The Pavilion Restaurant

Visited Edisto on a family vacation; overall great trip, except for lunch at The Pavilion.
First off let me just say that the waiter we had was very friendly and apologetic, BUT I still have to give them 1 star for the following reasons:  Dirty cup, hair in food, took 2 hours to get food, messed up order when we finally received food.

It took a few minutes for the waiter to take our drink order, and about 10 minutes to get our drinks. My glass had pink lipstick all over the rim, gross. The waiter was very friendly and got me  a new (clean) cup right away. We placed our food order  and after 30 mins we decided to do some shopping at the gift shop. Returned, and still no signs of food. People who had came in after us had already received their food. An hour after placing our order the waiter came over to apologized for the wait, and told us that the kitchen was backed up. We took another trip to the gift shop, and finally received our food 2 hours later!
They got some of the orders wrong. My friend ordered the oyster basket, but did not get oysters, and two other people asked for onion rings but received french fries. My brother found a hair in his french fries and at that point we left.
The waiter took 15% off our meal which was really nice of him.
We could have just came on a bad day, so decide for yourself.

At least the view of the ocean is terrific.

When I asked, the friendly hostess admitted wistfully that none of the seafood was fresh.  This is due to the fact that all the local commerical fisherman and shrimpers were put out of business when the boat docks were sold to developers.

The high point of the meal was the fish stew.  One of our party, a native of Buffalo (the home of hot chicken wings) ordered them and was pleased.  The broiled shrimp was OK.  The soft shell crab and fried oysters were mostly greasy breading and obviously not fresh.  The hushpuppies were likewise greasy and tasted of fish.  Some the group had hamburgers, which were judged satisfactory.

The wait for seating was an acceptable 15'.  The service was rather indifferent.

Bottom line:  If you decide to eat here, order the fish stew, hot wings, and sweet tea.  Skip the rest.

Give it a shot, decide for yourself. Discussions with locals convinced me that it was worth giving Pavilion another try. I've been there multiple times but each visit it's under different ownership.

Last summer, I swore I wouldn't go back, but I made it back down to Edisto and learned that the good folks who used to run Dock Side - management and core wait staff - all moved to Pavilion. Our experience with Dock Side had been fantastic, so we had to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I am glad we went back. Our server was so kind, prompt and thoughtful. The oyster cocktail was perfect, mmm, so plump and briny. The rest of the meal was decent, and with such limited dining options in Edisto, we were satisfied.