The Market Cafe at Michael Anthony's — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

Before I get into details, I would like to say that the overall experience of this place is amazing. Food is delicious great atmosphere and super welcoming staff. I would highly recommend this place if you are in the mood for Italian food.

We attended this restaurant for our anniversary. We were welcomed with Prosecco, which was on the house very nice and sweet start to our meal. For our starters we ordered the sausage and peppers and the baguette. The sausage and peppers were so flavorful the sausage really burst in your mouth and had just the perfect amount of seasoning but yet we’re super juicy. It did not get lost in the sauce, which it was served in. The baguette was warm when it was served, and the olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette was very sweet and balanced out the cheese which was sprinkled on top of the baguette.

For our main meals my husband got the pasta special. Which was a pesto cream spaghetti with sweet peas and teardrops. It was served with seasoned shrimp. This pasta was amazing. It was a more thicker and richer pasta dish reminded me of the thickness of almost like fettuccine, but on a different level. The snow peas and a teardrops were chef kiss to the whole meal.

I ordered the Eliocoidali Alla Boscaiola. This was a very rich pasta. It was hands-down one of my favorite pastas I’ve had in a long time. It had mushrooms and a meat. It was both light yet very flavorful. A lot lighter than our second pasta dish, but jampacked with flavor. We ended our dinner with some tiramisu. This restaurant does tiramisu very uniquely as it was paired with fruit and a caramel drizzle on top. It was such a light tiramisu and weirdly enough and really cleansed her stomach so we no longer felt full. I felt like I could have two more servings of the tiramisu and went really well with the blackberries and strawberries very unique taste take on the classic tiramisu.

The staff was very attentive and came to our table multiple times to check on us and just make sure our meals were to our satisfaction. The place has a wonderful atmosphere, very homey, small, and intimate. I highly recommend this place if you are in the area. The pasta is fresh...

The little brother of the much more well known restaurant sharing the same name, this is a different type of experience. While still going for a romantic, high end type of feel, the food is served tapas style and sharing is encouraged. The waiter was really good at explaining everything and the service was top notch. You can technically order some things from the other restaurant, but it would defeat the purpose of coming here. Our meal was really good, and the pasta was really well done. I haven't seen a small plate high end Italian place before, and it works as a concept. My only knock here is that the prices are a little extreme in some aspects. The appetizers and meat/cheese board were all in line with what you'd pay at a high end dining place, which is fine. But the pasta plates you share are extremely expensive. If you look at the menu, the average plate of pasta is about $15, but what you don't know by just looking at the menu, is that each plate may contain 5-6 bites of pasta per plate(think sushi style). An average adult could easily put down $60 worth of pasta. Someone with a big appetite could down $75-100 by themselves if they wanted to. That's absurd considering the pasta plates themselves have little to no meat at all. How is a filet mignon $45 from their sibling restaurant and here it's 20 pieces of pasta? It doesn't add up. Still, if you go heavier on the appetizers and meat/cheese board to fill up and get say 3 pasta plates to share with another person, you can keep the cost more inline with what you'd expect. Just don't come here and only order pasta dishes, because that's going to be extremely pricey for...

I arrived at the bar at about 6 pm this evening and there was one seat available. I kindly asked the two women to my left if the seat was taken. They responded with “Nope” and some casual conversation. I sat myself and waited patiently for at least 10 to 15 min before I was acknowledged. Meanwhile two - one waitresses and one waiter gave discourse on tonights specials to patrons to my left. And still I waited. Finally, another waitress finally acknowledged me by saying “Hello, do you have a reservation to sit here?” Not….can I get you something to drink. I replied “Do I need a reservation to sit at the bar?” Her response was “Let me go check.”

I leaned to my left and asked the woman “Did you have a reservation to sit there.” She was surprised as well after hearing the conversation, with the waitress and said “No, I just walked in and sat down.” No questions. I asked the ladies to my right…..same reply.

The waitress came back and said “You are fine.” REALLY?

I have lived on the island for 25 year. I am a local business owner. I spent over $50 and left a 20% tip despite being made to feel that I am not welcome. I had two drinks and ordered take out….which was obviously a no, no. As The manager had words with the staff.

I work with locals and tourist. I will not recommend the cafe - and I used to rave about it. I will not be back. The last three times I was there…..its all about the tourists. Get them in and get the out. My three friends and I were asked to leave because there was another reserved partying coming in……No more. Local word of...