Dining Review - September/October 2024

[Noreen411]

Introduction and a bit about our trip:

Noreen - Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report
Scott - my husband, Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a few pictures of Scott and I so you see what we look like (and I love the cute magic shots)









I also started working on a travelogue of our trip that I have to finish then get posted.

We drove from Northern New Jersey.

Our plans ended up changing due to two hurricanes: Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton

Our original plans had us gone for about 3 weeks and were as follows:
Leave New Jersey Sunday 9/22/24, arrive in Hilton Head, SC that evening, spend a few days there including meeting with a realtor on Monday 9/23/24
Leave Hilton Head, SC and drive to Gulf Shores, AL on Wednesday 9/25/24, spend a few days there including meeting with a realtor on Thursday 9/26/24
Leave Gulf Shores, AL on Saturday 9/28/24 and drive to Florida, staying until Friday 10/11/24 then driving home arriving back in NJ on Saturday 10/12/24

We spent the time at Disney at a sister resort to our timeshare (Vistana Resort) and stayed at Vistana Villages. Both are great properties; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages so have been choosing this resort when available lately.

We spent the time in Hilton Head, SC at Springhill Suites. I tried to book Disney’s Hilton Head resort but they were fully booked. It probably worked out for the best since when we chose to cancel the Alabama portion of our trip and stay in Hilton Head, SC it was easy enough to extend our stay at Springhill Suites.

Due to the 2 hurricanes our plans changes:
We left New Jersey Sunday 9/22/24 and arrived in Hilton Head, SC that evening as planned, we met with the realtor on Monday 9/23/24, then news of Hurricane Helene started. Since the hurricane was coming from the west side of Florida we would have been driving rights towards it. Even if we made it to Alabama, with all the people evacuating, traffic, possible trouble getting back to Florida, we chose to cancel the Alabama portion of the trip and stayed in Hilton Head, SC until Saturday 9/28/24 and drove to Disney directly from SC. Hilton Head is beautiful so it’s not like it was bad spending a few extra days there. We had maybe 1/2 day where we were sort of stuck inside because of the hurricane and lost internet, but other than that we were OK.

We drove from Hilton Head, SC to Florida on Saturday 9/28/24 planning to stay until Friday 10/11/24. Hurricane Milton, predicted to be a category 5, was coming towards Florida. We were in Florida for Hurricane Ian in 2022 and didn’t want to stay for another hurricane. We ended up leaving Florida on Tuesday 10/8/24 and got back to New Jersey Wednesday 10/9/24.

I’m sharing how the hurricanes impacted our trip; of course not that big a deal compared to what many people had to deal with. I’m including the information since it impacted what we did; like I said it wasn’t a big issue for us to rearrange our trip. I feel terrible for those who experienced loss and devastation from the hurricanes and hope they are able to get back to normal as quickly as possible.

We have Disney World Annual passes. We have Incredipass as out of state pass holders.

I logged onto Disney’s app or website 60 days before our trip each morning right before 6am when they opened and would book dinner reservations. I kept checking and changing things as we went along. We continued making changes even when we were already at Disney, including some nights choosing to cancel our dinner reservations and wing it.

I will review the meals while traveling, in Hilton Head SC, offsite, as well as the Disney meals. Where you see well written descriptions of the dishes, I copied it from the menu.

Once in Disney at the timeshare/villa we normally had a basic breakfast in the timeshare and some lunches were things like a protein bar and baby carrots, so I won’t review those meals.

Our normal routine most days was to go to the gym in the morning, come back to the villa to shower and get dressed then have breakfast before leaving for the park. Since we have annual passes, sometimes we would hop to another park during the day or after dinner. Even in Hilton Head, our normal morning routine included using the gym before breakfast.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/22/24
We spent the day driving from New Jersey to Hilton Head, South Carolina. We arrived at the hotel about 8:35pm, knew that restaurants would start closing soon, so dropped our stuff, and headed out to find dinner.

We found Giuseppe’s Pizza not too far from the hotel; we went there at sat at the bar to eat.




Scott had a Martini. I had a Peach Tree Palmer: Evan Williams Peach Bourbon, Sweet Tea and Lemonade. Scott is usually pretty boring with his cocktails; he’ll usually have a Martini, sometimes a Bourbon, and once in a while Tequila. I keep suggesting he try some specialty cocktails if it has the alcohol he likes in it, but he knows what he likes. I don’t like the taste of alcohol so prefer fruity cocktails usually. Lately I’ve started to drink some Bourbon based drinks like an Old Fashioned. When I saw this Peach Tree Palmer on the menu, it sounded interesting so I gave it a try. It was really good.



Scott had an Italian Combo oven baked sandwich: Ham, Salami, and Capicola served oven-baked or cold with lettuce, tomato, onion, and our house-made Italian dressing. He thought his sandwich was great and before he even finished it said he wants to come back for this sandwich again.


I had a personal pizza, half sausage for Scott to eat the sausage half. This was just OK, it reminded me a bit of frozen pizza. It wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it again.


We were tired from the long drive and ordered desserts to go

House-made Zeppole: Lightly fried dough puffs covered with vanilla, raspberry, and caramel sauces (the sauces were on the side). Finished with powdered sugar. We tried one of these when we got back to the hotel and they were disappointing, bland and pretty tasteless. We threw them out. They weren’t like the Zeppole’s I’m used to.



Mike’s Killer Key Lime Pie: Mike’s Pie is a 4-time national champion. Made with Nellie & Joe’s Key Lime Juice. We didn’t try this until a few days later (it was in the little fridge in the room) and it was the better of the two desserts. It was not outstanding in any way, but it was decent.


Picture of Scott on the way out of the restaurant with the to-go bag of desserts. The pictures of the desserts were taken once back in the hotel.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24
We had breakfast at the hotel. They have an included breakfast with a decent selection of options. It’s not a deal breaker if a hotel has this type of breakfast option or not, but it’s a nice treat when they do.

There are both hot and cold breakfast selections, different beverages, and my favorite is the cute waffle maker.






I had a waffle that I made in the waffle maker. I have some food quirks and prefer to dip rather than have my food covered in sauces, so I have my syrup on the side to dip my waffle into. This was very tasty.


Scott had a sausage biscuit and an egg bite.


We spent most of the day in Bluffton, SC (near Hilton Head), meeting with a realtor, and just exploring the town.

We stopped at Corner Perk (a local coffee shop) in Old Town Bluffton, SC


Scott had a Vanilla Latte and I had an Iced Salted Caramel Latte. We shared a cranberry pecan chicken salad wrap. The wrap was good. The beverages weren’t as good as Starbucks. Scott didn’t finish his latte and he’ll usually drink any type of coffee.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24 Continued
Back on Hilton Head, we stopped at a beach and enjoyed walking along the beach.

Later that evening we were googling trying to decide where to have dinner. We found a place called Salty Dog Cafe that sounded good so we followed the navigation’s directions there. We pulled up to a guard gate at Sea Pines resort assuming we got turned around but they said the restaurant was inside the resort and we had to pay $9 to enter since it was a private resort. Not sure if that’s legitimate or the guard just pocketed the money; it’s only $9 so not a big deal either way. We paid and followed the road to find Salty Dog Cafe. When we got there it was crowded with a lot of people waiting. Scott didn’t like the vibe so we left.

We drove to a different restaurant that we googled and sounded good, Frankie Bones.


The bar itself was full but there were bar tables so we sat at one of those. We liked the vibe better here.



Scott had a Martini. I had a Bourbon Peach Arnold Palmer: Evan Williams Peach Bourbon, lemonade and sweet tea. Tall on the rocks. This was similar to the drink I had last night at Giuseppe’s and it was very good as well.


The cocktail napkins mentioned Serg group and listed several restaurants that are all part of the group. The pizza place, Giuseppe’s, we went to last night, was also part of the Serg group.

For an appetizer, we had the Bacon Wrapped Shrimp: Chargrilled, sweet horseradish mustard. This was very good. I thought the bacon could have been cooked a bit more but I like my bacon very well done. The shrimp were perfectly cooked


We were brought bread and butter


The manager came over and we ended up chatting with him for a while. He was talking about living “on island” and how he loves it there.

For an entree I had the filet Mignon with French fries: chargrilled 8oz filet Mignon. With Bernaise sauce and whipped potatoes. I subbed the whipped potatoes for French fries and asked for the sauce on the side (my food quirk of not liking things covered in sauce). This was very good. I didn’t use the sauce, I gave it a little taste, but didn’t like it.


Scott had Frankie’s lobster macaroni and cheese: Maine lobster, de-shelled, with penne in a creamy blend of Parmesan, fontina, mozzarella, and Swiss cheese. Baked with brown butter toasted bread crumbs and fresh thyme. Often we’ll share an entree but I’m not a huge Mac & cheese fan while Scott loves it. The Mac & cheese had a lot of lobster in it; I tried it and even I liked it. Scott thought this was a fantastic dish.



Since we didn’t share we had a lot of leftovers. I liked how they labeled the to-go box.


Even though we couldn’t finish our dinner, we still ordered dessert. From their Oktoberfest menu we ordered the Black Forest Cake: Chocolate layer cake with cherry filling and buttercream frosting. This was just OK.


Everything we had at Frankie Bones was great, other than the cake which was just OK.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more . Always enjoy reading your reviews
.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

I love your previous reviews! Looking forward to following along for this one.

 

[Tina1]

Can’t wait to hear more. It already sounds fantastic.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I always enjoy your reviews. Looking forward to more!

 

[Noreen411]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more . Always enjoy reading your reviews
.

Thank you for your kind words

 

[Noreen411]

I love your previous reviews! Looking forward to following along for this one.

Thank you

 

[Noreen411]

Can’t wait to hear more. It already sounds fantastic.

Thank you. Will try to get a bit more written soon

 

[Noreen411]

I always enjoy your reviews. Looking forward to more!

Thank you

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/24/24
We had breakfast at the hotel. I made a waffle again; they are so cute and tasty.


Scott had the leftover filet, lobster Mac & cheese and added a bit of scrambled eggs from the breakfast selection. There is a microwave in the breakfast area where he heated up the leftovers.



We drove to Beaufort, SC this morning and wandered around there.

We stopped at Kilwin’s Candy store. The people working there were so friendly.






We bought a few goodies at the candy store; a pound of pralines and chocolate covered pretzel rods.




The treats ended up coming back home to New Jersey with us at the end of trip. They were still good. The pralines were good but not as good as the ones we bought last trip in Greenville SC

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/24/24 Continued
We drove back to Bluffton SC and had lunch at Captain Woody’s.



I had a Deep Eddy Half and Half drink: Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka and Lemonade. This was similar to the drink I’ve had the last two nights but with Vodka instead of Bourbon. Somehow I forgot to take a picture of Scott’s drink but I’m assuming he had his normal Martini.


Scott started with 1/2 dozen oysters: Freshly shucked and served raw or steamed. He said they weren’t shucked properly but still tasted OK.


Scott had the crab cakes: 2 freshly made crab cakes with lump blue crab served with seasonal vegetables and our side of the day. He said the crab cakes were just OK. He asked for fries instead of the side of the day.



I had the fish and chips: Beer battered cod served with seasoned fries, hush puppies, and Cole slaw. I don’t eat cole slaw so asked them to skip that. The fish and chips were good. Scott had some of my fish and chips since he wasn’t crazy about his crab cakes.


He had the rest of the crab cakes wrapped to go.

I thought the napkin was cute so took a picture of it.



Captain Woody’s was just OK. Maybe we should have ordered different items. A person at the table next to us was eating a salad that looked very good.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/24/24 Continued
Back on Hilton Head we stopped to walk along the beach again.

Later that evening for dinner, we were originally thinking of going to Scott’s Seafood restaurant since Scott’s name is on it. We drove there, had to park kind of far, then took a picture of the sign.


When we walked to the restaurant we changed our mind. The place had hard wood chairs. That’s another pet peeve of mine; if I’m having dinner I would like a comfortable chair to sit on. If I really want to go somewhere and they don’t have comfortable chairs I may deal with it, but it’s not my preference. Captain Woody’s (where we had lunch) had hard chairs but it was lunch and quicker so it didn’t bother me as much. We left Scott’s restaurant and went back to google to find another place.

We went to the Black Marlin which is also part of the Serg group.


We sat at the bar. Scott had a Martini. I had a Watermelon Mojito: Watermelon Rum, hand-muddled lime, cane sugar. I like sweet drinks but this mojito was too sweet. I drank it but wouldn’t order it again here.


For an appetizer we shared the Baja Tacos: Lightly breaded and fried flounder or shrimp, Baja taco sauce, shaved cabbage, pico de gallo, sour cream, flour tortillas. We asked for the sauces on the side. One taco was shrimp and one flounder. This was very good but I’m glad we got the sauces on the side since neither of us liked the Baja sauce.


For an entree I had the Jumbo Stuff Shrimp: Domestic butterflied shrimp, crab, scallop, shrimp stuffing, lobster sherry butter, seasonal vegetables, rice and black beans. This was good but a lot of food.



Scott had the Bayside Stuffed Flounder: Fresh flounder, crab, scallop, shrimp stuffing, lobster cream sauce, seasonal vegetables, rice and black beans. He asked for fries instead of the rice. He also subbed broccoli for the seasonal vegetables. This was very good too.


We should have shared an entree since we both had plenty of leftovers.

The bartender was very talkative and also talked about how he loved living here.

For dessert we had the pecan pie: Warm caramel sauce, fresh whipped cream. This was good. I’m not usually a pecan pie fan but this one was good. Scott likes pecan pie in general and said this was one of the best pecan pies he’s had.


I’ve been mentioning how several of the restaurants were all part of the Serg Group. I took a picture of the napkin (front and back) that listed the various restaurants that are part of the group.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 9/25/24
We have been hearing more and more about Hurricane Helene headed towards the west coast of Florida. We started to rethink our plans. We may not be able to get across Florida to Alabama in the hurricane with various evacuations and people driving to different places. If we managed to get there, we could have trouble getting back. We cancelled our Alabama stay and extended our South Carolina stay. We were texting with the realtor in Alabama chatting through our concerns; she agreed it makes sense to postpone the trip to Alabama.

We had breakfast at the hotel. Our plates look very similar today except Scott has syrup poured on his French toast sticks where mine is on the side to dip. I had something different than my favorite waffle today.



Scott also finished the leftover crab cake from yesterday’s lunch; he said it was better today.


We walked along the beach in Hilton Head; we’ve really been enjoying our walks along the beach. After the beach we headed to Bluffton SC.

We were a little hungry so decided to get a quick lunch. I saw a sign for Zaxby’s and have always wanted to try it. We ordered Nibblers which is a chicken tender on a little roll with sauce on the side, fries, and soda. This was horrible, we each took a bite, tossed it, and left Zaxby’s. I don’t know if this is how it normally tastes or if we had a bad batch, but I don’t think either of us are going to try Zaxby’s again.



There was a Jersey Mike’s right nearby so we went there next. Scott had an Italian Hero and I had a Mini turkey hero. This was OK.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 9/25/24 Continued
Later that evening we decided to go back to Frankie Bones for dinner since we really enjoyed it the other night. It was more crowded tonight but were were able to find seats at the bar (where we like to sit).

Scott had a Martini. I had a Bourbon Peach Arnold Palmer: Evan Williams Peach Bourbon, Lemonade, and Sweet Tea. I am really enjoying this drink.


For an appetizer we had the Spinach Salad: Sun-dried cranberries, toasted pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and red onion with warm bacon dressing. The salad was great, we both enjoyed it.


We also had Frankie’s “Made” Meatballs: Frankie’s family recipe, served with Bolognese sauce. We weren’t crazy about the meatballs, it was just OK.


We were brought bread and butter


For an entree we shared the filet with fries. Scott also ordered the lobster tail add-on but they forgot to put the lobster tail order in so we skipped it. We finished the filet and fries enjoying it very much.


We did something we don’t normally do - we each ordered a different dessert (of course we tasted/shared each others). Both were highly recommended by the bartender.

I had Grandma Jean’s carrot cake: Cream cheese frosting and Kahlua syrup. This was the best carrot cake I’ve ever had once I picked off the walnuts on top (not a fan of walnuts).


Scott had New York Cheesecake with strawberry sauce. This was good too, but not as good as my carrot cake.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 9/26/24
We had breakfast at the hotel; I didn’t take pictures today but am pretty sure I had a waffle and Scott had some of whatever the hot dishes were.

In addition to Hurricane Helene coming, there is also a Tornado threat.

That evening we went to Poseidon for dinner.


We sat at the bar as we like to sit there


Scott had a Martini and I had a Down South Iced Tea: Evan Williams Peach Bourbon, Fresh Lemon, House-brewed iced tea, muddled mint. I’m enjoying the different variations of a similar drink.


Scott started with 1/2 dozen great white oysters. He said these were probably the best oysters he’s had in a while and convinced me to try one. They are OK, kind of sweet, but the texture is very weird to me.


Where we were sitting at the bar we had a great view of the employees shucking the oysters; they were constantly shucking so definitely a popular dish here.


Scott ordered the Poseidon Lobster Roll: Hot butter poached lobster, lettuce, fresh lemon, warm butter, toasted split top bun, French fries. Scott gave me a piece of his lobster roll to try and it was really good; it wasn’t made with mayonnaise which is probably why I liked it (I don’t like mayonnaise). It’s not a huge portion but I guess the French fries fill you up.


I ordered Poseidon’s fresh catch (I chose grouper) West coast style: Pineapple chutney, bok choy, sushi rice, sweet Thai chili sauce. I liked how they had the fresh catch choices - you chose the fish you want and the style you want. When they first brought the entrees out mine was a different style than west coast so they took it back to correct it. I didn’t take a picture of the incorrect one. When the correct one was brought out it was very good.


While waiting for my proper version of the dish to arrive, Scott ordered 1/2 dozen more oysters. He really loved these.


Scott was still hungry since the oysters aren’t very filling and his sandwich was small. He had some of my fish. He was thinking of getting more oysters but I suggested he just get another lobster roll so he did and gave me a little piece of it. He didn’t want more fries so he had vegetables with this lobster roll.


For dessert we shared the vanilla crème brûlée. There wasn’t a dessert menu but the waitress told us what the various desserts are and said the crème brûlée is her favorite so we got it. It was very good.


We really enjoyed our meal at Poseidon which is also part of the Serg group.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 9/27/24
We had breakfast at the hotel. Scott mentioned he’s getting a bit bored with the breakfast here. They alternate the hot dishes daily but they aren’t always something he wants to eat or something basic he would be OK with. Some things are better than others. I’m always happy with the waffle I make in their cute waffle maker.

I had my normal waffle


Scott ate the meatball he had packed to go from dinner the other night, he probably added some breakfast stuff as well but I didn’t take a picture of it.


That night for dinner we went back to Frankie Bones since we’ve really enjoyed it. We were amused that 3 out of the 6 dinners that we had in South Carolina were at Frankie Bones. We sat at the bar to eat.


Scott had a Martini and I had a Bourbon Arnold Palmer


The tasty bread was brought out


For an appetizer we ordered the Heirloom Tomato Caprese: Baby Heirloom tomatoes, ciliegine mozzarella, housemade ricotta cheese, basil, arugula, red onion, olive oil, sea salt and balsamic reduction. We asked for no balsamic as neither of us like it. This was very good and super fresh.


Our second appetizer was the Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms: crab, shrimp, scallops, cheddar cheese and bacon baked with garlic butter. This was another good appetizer.


For an entree we shared the surf and turf with French fries. It was very good.


We also ordered a side of broccoli rabe as well as a side of Gouda bacon Mac & cheese.


For dessert we had the Triple Chocolate Espresso Brownie Sundae: With vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate and caramel sauces. This was a good choice but very rich, I am glad we shared this.


We were impressed with how much we’ve enjoyed just about everything we’ve had at the various restaurants in South Carolina.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 9/28/24
We had breakfast at the hotel.

I had a waffle - I really like the waffles


Scott had the leftovers from last night and added a few items from the hot breakfast.



We left about 8:30 to head to Florida. The navigation says it’s 340 miles and should take about 5 hours. We know it will take longer once you factor in a few stops and possible traffic.

We finally made it to Peach World in Georgia. We have been trying to stop the last few trips and somehow keep missing it because we’re singing/chatting/whatever we’re doing and next thing you know we’ve passed both of them. I’m glad we finally were able to make a quick stop at Peach World.

Scott got a piece of Pecan Pie that he took a few bites of in the car. He said it wasn’t very good so it ended up in the garbage.