It’s travel season and your friends at Date Night are on the road for an extended period of time. While we travel, we bring you some new posts of the food that we have found on our travels…

We bet this has happened to you: speeding down I-75 in South Georgia, you are hungry. Do you really want to eat in some lousy fast food chain (no shortage of those on I -75), or do you want to go someplace local that’s off the beaten path. Date Night finds a good seafood place that’s just a mile off the highway and worth the drive.

Bubba Jax is at exit 16 near Valdosta. Get off the highway and go east for about a mile. Valdosta is a happening town for travelers. There are many hotels here as you can get to south Florida or New Orleans in about a day.

The decor is so fish campy. Beer signs and funny fishing slogans make you feel like you are in Brunswick, not 150 miles west of the Atlantic.

There are many oyster dishes on the menu. We get ours baked due to the dangers of eating them raw.

The shellfish are covered with cheese and sitting in lots of butter. They are perfect on a cracker, especially when you add a little horseradish sauce to clear out the sinuses.

The gumbo is not on the menu, but is a special tonight.

Bubba Jax has their own seafood spice mixture that’s prominent in this dish. Throw in some shrimp and spicy sausage, and we are both sweating after a few spoonfuls.

Before the main course comes out, we should give some love to the staff. It’s a busy Friday night and they are turning tables like mad. Everyone is friendly and knows the menu. Our water glasses are never close to empty and our food comes out fast. Some Atlanta establishments should come down here and learn a thing or two about service.

You can get your seafood fried, grilled, or blackened. We get a seafood platter so that we can get a nice sampling of everything.

The oysters are fried and the shrimp and fish are grilled. It comes with two sides. The chips are house-made and we enjoy the slaw as well. The star of the platter is the fried oysters. They are crispy outside and moist inside. We have certainly had some good seafood during our visit.

In case you were wondering, they serve a lot of crab legs here. There is a low-country boil plate that comes with the crab and we see a lot of these go by. We always find that crab legs are way too much work for the amount of reward you get from them.

There is only one dessert item, key lime pie. We are too full to try it.

Score factor (out of 5): Hey, you are driving. Don’t even think about it! If you live in Valdosta, we give it a 3. You know what they say about oysters (wink, wink).

The bottom line on Bubba Jax: A fun night in Valdosta. We had good food, service and value. The portion sizes are large. You may want to share. . We always like to find gems, and this is so much better than the lousy food you can get just two miles from here. Support the local businesses when you travel. You too will be able to brag about the restaurants you find.