For a quick fix of fried seafood, I like Captain D's, which is based in Nashville TN and has locations mostly in the southeastern states, plus southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio. I usually get the "2-piece fish meal" which includes two fish fillets and two sides (I always get broccoli and French fries).
Around here we also have Long John Silver's, but it's been many years since I've been in one. At that time I decided I liked Captain D's better, but maybe I should try LJS again when I have the chance.
Both do have grilled / broiled options.
In the piedmont region of the Carolinas, there are also many sit-down family seafood restaurants which are generically called "fish camps" even if their name doesn't include the term. The one in my town, out by the Interstate, doesn't, but it turns up in a Google search for "fish camps near me".
A couple of months ago, on my way home from North Carolina, I ate dinner at a place that does call itself a fish camp, near Lancaster SC. It's a stone's throw from the Catawba River, so at one time it might have caught its own fish, but I expect nowadays it uses commercial seafood wholesalers.
Those things pictured in the sign aren't seafood. They're
hushpuppies which are commonly served with seafood at fish camps.
This is their seafood platter, which includes a couple of flounder fillets, oysters, popcorn shrimp, and stuffed crab, with coleslaw and baked potato on the side. Also hushpuppies which aren't shown in the picture. The server brought the hushpuppies out while I was waiting for the other stuff, so I had probably already eaten them all.
This is south of Charlotte, over the state line in SC. West of Charlotte, the area around Gastonia NC has had a long tradition of fish camps.
Cramerton takes tasty look at Gaston County's fish camp legacy (Gaston Gazette)
