From reviews here and elsewhere I had expectations of a great place to grab lunch. Unfortunately, our visit to 4th of May Deli was the lowlight of our trip to SSI. After being seated at the rear of the restaurant, my niece noticed a roach crawling over the utensil bin, which is below the area the cooks pass the dishes to the servers. After notifying the manager, he returned the bins to the cleaning crew and we began to be ignored. After seeing people who were seated 25 minutes after us receiving their food. We notified our server who responded "it's coming". Five minutes later we notified the manager who seemed bothered and gave the same response. About 15 minutes later (hmm) we received our food. The food was average overall except the fried oyster which lacked oysters and were burned to a crisp. We didn't send it back, since we didn't have 45 more minutes to wait. The manager appeared to be incapable of handling problems. No surprise that when we left he choose to ignore us. Our biggest disappointment is that we didn't leave earlier. There are too many other choices located near this restaurant.

This deli is setup like a diner with the cooks, dishwashers and patrons in the same room. The cooks had burned something prior to us being seated, so we were treated to the aroma of burnt fried food for our long lunch. The dishwashers are in the back corner and so we were entertained to the crashing of plates and utensils, every time a table was cleared. The restroom is located through the back storage area and added to the overall unclean feeling of this establishment.

If I lived on the island (again), I could easily eat a meal a day at this place. During our two-and-a-half months on Saint Simons, we tried most of the menu and took all our guests there at least once. I was never disappointed and often wowed. I came home with a copy of their cookbook, which is a great addition to my kitchen library. Highlights of the menu: tomato pie, crawfish bisque, fried catfish, chicken salad, coconut cream pie, biscuits, and cornbread. In fact, the cornbread is so good you could substitute it for dessert!

Got to SSI Friday night about 7:30 and decided to go to 4th of May as it was one of our must eat ats. Not crowded at all. Server Keisha was very friendly, although she did get a couple of things mixed up. Got the 2 item combo. Both of us got a crab cake, I added fried oysters and my husband had fried shrimp. The oysters were really small and the breading didn't seem to want to stay on. I mostly had bare fried oysters and a pile of breading. The crab cake was just ok. TOO many shells. I know it's a "crab" cake, but you can pick through it better than that. The shrimp were really good. They were out of the sweet potato thing and green bean casserole already. The sides were good, squash casserole and spinache souffle for me and greens and lima bean for my husband. Had to salt most of the veggies. Overall it was ok, but probably wouldn't go back now that we've done it.

I went there on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend around 8:30pm for take-out dessert. It was not a relaxed atmoshere for dining ; it was crowded and noisy. The guy who served me rushed through my order cramming my dessert selection, ( a slice of coconut cake), into a too small plastic box. I felt rushed out the door before i could even ask for a larger one--wam bam thank you mam. So I ended up with a mushed up slice of cake that wasn't as good as I expected from such a popular place.