Hilton Head Island Restaurants

Santa Fe Cafe has a cozy feel - When we walked in I felt like we had entered a Spanish Hacienda. We visited at lunch time and we were seated by the windows. I loved the adobe walls and the stairway going to the rooftop. I had the Quesadilla, Soup and Salad. Soup is a choice of Black Bean, Tortilla or Painted Desert. My husband had the Steak Fajitas. We shared a bit of our meal and thought all of it was excellent.
Wish we lived closer to HHI so we could visit more often - but we will be back!

Favorite Dish: The Tortilla Soup was excellent!

Sweet Potato Cornbread, NUFF SAID! This was the best meal my wife and I had during our stay at Hilton Head Island. The staff was super friendly. The food amazing ! Got to meet the owner Chef David and realize the attitude of the staff starts at the top.

Favorite Dish: I had the Port Royal platter and probably the best crabcake I have ever eaten. The Shrimp gumbo was spicy hot just like I love it.

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This place had the best island views we found on our whole trip. The restaurant is right on the water. Get there before sunset for the best views. The menu was quite extensive, and the food was great. The she crab soup was the best I had while on Hilton Head.

Favorite Dish: She Crab soup; very creamy, lots of potent flavor

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I took these pictures from the Museum tour trolley.

Charley's Crab is actually a part of Muer's Restaurants - there a couple of Charley's Crab restaurants in Florida, and some in New Jersey in addition to this one in SC.

We didn't see what the location of this restaurant was until we took the museum tour on the next to last day. It is up by the bridge end of the island, and our condo was at the opposite end of the island, so we just didn't get up here to eat.

Favorite Dish: Their website says:"The restaurant's interesting motif includes artist fabricated lighting fixtures from Israel, two large canvas murals entitled "Crab By Day" and "Crab By Night" painted by Moscow artists working out of the Barney Judge studios, four artistic railings sculpted by medallist Ganzalas Rodriguez using ship refuse, and mosaic tile walls formed with Italian glass and gold leaf tiles. Outside the main entrance guests will cross a wooden bridge and retention pond where a large copper sculpture of a crab has been erected by award winning medallist Alex Poerbe.

The newest Charley's Crab accommodates guests with seating indoors in three dining rooms and outdoors on an open-air deck and two screened-in porches.

In developing the menu, our chef utilizes as many of the local food products available as possible. Hilton Head and the surrounding area has such an abundance of fresh seafood like the shrimp off the docks of the Benny Hudson Seafood Ships, fresh trout from Hoover Farms and garden fresh produce from the Farmer's Market in Savannah. Charley's Crab of Hilton Head IslandIn addition to fresh fish and seafood, Charley's Crab offers premium aged cuts of beef, homemade pastas, fresh poultry and an award-winning lineup of desserts and ice creams from the in-house pastry kitchen. Wine Connoisseurs will feel at home with the restaurants expansive wine list and single malt scotches.

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We saw this restaurant when the tour stopped at Fort Mitchel, but we have not eaten there. It should have a good view of the sunset over the ICW.

SUNDAY BRUNCH
11:00-2:00 pm

DINNER
March - November Seven Days, 5:00 - 10:00 pm

December - February Seven Days, 5:00 - 9:30 pm

Their website says:

What is now one of Hilton Head Island's favorite "fine dining" restaurants, serving steak, seafood and Lowcountry favorites, started out in a humbler fashion.

April 3, 1973 was .. to the day the island's newest restaurant, the Old Fort Pub, opened for business.

"We had one requirement that most restaurants on the island didn't have," said Islander Andy Twisdale, the restaurant's first manager. "The staff had to know how to drive tractors." It seems that in inclement weather, the parking lot turned into a bog and patrons' cars had to be towed out to the road...

Fort Mitchel, actually a shore battery, was "re-discovered" when the restaurant site was being determined. “Everybody knew it was there,” remembered Howard Farmer, a long-time island resident, “but no one paid it much attention. It was completely covered with vines and weeds.”...

Favorite Dish: From the very beginning, the restaurant had a certain panache. The idea, to make a "historical building," was quite successful. First-time visitors still ask if the building is somehow associated with the fort. To create strong ties to its neighbor, Ballatine had Islander Tim Doughtie design a miniature museum, featuring a collection Charles Fraser's photos of the period and newly discovered photos of Union troops on Hilton Head. The display still delights visitors.

On opening day, Andy Twisdale's mother, Janice, and Miss Annie Mae Holmes were in the kitchen, cooking okra gumbo and cornbread. "We always tried to have authentic, Lowcountry food on the menu, Twisdale recalled. The authenticity definitely came from Miss Annie Mae, as she preferred to be called, who dated her ancestry on Hilton Head to the War Between the States. She also had other preferences, Twisdale said. For one thing, no one could ever swear in her kitchen. For another, she did not work on Sundays. "She was a real character," Twisdale said, "and one beautiful person."

...Twisdale said because of its location, well away from more popular tourist destinations on Hilton Head, and its stunning sunset views across Skull Creek, the Old Fort Pub became a favorite of "locals," a kind of secret place to escape. Big oyster roasts and fish boils held outside were very popular.

" We had all sorts of crazy ‘events.' to attract customers. Once we had a ‘snowball fight.' We used marshmallows. But we only did that once. We discovered when the marshmallows got mixed in the cocktails, they made a very gooey mess on the floor," Twisdale said. "It was all great fun."

The Old Fort Pub remained a "local" restaurant for years. That was one of the reasons The Lowrey Group decided to buy it in 1993. After a few months of refurbishing, the Old Fort Pub again opened its doors to islanders on, most appropriately, July 4th. And the rest, as they say, is history.

This restaurant just opened, so I have not yet sampled a wide variety of their menu, but what I have tasted will bring me back frequently. Both proprietors are consumate professionals well know locally. It's a smallish, intimate place, very nicely decorated and inviting. Ther is a small bar and inside and outside dining. It has a very friendly feel.

Favorite Dish: Cayfish appetizer melts in your mouth. Steamed clams are small and tender.

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Having my two nephews (2 and 4) with us, it is not the easiest task to find a place to go out to dinner with them (one tends to throw stuff on the floor). So, the Salty Dog Cafe it was. Opon arrival, we discovered lots of other families with the same idea and a 20 minute wait. The Salty Dog has a solution for that - a tee shirt factory and store.

Due to the location (Sea Pines Resort) there tends to be mostly tourists at the Salty Dog.

Favorite Dish: The Wreck serves lots of seafood - and a great portion of which is fried. I had a salad which was not very good. They do have a fairly extensive kids menu.

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One of those fancy smashy restaurants. It is right at the marina and in the middle of a condo RV park. If you can fine your way in to it, you can eat looking out over the pool and the ICW.

Restaurant closed Mon, and only breakfast is served on Sun.

Appetizers

Smoked Seafood Platter
Chef Brad's Oysters
Portabello Napoleon
Seafood Cakes
Duck Cassis

Entrees
Sunset Salmon
Shrimp & Grits
Glazed Porkchop
Herbed NY Strip
Scallops Piccata
Lemon Garlic Quail

Favorite Dish: I had a good beef bean soup, and should just have gotten a salad. Instead I had a chicken pasta dish which was really too rich. Bob had a glazed pork chop. Hot tea was $2.95 @ They had no simple desserts like ice cream. A strawberry pecan bread pudding was $4.95 and I would have like just a plain bread pudding better. No need to fancy it up with strawberries and pecans.