Seafood Destiny

 

Located at 4705 West Gate City Boulevard in Greensboro, Seafood Destiny serves Low Country seafood cuisine for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday. There are lunch specials available Fridays and Saturdays and a brunch menu on Sundays. Food can be ordered online for pickup, and delivery is offered through GrubHub.

 

Once a rarity in Greensboro, the seafood boil concept has taken off during the past two years, and Seafood Destiny is a good exemplar thereof. An outgrowth of owner Anthony Knotts’s backyard boils, the restaurant offers various combinations of crab, shrimp, corn, turkey sausage, lobster, and potatoes. Many of these items are also available a la carte, as are shrimp mac and cheese and green beans, and there are a few fish and pasta offerings as well. There’s even a George Floyd Boil, whose proceeds partially go toward a college scholarship for African-American men.

 

As tempting as a full-blown boil was, I opted for something better-suited for one person: the George’s Seafood Hoagie. A lunch-only offering, its price tag seemed ridiculous ($18.95 for a sandwich?!), but the pictures shared via the restaurant's social media made it too tempting to pass up.

 

While Seafood Destiny does offer online ordering, it doesn’t operate in the way that you’d expect. Instead of selecting a pick-up time, you select a check-in time, and your food is made-to-order upon your arrival. While this ensures freshness, it is also likely to try the patience of the hungry, and I can only imagine what the wait times are without the order-ahead option.

 

Fortunately, I didn’t have a particularly long wait (maybe fifteen minutes after arrival), and the sandwich that I was handed by the friendly, hard-working counter staff was worth every penny. The best way to describe George’s Seafood Hoagie is a po boy on steroids. It's a roll generously stuffed with shrimp and crab and lobster and pickles and slathered with spicy-sweet house-made red “Errythang” sauce. It comes with an equally ample portion of thinly sliced herbed potatoes. Hyperbolic as it sounds, every bite was bursting with flavor. This is not an easy sandwich to eat – you’ll need two hands and several napkins – but it is well worth the endeavor.

 

When you’ll actually get your food is a guessing game best not played when hungry, and cheap eats these are not, but for the seafood connoisseur, Seafood Destiny is a must-try.

The Claddagh Restaurant & Pub

 

Located at 130 East Parris Avenue in High Point (with a sister location in Asheveille), The Claddagh serves Irish pub fare for lunch and dinner seven days a week. There is a full bar, food specials change daily, and a brunch is offered on Sundays.

 

Named for a traditional Irish ring and boasting an equally traditional (for the most part) menu, the Claddagh has the Gaelic pub look down cold, an image solidified by the tricolours displayed amid the wood-and-brick interior. Whatever its bonafides, however, the Claddagh offers a fairly underwhelming experience.

 

My first visit here was to place and pick up a takeout order. The hostess who greeted me was amiable, but none of the front-of-house staff seemed to be wearing masks. The food also took a few minutes longer than estimated though it wasn’t an unreasonable wait by any means.

 

I went with fried green tomatoes, a half-order of fish and chips, and a half-order of shepherd’s pie to feed two. Though the half-orders were billed as enough food for anyone who wasn’t starving, portion sizes skewed small. Prices also seemed inflated for the restaurant’s concept. Our half orders were $10 apiece with full orders starting in the mid-teens. The fried green tomatoes, an app, ran $11.49. A good value this is not, but it would be pardonable for top-notch food.

 

On that account, The Claddagh is a mixed bag. The fried green tomatoes, thickly battered and accompanied by a deliciously zesty smoked gouda pimento, were very good and well worth it. The fish, a beer battered cod, was likewise battered well and nicely crisped without being dry inside. The shepherd’s pie was heartily satisfying though the flavors were a bit understated. On the other hand, the sides ranged from forgettable (slaw) to bad (flavorless, freezer fry-grade chips).

 

The Claddagh’s menu appeal and the meal’s high notes were enough for me to not write this place off completely, but if I return, it will be with lowered expectations.