Alexander's Restaurant & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

Nov. 2022 - We decided to go back & give this place another try. This time the entire experience was 100% better! We had a reservation for 7. We were seated immediately & had a great table! Donna took care of us and she was excellent! She is very professional and knows how to ensure a fine dining experience but she was also very friendly and helpful. We ordered a bottle of wine and I chose the garden salad with Local Honey Vinegarette. Hubs chose Ceaser salad. The salads were very good & they gave us plenty of time to enjoy them fully before they brought our entrees out.

For my entree, I selected the Seafood pasta & hubs got the filet mignon with a 6 oz lobster tail. The pasta was fresh and the sauce was a creamy shrimp sauce. It has spinach, mushrooms, shrimp, mussels, calamari, and sprinkled with parm. It was not too heavy, and very tasty. Hubs was very happy with his entree as well.

We decided to split a dessert and the peanutbutter pie was devine - it was light & creamy not heavy. We will be back, just not during tourist season.

Original review - August 2022 We had reservations for 7:45 & arrived about 5 minutes late as we had to park accross the street at tennis courts & walk over. They were running behind and several couples ahead of us with 7:45 reservations had not yet been seated. One of those couples noticed that another couple with 8PM reservations got seated before us & got a nice 4 top overlooking the canal. We didn't get upset or complain, just waited patiently for our turn.

The hostess was sweet but totally unprofessional. She was overwhelmed and did not know what to do. So 15-20 minutes later we finally got seated at a tiny 2 top behind the bar area. We were by a window but looking out at woods, bike path & the road.

We ordered a bottle of wine and a Misto Fritto appetizer to share. Hubs ordered Ceasar Salad and an entree. I ordered the Crab Soup and an entree.

They brought the appetizer out at same time as the soup & salad. Come on folks, this isn't Red Lobster. Not only was our tiny 2 top table too small for all those dishes at once but my soup was sitting there getting cold as we ate our appetizer, which was bland.

We did not complain at that point though, just tried to enjoy the starters. I had only taken about three bites of my soup when the runner comes out with our entrees.

At that point we were totally exasperated and sent the entrees back to the kitchen. Again, not only was our table too small for all those dishes at once but also the entrees would sit & get cold while we eat our soup & salad.

Hubs entree alone was $44 plus another $24 for the lobster tail. He was livid that they were going to send that plate back to sit under the heat lamp while we finished our starters.

At a restaurant like this it is NOT OK to bring everything out at once! There was no attention to detail or quality.

We understand that there are staffing shortages and it is hard to find good workers but this issue clearly is the fault of management who has not taken the time to properly train the staff on what a fine dining experience should be.

They are trying to seat way too many people and just get them in & out the door. Quality and attention to detail were completely lacking.

They gave us a break on the bill but what we really wanted was a fine dining experience for our date night. When we plan to spend over $100 per person for food & wine (not including tip) we want an...

Sorry to say Alexander's did not live up to my expectations. To begin, 3 of us were seated in a room somewhat lower than ground level, well appointed and seemingly overlooking water. We were seated next to broad windows and saw docks somewhat forward of us. Has to be a great view in daylight. We came at night. However, this room was very, very cold and before being seated we asked if we could be relocated to a different room on the main level or could the "heat" be raised. Large fans running the length of the room front to back were on. We asked if they could be turned off but we're told no. The explanation was they would move warm air down. We were never told if the heat was working or not, so we wore our jackets or coats throughout the meal to try to be comfortable. The waiter came, left menus and unlike the majority of other restaurants - did not ask if any of us would care for a before dinner drink or cocktail. I was going to have a scotch but thought not to since we weren't asked. Perhaps childish, but we were cold and decided to order, eat and leave. About 4 minutes later our waiter placed a wine booklet of on our table. We were ready to listen to specials at that time, but the waiter had left us. 4 to 5 minutes later he came to list specials which we listened to, but told him the 3 of us all wanted salmon from the menu, jasmine rice for the salmon to be "bedded" on, replacing the cous cous the salmon listed as an acompiment normally, along with asparagus too. No problem. However one of us asked if the salmon was served medium or just how. He told us yes medium and juicy. I asked for medium rare but not cool in any way. Again - no problem. At this time I ordered a diet Coke and my wife and her sister went with water, already served, and with the ice already mostly melted, they were hoping their drinks would not be cold. We didn't want anything more to be cold. 2 of us ordered beef and vegetable soup to warm up. The soup had a goodly amount of very tender and good tasting beef along with vegetables. The soup would have been very good had someone in charge of soups in the kitchen stopped adding salt somewhat earlier than they did. Very good rolls were served with the soup. Whan our main courses were served we knew the young man bringing the entrees was not told 1 was to be medium rare as he just placed the 3 servings down, not asking who ordered medium rare. The jasmine rice was voted the best food in our entrees, as all 3 salmons were cooked to the well side, burned on both ends and dry. The asparagus was warm but hard to bite into (like carrots) and "stringy). The waiter never came by to ask if all was good, enjoyable. He did come to ask if we wanted desert (no) and left the check. My wife right about that time went to the women's room, only to find no soap. She told the front desk attendant, but she did not respond or seem interested. That's pretty much the "long" of it. Fortunately there are many restaurants to choose from on Hilton Head and also Bluffton. Future "eat outs" won't...

I was so excited to finally try Alexander's after living here since 2016 & hearing neighbors talk about how wonderful it is. Unfortunately, the experience we had was a huge disappointment.

We made a reservation for 7:45 & arrived 5 minutes late because we had to park across the street by the tennis courts & walk over.

They were backed up so we had to wait for at least 15 -20 minutes. No big deal, we were fine with the wait. After all, it is peak tourist season, so we understand things are busy.

Then we realized they were seating people before us who had later reservation times than us. One other couple who had the same time as us were upset & complained but we just waited patiently and did not complain.

They finally seated us at a 2 top in the area behind the bar. We ordered a bottle of wine and an appetizer to share. Hubs ordered a Ceaser salad along with a Filet w/ Lobster tail and I ordered Low County Crab soup & the Seafood Pasta. They brought out some bread & our wine.

Then a little while later brought our appetizer along with the soup & salad. Not ideal to get all of those items at the same time, especially given that we had a tiny 2 top table but we didn't complain. It kind of sucked though because my soup was just sitting there getting cold while we had our Misto Fritto appetizer.

The Misto Fritto was ok but a little on the bland side. It didn't have any seasoning & I wasn't a fan of the aioli. The crab soup was ok but not the best I have had.

Spraking of the soup, I had barely started eating my soup when the runner comes out with our entrees. Absolutely unacceptable! At this point we were completely disappointed with the whole experience.

Not only was our table too small for all those dishes & the bottle of wine at the same time but also our entrees are just going to sit there and get cold while we finish our soup & salad.

For the price point, we expected much better service & proper timing between the various dishes is important for a good dining experience.

They ended up giving us a discount on the bill but the dining experience was disappointing.

I understand that staffing is a huge issue these days but they should do a better job training the staff...