Food & Drink in Port Royal

Started by a professional winemaker, the Island Winery crafts fine fermented red, white, and Lowcountry specialty wines from the fruits of the South Carolina coast. The wine and cheese happy hour kicks off in the early evening and includes a glass of wine and light appetizers for all guests. Attendees taste 10 of Island Winery's wines, including the barrel-reserve chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and southern passion sangria. Those opting for the wine flight, held 12:30 p.m.–2:20 p.m., will enjoy an olfactory overload with samples of many of the available imbibing delicacies, and complimentary cheeses cleanse palates and act as rubbery tooth napkins.

A single cucumber roll. That's how Hana Sushi Fusion executive chef and owner Di Wang started his career in sushi nearly two decades ago. At the time, Di had only been in the United States for a year, but he soon found himself fully engrossed in sushi and its culture. While living on the West Coast, Di surrounded himself with some of the industry's best chefs, mimicking their techniques, expanding on their presentation, and carefully observing their steadiness of hand during late-night games of Operation.

A coast-to-coast move landed Di in the Low Country, where he finally decided to plunge into restaurant ownership and opened the doors to Hana Sushi Fusion. There, Di and his staff put a modern twist on traditional rolls, sashimi, and sushi, pairing them with a varied selection of wine, sake, and imported beers. The restaurant itself emits contemporary vibes, complete with the intimacy of semiprivate dining rooms.

The chefs at Fancy Q Sushi Bar & Grill routinely have their hands full, whether they are juggling spatulas above sizzling hibachi grills or rolling up ocean-fresh fish in mats of seaweed at the sushi bar. At midday and into the afternoon, the restaurant’s lunch specials pair spicy salmon and california rolls—just two of the restaurant’s more than 85 types of sushi and sashimi—with salads or soups. Hibachi grills come alive as the sun sets, cooking entrees of steak and shrimp to pair with frosty mugs of imported Tsingtao beer. Wooden tabletops and brick walls reflect an appreciation for Japanese minimalism and modesty at odds with the chefs’ entertaining antics as they toss rice bowls high into the air and walk on shaky chopstick stilts.

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.

The midday sun beats down on the hat-clad heads of the passengers, but they barely feel the heat. The rapt crowd has gathered on the top deck of the Holiday, their eyes collectively glued to the waters below them where a glossy fin emerged and disappeared a second ago. The onlookers’ silence suddenly dissolves into a symphony of awed whispers and camera clicks as a trio of playful bottlenose dolphins breaks through the water and splashes about near the ship. Creating moments such as this between humans and nature has been Captain Mark's Dolphin Watch Cruise’s mission since setting sail on its inaugural excursion in 1983.

Based out of Shelter Cove Harbour, Captain Mark's Dolphin Watch Cruise's experienced crew introduces visitors to area wildlife via two varieties of aquatic adventures. Daytime and sunset dolphin watch nature cruises glide past numerous scenic points of interest including Wexford Plantation, marine creatures, oyster beds, and oyster laundry piles. Alternatively, Let’s Go Crabbing trips ferry kids and adults away aboard the Crabber J II for a lively session of crustacean catching.