The Island Grille — Restaurant in Atlantic Beach

Okay, I was just at the Island grille. For my mom's birthday. The place is very small and they didn't have any reservations for another hour so we decided to sit at the bar. Which is first come first serve, In our sitting at the bar we had our dinner which was filet mignon and it was excellent. This is why I gave five stars for food. It was truly a work of art. But now for my service and atmosphere ratings of one star; I would give less than that if I could, it was terrible. When we were in the middle of eating our dinner, again, moms birthday...

The bartender Kayleigh, asked us if we would move down a seat whilst my mother is eating her food. We responded as nicely as she asked us with as soon as we're done eating we can move. And then she copped an attitude with my mom. I said that's a really shitty thing to do service-wise. And I didn't appreciate it. So she got an attitude with me and I owned her. Then the manager came over and told me that they took care of our check and that we should leave. So when my mother was done eating her food we left. The bartender gave me some crazy liberal excuse and try to make me feel bad and not being considerate of others. $54 a plate...Well, we would have moved, if not for the attitude. This person seriously needs to be coached on proper service etiquette. So as far as the place as a whole goes, it gets three stars, the food was excellent ,but the service sucked. So if you're going to the Island grille on Atlantic Beach in North Carolina take that...

Service was outstanding! Bloody Mary was $12 Ciabotta bread w/garlic bread ($5) Seafood Trio (with pasta) $35 The Burger ($24) Place is small, seating is tight, has a small bar area, extensive wine list, parking is across the street.

Would have LOVED to have given the Grille a five but my plate of the Seafood Trio had 3 shrimp, 2 grilled scallops and a 2x2 inch square of fish - with some pasta in sauce, served with spinach (which needed to be chopped) and raw basil (which the plate did not need -at ALL!)....and 1/4" cut tomatoes. If I'm paying $35 for a Seafood plate, there needs to be some SEAFOOD. Put back in 2 more shrimp and 1 more scallop and I might have been OK with the $35 price tag. The Burger, however, did NOT disappoint and I wish I had ordered that as well. Two MASSIVE angus burgers, prepared medium rare, with mozzerella cheese sliding off, Roma tomato, basil.. and the taste was incredible! The burger did not need the raw basil! Our app was the ciabotta bread (toasted hard on the outside and soft on the inside) with garlic bread! Awesome! Overall, we enjoy going to the Island Grille, but sometimes their plates are hit and miss. They do have a buy one, get one free special on Mondays and Tuesdays that we've done before and that was good (even if we had to scrape the unnecessary...

Well overall, I'd have to say "not worth the money".

Starting with the positive: service was great! They did everything quickly and were very attentive. They were well versed on meals and specials. And tried to accommodate our large party as best as they could.

Now some things to consider: This place is VERY small and over packed with tables. Making it quite loud, and uncomfortably close to traffic routes and other tables. Not a romantic vibe when your shoulder to shoulder with the next table. The food was presented well, but not the quality you'd expect from the price. My swordfish looked amazing, but one bite and I could tell it was nearly "off", or at least very old. Our waitress quickly saw this and replaced the dish with something else.. (awesome staff) Others had the filet minot heavy charred on a med-rare order. And the kids Mac and cheese came out with nice mashed potatoes, but the mac was directly out of a box. Same orange sause, same noodles... Scallops were seared very nice, but.. only one side. The other side never touched the pan.

Overall, it seems like the kitchen wants to execute, they are just maybe dealing with lesser quality ingredients and trying to up sell them with visual...