Ombra Cucina Italiana — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

My 15 yr old niece chose this restaurant because she loves Italian food. She saw 5 stars & said "this one". We arrive & I'm thinking it's a date night, celebrate, upscale restaurant & jeans won't work. Walk in and they asked us for our reservation? Ummm....at 8pm Im thinking we are going to have to find another place and I apologized and tell them we randomly selected based on rating. The manager, whose standing by the bar, steps over and says no problem, we can make a place, just give me a moment.

Not two minutes later we are sitting and I'm reading the "by bottle" wine list except I don't drink. Granted I felt a bit out of sorts, as I was ill prepared for such a classically beautiful atmosphere designed for adult relaxation. This place is perfect for that night alone with your spouse. Or for a group of friends who want to catch up about life, love and joy. Thank goodness, I wore my fancy satin top with these jeans.

So, I settle down and the waiter comes over, tells us the specials. I'm not reading the menu his final description was splendid and I am happy to order that. My niece reviews the menu and after a few moments we finalize our order.

Superb service delivers us mussels infused in a buttery wine & garlic sauce, along with a Tuscan salad in a light vinegrait and that was just the appetizer. The atmosphere forces my niece to put down her phone and connect verbally with me. She opens up and we both are laughing and truly enjoying each other's company.

Our excellent server tops off our sparkling water at perfect frequency and validates our needs at just the right times. Every bite is delicious and when we've decided we can't eat another bite, we are asked what are we thinking for dessert? "

"What are you thinking for dessert?" I ask and I'm provided with two wonderful suggestions but there's more if I'm patient enough for the menu. I lack patience and consort with my niece for a decision. Creme, berries and chocolate why not?

Pure excellence.... I would not have changed a thing. I am supremely happy with this choice. The price was beyond reasonable for the service & taste and it's no wonder they've won best restaurant six...

Went there for Christmas Eve Dinner.

Food = B+

Servers = B and pretty good, they were just so busy. Drinks and First couple of courses came out quick, but... Entre came out 2 hours and 5 minutes after sitting down. Total time at dinner was almost 3 hours and that was taking desert to go and rushing them to get the check.

Meal coordination = D. They never told us (after calling 3 times days prior) to see if we were ordering their $85 special - that it was served family style. Not sure how many families of 6 go to a white table cloth dinner, spend $700 with a tip, and have to serve themselves "family style"? That is awkward trying to serve yourselves and weird..

Social Distancing = Solid F. Ombra owners and management, you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. Since March 16th I have not been in a restaurant anywhere near that full, even places that were outside. This place was so packed that other tables chairs touched behind us on 3 of 4 sides. This place does not care about their customers or their staff. When the place started filling up around 7:30 and patrons were walking in without masks, we asked what was going on, and they said "Oh we told everyone over the phone that it was 100% capacity." Well that was A LIE, and even your website says your priority is the safety of your customers. Well it was at least 100% full, so it is for sure that you don't care. Sitting down for dinner for almost 3 hours and having to take our masks on and off because it was so full... We will never go back and no one reading this should either. Thankfully my COVID test came back negative after we returned home and you didn't put us and or our loved ones in the hospital. I would have blistered you on the spot, but it was not the Christmas spirit or Christian way to act because it would not have gone well - and I didn't want to upset the kind servers that were clearly overwhelmed with all the tables and a backed up kitchen. Completely disappointed and I am not convinced you should be allowed to operate a business - because it is obvious that you...

Ok I was a waiter for ten years, managed a restaurant and tended bar. Suffice it to say I understand the service industry. I have never experienced this poor of service in my life.

My wife and I arrived at 6:30 pm with our 13 month old. He behaved very well... for the first HOUR until we finally received our appetizers and his food 1 and a quarter hour after we sat down. We then realized it was going to be a while for our entrees. Two entrees nothing special, we had to ask at this point for our waters to be refilled, this was the only refill we received...

My wife and I decided we needed to ask for our meals to go but our waiter barely came to our table. I finally got up and said look, we need to go this is ridiculous, you can give us our food to go if you want but we need the bill and we need to leave. We had a ticking time bomb in the form of our child and we were already past his bed time.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER they brought our food out. With a 10% discount... In my haste to leave I didn't argue I just gave them my credit card for our ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO DOLLAR BILL!! I should have followed them to the register because this took another 15 minutes to accomplish! Again, I have been in the service industry, this takes no effort.

When we got home my wife and I were so soured on the experience we didn't even want to eat. Her meal was ok, the sauce was not great. She cleaned the sauce off which the waiter recommended. My meal was bland and frankly disappointing. We will never be offering our patronage to this restaurant again. I understand when things get busy, but when we arrived we were one of three outside tables at the venue... I'm sorry, this is unacceptable. 2 hours at a restaurant and we finally get our to go box?! Our meals should have been comped or just cancelled....