So, I was sitting here reminiscing about my wonderful beach trip a few weeks back and my dinner at The Surf House came to mind, so I decided I needed to share it with you all. This restaurant is on the main drag when you come into Carolina Beach (Lake Park Blvd) and looks like a quaint little shop. I went there years ago and it was actually a shop and a café, but they have since renovated it and it now just a restaurant.
As many of you know, there are not exactly a surplus of good restaurants in that area. The Surf House is one of the few that uses local, seasonal and sustainable meat and seafood. It is quite small with only 40 seats, but they do take reservations. They are open for brunch on Sundays, lunch on Saturdays and open for dinner Tues-Sat. I went for lunch a couple of years ago for a light bite to eat (this is when they were open during the week as well since they had a shop attached to it) and remember being very surprised with how good it was.
We went for dinner during our vacation and there were 9 of us altogether, so we had a reservation and were seated immediately at the table pictured above. It is not an extremely large menu, so many of us ordered the same thing, but we also had some pretty awesome appetizers. The bar drinks were fantastic and the service was impeccable!
We started with their smoked trout dip and spicy pickled vegetables (I feel like there was possibly one more, but I cannot for the life of me remember). The smoked trout dip was absolutely amazing (I am pretty damn sure I liked the bowl it came in). They are not lying when they say spicy pickled vegetables…..holy spicy batman!!!! I was shocked how how spicy they were. I had a love hate relationship with them that evening and the kids of course stayed far away, but my mother-in-law who is just spicy herself (she is from Louisiana) LOVED them!!! Oh, I think the third appetizer was cornbread, which was freaking ridiculous and we all fought over it.
A few of us ordered the Shrimp and Grits for dinner, someone ordered the catfish and I believe the last one was a fish special of possibly trout. I was weary of the Shrimp and Grits (bacon, squash, red pepper, onion, & bourbon coconut sauce) as I have had some great ones in the past (#brothofthegodshumblepie #nofoatthepig #flyingundertheradarcameronbarandgrill), so definitely had high expectations. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised as they were delicious! First and foremost they included one of the key ingredients…BACON and the coconut broth was a perfect blend of spicy, sweet and savory! I will say that the catfish was another favorite dish (pecan encrusted with mixed bean succotash, benton’s bacon, and a pecan sauce). The pecan crust was absolutely delicious and added the right amount of texture to the catfish, which some people can find to me somewhat “mushy”.
Will definitely be back there and I love their rotating menu to keep it fresh and local!! We were too full to eat dessert….okay perhaps we were saving ourselves for another round of Britt’s Donuts (if you do not know what that is…..I feel very sad for you, but I won’t write about it as I want it all for myself). However, their chocolate bar with salted caramel ice cream or their bourbon chocolate pecan pie looked amazing and I will definitely try one next time!
#shrimpandgritsrock #humblepie #nofoatthepig #carolinabeach