Hyman's Seafood Charleston Review: A popular local restaurant that might now be sitting on its laurels...

Hyman’s Seafood was high on the Google search result when we Googled for places to try out She Crab Soup in Charleston. As Hyman’s Seafood had a rather long history of being established since 1987, we decided that Hyman’s Seafood could be a reputable spot to try out the authentic She Crab Soup…

2bearbear @ Hyman's Seafood Charleston Review — 2bearbear @ Hyman’s Seafood Charleston Review

The Experience at Hyman’s Seafood Charleston

Hyman's Seafood Menu outside its restaurant in Charleston — Hyman’s Seafood Menu outside its restaurant in Charleston

It was a rather windy day in Charleston this evening as we approached Hyman’s Seafood at Meeting Street. Although we were early, there was already a queue forming and we had to wait about 30 minutes before we were seated. Thankfully parking in Charleston is free on the Sunday when we arrived. During the 30 minutes of wait time, we checked out the Hyman’s Seafood Menu and decided to go with the She Crab Soup ($12.95) and Hyman’s Deviled Crabs ($19.95). We were also served “Hush Puppies” – a deep-fried ball made of cornmeal batter, while waiting. It was quite a nice treat especially when it’s freshly fried. The most common story of how “Hush Puppies” derived its name is about how fishermen wanted to keep their dogs quiet as they cooked their catch, or to “hush the puppies”. When we learnt about this, we wondered if the clients were being “hushed” to prevent complaints due to a long wait.

There are 2 options for waiting. You could either have a drink in the pub at level 1 while waiting or head over to the General Store next door to Hyman’s Seafood Restaurant. The General Store belongs to Hyman’s as well. Here, you can find several sinks set up for you to try the various bath salts available for sale here. We checked out the General Store but headed back to the store to take a seat outside. One of the benches had a rocking function. Soon, our names were called and we were led to our seats on level 2…

Hyman's Seafood Charleston Review - Walking up stairs to level 2 — Hyman’s Seafood Charleston Review – Walking up stairs to level 2

Hyman's Seafood Catch of the Day and photos of past owners — Hyman’s Seafood Catch of the Day and photos of past owners

Inside Hyman's Seafood Charleston - A Huge Marlin Hangs on the Wall — Inside Hyman’s Seafood Charleston – A Huge Marlin Hangs on the Wall

Upon being seated, we noticed a little metallic plate that says “Martha Stewart ate at this table“…

Hyman's Seafood Charleston - Table where Martha Stewart Ate — Hyman’s Seafood Charleston – Table where Martha Stewart Ate

Quite cool to be seated at the same table where a celebrity once ate. After looking through the menu (again), we ordered what we had planned for earlier – The She Crab Soup ($12.95) and the Hyman’s Deviled Crabs ($19.95). While waiting, we also checked out the conversation cards offered at the table…

Hyman's Seafood Charleston Conversation Cards — Hyman’s Seafood Charleston Conversation Cards

What We Had at Hyman’s Seafood Charleston

Hyman's Deviled Crabs ($19.95) at Hyman's Seafood Charleston Review — Hyman’s Deviled Crabs ($19.95) at Hyman’s Seafood Charleston Review

She Crab Soup ($12.95) at Hyman's Seafood Charleston Review — She Crab Soup ($12.95) at Hyman’s Seafood Charleston Review

Hyman's Seafood Charleston Review - Salad served on the side — Hyman’s Seafood Charleston Review – Salad served on the side

The Hyman’s Deviled Crabs arrived first and there were brussel sprouts served on the side. The brussel sprouts, as you can see above, looked a little different from the usual presentation. They seemed to be tossed and roasted. With the honey soy sauce served together, this side was actually pretty tasty. During this time, the 4th generation owner – Eli Hyman, came over to asked us how things were. Seeing that only 3 of our 4 Deviled Crabs were served, we informed Eli who immediately comms another server (probably the head waiter?), who comms the kitchen to work on another one. As our server also came over to find out the same, she also told the kitchen to hurry on the missing deviled crabs. As a result, we were served 5 deviled crabs in total – a compensation so to speak, for the slight delay.

But at this point, you might wonder what is Deviled Crab? For our Singaporean readers, Deviled Crab is like a crab cake served on crab shells. The ingredients usually included crabs, celery, onion, and bell peppers. The reason for the name “deviled” is because the original versions had a spicier take on it. For our Deviled Crab at Hyman’s Seafood, the bell peppers (or capsicum) had the lead taste instead of the crab. As for the main ingredient, we could only taste traces of it. However, with “The Secret Sauce” – a mayonnaise with hints of sour cream and lemon, helped to cut through the salty-ness.

The She Crab Soup, though we could taste the textures of the crab (more so than the Deviled Crab), it was really salty. For the uninitiated, the She Crab Soup is like thickened crab bisque. As for why the name “She Crab”? The crabs chosen were usually, female or roe-carrying crabs that added to the flavours. However, for the She Crab Soup at Hyman’s Seafood, we were pretty much taken aback by the salty taste and didn’t really enjoy the overall taste. Hopefully Hyman’s Seafood would look into the QA aspect before service to the customers.

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Although Hyman’s Seafood seems to be a rather reputable restaurant, our experience this time was not the best. Overall, the food quality was ok but what really threw us off was the very salty She Crab Soup that made us start to think whether Hyman’s Seafood had started to rest on its laurels and slackened in some QA aspect of what is served to its customers. For our restaurant visits in Charleston, we enjoyed our visit to Gillie’s Seafood. Gillie’s Seafood would definitely be a restaurant where we would re-visit again but not so for Hyman’s Seafood. Hope your culinary experience in Charleston would be a great one as well!

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