pawleys front porch

not what i expected. my wife and i went topawley'sthis past weekend. when we got there, around 7:00, we expected to have to wait because it was beautiful outside and it was graduation weekend for the local university. we didn't mind the wait though becausepawley'shas a great outside bar on the deck.

upon entering the restaurant, and having to wait a good 5 minutes for the hostess to greet us, the hostess was extremely rude. she acted like she could care less about the customers coming through the door. once we were greeted we took our pager and went to the bar. after about 30 minutes we noticed that there were multiple clean tables outside and a few inside that noone was seated at. i went back to the hostess to check on how much longer we had and once again she was nowhere to be found.

finally, a server saw me waiting and came to help. she was extremely friendly even though i, along with others standing at the front, were clearly irritated that noone was sitting at the many open tables. she ended up sitting most of the tables herself, still with no help from the hostess, and made sure that my wife and i were seated in a timely manner as well. the restaurant was really busy as i said before but the girl at the front was inattentive, extremely rude, and could not do her job. i made sure to mention it to my server once i was seated. she made sure that we had an enjoyable experience and apologized for the hostess. we were very happy with our waitress and the food but found it difficult to get over how we were treated to begin with.

we will not be back topawley'sfor a while. and when we do go back we hope to find someone that is competent enough to seat empty tables with a smile.

best food ever!!. i have been to many restaurants across the us and they have included a variety that differed from the traditional ones. but without a doubt, thesepawley'sfront porch burgers are the best i have ever had in my life. i find myself wanting to eat there every single day...... for those of you that haven't tried them yet, you're in for a real treat!!

not too impressed. went there for lunch with my coworkers. they all ordered the burgers. i ordered fish tacos. the first taco was delicious. fish was fresh and nice slaw. the second one was horrible. the fish was so rank i had to spit it out. i sent it back and the manager did take it off my bill. i tasted my friend's burger. nothing really special. for a better quality of beef try burger tavern 77 up on devine street. plus it's cleaner.pawley'sused to be eclectic but it has deteriorated into a cluttered and dirty feel.

such amaze fish tacos. decided to diverge from the usual burgers and had the mahi-mahi fish tacos. four and a half stars. i'd give them five stars if they started using a soft-fried corn tortilla instead of uncooked flour tortillas. otherwise excellent.

as always, service (this time from alex) was excellent.


-----12 jun, 2014-----

good food, great place to hang with friends. casually grubby and fun. their wadlamaw burger is awesome. i always enjoy the not-often-enough trips topawley'sfront porch.

our food arrived very quickly and the service, as always, was top notch.

pawley's front porch is the official meeting place of the ar-15.com south carolina hometown forum.

food is in contrast to gamecocks. i'm a clemson student and as much as i dislike the gamecocks i have to say the food they have right next to campus atpawley'sfront porch is amazing. i had the wadmalaw grilled chicken sandwich and my girlfriend got the wadmalaw burger. both were huge and delicious.pawley'sis worth the drive to columbia on it's own and i will definitely be back.

wow. i went to sc to visit family with the intent of taking them topawley'sfront porch after i had seen it on triple d. it was the best experience with a
burger that i have ever had. i am 75 yrs old, and was celebrating my b-day.
i am so happy it was at pawley's. i am from cincinnati, ohio, and when i go back to visit, we all are going back to pawley's. the waitress was just
wonderful, and the food. well, all i can say is wow. thank you .

good, sometimes great. driving through columbia on our way to the beach, our family googled to see if guy fieri had visited any local eateries on his show diners, drive-ins and dives. we found the episode that featuredpawley'sand had to try it out.

the beginning of the meal was very promising. we tried the fried green tomato napoleon, and it was absolutely delicious! easily among the top appetizers i've ever eaten in my life. if you get one, make sure you get a little bit of every ingredient on the fork at one time to appreciate it properly.

we were therefore very optimistic about the burgers. the standard front porch burger was average. the ciabatta bun was a little dry. the fripp island burger was a little more tasty but not as flavorful as we expected from all the ingredients. the beaufort burger however was very good.

for dessert, we tried the key lime pie. it was drizzled in both strawberry and lime sauces, making it both very attractive and rather tasty.

overall, well worth a stop!

much hype no substance. i, like many of you had to try this place after seeing on ddd and have been there three times. food is ok if you like paying $30 for burgers. the most consistent thing aboutpawley'sis the very bad service all three times we visited. staff has never been friendly and all three times never came back to our table - you literally have to run them down. yes, that was me who left $1 tip after paying $40 for just ok burgers. don't worry, not coming back.

great burgers....dont get the pickles. the burgers were great! you need to come extremely hungry,pawley'smeans business, leave happy just don't get the pickle on the side.

don't waste your time & money. i was extremely disappointed inpawley'sduring my visit to columbia. i wish i had read more reviews on here before going. the entire experience, from the staff to the food was miserable.
we arrived on a saturday during lunch and had no problem with the 25-30 minute wait we were quoted. after about 45 minutes we noticed that multiple parties who had arrived after us were being seated. when we approached the hostess, she said "oh sorry! someone wrote the number for your buzzer number down wrong! it will be a few more minutes." we ended up waiting 50 minutes and watched people who had just arrived be seated before us.
we decided to start with the beer battered mushrooms we saw on the sign outside. they were completely flavorless. they were poorly fried so an exorbitant amount of oil had gotten absorbed. so we thought, hey, maybe just a bad dish, surely the burgers they are known for will be better.
we ordered the fripp island and the sullivan's, both medium with the franks redhot onion rings. both burgers were constructed with wet ingredients on the bottom, so the bun was completely soggy and useless. after cutting mine in half, i noticed it was not medium, but hardly cooked at all. it was red in the center and pink all the way to the edges, it looked to have been seared simply to make the outside brown. after waiting 15 minutes, i gave up on seeing the server again to request it be cooked more. based on the ingredients, i expected these burgers to be bursting with flavor, but they just weren't. nothing popped, nothing stood out.
i will say the onion rings were very good. they were crunchy, crisp, and well cooked. the onion inside was sweet and a perfect contrast to the salty batter. however, i did not detect any heat or spice from the hot sauce.
now i know this is minor, but they also charged more for the burgers than was listed on the menu. it was only 0.75-1.00 more, but i still feel that is dishonest. overall, the food was extremely overpriced, not very tasty, poorly cooked, and we barely saw our server. we waited 10 minutes to see him just to get some extra napkins, didn't refill our waters, and brought the wrong beer. i don't know if they have new staff since diners, drive-ins, and dives came to town. don't waste your time here, there are so many other places to go.

great & unique burger joint. if you are looking for a place to get a tasty... yet unique... burger... this is the place. definitely not your typical burger.pawley'sadds unique combinations to their burgers, but it all works so well. i haven't had a burger there that i didn't like yet. huge portions and decent prices.

great burgers!. i'm not exactly a connoisseur of burgers - they're usually too heavy for my sensitive stomach. i lovepawley'sburgers because they're not too heavy or greasy. i prefer the lean beef to the fatty burger, even if i do sacrifice some flavor. the toppings on the burgers add flavor to whatever the beef may lack - especially the guacamole.

over priced for lazy service. i really enjoy outdoor dining, and unfortunately there's not many places in columbia that offer this. i was glad to find thatpawley'sfront porch did and was willing to give it a few tries even though i wasn't too happy with my experience there.
the service was slow, and when the server finally realized he had a table, he was not attentive at all.
i ordered a sandwich with fried green tomatoes on it and pimento cheese (sounds yummy right?). it was ok, but it was super greasy!
the next few times i gave it a go, the service was the same--just not good.
my favorite thing to get there is there not-so-traditional house salad that has strawberries and pecans. but i don't plan on re-visiting for awhile.

stick to the burgers. ok, i'm a little fussy, but a recent lunch experience atpawley'sis one of only two times i've sent food back to the kitchen in the past couple of years. after a bowl of lukewarm, mediocre she crab soup, i was seriously disappointed with the fried fish taco. the pineapple salsa on it tasted like it was beginning to mold or ferment - i decided not to chance a second bite. the wait staff did make the offer of a substitute menu option, but i just cut my losses there. at lunch time, i didn't have enough time to wait out the slow service.

this would be an ok place for a burger and a beer, but there are better in town.

there has been recent gang violence in 5 points to enhance the dining experience. i would stay away in the evening hours.

mediocre. this place has seen a huge surge in popularity ever since it was featured on "diners, drive-ins, and dives." before its appearance on the show, it had decent business, mainly due to the late 20s crowd that frequents it for the social scene. after the show, business really took off. expect an hour wait on a friday or saturday for a table for dinner. unfortunately, the wait will hardly be worth it for the food, which is average, and the service, which is terrible. i have been told twice "no substitutions" by our server. i understand that substitutions can be a pain, but most businesses will do it anyway to please the customer. when my friend asked for a small side of mango chutney for their wrap (it didn't come with that dip), they were told they would have to pay $3 extra for it. seriously?? the burgers, whichpawley'sis "known" for (even though they've been open only a year), are fairly average as well. they are definitely not the best in columbia. they do have about 10 different variations on them, most of which were copied from a restaurant in charleston (although i'm not sure if they have any affiliation with them). another time i was with a large group of 8 people sitting around a table. we had been there since 5 and it was now 7:30. we were all ordering a steady round of drinks, and had even purchased several appetizers. we were told by our server that we would have to leave because they had a table of diners to seat. i have never in my life been asked to leave a restaurant because they were too busy. i could understand if we were just sitting there and drinking water and sharing a single appetizer or something, but we were giving them a lot of business. maybe this is standard in the restaurant industry, but it really put me off. another time, i signed a receipt for about $15 in drinks, and left both copies of the receipt at the bar. when i checked my bank statement the next day, i found that they had charged me twice. i don't know how that's even possible. they do have a nice outdoor "porch," although it can get a bit cramped. the outdoor bar is pretty nice and a nice change from anything else in columbia. the other positive aspect ofpawley'sis that their fried pickles are the best i've ever had. but unless you really have a craving for their pickles, or if you want to go their for the social scene on a night where it's not too crowded, i would avoid pawley's. definitely don't come here expecting great food.