Last night we had the pleasure of dining at the 'Fleet Landing Restaurant' on the waterfront in Charleston. This is located just a block or two east of E. Bay St., which is the main dining and club district in Charleston. Map Link.
The Fleet Landing Restaurant is an original structure dating back to WWII, made of concrete and steel on a dock that projects out into the Cooper River. They have their own parking, which in Charleston, is at a premium.
The interior is nautical, loud and busy. Our table top consisted of a nautical map of the Charleston Harbor area, and was interesting to us to view as we waited to order.
Our waiter John appeared promptly, was friendly, took our food and drink order in short time. Soon, we had our drinks, along with complementary biscuits, quickly followed by our main courses.
Still not getting over my hankering for fried seafood (I rarely get this anywhere else but the Charleston and Calabash NC areas, as other sections of the country typically don't know how to cook it correctly fried), I sized up a fried oyster and shrimp combo platter at $17, with cole slaw and (something else that eludes me right now), and hush puppies. My wife also got a fried combo - the oysters and scallops.
My oysters tasted muddy, which is not a good taste at all. The bigger they were, the more overpowering this unpleasant taste was for me. My shrimp were good thought.
However, my wife's scallops were outstanding! These are worthy of any fine dining experience anywhere! They were very, very lightly breaded, and had been cooked to perfection; just a little sear on the outside, and warm center without being overcooked on the inside.
Even more unusual for a combo, there were a lot of the scallops, and they were the very-large diver scallops. I've never had these as part of a fried seafood combo before, usually I am presented with small nickle-size scallops; not here - these were as big as a silver dollar and thick!
I'm not sure what was wrong with the oysters. They had been prepared correctly, and it was the right time of year for good oysters, so I'm at a loss here. Just a few nights earlier we had had wonderful fried oysters at Pearlz Little Oyster Bar in Avondale (West Ashley Charleston area).
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