Island Pizza Joints

Hilton Head isn’t a pizza island, which makes the good ones worth knowing about. Below: the places we’ve eaten and where they land, then everywhere we haven’t gotten to yet. The ranking moves as we work through the list. Places marked ★ have a full review; the rest we’ve eaten at but haven’t written up yet.

1. Giuseppi’s Pizza & Pasta House ★ Probably the best pizza on an island not known for its pizza. Shelter Cove, Steelers on the walls, and a first-night tradition for families who’ve been coming for decades. Note there are two Giuseppi’s on the island — they split years ago and the recipes went separate ways.
2. Local Pie ★ The island’s first proper wood-fired Neapolitan, out of an 800-degree oven. Blistered crust, short ingredient lists, and the Clemson booster club’s home base on New Orleans Road.
3. Capri Pizza & Pasta ★ Chicago-style pan pizza from two brothers who came from Italy by way of Chicago kitchens. Order the half pan unless you’re feeding a crowd, and call ahead — pans take time.
4. Mangiamo’s ★ Thin crust in a shrine to Ohio State athletics. Opened in 2002 with one TV and one flag; the pizza held up long enough for the rest to follow.
5. Fat Baby’s Pizza & Subs Built to feel like a 1970s neighborhood pizzeria, scratch-made pies, and genuinely easy with kids.
6. Mellow Mushroom The national chain, Park Plaza, just outside the Sea Pines gate. Pretzel crust, big menu, reliably fine — the one everyone’s already been to.
7. Bella Italia Pizza ★ Port Royal Plaza. Unassuming strip-mall Italian doing straightforward pies in a plaza that keeps outperforming its parking lot.
8. Club Seats Grille Main Street. A sports bar first — Penn State’s island home — with pizza that does its job while you’re watching something.
9. New York City Pizza ★ On the island since 1996, when nobody here was making New York thin crust. Two island locations; we ate at the north end one in Festival Centre.
10. Top Dawg Pizzeria The pizzeria Top Dawg added next door at Shelter Cove Harbour in 2024. Waterfront, family-friendly, and convenient if you’re already there for the marina.
11. Flatbread Grill & Bar Flatbread rather than pizza proper, which is either the point or the problem depending on what you walked in wanting.
12. Still to Come Places we’ve heard about but haven’t eaten yet. Not listed in order.
13. Il Carpaccio Wood-fired oven imported from Modena. On paper the most serious pizza claim on the island that we haven’t tested.
14. Dough Boys Pizza New Orleans Road. Consistently well-reviewed and the one locals bring up most often when this argument starts.
15. Cafe Al Dente of New York Coligny Plaza. New York billing in the middle of the busiest plaza on the island.
16. Pizza Marina Shelter Cove Harbour. Casual marina pizza, aimed at people coming off boats.
17. Pizza Co. at The Bank One of several counters inside the old Bank of America building on Pope Avenue.
18. Jake’s Pizza Inside the Salty Dog complex at South Beach. Convenient rather than destination, but it feeds a lot of families.
19. Giuseppi’s — Sea Pines Center The other Giuseppi’s. Same name, different owners, different recipes since the split. Worth eating for the comparison alone.
20. Coastal Capri Ristorante South Island Square. The Rovito brothers’ original mid-island room, sister to Capri.

Last updated September 22, 2026. Things change on this island — if something’s out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.

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