Had a fun visit to HHI; it was the first visit for our friends. They don't travel a great deal but thought they'd enjoy seeing the island from the view of someone who had lived there a couple of years. And they did! We stayed right across the marina in a Yacht Club Villa suite, #7542. Great location on the 4th floor, view of the marina all the way down to Scott's and the bridge and out past the deep water mouth of the marina in the other direction. The main balcony sat facing the Disney resort as well as the fireworks out on the barge. Couldn't have asked for a better locale.
Ate at a few places where I thought all palates could be satisfied, as I'm the only one of the four who will eat anything. Here's where we ate and my quick thoughts on each.
1. Hudson's: I had a couple of mediocre meals there when I lived in HHI, so never thought terribly highly of it. But, the last two trips there have been wonderful. Have no knocks against it this time: on the water, great server, fresh raw bar, solid drinks.
2. Brazilian Cowboy Steak House: One of our party is a big meat eater, so he loved it, raved about it. I liked it, but it's just too much food and it is heavy. There were a couple of chicken options, but those felt overly salted and were a bit dry. I primarily wanted the lamb chops and leg of lamb, but despite repeatedly asking about the leg of lamb, we never got any. In fact, we never saw it come out in the hour and a half we were there. The lamb chops were of varying quality--the first ones were overdone and tasted muttony. The second batch was the proper medium rare and delicious. The other big hit was the ribeye when properly cooked. All the others were just okay. The salad bar is great, but if you fill up on that, you can't each much of the meat, and at $55 a head, salad isn't going to get you your money's worth.
3. Scott's: Ate there our first evening as it was close and we'd driven 7 hours to get there. I've never much cared for Scott's as I felt it had mediocre food and service. I still think the food is just okay; however, the location is convenient, we got to enjoy the marina sights, the father/son singing duo who were entertainment that night weren't too loud and harmonized well with some classic late 60s to early 80s tunes. Overall, the ambiance was perfect for a first night's meal. I still wouldn't rate it very highly, though, if you're looking for peppy service and great seafood.
4. Old Oyster Factory: They've changed the interior and menu since last I was there some years ago, and I like the former. Feels very appropriate to an old oyster factory. . .which is what that spot was back in the day. Service was okay, not great, and the food was meh. In fact, my wife didn't care for the shrimp as they didn't seem fresh and weren't chilled (she asked for them that way). We did lunch there, so the raw oysters were half price, thus I couldn't resist them. While tasty, you could tell they had been shucked earlier in the day and left to sit in a chiller vice shucking them as they're ordered or at least maybe half an hour earlier as you get at, say, Hudson's or Fishcamp. Loved the ambiance and views; thought the food was mediocre.
5. Fishcamp: Sigh. I hate to say it, but it was a huge letdown. I've loved that restaurant for years and have highly recommended it during that time. Now, I'll be hesitant. I won't go into details, but the front of the house and our server seemed dour, and it took a hot minute to get seated even though it was a 5PM reservation and there were many open tables. The raw bar oysters were fresh, and my shrimp and polenta was okay. . .but not as fresh as I'd hoped. Smaller portion than I remember, smaller shrimp, and not a lot of polenta that seemed as if it had been sitting awhile. The fried green tomato on top had obviously been cooked hours earlier, left to sit in a tray, and plopped on at the last minute. It was cold, rubbery, and I couldn't eat it--I could literally bend it like a taco and no breading came off. Just terrible. And the drinks? I had the Crab Punch and it was very watery; DW had the Pain Killer and it came out warm! Apparently, the mix had been sitting in the sun so they poured it in a mason jar (their glassware of choice) and dumped ice on top. No stirring, not chilled, just a 90F slosh of yuck. It was not a good night for them across the board.
6. HHI Social Bakery: Mixed bag. We stopped there on the way to the beach around 9:30. While not overly crowded, it was busy, and too many people don't understand personal space. I'll leave it at that. Plus, there was only one person cranking out all the orders in the breakfast sandwich prep area which is what everyone seemed to be ordering. Four people were working the tarts and pasty area, but no one else was helping the guy in the prep kitchen. Then, he completely overlooked the order for our friends, so we had to wait an additional 10 minutes. To be fair, they gave them four free madeleines which were very tasty. Our sandwich was the bacon, egg, tomato, cheese on a baguette. The baguette was excellent, of course, but the bacon was thinner than Disney's and only two short slices. The eggs were premade, so were perfectly shaped to the bread--they were sitting in a warming tray waiting to be loaded onto the sandwich. It came with a few forkfuls of salad, but overall was disappointing given we paid $14 for it. As usual, while I've always liked their food, especially their breads, it's a pricey place to make a regular stop.
7. TMO: Finally, we stopped over at the QS at the Disney resort. I ran into some of my co-workers from a few years back, and we had good chats. It was fun to show our friends around the resort, too. And the breakfast we had at TMO was just what you expect from there: warm, tasty, made on the spot, and filling. We enjoyed it.
One last thing I'll mention. We did the Donuts with Dolphins tour from Outside Hilton Head and thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with the two employees on the boat and with the dolphins. Our friends were thrilled with how many dolphins they saw (never a guarantee, of course), and felt they got their money's worth and then some.
Okay, that's it. Happy to answer any questions that might come up.
