Island Restaurant — Restaurant in Golden

The food was terrible and it took a long time to come. We overheard one of the other patrons asking about their food and the waitress acknowledged that they were short staffed that night. It certainly explained why the waitress only asked my partner if his food was okay, but didn't ask me - or maybe it was because she had already noticed me picking at it in disappointment.

Regardless, I had the special of the day-homemade pasta with yellow tomato sauce and promptly wished I had spent my money at the Tim Hortons instead. The pasta was simultaneously overcooked and undercooked. The pasta was homemade, by which I guess they meant rustic, because I've made my own pasta before and have never had pasta that was thick and chunky in some places and thin in others. The pasta also didn't taste like it was cooked in salted water as it had no flavor. The garlic toast was also made from underbaked bread - toasting it didn't hide the gummy texture that only results from underbaked bread. I couldn't taste any yellow tomato in my pasta sauce and the sauce was not yellow - it was a definitive shade of brown. It also didn't help that they had added red bell peppers to my pasta, because the flavor of the red pepper would have out competed the more delicate sweetness of the yellow tomato. The entire dish was severely underseasoned as well - I don't recall seeing any spices in my pasta dish.

My partner had the elk dish, which I tried, and was surprised that the chef decided to let the gaminess of elk be the dominant flavor of the dish. I know elk is gamey - I've had it before - but they didn't try to balance it with spices it all. It was like they assumed that if you ordered elk, you wanted mouthful after mouthful of gaminess in the entire dish.

This was supposed to be one of the better restaurants in Golden. The next time I pass through Golden, I'll know to only eat at Tim Hortons, which, for the record, I only eat at about...

Absolutely the worst restaurant experience I have ever had! The reviews on here have to be rigged, there is no way this establishment deserves such high ratings. I’m convinced the majority of these reviews come from local residents of Golden, friends, family of this place. It was obviously clear to us the waitress was well rehearsed in the excuses we were given as to why our meals were horrible. I wish now I would have taken pictures of the food we were served, to show that I’ve not exaggerated even a little with our experience coming here. My husband ordered a Hawaiian pizza. It was not cooked through the dough was still raw, paper thin and the topping were so perfectly spread out, & similar in size. There was no doubt it was definitely a store bought pizza not in house freshly made. I ordered a hamburger. It was smash type patty & it was burned to a crisp. It looked like it had been bbq 10 x’s over. Believe me when I say it was black! The excuse our waitress gave us as most likely told to say was because they bbq with coal. We sent both meals back, and within 20 mins she returns to give my husband the same pizza that now has been overcooked to being a brown crisp on top. I think my hamburger was redone, but not sure, as it too was burnt. So for the first time ever we said we were done and payed for our two drinks and left. No apologies from the owner!, and they had the nerve to even charge us anything. Believe me when I say I’m holding back to what I really want write here! I have never been so blunt or so critical in writing a review! But with the cost of food,& our economy in general I have no tolerance for this BS! You finally get away for awhile and then have to deal with this crap! You had better get you act together man because tourists are coming & maybe even more so this year because of...

Let’s start with food.

At first I wanted to order the daily special soup . Since I am a vegetarian, I clearly asked if there is any meat in the soup. The waitress who took our order said that there was no meat. Only when I asked for more information about the ingredients is when she made an attempt to ultimately find out that there was Turkey in it. I understand that the daily specials might change every day and maybe it was vegetarian someday and she might not have remembered. But when a customer is mentioning a dietary restriction, it comes in the job description to check and confirm. I ultimately ordered Veg Fettuccine Pasta and it was average at best in terms of both taste and portion size. There was so much oil in the pasta, I started getting gag reflux at the end of it.

My husband ordered Jamaican Jerk Chicken sandwich. There was nothing even close to jerk in that burger. It ultimately tasted like a basic sorry attempt that was priced at $27.

Coming to the service, our experience was not good here as well. The restaurant was not busy when we arrived. There was no line but it still took them 15 to 20 mins to even notice us and offer a table. It almost felt like they were ignoring us. Food took more than an hour to arrive and was almost cold.

However, the blonde waitress who brought us our food was very nice. It was her nice behaviour which saved us from having the worst experience. Forgot to ask her name but she deserves a raise. The other waitress was not attentive and seemed rude.

Will...