Press

Popular Hilton Head Italian restaurant expands to Bluffton with a focus on takeout Sebastian Lee | The Island Packet | November 13, 2023 When the COVID 19 pandemic was in full swing, many restaurants had to adapt to survive and many pivoted towards increased takeout service. Hilton Head’s Pomodori Italian Eatery was no different. Now, armed with the experience of ramping up takeout, the restaurants owner, Amanda Cifaldi, expanded to a sister location in Bluffton: Pomodori Too! Italian Takeout. “I think when COVID happened, there became an awareness around the fact that some cuisines really do lend themselves very well [...]

Exploring Chef-Owned Restaurants Reyshan Parker YouTube Channel | February 18, 2024 Join us on this episode of Beyond the Check, a documentary series highlighting Chef-owned restaurants. Dive into the culinary world of Hilton Head, South Carolina, as we spend time with the incredible Chef Amanda Rus at Pomodori Italian Eatery. Get ready to savor the flavors of Italy as we cook up some delicious treats and uncover the secrets behind Chef Rus's passion for Italian cuisine.

Pomodori too! Bluffton: Now Open Eat It and Like It with Jesse Blanco | September 22, 2023 One of the most anticipated restaurant openings we’ve seen in Bluffton in a while has finally arrived. Pomodori is now open on May River Road. There was no formal announcement, Amanda Russ, Pomodori simply said “We are a chain!” in announcing her 2nd location at 1253 May River Road in Old Town Bluffton. Pomodori’s original location is on New Orleans Road on Hilton Head Island. It has been a locals favorite for over a decade. House Made Gnocchi at Pomodori Guests can order on-line at their Bluffton [...]

OnlyInYourState | By AnneMarie | Published June 26, 2023 It’s no shocker that some of the top comfort foods have pasta in them or that there’s a World Pasta Day in October to celebrate this heavenly food. Also not surprisingly, the United States has the sixth-highest pasta consumption rate in the world. So the next time a pasta craving strikes, consider Pomodori in Hilton Head Island, which has some of the best pasta in South Carolina you can find. You'll find this charming Italian eatery on New Orleans Road just off William Hilton Parkway. Since pasta is so filling, be sure [...]

LOCAL Biz |  2023 Cooking to perfection Chef Amanda will never stop growing, even after being recognized as a top chef. Amanda, you are recognized as one of the top chefs in the Lowcountry as well as a leader in the community. What was your inspiration? Growing up, I watched my parents teach Italian cooking classes out of our home in Michigan. I watched my mother, ever the entertainer, throw countless euchre parties and holiday gatherings, bake trays of lasagna and take them to sick neighbors, help cook at the church bazaar, using food as her vehicle to show love. [...]

Amanda Cifaldi CH2 / CB2 Magazine | August 2023 Photography by Summer Pagatpatan If there’s one question you don’t need to ask Amanda Cifaldi, chef and owner at Pomodori, it’s “What’s new with you?” Because the answer to that question has already been blazing across Bluffton, riding a tidal wave of excitement over the fact that Pomodori is now coming across the bridge. “It’s going to be right in Old Town on May River Road”, Cifaldi said of her new location. “Bluffton has grown so significantly, we’re grateful to grow right alongside it!” The Bluffton location of Pomodori will have [...]

Update on Bluffton’s Pomodori Too! | Article from Eat It and Like It 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐨 | Eat It and Like It | July 2023 If you base it purely on our web traffic, this is the biggest thing to happen in Bluffton since the roundabout. Well, maybe. In any event, the news last month that Hilton Head Island favorite Pomodori would be expanding into Old Town Bluffton got some attention. Now we have more to share. Originally the plan for the location at 1253 May River Road in Old Town Bluffton was to only offer take out meals. Those plans [...]

This & That Meet Amanda Cifaldi | Article By Jesse Blanco CH2 Magazine | May 2022  When you do what I do for a living, you naturally have the pleasure of meeting a lot of people. Before I became a full-time food journalist, I was a traditional television news reporter and anchor——a sports reporter before that. If you've been around here long enough, you remember. I know this because I'm frequently reminded by people at Publix that they remember my days in sports at WSAV. That is what originally brought me to this area way back in the 19 hundred [...]

2022 Lowcountry Mompreneurs Amanda Cifaldi | Pomodori Italian Eatery CH2 Magazine | Nov 2021  My three-year-old son Milo is changing every day, in every way, and it absolutely delights me. His curiosity and sense of wonder are pure magic, and I often find myself wondering how the coming years will change him into the person he'll someday become. We are all shaped and honed by the passing days, by experiences, good and bad, by milestones and by stones left unturned. Milo is my first born, but Pomodori is my first child. I remember the day I signed the lease 10 [...]

Top Chefs | 2022: Amanda Cifaldi | Pomodori Restaurant Article by Barry Kaufman | Photography by Rob Kaufman | Hilton Head Monthly Magazine | Mar 2022 For the last 10 years, Chef Amanda Cifaldi has led her restaurant Pomodori with a commitment to authentic ingredients and an irrepressible enthusiasm for food that comes through in every bite. “The fun part of food is that it’s different every time you do it. Even if you’re cooking the same thing, it’s always new,” she said. “I truly believe that I show my love through my food. It’s how I care for people.” It’s [...]

Destination: Wellness Hilton Head Island Chef Amanda Russ Cifaldi is ready for her closeup. Get ready, world. Article by Barry Kaufman | Photography by M.Kat | CH2 Magazine | Nov 2021  If you didn't know any better, you'd swear that the restaurants of the word existed solely to expand your waistline. Just witness Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, in which celebrated bleached dudebro Guy Fieri seeks out the nation's greasiest and most artery-clogging fare, or Man vs. Food, which celbrates epicurean abominations like the 190-pound Absolutely Ridiculous Burger™. But what about those of us who want to travel without packing extra Rolaids? [...]

Amanda Russ Ciafaldi Pomodori Italian Eatery/Driftwood Catering CH2 | Celebrate Hilton Head Magazine | Aug 2021 When I think of women in business, I'm immediately transported back to the Valhalla conference room at The Holiday Inn in Niles, Michigan, where on any Monday night you could walk in and see a room full of enthusiastic, empowered women in red jackets dancing and clapping to Mariah Carey's "Gonna Make it Happen." They would walk down the aisle of folding chairs to be recognized for hitting milestones and earning gifts, jewelry, trips to Bermuda and cars for their hard work. They would [...]

The chef of Pomodori Italian Eatery on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina draws on her family’s Sicilian background for her version of the classic, Pasta alla Norma. Article by Daniela Savone, contributor | June 20, 2021 |  LA CUCINA ITALIANA | Authentic Italian Cooking since the 1920s When you walk into Pomodori Italian Eatery, located in the heart of Hilton Head Island, the first thing you see is a large chalkboard with a map of Italy and, in big letters pointing to Sicily, the word "ME!" Chef Amanda Russ Cifaldi, born and raised in a large Sicilian-American family, has cooking [...]

Interview by Daniela Savone and La Cucina Italiana

CH2 | Article by Becca Edwards We are elbow to elbow at the bar at Porter and Pig with our eyes hyper-focused on the television screen to see Amanda Russ of Pomodori duke it out with other top local culinary talents Orchid Paulmeier (Marley’s Island Grille), Mir Ali (Lili’s Restaurant and Bar), Neil Youngblood (Blowin’ Smoke) and Kenneth Brown (Sisters of the New South) on the Food Network’s reality show Bite Club. Russ, who has kept us all in suspense as to who the winner is since she filmed the cooking competition several months ago, is in the [...]

Article by Lucy Rosen | Photography by M.Kat Photography  | CH2 Magazine “In every kitchen I’ve ever worked, I have been the only female line cook. Either I was replacing one who was leaving for greener pastures or I was their first female hire,” said Amanda Russ, owner of the popular Pomodori’s on Hilton Head Island. “That being said, my first mentor was a GM in a restaurant where I was working in Charleston who asked me (at 28 years old) what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told him a chef, and he said, ‘You [...]

Article by Special to CH2 | Photographer: M.KAT Photography Amanda and Robin Cifaldi Chef/Owner Pomodori Italian Eatery In business: 8.5 years Kids: Wyatt 17, Sophia 13, Milo 15 months BEING A MOM IS SUCH A HUGE RESPONSIBILITY. And it doesn’t end when we leave the nest. I still need my mom. When I started my business eight years ago, I called my mother every night for a month before opening and asked, “Mom, what if they don’t like it? What if they don’t like ME?” She always reassured me that I’d be fine, don’t worry, but what I was [...]

Amanda Cifaldi | TEDxHiltonHeadWomen

Southern Italy meets the South in a scrumptious holiday tradition Article by Garden & Gun Magazine | Serving Up The Best in Southern Food & Drink ON CHRISTMAS EVE, the scene at Shannon Tinnell’s household in Morgantown, West Virginia, looks like this: “Folks are outside grilling oysters and drinking beer and limoncello, someone’s inside cooking pasta, someone is frying smelt, and I’m trying to find someone else a place to sit. It’s chaos, and it’s home.” It’s also the Feast of the Seven Fishes, an annual celebration for her family, and for many other Italian-Americans. The custom is rooted [...]