Altman’s Seafood Restaurant, Loris, SC  (mp3)

I arrived about 1:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon in mid-February 2011. There were about six people waiting in line to pay. I was ignored for several minutes and finally I caught a waitress and asked if it was “seat yourself,” which it was. I ordered sweet tea and started down the buffet.

Above: There was a red Western Flyer bicycle suspended from one of the lintels, and family pictures near a fireplace.

The following is not the whole list of items on the buffet, but some of those I chose to eat: fried chicken, fried shrimp, baked ham, rice, macaroni & cheese, garden peas & potatoes, bbq ribs, chocolate cake.

Most of the church crowd had already left, but about 3 or 4 small groups left shortly after I had arrived.

Part of the “country clutter” included paper fans stapled along one of the lintels. They included church fans, Hooters and a Georgia peach. Bathrooms to the right (above) just past the buffet line.

Above: Sorry for the out of focus snapshot. Even in focus it would not have been a pretty sight. The remains of a BBQ rib, fried chicken bones, some shrimp & cocktail sauce and a few bits of macaroni & cheese.

The sweet tea was not the best I have had, but sweeter than most. I guess I would term it, not enough good tea flavor for the water.

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I definitely would go back because nothing was bland or bad. *Oh, I forgot. A pork rind was salty, as it should be, but extremely tough to break. The Front Porch Restaurant in Elizabethtown, NC fixes them very well, salty, and crunchy.

ADDENDUM:  This restaurant must have closed shortly after my only visit.  I think I heard that the owner died.

ADDED ADDENDUM [12/28/24]:  Just re-reading the above.  Yes, Altman’s has been closed a long time and I only had that one visit.  The Front Porch Restaurant in Elizabethtown also closed several years ago, and eventually another opened, a Mexican restaurant.  I’ve enjoyed at least a couple of lunches at the Mexican restaurant, and their lunch at that time had a very low price.

The Front Porch Restaurant had a very good “country” buffet, and I recall one summer they had sliced a whole bright red tomato and put it on the buffet.  I tried several slices and after going back ate almost the whole tomato.  It is so rare to get a good flavored tomato on which you can put some salt and pepper and enjoy it thoroughly.