Dining options at Hilton Head

Kupiecb

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 3, 2002
Hello everyone, My home resort is Hilton head. My DH and I stayed there only 1 time for a quick overnight stay. And although beautiful, I noticed that there is not alot of dining options at the resort it self. Soooooo I thought I would start a thread of "where is your favorite places to eat while at Hilton Head".
 
An excellent option at Hilton Head is to cook your own meal :)

I leave for work before 7 AM and get back home after 7 PM, so I don't have much time to cook except on vacation, so I enjoy having all the time in the world to cook what I like, for a fraction of the cost of dining out.

This being said, we're going to HHI during the 2013 wine & food festival (March 4-9) and would certainly like to know what are the best options for dining out, so I'm subscribing to your thread!

By the way tickets for W&F2013 start selling in 5 days:
http://www.hiltonheadhospitalityassociation.com/

I have also invited subscribers to the 2013 HHI roll call to contribute to this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=46557166#post46557166
 
depends on what kind of food you prefer - i liked roastfish and cornbread, ruan thai, hinoki (sushi), skull creek boathouse and frankie bones.

if you haven't spent much time in HHI, make sure to leave extra time to find your destinations...signage is minimal and searching for a new location after dark can be an adventure.

here are some other HHI dining threads for ideas:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2970486

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2805610

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2700012
 
There are over 200 restaurants on the island - truly something for every taste. There are 7 within walking distance of the resort and many others a short drive away.

Right at Shelter Cove within about 400 yards of the resort are Kingfisher, Scott's Fishmarket, Bistro17 (one of our favorites), Little Venice, Parrot Cove, San Miguel's and ELAS. Nearby is Giuseppis, Alexanders, Sea Grass Grille.

We also enjoy Bonefish, Skull Creek Boathouse, Black Marlin, Frankie Bones, One Hot Mamas, Red Fish, Mangiamo's, Crane's Tavern, Catch 22, Old Fort Pub, Eat!, Jazz Corner and Charlie's Etoille Verde among others. All of these are within about 4 miles of the resort.

Chef Gordon, in the resort Mercantile, is a great resource for dining suggestions. The Front Desk staff has discount coupons, menus and booklets with restaurant listings.
 


We ate at Gusieppis and they will deliver too. We ate at the Mexican place and it was good too. They also have a pirate Buffett and Shrimp boil on certain nights. Skull Creek is really good too.
 
Talk to Mike the Pool guy. He lives there.

We very much like Pazzo across the highway. Walking distance from the resort.
 
We are here right now. We have hit Applebees, Carabbas, and Olive Garden. (We stick to restaurants with Gluten Free menus. )
 


dznystar said:
Are most of those restaurants open during off season?

Yes. We walked past several of those in Shelter Cove and they were slow, but open.
 
From what I've read on some other threads, I definitely want to check out Giuseppis. May venture to Salty Dog? I guess that's a sort of touristy area. Where is the best place for good seafood that is a fun, family friendly atmosphere?
 
From what I've read on some other threads, I definitely want to check out Giuseppis. May venture to Salty Dog? I guess that's a sort of touristy area. Where is the best place for good seafood that is a fun, family friendly atmosphere?

Sea Shack is very casual (think paper plates) and was recently voted one of the top 10 seafood resturants in South Carolina in [I forget the name of the magazine]. Kenny B's is fun, but I haven't figured out how they get away with the Health Board having their pet bull dog in the kitchen. Won't stop us from eating there-the fish baskets are super good. And roastfish and cornbread had the best sweet potato fries I've ever had.
 
My family's favorite place is Aunt Chiladas Easy Street Grill. We go every trip at least once, sometimes twice

San Miguel is also good, and Giuseppe's has good pizza, which is saying a lot coming from a Nee Yorker
 
We always get Guiseppe's for take-out. We used to go to the Sea Shack, but heard the chef started Roastfish and Cornbread. We headed there this past summer and it was very good. My kids wanted to go again! We also get fresh shrimp one night and eat in the room.
 
Our family was just there, Oct 21-28, we loved it.

We tried One Hot Mama's on the 2nd night, we were NOT impressed. The prices seemed reasonable and the atmosphere was ok, it's bar is open to the dining area, therefore you can hear every curse word coming from the crowd at the bar, which wasn't ideal for our family with 4 kids. Also it has garage doors, as part of the decor, that were open in the back of the restaurant and this allowed for cigarette smoke to drift in while dining---yuck!

We were told by TJ, the resort's naturalist, a Hilton Head native, to try Skull Creek Boathouse, this is his favorite restaurant and one of the locals' favorite. It has dining inside and outside on the deck. We chose to dine on the deck, we got there early for lunch and it seemed like it was a good thing, it filled up fast. The service was great, and the food was good, it seemed a little pricier for just a lunch on the island. We definitely liked it but would choose Hudson's over Skull Creek given the choice.

Hudson's is another restaurant on the water, where you can choose to sit on the deck or inside. My husband was immediately happy about our choice to try Hudson's, as the hostess was walking us to our table outside we passed two scraggly looking gentlemen shucking oysters at the bar. Delicious fresh seafood anyone? Yeah baby! It was good, every bite was good! From the hushpuppies to the oysters, it was yummy, all the kids liked it and we liked it. Great atmosphere, great food, great reggae music, it was a great experience we all look forward to trying again.

We also tried Jim n Nick's Bar B Q in Bluffton, I would not have guessed that it was a chain restaurant and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of deliciousness. The atmosphere in the restaurant was very nice, and the service was great. We loved it there so much that on our way up from WDW, which was after our week in HH, we dropped by for a quick run through their drive-thru. After spending $80-$160 in WDW restaurants, dropping $35 for our whole family to feast on good bar b q was a no brainer even with the 15minute extra drive out from I-95.

On our next trip we hope to hit one of Robert Irvine's restaurants and the Sunset Grille. I hope our next trip there happens soon because our whole family loved it there so much, we are all so anxious to get back :)
 
Skull Creek Boathouse is on our list of "wanna try's". But, even though we go in the off-season, it's always crowded. So I can just imagine how busy it is in season! We went to Hudson's once and liked it. But then a chef at the resort, Gordon in the Mercantile, seemed a little unsure of it, and he's steered us right so many times, we were unsure about going back (it's been so many years since we ate there). Glad to hear your positive review-we'll have to try it again. For breakfast, you can't beat Stack's Pancakes. I love their pancakes with fresh fruit.
 
I am sorry to hear about One Hot Mama's, I met the owner Orchid at the Atlantic City Food & Wine festival, she was also a contestant on Next Food Network star a couple seasons ago and she's a great lady. Very friendly and personable, talked to us for a while. She was there with her husband and again both couldn't have been nicer.

We sent friends to Robert Irvine's EAT restaurant and he loved it. We haven't beem able to get down to HHI but are hopign to just to try Robert's restaurant :).
 
What we do at One Hot Mama's is get the takeout meal. For $19.99 you get a meal that feeds 4. If I remember correctly, it's one meat and 2 sides. Great BBQ reasonably priced without the restaurant atmosphere.

I second Skull Creek Boathouse! This was our family's favorite meal on our last trip. We will definitely be back.

We also loved Dye's Gullah Fixin's. We ate there for the lunch buffet and everything was heavenly. I just noticed that she has a new location and only serves takeout now. On our last trip, she told us she was planning this, but now that's it's happened, I'm so disappointed. I wanted that lunch buffet again so badly!!!!

We also get Giuseppi's Pizza for the first night since we are arriving later and just want takeout and we have to pick up groceries at the Piggly Wiggly next door.

Another great one that I don't hear much about is the Chart House. My DH and I ate there on our 20th anniversary a couple of years ago and really liked it.

We also usually try to hit Steamer Seafood. The owner is an alumni from the same college we graduated from, and there's all kinds of WKU references in the restaurant. The food was good, but I think we go more for the feeling of home while on vacation.

I really want to try Roastfish and Cornbread, Alexander's, and the Sea Shack.
 
My in-laws live on HHI and I spend quit a bit of time there.

Our favorites for casual lunch or dinner:
- Fiesta Fresh (a real hidden gem...we eat here almost daily...few tourists know about it)
- Kenny B's French Quarter Cafe
- Ruan Thai
- Sea Shack
- TJ's Take & Bake Pizza

Our favorites for nicer, but not super-fancy dinner:
- Truffles Cafe or Grill (visit every trip)
- Redfish
- Seagrass Grill

Favorites for special dinner:
- Old Fort Pub
- CQ's
- Robert Irvine's Eat! (The guy from Dinner Impossible/Worst Cook in America - he lives on HHI)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!









Top