Barnacle Bill's Fresh Seafood Market — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

We drove from central GA to HHI for a short stay and visited this place 2 days in a row! We were desperate for some beautiful, fresh seafood which we can not easily get where we live. First day we purchased 2lbs shrimp (Wonderful!) and 2 dozen oysters (So, so) totaling upward of $50. The gentleman that assisted us was SO uninterested in what he was doing, was quite rude/pushy and if it were not for the fact that we REALLY wanted FRESH seafood and did not want to drive around, we would NOT have purchased there.

We were put on the phone with the owner Greg who seemed to be very friendly, and we place an order to be picked up the following day for 4 whole Red Snapper in the 1-2lb range (we estimated another $50-$80ish). We were required to place a $25 deposit and fish would be ready for pick up the following day at 10:30 am. We called around 10am and fish was ready!! Yay!

Upon arriving we were shown 4 much larger snapper that came in a professionally packed cardboard box with fish on ice so definitely coming through a secondary provider. Not such a biggie.... I guess.... Seeing the size of fish I immediately said that they were much larger than I wanted, and that I would not want all 4 fish. Greg rudely snarked “What am I supposed to do with the others?” Well being a seafood provider I would imagines that he would sell them????? And that “He didn’t know that they came much smaller” Seriously???? Well, having grown up in the CARIBBEAN I am very well aware of types, sizes and qualities of Red Snapper and I very well know EXACTLY what I want for what I intend to cook!!!

We were actually floored when Greg told us that the total was $150+ nor did he even remember the $25 deposit we were instructed to leave. As HHI is largely a tourist destination I am guessing they are used to people just buying whatever “size” fish they “decide” to provide at whatever size/cost they offer up even being completely different than agreed upon. We don’t buy like that nor is it fair to assume!! I had also left my phone number so even a call notifying me of the drastically larger order would have cleared this up right away and we would not have wasted as much of OUR previous time.

Greg then proceeded to caller his supplier and was quite logically told that the snapper actually do in fact come in 1-2lb range (before growing to 3-4lbs I’m guessing??? Lol) And that we could have actually been able to purchase EXACTLY what we wanted. Bummer :(

We then had to bicker over getting the 2 smaller of the fish as Greg mumbled “Jesus” under his breath as to the request. Trying to lighten the now very tense environment, other customers behind us, I even offered to post pics of our fully cooked fish on their Social Media page which he could not have cared less about.

My husband and I left this place so disheartened as to the experience... We sat in silence for a good 1/2hr as we started out 4.5hr drive back to central GA.....What could have been a wonderful experience which we were soooo looking forward to was spoiled but a snarky business owner who somehow feels it’s acceptable to treat customers this way and seems to think he is somehow doing us a favor???

Reading the other reviews/owner responses I am sure I will get some kind of snarky response from Greg, but in a nutshell Business is Business, give customers what they want and treat them well so they might come back!!!!! We will not be back, we will not recommend this place. So while the seafood quality is good there are PLENTY of other places with much friendlier service where you can get Fresh Seafood. Hopefully owner/employees might finally learn to treat people better. You are not doing anyone any favors and without satisfied customers, you don’t...

The guy manning the shack was an absolute jerk for no reason. While he was getting our shrimp, I said, "So, these were caught today?" trying to make conversation and learn a little bit about the local industry. The guy says, "No, they were caught 5 weeks ago. We're just going after 40 years, hoping no one notices we're trying to pull one over on them. You ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers." I laughed a little and tried to explain that, being from Colorado, I just wasn't used to shrimp being available so close by, but before I could say more than, "I just meant..." the man retorted with, "there's nothing to explain; you were just suggesting the we don't serve fresh shrimp." One of the guys with me said, "Let me ask this: how far out you have to go to catch these?" To which he got the lovely response of, "From 200 feet out to four miles. Everything's brought in the night before, heads are removed, and it's delivered to me less than 24 hours later." So, I guess my question of "were they caught today?" wasn't such a stupid question. I recommend spending your money with someone who's passionate enough about what he or she does that they're willing to tell you...

This outfit seems to fit the definition of a loose ship operation. Basically, it's a shack on a plot of land on the Hilton Pkwy that (miraculously) hasn't been developed into a tourist trap. When we arrived around noon, there was no sign of any employees or any seafood, just a few overturned coolers that may or may not have recently served as a source of refrigeration. Turned on its side was a sign that advised they were sold out, although it was unclear, judging from where the sign was left, if that was where it was stored for future use or had been knocked aside as today's notice. A blackboard listed a few offerings, but only shrimp included a price, which, cost-wise was about in line with Whole Foods or Fresh Market in terms of pushing the upper range of what people (tourists) might be willing to pay. Judging from many positive reviews, which were what lured us to stop by in the first place, our experience may have been more a matter of bad timing than the place's usual practice, but we won't go back...