Restaurants in Hilton Head Island

Although Cathryn “Chef C” Matthes began life as an overweight child, she favored healthy cooking early in her culinary career. She turned toward nutritious foods and recipes, and eventually earned recognition from Southern Living magazine, SpaFinder magazine, and the New York Daily News for her healthful and delicious foods. Today, Chef C helms DelisheeeYo, adhering to her health-conscious mission while preparing light lunch fare and frozen yogurt.

DelisheeeYo’s frozen yogurt menu includes one flavor: tart original. Packed with probiotics, this low-fat and lower-sugar yogurt swirls into 3-, 5-, and 7-ounce cups or 10-gallon cowboy hats when no one’s looking. A toppings bar, packed with everything from fresh fruit to housemade chocolate-chipotle-cinnamon syrup, dresses up yogurt to each customer’s liking. The chef and staff hand-select organic apples, strawberries, and blueberries from local and organic sources when available, and avoid high-fructose corn syrup by importing all of their chocolates and caramels.

Though the yogurt is DelisheeeYo’s specialty, Chef C doesn’t stop there. Organic greens, peppers, garbanzo beans, and cheeses fill a vegan salad bar. Whole-wheat flour tortillas wrap themselves around nut butter, banana, and honey, or transform into a Trojan Horse to surround hummus and Greek olives. The chef helps customers wash down meals by concocting refreshing specialty drinks from ingredients such as organic Italian lemon juice and agave nectar.

Parmesan-encrusted snapper. Hand-battered fried shrimp. One and a half pounds of steamed snow-crab legs. The culinary team at Parrot Cove Seafood Grill and Bar crafts these succulent seafood dishes from fresh catches at their waterfront restaurant on Shelter Cover Harbor. Owner Jimmy’s love of French and southern cooking is reflected in the menu featuring dinner and dessert crepes, oyster po’ boys, pulled-pork sandwiches, and half racks of ribs with housemade slaw. Meals unfold in a dining room adorned with nautical decorations and more than 40 parrots, who take forms such as paintings, statuettes, and waiters. Parrot Cove also provides spacious outdoor seating, seasonal live entertainment from local artists, and, for kids, a chance to rummage through a treasure box if they clean their plates.

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.

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.

Peaks of frosting crown the cupcakes at Ronnie’s Bakery, which are ornamented with creative designs such as red-seamed baseballs or the faces of pop-culture icons. Larger cakes can be created to accompany handheld desserts.

The walls of the warmly lit dining room where chef Paul Colella serves up mouth-watering entrees—such as cabernet-reduction prime filet mignon ($30) and tangy papaya-salsa-topped Carribean snapper ($29)—double as an art gallery for the colorful figurative paintings of his wife, Lunonia. The sight of Lunonia slathering oils on canvas in the dining room, or the sounds of guitarist Armand DeMille's retro rock ballads each Friday and Saturday night, may whip guests into a creative fervor, but the restaurant's list of 70 red and white wines and specialty coffee drinks rewards lingerers who don't drop their forks immediately to consecrate their lives to artistic creation and the careful maintenance of unicorn-hair paintbrushes.