Since it opened in 1999, the world’s only location of Greg Norman’s Australian Grille in North Myrtle Beach has set a refined standard for a restaurant owned by a legendary golfer.
The lack of golf memorabilia is surprising – you won’t see photos of the golf great receiving tournament checks or shaking hands with Hollywood stars. What you will see is a dramatically gorgeous décor full of Aboriginal and other Australian-inspired art.
Inside the restaurant are plush leather booths you can sink into and tables surrounded by handsome carved wood chairs with gold and maroon upholstery. Walls are wood and stone with tasteful honeyed accents.
While the main dining room is luxurious, the spacious lounge called the Shark Pub has a polished ambiance befitting anyone looking for a relaxed and gracious experience. At one end are soft suede sofas facing five television screens and a curving bank of vertical windows overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. Hanging over the massive and gleaming wood bar are enormous steel sculptures, and over tables on one side of the bar is a huge mural of Australia’s Ayers Rock.
Outside is a large covered waterfront dining area. Ceiling fans stir the air, and diners watch boats of all sizes navigating the waterway.
Greg Norman’s is open for lunch and dinner, and both meals are accompanied by an extensive wine list that includes Greg Norman Estates wines.
Lunch starters include seafood spring rolls, which have long been a mainstay of the appetizer choices. They contain a seafood puree blend and are served on top of sweet and tangy Asian slaw and with two dipping sauces: sweet and sour, and wasabi cream. Fried calamari comes with red curry aioli, and sesame seed encrusted sashimi tuna is drizzled with soy gastrique.
Locals are enthusiastic about Greg Norman’s lunchtime entrée salads, where choices like iceberg wedge or Caprese can be topped with salmon, tuna, steak, shrimp or chicken.
Most lunch entrees are casual, such as crab cake sandwich, Foster’s beer-battered shrimp and chips and club sandwich. The restaurant also has a signature blackened sirloin burger topped with apple wood smoked bacon, caramelized red onions and blue cheese.
There’s always a fish special of the day, and when we visited it was salmon encrusted with white and black sesame seeds topped with mango chutney and served with haricot verts and cheesy spinach risotto, which was exceedingly delicious.
More choices are added for the dinner menu, like braised mushrooms in Gouda cheese and bruschetta drizzled with balsamic glaze, and a spinach salad in citrus vinaigrette.
Wood-grilled steaks, chops and seafood are par for the course at dinner. Cuts include a 20-ounce cowboy steak, a 10-ounce filet and a 14-ounce ribeye, plus lobster, Ahi tuna, Atlantic salmon and pork chop. Any of the grilled items can come with a choice of red wine demi-glace, mango chutney, creamy peppercorn sauce, bacon bourbon glaze, Hollandaise or Bearnaise.
A few more dinner entrees are lobster ravioli, seared jumbo diver scallops with jalapeno risotto, filet au poivre and 28-day aged prime rib au jus.
Desserts are also classic, like crème brulee, bread pudding and chocolate soufflé, and fun, such as turtle cheesecake, Baileys Irish Cream mousse cake and Australian banana xangos, where banana cheesecake is inside a golden flaky pastry and topped with caramel, pecans and chocolate sauce.
Happy hour is daily from 4-6 p.m. in the Shark Pub when several appetizers are $5 each, bottled beer is $3, well drinks are $4.50, house martinis are $5 and select glasses of wine are each $4.50.
Want to visit this North Myrtle Beach restaurant? Greg Norman’s Australian Grille is at 4930 U.S. 17 S. , at Barefoot Landing. The number is 843-361-0000.

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