Who knew that Gastonia, that ugly stretch on I-85, is actually a really cool city with a great downtown waiting to be discovered. We were lucky to happen upon Sharkey's Place while enjoying the 4th of July celebration in downtown Gastonia on our way back from hiking at Crowders Mtn State Park.
The restaurant is pretty large and occupies two storefronts right next to a really cool park. They also appear to have a small deck out back. The left side is where they have the bar for preparing drinks for sit down customers, and on the right side they have a nice darker area with a cool bar. Beach/Shark/Floridian paraphernalia abounds in keeping with the theme.
Their menu is primarily seafood oriented, but I also saw quite a bit of turf in addition to the surf. I got a crabcake sandwich that was really good and made better with a good bun and a couple $2 16oz Tecates. I guess their big thing is $3 Landshark beers, but I had already gotten a couple Tecates before realizing that. I was glad that I was able to get some slices of watermelon instead of fries.
My GF got the fish and chips (french fries if you didn't know). The fries were really good and the sea salt and cracked pepper on the table made it even better. Unfortunately, she really didn't like her fish because it had a pretty fishy taste. She is Chinese and loves fish so if she didn't like it, it must be a little off. She said it didn't taste that fresh and it did have some of the brown spots on the fish instead of being all white.
Our waitress was also extremely nice and friendly and should serve as the archetype for customer service. (Not sure why servers are gloomy these days, when a good personality would make customers happy and get more tips!)
My 4/5 star review is an average considering the service, location, atmosphere, drink prices, decor, and my food were 5/5. My GF's fish was 1/5, but she really enjoyed eating my crabcake sandwich. Two people came to about $30 total.
One last note, they also have a cute little play area in the front for young kids that are waiting to be seated. I've never seen that before and thought it was a good idea. They also have daily drink specials.