7 Myrtle Beach Seafood Buffets Locals Say Are Worth the Money

Little River’s waterfront, on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, throws its 20th annual ShrimpFest on October 10 and 11.

More than 200 vendors are expected, and the crowd that follows fills every seafood buffet on the Grand Strand.

Some of those buffets run close to $50 a plate before anyone cracks a single crab leg.

Not all of them earn it.

These are the Myrtle Beach seafood buffets locals say are worth the money.

1. Captain Benjamin’s Calabash Seafood

Captain Benjamin’s Calabash Seafood carries the one trophy that settles many arguments about this list.

WMBF News, the Grand Strand’s local television station, named it a double winner in its 2024 Best of the Grand Strand awards.

The awards covered both the seafood category and the buffet category the same year.

Not a tourist poll.

The station’s viewers filled out that ballot.

The buffet spreads across several themed dining rooms at 401 South Kings Highway.

Roughly 170 items line the steam tables, from snow crab legs to a build-your-own ice cream bar.

An adult plate runs close to $50, with a lower children’s price by age, and the restaurant prints a coupon for a few dollars off.

2. Pirate’s Table Calabash Seafood Buffet

Pirate’s Table Calabash Seafood Buffet plays up its theme harder than anything else on this list.

Reviewers reward it anyway.

The Surfside Beach spot built its buffet line to look like a pirate ship and dressed its servers as pirates.

A theme this loud could easily coast on the costumes alone.

Surfside Beach locals treat it as a standing weeknight stop, not a once-a-trip splurge.

The buffet backs that up with a 4.5-star average across more than 1,600 Tripadvisor reviews, among the highest-rated seafood buffets on the Grand Strand.

Diners who leave reviews keep landing on the same point: The crab legs stay hot and the trays refill fast, even in a dining room built around gimmicks.

3. Crabby Mike’s Calabash Seafood Company

Crabby Mike’s Calabash Seafood Company has run its Surfside Beach dining room long enough to build a following that travels back for it.

The buffet carries Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice award, backed by a 4.3-star average across more than 2,700 reviews.

Some of those reviewers aren’t even local anymore.

They still come back.

Families who moved away describe routing a Myrtle Beach trip around one dinner here, driving in from Florida and Pennsylvania for the crab legs and prime rib.

The families who never left fill the same dining room on an ordinary Tuesday.

Reviewers who do the math make a simple point: A pound of crab legs alone can run close to what the whole buffet costs.

Eating past that one item is where the value shows up.

4. Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant

Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant has pulled in more written reviews than almost any other buffet on the Grand Strand.

The 29th Avenue location, across from Broadway at the Beach, carries more than 4,000 reviews between Yelp and Tripadvisor.

That kind of volume only builds up from decades of repeat dinners, not one good season.

The dining room ranks among the biggest on the Grand Strand.

That size cuts the wait.

Grand Strand locals use that upside for the nights an extended-family dinner needs a table for twelve with no reservation.

Regulars single out the crab legs and the fried oysters.

Some have been coming since they were kids and now bring their kids back to the same tables.

5. Crabby George’s Seafood Buffet

Crabby George’s Seafood Buffet keeps a following that treats it as a weekly stop, not a once-a-summer splurge.

The Kings Highway buffet spreads more than 120 items across its steam tables, from Southern-fried shrimp and scallops to a bakery case of cakes and bread pudding.

The coupons say it too.

Early-bird pricing and a large-party discount reward regulars who plan ahead, not a single vacation-week visit.

A kids menu of chicken tenders, fish and chips, popcorn shrimp, and corn dogs keeps the pickiest eater at the table fed too.

Homemade mac and cheese and Southern fried chicken round out the spread for anyone who wants a break from seafood.

6. Giant Crab Seafood Restaurant

Giant Crab Seafood Restaurant has held its spot on Restaurant Row long enough that locals who grew up nearby still treat it as their table.

One longtime reviewer put the math plainly: Run the numbers, and an all-you-can-eat spread beats ordering that much crab and a good steak separately.

Consistency keeps them coming back.

A hibachi station and a pasta bar back up the crab legs and prime rib carving, so a picky eater at the table always finds something hot.

At roughly $48 a plate, regulars say that lineup is why the buffet still earns the visit.

7. Bennett's Calabash Seafood

Bennett's Calabash Seafood has fed the Grand Strand longer than almost anything else on this list.

The restaurant's site says it has served the area for more than 47 years, out of two locations on the Myrtle Beach side of the Grand Strand.

That's no accident.

Longevity like that only holds up if locals keep walking back through the door.

The restaurant has cooked Calabash-style since it opened in 1978.

The dinner buffet runs $50 to $56 a plate, and the lunch version still drops under $25.

That makes Bennett's the rare spot on this list where a family can split the visit between lunch and dinner and still get the same crab legs either way.