Pawleys Island Tavern & Restaurant

Some of the best pizza I have had in my life. I ordered the Garlic Pizza and added some pepperoni. Aaaaaaaaaaamazing. Will be back as soon as I can. Difficult to find at night. But worth it if you can find it. I’m so full now. Therefore I’m done with this review.

Very good seafood. Not expensive, huge portions. Fried oysters, shrimp and especially the fish was excellent. Good cole slaw. People come here to eat good food and hang a dollar bill with a message. Good beer selection. Outside seating, there may be a wait. The GPS in this area is not good so know it is located behind a frontage road, looks like a dirt lot but is an entrance.

Friday night at ten and this place was packed outside with a live band playing some Grateful Dead.
Luckily they were still serving pizza and the inside wasn’t too crowded at all.
I ordered a medium a house Special which was a mix of their veggie and meat lover pizza which was good. Would have been even better had I asked to have the green olives omitted as the flavor overpowered the rest of the mix and seemed out of place. Black olives would have been much better.

Ehhhh! Nothing special! Interesting little place with interesting people. Not sure if we would go back.

The pizza was really good and the place has a fun dive bar vibe to it. We also got the conch fritters, which were yummy. This place is hard to find, even though it’s off Hwy 17. Look for Bistro 317 and the hanging lights behind the Bistro 317.

Great time. food was awesome, service was great live music. Marty the drunk guy wad just to loud.

Had been vacationing in Pawleys Island for years… and never heard about this place. Then stumbled upon a review that said look for the mailbox with PIT labeled on it just south of the Island deli. Sure enough there was a driveway that led me to this gem. Tried the pimento cheese appetizer with crackers… very delicious and finished off with a fried oyster platter. Oysters were amazing! I feel like I won a prize finding this local hangout!

Would have never found the place without a friends recommendation. Awesome venue and good food. Music on the weekends and good food to top it off. I had the flank steak as I’m not a seafood guy — everyone else had crab cakes we all loved the food. Eating outside is the way to go, it has an amazing atmosphere.

Great place with a great atmosphere. The dollar bill wallpaper was pretty cool, and we felt very welcome. The appetizers were a bit pricey and small, but were very fresh and fried very well.
I had the crescent city shrimp over grits instead of wild rice, and it was very creamy and well balanced. My family had the fried seafood platter and a po-​boy sandwich which they thoroughly enjoyed.
The only thing I didn’t like too much was that the space was kind of cramped.

We’ve been visiting this favorite since it was The Island County Store. We’ve had everything on the menu more than once and come back often.
This place is great for both tourist and local alike.
Be careful parking!

Super neat little place to take the fam. Great food and drinks and lots of dollar bills hanging everywhere. We always have a great time

Food conch fritters. Service is good. Cool place. We sat outside. Plenty of shade. Inside has money everywhere. We got a marker and stapler from bartender to add our own dollar to the wall. Husband liked crab balls. We went for lunch. Had po boys he had grouper i had shrimp. Fried and po boys were good. Cowl slaw good too. I like sauce po boys came with. Good southern bar food. Nice atmosphere. Enjoyed it.

Nice dive bar atmosphere, dollar bills everywhere.
Crab cake was beautiful, burgers were deliciously messy.
Staff was a bit unorganized. There was only one server for the entire restaurant, she was working hard, but was spread too thin and made some silly mistakes. Most of the staff didn’t appear to be doing much, other than the server and her food runner.
We were missing some sides, and had some difficulty replacing an empty beverage.
Would definitely return, but probably during dinner hours, when they might be adequately staffed. The food was nice, the service left a bit to be desired.

What a great place! Kind southern service, hilarious decorated dollar bill «wallpaper», and properly cooked seafood. Excellent beer choices including some local Pauley’s Island brews. Look for the lime green PIT mailbox and its back on that gravel driveway road.
Had a great po-​boy (that sayce is something special) and my cousin highly recommends the PIT burger!

Pawley’s Island Tavern (AKA The PIT) is well known by the locals to be considered a secret dive. We were told about this place by a local acquaintance and gave it a try. If you are thinking about trying this place, head my warning, go into it knowing the atmosphere is relaxed, cool, and sloooow. The bar tender was rather abrasive when we were trying to ask for happy hour specials. Granted, we had arrived 20 min prior to the end of happy hour. They have live entertainment that starts at 8pm which was a huge plus. The performer was his own self Caribbean reggae band that was really impressive to watch. As for the food, again, sloooow. Among our group we had order fried seafood platters and pizza. The pizza sauce was terrible with too much oregano added. The pizza and the fried items were not in coordination with each other which led the pizza to come out 30 min prior to the fried items. The fried seafood was nothing crazy. The fried scallops were the highlight. Fish was overcooked and sparse. Shrimp was par. Crab cakes were sub par.
Just a quick recap, enjoy this place for its live entertainment and know the food will be slow and go into it thinking that whenever it comes, it comes.

Great food– hands down!!! The atmosphere is a bit stale and has that run down old bar feel. The outside eating area is nice. Very busy place so many seem to come for the good food. The blackened Mahi Mahi with red pepper sauce is amazing. Pizza was also very tasty. No view of the inlet or ocean.

Always ask locals where to find the best places, that’s how we found PIT. It’s back far, look for an orange mailbox with PIT written on it. I recommend the happy hour drinks, great 1.25 special for PBR! I had the build your own pizza, fresh ingredients and delicious cheese! Unfortunately the kitchen was backed up and our fried seafood came out 30 minutes after the pizza! The manager wasn’t happy that a member of our 7 person party spoke up. They gave us 50% off though. If I go again it’d be for drinks, pizza, and the entertainment.

Wow, a diamond in the rough. Not your typical tourist destination, right up our ally. Hard to find, for us newbies but so worth the visit. Laid back, friendly atmosphere. Cute tiki bar and band stage outside, speaking of band: we made a stop on a Sunday and what an awesome band! A definite go to when visiting Pawley’s Island.

We returned to Pawley’s Island in late October after the busy season ended.
We were tired from traveling and decided to give the P.I.T. another chance as it was close by. We had the same great service and we were the only patrons out on the patio on a beautiful crisp cool evening. To warm up, I tried the Crescent City shrimp with andouille sausage. It was very delicious, spicy, and a generous portion. Much better than the last visit.

Not sure why so many folks call this a «dive». It’s a lot nicer than a dive.
We sat outside among the lights and tiki torches, atmosphere was great. People of all ages, lots of kids, one of the best behaved little babies I have ever seen, scarfing on grits and her sippy cup. I even saw a couple that brought along their dog. Oh, and even if you sit outside like we did, you have to check out the Tavern’s interior and gaze in wonder of those thousands of dollar bills masquerading as wallpaper and ceiling paint.
Beers were very reasonable at $ 3,75 each. I had a Red Stripe, but it was my second choice. The menu mentioned a Costa Rican beer I wanted to try, but they didnt have it in stock.
Our food was Crawfish Quesadillas ($ 8.50) and a broiled seafoof platter ($ 16). The quesadillas were very cheesy and skimpy on the crawfish. The platter had three scallops, and 5 peanut sized oysters. It came with veggies (delicious) and I had wild rice as my side (very good). The seafood was fresh and tasted great, but the amount of seafood was not generous.
Service was very pleasant, but slow. Sorry, there is no other way to describe it.
It was our first time there, and its was very hard for us to find. You don’t see it from 17, its behind all the action. So your GPS declares you are there, but you don’t see it!
If you go at night, just look for all the lights in the distance.