Canon Restaurant Review: Bullfeathers Lakeside Grille & Tiki Hut

Earlier this evening, I had the chance to eat at a restaurant in Anderson, SC with the slightly unusual name of Bullfeathers' Lakeside Grille & Tiki Hut. Bullfeathers' is located on the shore of Lake Hartwell, and has an outdoor seating area right on the lake. The menu consists of a variety of items such as burgers, steaks, seafood, chicken wings, and some pasta as well. There is a fully-stocked bar on the premises, but I don't drink so it doesn't affect me one way or the other. The restaurant only opened a few months ago, but before that the location was a restaurant known as Charlie T's, a somewhat similar place, but the two do have some distinct differences.  Here are a few thoughts about my experience at Bullfeathers.

Myself, along with Canon Review reader Dickson S. and his father, arrived at the restaurant at around 7:30 or so. The place was busy, but far from packed. There were a lot of TVs on the wall, but for some reason about half of them were turned off, but I didn't go there to watch television so that's ok. The atmosphere there is rather loose, as most of the customers seemed to be dressed in T-shirts and jeans. The tables have four different sports logos on the surface. For example, our table had the logos of Duke, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Wake Forest painted on the table. The walls have a lot of neon beer signs up, as well as posters of both the University of Clemson and University of South Carolina framed on the wall. Overall, Bullfeathers may not be the fanciest place, but it does have a laid-back atmosphere that makes anyone feel welcome.

So anyway, we order our food soon after. I ordered the Western Bacon Cheeseburger with a side order of fries, while my compatriots both order wings, and Dickson's father orders a chili cheeseburger as well. We get our drinks relatively fast. To be honest, my Dr. Pepper tasted a little flat, or at least my first glass did. Once I got a refill, the soda tasted fine. The food took a little while to prepare, but it wasn't as if we waited an unreasonably long time for it. The fries I received were waffle fries, like the fries you get a Chick-Fil-A. I didn't expect that, but they still were pretty good, so I'm not complaining. The burger I got was a third-pound of meat with both Provolone and Cheddar cheese melted on the burger, with lettuce, onions, and two slices of bacon on the burger. The menu said that the burger was supposed to also have some barbecue sauce, but to be honest, I didn't taste any. Nevertheless, it was a very good burger, as the meat was juicy and cooked just to my liking, and the generous amount of cheese on the burger really added a lot of flavor to it. I'd say it's the best burger that I have had ... in the past 3 days or so at least. To be honest, I don't exactly know how the others felt about the food, but they seemed to like it and the fact that they ate all of it is probably a sign that they felt favorably about the food. Our waitress was friendly and eager to serve, but to be frank, I don't think she's been doing this a long time, as she made a couple of mistakes and often seemed confused. But she did her best to fix her mistakes, and did an admirable job of doing so, so I won't penalize her for that.

Compared to the previous restaurant at this location, Charlie T's I found Bullfeathers to be an improvement. The one time I ate at Charlie T's, I had a similar meal and found the burger and other food to merely be decent. This time, I must say that I was quite satisfied with my meal, and would like to go there again in the future to try something different. Overall, I'll give Bullfeathers' a 7.49 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you any ideas for future posts, than either leave a comment on the blog or send them to me at e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com. Since writing about Bullfeathers has made me hungry, I think I'll go find something to eat now.

Canon Restaurant Review: The Swamp Guinea

For those of you anxiously awaiting The Canon Review's tribute to Kenny Kaos, that is coming up sometime in the next eight to ten hours. But first, I will review a restaurant at which I ate this evening. This restaurant is called The Swamp Guinea. Why is it called The Swamp Guinea, you ask? Well, according to the website, the original owners wanted a name that people would remember, and since the first Swamp Guinea was built near swamp land, they decided just to call it the Swamp Guinea because it's an unusual name and yet easy to pronounce at the same time. Anyway, since we wanted to go out to eat for Mother's Day (which I know is tomorrow but I have to work so we had to go today), my mom decided, what the hey, let's try The Swamp Guinea, a restaurant located on the shores of Lake Hartwell in Hartwell, GA. So off we went, my mother, my sister and Canon Review reader Maggie, and myself.


We get there, and it's somewhat crowded at the time, but we only waited about a minute before we were seated. The first thing I noticed is that I could barely hear myself think, as there was a table of about 20 people seated near us, and sound seems to carry quite well in this place. The decor is rather simple, and Maggie compared to eating at a chow hall at summer camp. It is rather simple, as the place has wooden walls and a tiled floor, and not a whole lot of decor on the walls either. But it did look clean, so I can't complain too much about it.

The menu at The Swamp Guinea offers primarily seafood, but does have other favorites like country ham, steak, chicken, and Brunswick stew. They offer platters, as well as all you can eat specials where you can get refills on your meal, like shrimp and stew if you so choose. Since I was hungry but not hungry enough for an all you can eat meal, I opted for a platter, and since I had little idea what I wanted, I ordered the Swamp Guinea combination platter, which comes with scallops, oysters, catfish, a fish fillet, a deviled crab and two onion rings, with fries and a salad on the side. So basically I ordered a whole bunch of fried food, but at least I did get a salad. Maggie ordered the crab platter, while my mom ordered a shrimp platter. One thing I found interesting was that they do not offer refills on soft drinks, rather, they give you a can of soda, and you want another one, you're going to have to pay full price for it.  Well, there was no way I was paying for two cans, so I had to drink slowly.

First, I get my salad, and something I found peculiar was that they bring your food to you on plastic pushcarts. Not a bad idea, but it is a little different than most places. The salad was merely decent, as I think it's the same kind of prepackaged salads one can get at the grocery store with the lettuce already chopped up. I wish I got some cheese with it, but oh well. Our food came soon thereafter, and I must say we didn't wait long at all for it. Our food also came with some mini hush puppies, which were pretty good, and three dinner rolls. I must say that I didn't care for the oysters too much. I mean they were ok, but since I never had oysters I was curious as to what they would taste like. But oysters just don't seem like my kind of food. The fries were merely ok, as they could have probably used a little more salt to give them more flavor. But the rest of my food was quite good. The fish was nice and flaky and nicely flavored, and the crab and scallops were both excellent. Everything was nicely cooked (or, more likely, fried) and was quite filling. Maggie seemed to also like her food a lot as well.

Overall, the food was good, and our waitress was attentive and the staff was very friendly. The Swamp Guinea may not be the fanciest place in the world, but if you are looking for good food at a reasonable price, you can't go wrong with The Swamp Guinea. It's not perfect, but it still is very good. I'll give it a 7.3 out of 10 overall. Thanks for reading, and if anyone has ideas for future reviews, well you know where to find me.