Blackwater Grill

Great experience! We sat outside (had the porch to ourselves) overlooking the tidal marsh and watching the sunset.
Highlights: peel n eat shrimp- large, fresh and delish! Seared scallops with Fried green tomatoes, mmmmm! Rosemary shrimp and grits, do not skip these!! The andouille sausage is excellent. Last, the Cajun pasta, perfect balance of spicy, creamy, and the freshest meats. Yum!!

Let's start with a very cute kitschy joint in a nice area of St. Simon's Island. Service was very good, and the food was better. My wife had The Wedgie and the Bayou Shrimp, which was kind of better Bang Bang Shrimp. I had the Grouper Daufuskie, which we both liked a lot. For an appetizer...yes, I realize it's out of order...we had the Boudin Fritters, which were STUPID good! I could have ordered a heaping platter of those bad boys, and been happy as a clam at the shore. I would have no problem returning to this place.

Its ok. Maybe 3.5 stars.

Service is great. Our server was happy, cordial, friendly and very welcoming. Her positive attitude was much appreciated.

Food wise, it was the traditional low country , southern type.

We started with the lagniappe app (cheese) and it was great over their multi grain cracker. I had their low country boil, which I thought was OK. The broth was a little thin and like most places, they did not really boil everything together. The broth simply did not get the infusion of flavor from the corn, shrimp, sausage and taters.

We also had the badoin ball and award winning brunswick stew. I think these 2 are the best from our selection.

Shrimp and grits looked great, but proved to be too heavy with the cream. They fried a brick of grits and it was saturated with butter. About 3/4 in.. the food became too much.

Our jambalaya was a ginormous plate. Order a plate, but you will need two stomachs to put all that stuff in. Good flavor, but lacked a kick.

We've come here every year for the last few years, and it's always been hit or miss. We love the boudin fritters, and the red beans and rice was good (although nothing amazing). The Cajun pasta is also pretty good.

Unfortunately, that's about it. The menu has limited selections, and most of them are just ok. The bartender and server both seemed inexperienced (neither knew what a Moscow Mule was), and the time out of the kitchen was very slow.

We don't plan on coming back. There are some other new options on SSI that we'll be exploring.

Great food and a semi-fancy restaurant feel! We started off with the quail and boudin balls appetizer! The quail were crispy on the outside and moist on the inside and the boudin balls were just the right amount of spicy and tasty. Then for the main course I had the duck marinated in an orange glaze! The duck was topped with a poached egg laid over a rice mixture. Some of the other members of my party ordered the shrimp and grits and raved about them. The "grit" part of the shrimp and grits was actually a crispy grit cake. It is really rich so it's hard to eat it all. We finished off the night with the deliciously moist chocolate bundt cake with bread pudding. The only criticism I have is that the wine glasses were not clean and they were quite smudgy.

When I lived here and when I visit, I come for two things...shrimp and grits, and filet mignon. These are the BEST s&gs on the planet. Nice grit cake with perfectly grilled shrimp, spicy sausage, and awesome sauce! My mouth is salvating reminiscing over the last bite.

A must visit in SSI!

Awesome!!! Couldn't have had a better experience. William our waiter and Jo the manager made our visit so much fun. Shrimp & grits yummy, drinks delicious, kids loved their dinners too!
We live on SSI and we've been to Blackwater many times, tonight was just so special because of our children being here and William & Jo such special staff
Just a bit less salt in food for the older crowd

After ee saw in their own webpage that Happy Hour was offered, we stopped in at 4:30pm. The place was 100% empty. A server came out and politely explained that the restaurant does not ever do happy hour and doesn't even open until 5pm. Very annoying situation.

I sent a Facebook message to the restaurant. I quickly received a reply that said they would fix the problem on their webpage but that nobody offered happy hour on a Saturday. WHAT? Just across from Blackwater is Catch 228 offering HH with good oysyers. Just down the road a bit is Mullett Bay with a great HH, including excellent calamari. We enjoyed both of those instead of Blackwater.

I kinda get why there are so many complaints about the service here.

We have visited this restaurant for several years when traveling to Jekyll Island. They recently closed, redecorated and reopened it a week or two ago.

The menu is the same but they have lost their identity. Now they are just another place to eat. The service has always been outstanding but was only average tonight. She even sighed when one person asked for water without ice. They did not have draft beer, only bottles and were out of several of those. The new decorations were sterile and contemporary. Even The kids noticed that the salt and pepper shakers were normal. (They used to all be unique and different )

It is a good normal restaurant but is not the unusual experience it used to be. The menu was a bit more limited and the wait staff was stiff. We will look for another place for the group to visit next summer. It was not worth the money we spent on it tonight.

We came here for Thanksgiving dinner. We got there about 5 pm. We knew they were closing at 6.
The food was delicious. The atmosphere is very nice and they had remodeled since we were here the last time.
The owner checked on us a couple of times. She was very nice.
The biggest problem we had was with our server Jessica. She obviously didn't want to be working. You know if you are closing at 6 then work until 6. I would not have wanted to walk in here at 5:45 pm. Anyway a nice dinner was tainted by a rude and unprofessional server. Please don't stay away from this restaurant. They put out good food and the pricing is very reasonable. Just stay away from Jessica.