With the change in Myrtle Beach vacation landscape from cheap oceanfront property and hotels to the majority of luxury condos and resorts that line our beach, restaurants in Myrtle Beach have also seen a sea change.  Although you can still find the "all you can eat buffets" here and there, we've been largely overtaken by the fine dining restaurants, and often the national or at least regional chain dining establishments.

While this may sound disappointing to some, it won't be.  We've undoubtedly got the best choice of dining of any area in the south, I think.  In fact, the hardest part of having dinner is trying to decide where to go, even after you've made the decision of what to eat!

As a single person who eats out almost every single day, I feel qualified to give some advice on some of the most exciting places to eat in Myrtle Beach, and back it up with experience.

Here are my favorites, grouped mostly by type of food...

The Best Steak and Prime Rib:

1. Flamingos Bar & Grill in Myrtle Beach-would have to be my all around number one pick for the best steak, salad, bread, and best of all, bernaise sauce.  The steaks are some of the most flavorful, flame grilled, best graded cuts of meat around.  Pair that with the best bernaise sauce in town, homemade bleu cheese dressing on a salad of tender mixed greens, hard to find "new" potatoes instead of the same old baked potato, and even steamed asparagus as a side item.  The meal comes with sugar peas as the green vegetable, but I will pay extra and have that tender aspargus sharing the scrumptious bernaise.

Flamingos is famous also for their appetizer called fried lobster bites, which is chunk lobster meat rolled in breading and fried.  They also offer traditional apps such as shrimp cocktail, and a southern favorite, She Crab Soup.  They are also on the top of my list for premium fried and grilled shrimp and lobster.  AAA+

2. Joe's Bar & Grill - Located across from Barefoot Landing on a little back road next to Olive Garden, Joe's is not at all what the name implies.  This is very much a fine dining restaurant with some of the best steaks to be found anywhere.

Their specialty is green beans, of all things.  They take fresh green beans and steam them with (I think) prime rib juice, tomatoes, and onions.  I've never tasted anything so good, and I could eat a pound of them!  Their salads are also good, with homemade dressings, and they have many "low country" dishes such as shrimp and grits that are excellent.  Joe's B&G has a much larger menu than Flamingos, and I can't remember much of it.  The dishes are all unusual and very very good.  And if you smoke, you can sit on the porch and watch raccoons run up and down a little walkway where they feed them bread.  The restaurant overlooks the marshland between 17 and the ocean, and is a great dining experience.

3.  Liberty's Steak House - Broadway at the Beach
There are two Libertys...one is on 17 Business at around 60th Ave in Myrtle Beach.  This one is bigger and better.  The steaks are some of the best around, as well as the prime rib.  The appetizer I can't get enough of is fried crawfish bites.  They offer all of the regular steak and prime rib dishes, as well as some seafood and lots of good appetizers.  Their specialty is their mini-brewery, and all the kinds of homemade beer they offer.  Try the "nut brown ale" for a real tasty drink.

The salads are good, the bread is homemade, and all around this steak house is a bit less expensive.  It also offers the atmosphere of Broadway, and is open fairly late.

If you have any other favorite steak and prime rib places, please feel free to comment and add them.  I'll do another posting on seafood and maybe start a trend here.

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