Restaurants in Hilton Head Island

Tangerine's menu collects dishes from all across Asia with an emphasis on Thai recipes and fresh sushi and sashimi. Large prawns are stir-fried in garlic sauce and tender raviolis are stuffed with lobster and dungeness crab meat then covered with a rich shitake-mushroom sauce. The sushi chefs make classic salmon and rainbow rolls in addition to specialty maki, such as the Tangerine roll filled with crab and five types of fish or the Millipede roll topped with avocado and cut into 1,000 pieces.

Fresh flowers and elegant linens help create a calming, upscale atmosphere in the saffron-hued dining room. An aquarium glows behind the sushi chefs as guests sit around the marble-topped bar, and parties slide into booths tucked in private alcoves lined with white drapery.

Nestled in among the trees, sunshine, and ferns of Hilton Head, Nick's Steak and Seafood looks like a friendly local joint from the outside. A simple step through the door, however, teleports diners from the Lowcountry to pure Pittsburgh sports mania. Owner Josh and his wife, Katie, both love the Steel City teams, and they celebrate that love with apparel and memorabilia from the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates all over the walls. To fuel the fanaticism, their chefs dish up a menu of classic surf 'n' turf, which includes filet mignon, lobster tail, and ready-to-peel shrimp.

The herringbone pattern of the bricks on the street just outside Eclectic Chef seems to point wandering feet right in the restaurant’s direction. In warmer months, the eatery’s patio welcomes guests beneath its large, red umbrellas, which offer shade as customers bite into crisp salads tossed with sliced strawberries or wild gathered greens. Guests can also feed on hot or cold sandwiches comprised of warm roast beef and slow-roasted barbecue pork, or paninis filled with barbecue chicken. In addition to the cozy café’s offerings, Eclectic Chef also offers personal-chef and gourmet to-go services, allowing busy diners to feed themselves and their families hearty, healthy meals.

When Skillets Café opened in 1994, its moniker reflected its sole mission: to serve up seafood-heavy breakfasts, made from scratch, in porcelain skillets. The name has stuck, but it no longer does justice to the wide array of breakfast, lunch, and dinner fare that now resides on Skillets’ menu. Servers still dish out seafood omelets and crepes, skillets of potatoes and poached eggs, and stuffed french toast, but they do so at all hours, or at least until the rooster crows at midnight. And at lunch and dinner, morning dishes are joined by sandwiches and hearty entrees such as shrimp and grits, grilled meatloaf, and filet mignon. Out on the patio, humans can dig into comforting meals while seated beside their pooches, which are welcome to chow down on items from the doggy menu.

Ta Ca's chefs firmly root their menu of sushi and teppanyaki entrees in Japanese culinary tradition. Although the selection of maki brims with familiar staples, it also features subtly modern specialty rolls with inventive ingredients, such as fried green-shell mussels, calamari, and tomato. The chefs spend mealtimes searing orders of vegetables, chicken, or lobster on the rippling-hot surface of hibachi grills. Wavy pendant lanterns illuminate the gleaming bar running along one of the dining room's orange walls. The shelves bristle with a selection of spirits, Japanese beers, and sake, which bring about endless toasts like a sand grain’s wedding reception.

In 1999, the two brothers-in-law who founded Main Street Cafe & Pub aimed to create a down-to-earth neighborhood restaurant that evoked a sense of luxury with its menu of seafood and upscale pub food. Today, their restaurant hosts throngs of devoted locals, as well as shrewd tourists who can smell the all-you-can-eat crab legs.

The dining room's tall bay windows shine light onto a black-and-white checkerboard floor and tables groaning under a mix of casual pub eats and homestyle entrees. Distinctive dishes such as parmesan-encrusted grouper and a fried tilapia melt—complete with housemade jalapeño tartar sauce—balance out familiar blackened-chicken wraps and fish ’n’ chips. The seafood chowder and other housemade soups are prepared fresh daily.