Michael Anthony's Cucina Italiana

"wonderful dining experience with excellent, attentive service. enjoyed the profiteroles with smoked salmon (so fun!) and each got a pasta dish. well played and presented, generous portions and came to table piping hot! delicious cocktails (Limoncella Drop and Sazerac, as well as good red wine). all around great meal and will return! sincere thanks to our great server Susannah."

"#1 overall restaurant on Hilton Head. We come here every year and it is always consistent, food amazing and service excellent. We started with an amazing salad and house made 4-cheese ravioli. Yum! The star was the salmon daily special, over the top. They make a mean bolognese. Decent wine list. Only wish they had a few more starters on the menu. But their bread with warm tomato sauce is pretty pretty good and complementary."

"My review is starting with an explanation of why I gave Michael Anthonys four stars. I pride myself in giving the most honest reviews. For me, the experience is as big of a part as the food is when doing a review. We have been wanting to try Michael Anthonys for three years! We visit hilton head yearly and have been intrigued by the debate between Ombre Cusina, Nunzios and Michael Anthonys. Saturday night we had a reservation for 7:30. Made well in advance to ensure that we had a table. We ended up getting done with our previous plans earlier than expected. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:30 with the intention of having a drink at the bar. Upon our arrival I explained that we were early and before I could finish speaking was told that there was no seating available. I explained that we did not expect this and that we wanted to grab a glass of wine at the bar while we waited. We were told the bar was fully committed and that we could not. (There was only two people currently seated at the bar). We then discussed walking across the way to the trattoria to see if we could sit at that bar. The host then said we can seat you now and offered us a table directly next to the door. I politely explained that we had requested a booth and that since we had waited for years to try the restaurant we would wait. I was then told goodbye and to have a nice evening. I explained that I still wanted my 7:30 table. We walked across to the trattoria where there was three people at their bar. We were also denied seating, stating that they too were fully committed at the bar. I asked the very nice hostess on the trattoria side if we could just get a glass of wine. She said, yes you can sit on the patio. They were very nice and served us a glass of wine. In about 15 minutes we were told that our table was now ready, (40 minutes early). So we paid, thanked them and went inside. We were sat… closet to the busy kitchen door and the bathroom’s. At this point I decided to concentrate on the food. First we ordered a bottle of wine and our server cane back with two glasses. No mention of the bottle. I did not say anything because we had already had the glass prior to dinner. We ordered the Caesar salad with anchovies and the caprese. They were both good, not great. Slightly under seasoned. For our entrees we ordered the Gnocchi di Patate alla Boscaiola and the Pollo alla Parmigiana con Salsa di Vodka. Both dishes were outstanding and hit 5 stars for both of us. The odd thing that happened in between courses was that we saw the other diners getting fresh silverware in between courses. We did not get this experience. For the dessert round we ordered the Profiteroles and the Sformata di Cioccolata. Both desserts were also 5 stars for both of us. We have never had a better profiterole in a restaurant. In total we spent $251 with the tip. (Total of 2 people) The entrees and dessert were amazing and worth trying Michael Anthonys, the service and the experience fell short for us. The food is 4.5-5 stars, I am being generous with my 4 star review due to the service/experience being a 2.5-3."