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Cindy's Seafood & Country Market is a quaint, rustic, no frill, Country Seafood Restaurant on Johns Island, SC. It is easy to miss if you go at night. A single illuminated Fish sign is all you can see. It is a good drive from Charleston Proper, but if you are looking for a laid back Country affair, then Cindy's is worth the trip out there. The Restaurant is a very cozy place to dine with no pretense. When you enter Cindy's Seafood & Country Market, it feels like you are walking into an ol' Country store. The counter where you order your food is just ahead, and there are seating areas to your left and right. Nothing fancy, but cozy. There are also fresh vegetables and other products like brown eggs and sauces that you can buy. Many of the vegetables are grown on The Full Circle Farm which they also own. They proudly display their Organic vegetables and serve them as sides in the Restaurant.

Cindy's Seafood & Country Market was quite a departure from the glitzy Seafood Restaurants that we usually visit, and it was an unusual change. It is more of a market then a Seafood Restaurant, and it is undoubtedly Country. Out front they have a big yard where they hold an Oyster Roast every Saturday. Even the porch that greets you is a traditional Country setting where you can also dine and relax. These attributes as well as the Market inside where you can buy fresh local Fish, Shrimp, Oysters and Organic Vegetables makes Cindy's a refreshing change from the modern Restaurants and puts them in a class of their own. Expect nothing fancy like real plates or silverware, but do expect Down home Southern Seafood cooking. By-the-way, they only cook with Trans Fat Free Oil.

Cheryl and I went there on a Friday night. I ordered the Fish Platter. I had a choice of fresh Grouper or fresh Trigger Fish. I went with the Trigger Fish and ordered the homemade Potato Salad and a Garden Salad as my sides. Cheryl ordered the Fried Shrimp Platter with Organically Grown Fried Cabbage and the Cucumber & Tomato Salad as her sides. The Trigger fish was tender and well cooked and doused with some Old Bay seasoning. The Potato Salad was good, but unremarkable. I have had better and I have had worse. The Bleu Cheese that I ordered with the Salad was really good and it had huge chunks of Bleu Cheese in it.

Cheryl's Fried Shrimp was excellent. The Shrimp was harvested during the recent Shrimp season, cleaned and frozen. They thaw Shrimp everyday so it doesn't spoil or lose its freshness. It had a good flavored batter on it, and there were approximately 14 Shrimp on the Platter. The organically grown Cabbage was excellent, and she also enjoyed the Cucumber & Tomato Salad too.

If you are tired of the same old Seafood Restaurant and want to try out something a little more down to earth, then go on down to Johns Island and visit Cindy's Seafood & Country Market. It is definitely a change of pace.


For our main course, I had the Broiled Seafood Trio. This platter has fillet of Mahi-Mahi, Sea Scallops, and Shrimp broiled in a white wine and garlic butter. The Shrimp and Scallops in their sauce was absolutely tasty - especially the Shrimp. They were cooked just right, and the wine garlic butter really gave the Shrimp a nice taste. I found the Mahi-Mahi to be a bit dry, but I still enjoyed it.

Cheryl had the Island Shrimp. The Shrimp are seasoned and grilled on bamboo skewers and basted with a sweet and spicy sauce and placed on a bed of red rice. The Shrimp was grilled just right, and the sauce was exactly as advertised - sweet with a mildly spicy kick at the end. Entrees are served with one side, and you also get hushpuppies. I really liked the hushpuppies. They were very tasty and distinctly southern.

We recommend the Charleston Crab House for Seafood in the Charleston, SC area - particularly the James Island location.