http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com Reviews of restaurants in the Myrtle Beach, SC area http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/santinospizza.cfm During this off-season, the two of us haven't exactly had stellar success when going to the big high-profile tourist places. For this week's review, we decided to see how far we could get away from them. We got away indeed - all the way out to the town of Aynor on Highway 501. Aynor is a place that is slowly transforming from a low-country farm town into a bedroom community for the beach's workforce. Right on the highway, holding its own against all of the fast-food joints that festoon the highway, is an inviting, homey-looking restaurant called Santino's Pizza. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/creekratz.cfm It was a Thursday night in early January, so the two of us figured that the crowds would be at a minimum in some of the area's higher profile places. We headed south to the upscale seafood haven of Murrells Inlet and pulled into Creek Ratz. This is a place that works very hard to come across as a larger, slicker version of the old time laid-back seafood shack. We thought we'd see what all of the advertising was about. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/doughboysnewyorkstylepizzeria.cfm The newest personality on the Food Network states that you can often find really good mom 'n' pop restaurants in a strip mall because the rent is fairly cheap. Not being ones to argue with the experts, we took the same approach this week. After two reviews of varying satisfaction in Myrtle Beach's high-profile, tourist driven restaurants, we ventured down south to a strip mall by the Wal-Mart in Surfside Beach. In these humble digs, we found Dough Boys New York Style Pizzeria. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/carolinaroadhouse.cfm We were feeling brave this week and decided to take another trip into Myrtle Beach's high-profile, high-traffic restaurants. So we headed up Kings Highway and turned into the very large and usually very crowded Carolina Roadhouse. During the summertime, this restaurant is one of those places where hour-plus waits are common. Fortunately, it wasn't so crowded on this Saturday night in December, so we were seated immediately. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/tbonzgillgrill.cfm After a long Thanksgiving weekend, the two of us were exhausted and just wanted to relax and close out our holiday weekend quietly and with a good meal. We stayed in the heart of Myrtle Beach tourism along the Highway 17 Bypass and went into TBonz Gill & Grill. As you would expect from their name, TBonz specializes in meat and fish, and a little carnivore action sounded good to us tonight. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/crawdaddys.cfm The two of us went up to North Myrtle Beach this evening to enjoy a little live music, so we thought that while we were up north, we would use the opportunity to review a restaurant at the same time. The sign out front of Crawdaddy's had a picture of a shrimp wearing a tuxedo and top hat while holding a martini glass, so we were expecting it to be some sort of trendy place that catered to upscale golfers. Boy were we wrong. Crawdaddy's is a casual, local bar & grill - the type of place more likely to be favored by locals who want to get away from the trendy, upscale golfers. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/bodosgermanrestaurant.cfm As the week began to wind down and our standard decision about where to review this week came up. I wanted to venture outside of our usual realm, so I looked at my lovely wife and said "Hey baby, let's try something different. How about German?" After pulling up the online directory and finding listings for the three German restaurants in the area, we decided that this week, we would head into the center of old Myrtle Beach and visit Bodo's German Restaurant. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/rivercitycafe.cfm If there's one thing that most of the beach residents have known for years, it's that River City Café is where you go to get a good burger in a casual environment. When talking about River City, "casual environment" means they have license plates on the wall, peanut shells on the floor and classic rock on the sound system. The locations that dot the beach are almost as much of an institution as the sand and the ocean. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/pacinos.cfm When we selected Pacino's down south in Garden City, I have to admit that we were going to be especially tough customers. It had been soggy, gray and rainy, and all day, everybody's mood had seemed to match the weather. We needed a good dinner to boost our spirits. Their ad in the Sun-News called Pacino's an Italian restaurant with a Lebanese flair. It made for an intriguing combination, so we decided to check them out. http://www.reviewmyrtlebeach.com/restaurants/thornyssteakhousesaloon.cfm Sometimes when we look for a place to review, we like to go away from the action and find the local secrets, other times we dive right into the main tourist drags. This weekend was one of the latter. Given its size and location, it was obvious that Thorny's Steakhouse and Saloon is perfectly positioned to attract and service large crowds of tourists. When we saw the gift shop to the left of the restaurant's entrance, we realized just how tourist-oriented Thorny's is.