There is a moment, somewhere between your first sip of a cold sweet tea and the sight of the Intracoastal Waterway shimmering just beyond the dock railing, when Myrtle Beach stops feeling like a vacation and starts feeling like somewhere you actually belong. For me, that moment happens every single time I pull into the parking lot at Drunken Jack’s Restaurant & Lounge in Murrells Inlet — and it has happened more times than I can count.
Drunken Jack’s sits right on the waterfront in Murrells Inlet, a charming fishing village just south of Myrtle Beach proper that has somehow managed to hold onto its soul while the rest of the Grand Strand has grown up around it. The restaurant takes its name from a legendary local pirate tale — the story goes that a pirate named Jack was accidentally left behind on a nearby island with nothing but barrels of rum, and when his crewmates returned, only the empty barrels and Jack’s sun-bleached bones remained. It is a wonderfully dark little legend, and it sets exactly the right tone for a place that is full of character from the moment you walk in.
The building itself is rustic and unpretentious — weathered wood, nautical details, open-air decks that catch the breeze off the water. You can sit inside if you prefer, but why would you? The outdoor seating at Drunken Jack’s is the whole point. Watching the shrimp boats ease past while pelicans dive bomb the surface of the inlet is the kind of dinner theater that no ticketed attraction can replicate. Book a table on the upper deck at sunset and you will understand immediately why people return to this place year after year.
Now, the food. Drunken Jack’s leans hard into Lowcountry seafood, and it does so with confidence. The she-crab soup is rich and deeply satisfying — the kind of bowl that makes you slow down and pay attention. The steamed seafood platters piled with local shrimp, snow crab legs, and clams are generous and fresh, and the fried seafood basket is exactly what you want after a long day at the beach: crispy, golden, and completely unapologetic about it. The raw bar is worth a visit on its own, with oysters that taste like they came straight out of the creek — because they very nearly did.
The lounge side of the house keeps things lively without ever tipping into chaos. There is live music on the weekends, cold draft beer, and a cocktail list that leans into the pirate theme with just enough wink and not too much gimmick. The staff are friendly in the way that people are friendly when they actually like their jobs, and that warmth is something you notice.
Drunken Jack’s is not trying to reinvent anything. It is not chasing trends or angling for a feature in a glossy food magazine. What it is doing — and doing extremely well — is offering a genuinely good meal in one of the most beautiful waterfront settings on the entire South Carolina coast. That combination is rarer than you might think, and it is exactly why this place has been packing in both locals and visitors since 1977.
If you are planning a trip to the Myrtle Beach area and you only make one reservation the entire trip, make it here. Come hungry, come a little early to grab a drink at the bar, and make sure you are seated outside before the sun drops toward the water. You will not regret a single minute of it.
