On November 19, I ate at what has quickly become my third favorite restaurant in South Carolina (1 is Hyman's in Charleston and 2 is Taste of Thailand in Hilton Head Island). Wade's is in Spartanburg. I drive through there once or twice a year, usually on the way to somewhere else like Charleston, St. Augustine, or maybe Atlanta. My spouse claims that he has been trying to introduce me to Wade's fine cooking for the past five years, but that simply is not so. This was the first time that he suggested that we stop to sustain ourselves with the divine food prepared by the cooks at Wade's. He described it as "cafeteria style" eats and he's one of those strange persons who does not like iced tea. But, he loves Wade's iced tea, and in fact has bought and toted home a gallon jug of the stuff on occasion.
Located in a nondescript shopping center off of Business 85, the folks at Wade's have been dishing up good southern cooking since 1947. There's more about the restaurant's history at their website.
The menu is somewhat limited, but that's okay, because you spend less time fretting over exactly what you want to eat. Sometimes menus like the one at the Cheesecake Factory are overwhelming. Ian always has the turkey, gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, and sweet potato souffle. I chose the fried flounder, which came with hush puppies. 
The two sides I chose were macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes with gravy. The meal was divine. Oh, and there were biscuits that our server brought out as well. They were slightly salty and very yeasty. Good, but not my favorite bread experience. Our waitress was efficient, and kept our iced teas filled to the brim. She apologized several times for the delay in bringing out our food. She blamed the flounder. They were making it fresh. When it came out, it was perfect--crispy, hot, and flaky. It was worth the 10-15 minutes wait, which is nothing in normal restaurants, but at Wade's, that was longer than normal. I noticed that lots of other folks had their food within in five minutes of placing their orders.
The hush puppies were good, but cannot compare to the best hush puppies ever, which are served at Hyman's in Charleston which are sweet and impossible to resist. The mashed potatoes and gravy were divine, and real. While it's not uncommon for cafeterias in these parts to pass off instant potatoes for real, this was not the case at Wade's. The gravy had an excellent flavor and was the right consistency; not too heavy, not too runny. Macaroni and cheese: Normally I like firm noodles, but when it comes to baked macaroni and cheese, you have to take it how it comes out of the oven, and sometimes that is a little soggier than usual. But, unlike other baked mac 'n' cheese, Wade's was not starchy or wet.
Then there was dessert. It was mostly pies. And I couldn't take any more photos because Ian is easily embarrassed when I treat plates like naked models, positioning them in the right lighting, and arranging their parts to highlight their best features. We split a piece of the peanut butter pie, which was very good. The crust was crisp and flaky and the filling was tasty, yet we couldn't figure out whether it was a cream cheese base or something else.
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