Shrimp and Grits

While I’m originally from South Carolina, my wife Patty is from North Carolina. So, when we go to see the in-laws, I get to experience a little North Carolina cuisine. One of the places Patty’s folks love to eat is a little seafood / BBQ place called “Holt Lake Bar-B-Que and Seafood”, located on Highway 301 South in Smithfield, NC.

Holt Lake’s sign

As you go into Holt Lake seafood, you might need to wait a bit for your eyes to adjust. The place is downright dark on the inside. The picture below has been lightened up a bit, in fact.

A view from the table

A few people who have read this blog before are going to be disappointed in me. Although Holt Lake is a BBQ place, I didn’t get BBQ this time. Holt Lake (unlike every other BBQ place I’ve written about so far) doesn’t have a buffet, and I’ve never really been comfortable with access to only a single plate of BBQ. Oh well. But Holt Lake does have a nice seafood special several days out of the week: All-you-can-eat baby flounder filet with two sides for $6.

Before you start your meal, you’re invited to fill up on hush puppies.

Hush puppies!

The hush puppies are good, but save some room for the flounder! Here’s my plate - flounder filet with fries and potato salad.

Rick’s plate

The potato salad’s very good. The fish was brought out nice and hot (extremely hot - watch out when you first get your plate). The filets are thin, and the fish had a good flavor. Unlike a lot of the places in our town, the food wasn’t overly greasy.

The waitress kept the fish coming fast enough, which is important when you’ve got an all-you-can-eat plate. Unfortunately, the all-you-can-eat is only for the fish, so you can’t refill your potato salad. Save it for last.

Patty had slaw instead of fries (which in retrospect was probably a better choice than mine).

Patty’s plate

If you happen to be going to the outlet stores in Smithfield, Holt Lake is well worth a stop! They’re open Mondays for lunch and Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.

Read about the BBQ at Holt Lake

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.