Skull Creek Dockside — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

There's some amazing restaurants on Hilton Head Island... and then there's Skull Creek, which is likely one of my all-time favorite restaurants anywhere.

If you don't know, dinner reservations are a MUST on HHI. Having been to HH before with business where every detail was curated for an experience, this lesson was quickly learned on our 1st evening. The walk-up wait time for Skull Creek was 2 hours & 30 minutes. If you've ever traveled alone with 3 very hungry sons, you'll know this may not be a great idea. As I am one to be ever optimistic, I said, "Great! Let's do this." The starving teens & 4 year old grumbling for a cracker.

So we went outside, found this beautiful dock with fishermen and charters returning with fresh catches, talked with a few local boat captains, and admired the view. Since we had 2.5 hours to kill, we wandered next door where there is another restaurant with indoor seating and patio seating (you have to place your name at both separately). Those wait times were 75 minutes and 1.5 hours. We take the obligatory sunset family selfies, talk with a few families, and get a text saying we have 4 minutes to claim our table at Skull Creek. Our 2.5 hour wait was whittled down to 42 minutes. Mom wins.

Our table was by the dock under patio lights casually overlooking this stunning site. Our server was amazing. She worked her tail off running from one side of the restaurant to the other, sweetly talked up the menu, and was ever attentive.

The starving teens and 4 year old devoured the bacon hush puppies and ahi tuna stack. For dinner the boys had entrées of bbq brisket, meatloaf, and grilled shrimp while I had grilled scallops, a crabcake and vegetables. I was told the meatloaf was the best thing ever eaten, the BBQ sauces were so much fun, and my grilled shrimp/scallops were perfectly cooked.

The suprise win was just how much fun this restaurant was. We discovered a play area for the kids with a pirate ship and gaga ball pit, a bar for the wait, and paddleball tables. After dinner, the (formerly starving & now energized) kids had so much fun playing tag with a family from Michigan, which my 4 year old fell in love with. So if Ryan from Michigan sees this, Ryan from Ga says hello!

Skull Creek was fantastic. Bottom line: GO! The site is stunning, the food was delightful and the atmosphere fantastic. Whether it's date night, a big business lunch/dinner, or just a family dinner... Skull Creek was a super cool...

We were excited to try this restaurant since we saw reviews about their gluten free fried seafood which is hard to find!

PROS: Beautiful environment, the seating, decor and views of the dock and ocean are beautiful! The gluten free breading on the fried seafood was excellent! It's a cornmeal based breading. They use a separate exclusively gluten-free fryer. Husband got the shrimp & flounder gluten free fried seafood combo plate.

Others in our group liked what they got (lobster mac & cheese, rack of ribs, and fish & chips (not gluten free). Their plates were hot and fresh.

CONS: No markings on menu so you know what's GF and no separate GF menu. So you have to keep asking if a dish can be made GF or not. The fried seafood plate had noticeably & extremely small portions. The plate was heaped with fries, but only had one very small piece of flounder, and 6 tail on shrimp. The fries were not hot & crispy, they weren't fresh. On the broiled seafood plate I got, the fish was not broiled, it was luke warm and the scallops had zero 'sear' on them. I've made much better at home. My cheesy grits were served warm and not hot, as was the veg medley. Overall my plate was not the best. I'd recommended avoiding the 'broiled' seafood. The mixed alcoholic drinks were disappointing. Almost like no one took time to design a few good signature drinks ....or even test them. The pomegranate margarita on the rocks specifically.

Overall sub-par for prices. I think restaurants in high traffic tourist areas can get away with this since most clientele are only visiting for the week, they don't rely on repeat customers. Just a constant turnover of new ppl. Still gave it 4 stars cause of offering gluten free lol!

For us, when we can make better food & drinks at home, we just aren't impressed. If you like semi-decent food in a pretty setting, you'll be fine here. Especially if you're not super hungry & having a good time with friends. And of course, if you have trouble finding gluten free fried seafood,...

I left starving and went home to make a 2nd dinner...

I got the skillet special for $35, which included a dollop of mashed potatoes (which tasted like powdered mashed potatoes) and a miniature skillet that had 4 micro shrimp and some other blended/crumbled up seafood in a pool of butter. I'm honestly not sure how this place is open.

Couple tips for the owners:

1. It's a few days after Thanksgiving so save your powdered potatoes for some other time. How about offering us a choice of side. Pretty standard for $35.
2. If you are just going to serve a tiny amount of crumbled up table scrapes in butter, at least give people something to make them feel full. Liquid like mashed potatoes is not the side here. How hard is it to serve a couple cents worth of bread with it? A bread basket before the meal would have been great, pretty standard at these prices... Had you done that maybe I wouldn't have been rushing home because I was STARVING!
3. Your restaurant was freezing. When all your guests are still wearing their coats, it's a sign.... take a hint....
4. It's almost like you haven't been to any of your competitors... this was both the worst and most expensive meal I had all week on the island. I'm not going to do your job for you here, so I'm not going to expand anymore, but just know everything here is lacking, I'll never be back...

Rating scale: 1 star: bad & overpriced food 2 stars: bad food or good food that's overpriced 3 stars: good food but nothing I couldn't have made at home myself 4 stars: great food or good food at a reasonable price 5 stars: great food at a reasonable price

As restaurants increase their prices, I've started to adjust my ratings, and 5 stars is not as easy to get anymore. I'm never going to give 5 stars anymore for just having amazing food. And all those mediocre $20 frozen patty burgers... all...