The Islander — Restaurant in Ko Samui

We have walked past this place so many times as a family, last night I had the opportunity to have a meal with my other half without the family and decided to finally try The Islander.

It always seemed to be a very loud and lively place when walking past but today was election day, one of those few days where everywhere is different, and we arrived after 6pm we already knew they wouldn’t serve alcohol, which was fine with us. As it’s a restaurant / pub type venue it was good for us to see as just a restaurant. Without the pub atmosphere. But there are also so any TVs with different sport on each.

The staff where all young, but definitely don’t be put off by this, they know there jobs, and do them very well. They make sure you get everything you need.

I decided that I wanted to try the egg and bacon cheese burger, and my other half ordered 2 different Thai dishes.

We always expect food to come at different times in Thailand as it seems to be the norm, but everything came together which was a good start.

The Burger, I have to say, was probably the best burger I’ve had on the island, I don’t eat them very often but this was definitely not a store bought burger. It was cooked exactly as asked for, and was a very nice surprise. Nisa managed to finishe both of her mains, and again, being that it’s aimed at tourists she was pleasantly surprised as well.

Not the cheapest place on the road in terms of price, but definitely good value for money when you are served food this good.

I will definitely take the whole family back for them to experience next time and happy we decided to eat here.

It’s definitely worth trying...

Once again the overall score has been dropped by one point because of service, I will explain.

The Islander is open early serving breakfast and that is what we were looking for. I ordered French Toast and my girlfriend ordered the American Combo Breakfast.

After the food arrived I realized that the waitress had forgotten to bring the maple syrup for the french toast. After waving my hand around for a couple of minutes the waitress finally came over, I asked for some syrup, she asked me if I wanted soy sauce, I have never tried french toast with soy sauce but I'm guessing that it wouldn't taste too good. Okay, the waitress doesn't understand English so my girlfriend spoke to her in Thai, guess what, she didn't understand Thai either, she brought me some honey, I made due with that. Do they really not have maple syrup for french toast in a tourist town? I guess I'll never know.

I cant blame the wait staff but I can blame the owner/management. I'm pretty sure that the waitress was Burmese, I'm also pretty sure that hiring a Burmese over a Thai saves you a couple of bucks but it's at the expense of service. So the owner thinks he's saving money but the truth of the matter is that the customer expects a certain level of service, If they don't receive that service it leaves the customer with a bad impression, they tell others, you lose potential new customers and the ones that gave you a try don't come back. So maybe you saved a couple of bucks up front but in the end you lose much more.

The food was good, a solid 4, the service wasn't good, -1 point....

We came to watch the Women’s Euro final and were seated by staff at a table for six. We immediately mentioned that two more friends would be joining later and were mindful of the larger table size. Despite being placed there by the waitress, we were met with repeated dirty looks throughout the evening, which made us feel incredibly uncomfortable.

When the table behind us became free, we simply merged it with ours to make a table for four (the initial table was a table of 4, with a table of 2 on the end, which we were sat on) exactly the size we needed once our friends arrived. Meanwhile, a man nearby was left alone at a four-person table with no issue at all, highlighting a clear double standard. The atmosphere and service felt biased, with the waitresses noticeably favouring certain male customers.

At one point, a particularly rude waitress came over, pointed at the empty seats next to us, laughed, and stood silently staring even after I explained our group would soon be complete and we now fit the table size. Her behaviour was hostile, completely inappropriate, and left us feeling singled out and unwelcome.

To top it off, drinks were repeatedly handled by staff placing fingers inside or on the rims of the glasses rather than asking if we were finished. The TVs also crashed multiple times, so I wouldn’t recommend this place for watching sports.

Overall, if you’re a man, you’ll likely be treated just fine. If not, prepare to be scrutinised and made to feel...