Palmetto’s Smokehouse and Oyster Bar

Have been meaning to try this restaurant for some time. On our 31^st anniversary tonight we finally made it there. Upon our arrival we we were greeted and promptly seated and it went downhill from there. Our waitress showed up and maybe it was her scheduled night off but she was not happy to be there and ask for our drink order. When we ask if they had a wine list she threw a small list on the table and said than not everything on the short list was available. We ordered the house Chardonnay and she returned to tell us that they were out of it and gave us the available house wines to choose from. We ordered the fried green tomatoes and fried pickles as appetizers and they were good. The menu sounds great with Cajun and southern dishes. I ordered the seafood jambalaya and my wife the bun less catfish poboy with beans and collard greens. The jambalaya was so dry that I had to add some of my ice water to it as it looked like it had been under a heat lamp for a couple of days and had a funky flavor to boot. My wife’s catfish was average at best, beans were as dry as the jambalaya and the collards were not bad.
We won’t be back unfortunately as we hoped it was a gem but just a rock.

Wow. Found my new favorite restaurant! Service by Rachel was awesome, and the food I will be thinking about for days to come! The only problem was trying to decide which mouth-​watering meal to have off of the amazing menu for seafood lovers! Of course I had to go for the oysters, and my husband had the brisket which was «fall apart» deliciousness! I am originally from Louisiana, and unfortunately went on a Monday… can’t wait to try the crawfish low country boil on Tuesdays and Saturdays! Love it!

We went with a party of 7, and overall were pleased. The menu was extensive, but was limited in a couple areas. Overall, it was a good dining experience.
Pros:
The food was very good. I had the Low Country Boil, and it was spicy and tasty. I just wish it had more broth. Most places tend to skimp on broth in a Low Country Boil, so this wasn’t unusual. Others had varying dishes from seafood to a cheeseburger. All were tasty.
Cons:
The service was excruciatingly slow because they only had one server attending to the full restaurant. I do not fault her, because she was overworked, and you could tell she was struggling. And she was working her butt off, and delivered on everything. Huge kudos to her, major fail for management.
I’d like to see a grilled or broiled fish offering, since the only fish available was fried catfish.
Bottom Line:
We will certainly go again to try out other choices.

Came here with a party of eight. Called ahead for reservations. Restaurant had very few people inside. We were seated promptly. And then placed our order for drinks. The drinks were served promptly. And then it went downhill from there. We found out after we had the drinks on the table that the restaurant did not have any oysters any corn any pork and it’s a smokehouse oyster bar go figure. At the very least we should have been told at the door. We spent $ 22 on drinks and that was just coke. No offer for gratis drinks at all under the circumstances. We won’t be back one of the worst restaurant experiences I’ve ever had.

Pros:
Nice atmosphere in a good location
Cons:
The raw oysters were non-​edible, it was obvious that they oysters had been sitting outside of water prior to being opened and served. So the oysters were like small bits of shriveld rubber. We also ordered the 4-​way seafood fried platter. All of the seafood was completely burnt from the cooking grease that apparently had not been changed or cleaned in the kitchen for at least 6 months… just terrible. We asked the server to show us the bread that would be served if we ordered a PoBoy, she brought us a hoagie roll and confirmed that the bread comes from BiLo Grocery store down the street… this is NOT a PoBoy… we skipped this item as a No-​Go. Mrs Taurk asked for a Pilsner beer to be served with the meal, instead the server brought a heavy dark beer that is normally served to monks to last the winter without food… needless to say, Mrs Taurk could not eat her meal as she was full on one beer.
Bottom Line:
We drove from Greenville, SC to visit this restaurant based on their current radio ads. This was a complete waste of time, fuel, effort and money ($ 65).
Great radio ad… absolute terrible food!
Taurk

Great oysters and good beers on taop. The southern style dishes were nice too.

Way over priced! I’ve eaten at some of the best BBQ establishments in the country and have paid less at most of them. The sides came in small saucers (to small to call a bowl), and I received what appeared to be about 5 – 6 oz of meat. Kind of stingy for $ 15.99. Not to complain too much, but when you eat BBQ, you plan to get full, especially for $ 16 for the food, $ 2.50 for a drink, and $ 4 tip. Maybe I’m wrong, but if I spend $ 23 for lunch, I hope I don’t leave hungry… which I did. I literally stopped by Subway in my way home as I was still hungry. My client got oysters (12 of them) for $ 23. To be fair, my client liked them. All told, my lunch bill was over $ 50 for small portions. The food tasted ok, not great, but ok. I guess they are going for a niche type of BBQ, but it’s just not worth it for that little food.

Came up to visit, and I found this place through Unilocal.It was a little hard to find, but not too bad.
The interior is super cute. It’s casual, but it seemed romantic at the same time, especially with the wide windows that looked out onto the road. The server was nice and kept our waters refilled. Nothing super spectacular about the service.
We got some cooked oysters for our appetizers, recommended by the server. I forgot which one but it was baked with some cheese crusted on top. Those were our favorite. One of us hadn’t had oysters before, and he was addicted by the first one. I almost thought he wouldn’t let us split it. Which is what probably caused him to debate getting another whole dozen.
I got the shrimp and grits. Normally in Atlanta, the grits aren’t super buttery and creamy, and there’s never enough shrimp to go around, but these, oh my goodness, these shrimp and grits were heavenly. They weren’t gritty as their name implies, but soft and smooth, but still with texture and held together. It was perfect with their grilled shrimp and the chorizo that were arranged on top before being covered with some more cheese. It was hard deciding if I wanted to just eat the creamy, cheesy grits on their own or eat it with some chorizo or shrimp.
My friend got the jambalaya. He liked it, but thought that the price wasn’t super great for the amount of food, but he’s basing that off of the fact that in Louisiana you get twice as much for the same price. I thought it was decently priced for both dishes. Our other companion got the fried seafood plates. His plate seemed the more bare out of all of us, but he said it was good.
At the end of our meal, we decided to get another order of oysters to finish the night off. We got the ones baked with bacon and collard greens on top. In hindsight, I wished we got the first ones we ordered. This was the only disappointing part of our meal. The oysters were about $ 20+ for a dozen and the last ones were so over salted from the bacon and the collard greens were good, but I felt like had no place on top of the oceany goodness of an oyster. The flavors were interesting, but didn’t really go well together, as well as being overpriced, it wasn’t the best part of our meal.
All in all, it was a good experience. My friends said that Anderson had good food and they weren’t wrong. I would come again, though maybe ask about the pricing of their market price items before splurging.

Last night my son and daughter in law ate at Palmetto Smokehouse. Service was so slow waitress kept apologizing for the slowness. Finally got our Food and it was poorly preparded. Had the Low Country Boil and the potatoes were half cooked and the shrimp had to be peeled. Can you imagine having to dig into a boil to dig out the shrimp and peel the Cajun Style dish. What a mess. Would not recommend this place!!! My son ordered the BBQ Brisket and it was so tough he could not eat it.

SOUTHERN STACKED — I’m talking about the appetizer at Palmetto Smokehouse, not the girls going to school across the street at Clemson. Did I just go there? Yep…
Located in the heart of downtown Clemson, all two streets of it, you’ll find Palmetto Smokehouse, boasting everything you expect for a southern fine dining experience, tables clothes and fine china (brown paper wrapped tables and plastic plates) included. Living up to it’s name, they offer 4 pages filled with a variation of bbq and an assortment of fried foods.
Let’s start from the beginning, as in the front door, which I walked through, was confused, walked out, walked in the back door, was more confused, asked a cigarette puffing stranger, and proceeded back to the first door. Once we figured out how to get in (the front door takes you directly into the bar, but never fear, you’re in the right spot) we were promptly greeted and seated. We hashed over the menu while waiting on our last friend to arrive. Always late, since the 4^th grade, some things never change.
In the end, I couldn’t turn away the chance to have some pulled pork. I went with the pulled pork plate, Mac and cheese, and fried okra. In celebration of things to be foreseen, the table split two appetizers, the Southern Stack and the Fried Pickles. The fried pickles were AWESOME! They are lightly breaded and seasoned with just enough spice, anything more would have given pregnant women every heartburn for days. They are accompanied by (it’s like a really good date) a tastey remoulade, or as my friend says «a fancy way of saying spiced mayonnaise». Then there was the southern stack. And I die. We’re talking five fried green tomatoes stack with layers of pimento cheese and a good helping of collards. For you non-​southern folk, them there’s collard greens. Then all of that is drizzled with previous mentioned remoulade. It was flat out the best dish of the night and is a must for future visitors.
Let’s talk main entrée. The bbq is a traditional southern pulled pork served with a mustard based (no expect but that’s what it tasted like) sauce. It’s the reason this review only got 3 stars. The meat was fatty, I’m talking breaking the table rules had to spit in my napkin fatty on the first bite. Moving forward, I carefully navigated my way through the meat to avoid fat. So careful that if I was captaining the Titanic, we would have made it all the way! Needless to say, the bbq was my least fav of the night. The okra was hot, as in so fresh it burned my mouth, but held a decent flavor. Nothing special. The Mac and cheese, and let’s get real for a second, I’ve had A LOT of M&C, was the same as the okra, not bad, but left something to be desired as creativity goes.
The staff was friendly and the service was quick. In short, get the stack, come prepared to battle fat more than Oprah does, and leave happy.

We had a small group, and we took a long time to finish. The staff was awesome, and the food even better!

Ambience: We weren’t sure about coming here, but Texas Roadhouse was packed, so we opted for Palmetto’s. I’m so glad we did. The décor is cute and clean; casual enough for dinner with the family, but elegant enough for a wedding reception. On Friday night, there is live music.
Service: The service was prompt and friendly, but the table next to us was told incorrectly that they only had beer and wine. I believe the management was able to resolve the issue.
Drinks: A 12oz pour for Stella Artois was $ 4, but it was a little warm. The Grey Goose Cape Cod was smooth and delicious. I know this sounds weird, but the water was so good!
Food: The Oyster Po Boy had plenty of large oysters. Okra was well-​fried and not greasy. The remoulade had a strong flavor of dill pickles, which may not appeal to everyone. As for the sweet potato, it was cooked well, though a touch stringy.
At the end of our meal we had a chance to talk to the owner, Jim. What a great guy! It was really nice to learn about the history of both branches, and about the area (we’re from Georgia). All in all, a really pleasant experience. We’ll be back!

Pleasant little place. Excellent oysters. Several varieties are reserved fresh, raw. We had an appetizer of ½ dozen … Fried, and they were as good as fried oysters can be.
The low country boil was excellent. My wife and I both went for crawfish rather than shrimp.
Our waiter was attentive and pleasant.
I’m impressed… This was a fresh bright experience. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and have plans to bring various family members back when we have an opportunity…

Our service was great a very friendly lady. We got the BBQ sampler comes with half chicken, 3 ribs, scoop of pulled pork and brisket sides beans and stew. Brisket was good. That’s all. Ribs was small and hard. Chicken almost burnt and the pork tasted and smelled spoiled. Can beans and more like soup not stew. All this for 25. Then we got the low country boil with shrimp not much flavor. Shrimp over cook.
The best part was the apple cherry cobbler. It was really good.
In short for $ 62 not worth it at all.

I give this restaurant two stars for their cleanliness, decent décor, and easy access from the highway.
I’d like to start off by saying that I generally am never steered wrong by other Unilocal or my fellow Unilocalers ratings, but this time I was let way down.
My boyfriend and I stopped here traveling home from Asheville, NC to Atlanta, Ga. I got a case of the hangries (definition: anger stemming from hunger) and decided I could not wait until we got home. Checking Unilocal for BBQ places along the route I came across Palmetto’s. Menu seemed solid enough to satisfy my dietary needs (low carb, low fat) and my boyfriend’a appetite.
We pull into the shopping center and are greeting by a sign for a $ 4.99 BBQ sandwich and fries special (perfect for the boyfriend) and what seemed like promising service. Now, this is where things went wrong.
After requesting to be seated outside on this pleasant afternoon, rather than eating in an almost empty dining area, we went ahead and placed our order to feed my hanger beast (and also so that we could quickly hit the road). I went to take a sip of my water and was met by a very earthy taste (i.e. Dirt). Ew. Ok, no worries we were going to scarf down the food and get back on the road, not a big deal. Or so we thought.
The anti-​climactic end to this story is that after waiting at least 25 minutes and encountering a failed attempt at fried pickle delivery (we were the only people outside) for the «lunch special» and a blackened shrimp salad we received some bleak looking food to go with our even bleaker service. We were never checked on or apologized to.
On to the food: There was some sort of sweet seasoning sprinkled all over my boyfriend’s fries and the sandwich got a «meh». The on my bed of iceberg there were two cherry tomatoes halved, a few delicately placed purple onions, lemons, and last but most definitely lease my blackened shrimp were tiny, lukewarm and over seasoned.
Needless to say, if you’d like to waste a bunch of time on mediocre food and feel like you’ve been forgotten about then you’re in luck! Palmettos is your place.

Had dinner here while visiting friends that live in Anderson. I thought the food was just ok. I had the shrimp and grits. While the price was attractive, it was mostly grits and just a few small shrimp. I would have preferred paying a little bit more and getting more shrimp in my meal. I thought our server was friendly. He recommended a beer that I tried. Interesting that the keg was almost dead, so I got half of the beer he recommended. At least it was on the house. My wife had the pulled pork. She liked it. I thought it was a bit dry. The restaurant was fairly busy for a Friday night. I would look elsewhere before coming back here.