen were still very tasty. A definite thumbs up from me for food, staff friendliness, and atmosphere. more

Hubby and I went last night. He ordered Texan burger ($12.99), two 1/2 lbs meat,bacon & cheddar & 1 Shiner. I ordered classic burger - 1/2 lb. meat, cheddar. Both came w frozen fries. When we saw the burgers, we were anticipating greatness- they both looked outstanding. As I lifted my bun and could see the dryness of the meat, my heart sunk. The burger was so dry, there was not even the slightest drip of moisture. I loaded the mayo and mustard and tomato hoping for a little ooze factor, but it didn't work. Each bite I took was hard to swallow. The hubby is more like ""Mikey"", he'll eat most anything without complaint and his didn't seem as dry as mine. The bun was good and toasted. If we eat here again, I will definately let them know to cook to burger done, not to the dry, shoe leather stage like they did last night. more

Previous reviews say the burgers are good, but I guess we'll never know, 'cause we'll never go back.. We spent over $30 for fried shrimp and seafood platter and drinks and it was all terrible. The shrimp were farm raised and had such a thick hard batter that was way over cooked. The tea was very weak, even the pepsi tasted strange. Very, very disappointed in this place. Seems to be more of a tourist trap. more