By Nancy Henion Godfrey

Tuesday, June 19, 2012, Myrtle Beach - I had dinner on June 17 at the new restaurant in the 6400 block of U.S. 17 Business North - Crab King - and I was not impressed.

First Strike - The staff forgot to unlock the doors and had people standing outside the door for 10 minutes before they figured it out. Several cars drove away during the wait.

Strike Two - They were going to seat my husband (with a walking stick and two bad knees) in a sunken seating area where he would have had to go up and down three steps to get to and from the buffet. Then they took us on a long walk around to another area far away from the buffet, passing up a perfectly good four-top just off the room where the buffet was located. When the waitress seated us there, after we asked for it, I heard the waiter in the background complaining because he had two tables!

Strike Three - It was too cold, and the music was too loud and too "rappish" for a seafood restaurant.

Strike Four - Nothing on the buffet was labeled, so we had to keep asking what everything was.

Strike Five - The food was cold, some not even cooked enough to melt the shredded cheese on the Broccoli Rice Cheese Casserole, and the first batch of crab legs were cold.

Strike Six - There was no Parmesan cheese for the Italian dishes (Spaghetti, Ravioli and Lasagna).

Strike Seven - The desserts were ho-hum, with stale brownies, flavorless chocolate cake and some odd-looking pastry sheets. There were two 8" square sheets in about a 12" x 24" pan laid on top of pans of cherry or peach pie filling with the ends curled up.

Strike Eight - The price was nothing to brag about either - $25.99 per dinner and another $2.25 per tea. We did get a $3 early bird discount for each of our dinners, but it still wasn't worth the price. We will never go there again, and we doubt this place will last very long.

Crab King is at 6401 N. Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach, and the number is (843) 213-1563. It opens daily at 2:30 p.m.