Island Bar & Grill — Restaurant in La Vista

I had high hopes for this place, having the island theme. Unfortunately it left a lot to be desired. The food was average bar food for the most part, with the word ‘island’ preceding burger or nachos, etc, but other than pineapple as an ingredient (or add on to the burger for an up charge) or a special sauce, the food was still standard bar grub. We went on a Saturday at the start of dinner time, and there weren’t many folks at tables when we arrived. They were short handed, with only one cook in the kitchen that I could see, and only one woman working the bar, waiting and bussing tables, etc. We had two bar drinks that were good but nothing to write home about, crab hush puppies that were good, and the island nachos that sat in the window a bit too long before our boneless wings were ready. The nachos were missing the queso which we got after we asked for it, and the house salsa that came with the nachos looked like tomato paste and tasted like barely flavored tomato paste. The restaurant got more crowded while we ate, and l finally went to the bar to pay when she was in between helping other patrons. We never made a fuss about anything, because this woman (and the cook in the kitchen) were doing their absolute best given the circumstances, but it would have been nice to have a water as we finished our drinks and were still thirsty and had heat left over from the Jamaican jerk sauce on the wings. She did apologize and said that the owner had just left before we arrived to let their dog out and was coming right back, but going into dinnertime on a Saturday is the worst possible time to leave a restaurant with only one cook and one other person to tend to everything else. It has the potential to be a good island themed restaurant, but it needs better execution (the dishes need just a few tweaks to consider it island food) and more staff. If you’re looking for true island food, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re just looking for some fruity island drinks with standard bar and grill style grub, and don’t mind them being shorthanded on a Saturday at dinnertime, you’ll be okay here. Big kudos to the two folks working there tonight for hanging in there...

4 of us came here for the first time to try the food, drinks, and check out the evening entertainment . We arrived early so we could secure a table. Placed 4 food orders with an appetizer, sides, with some extra sauces. Food came out individually,about 3 minutes apart, except for the last dish. When the dishes were delivered we advised the waitress that some sauces were missing. My brother sat there for 20 minutes watching us eat and finally got up and saw that his plate was sitting at the serving counter so he asked the chefs if he could just grab it, unfortunately he couldn’t. You could tell that the chefs were getting frustrated, the food delivery area was overcrowded with orders that needed to go out. The chefs kept ringing the bell for orders to be delivered. After food was delivered we barely saw our waitress again, literally 3 times in a four hour period. After we ate and set aside our plates someone brought us the extra sauces we asked for upon ordering. We ordered another round of drinks, and waited over 40 minutes then our waitress came over and asked if we needed anything , and we politely told her we still haven’t received our drinks. After another 20 minutes of waiting we went to the bar to talk to the owner to ask for our check. The waitress came over and asked if we ever got our drinks. I told her we were done and just wanted to leave. When we got our bill, it had the drinks we never received and the sauces that came after we ate on it. This was such a bad service experience, as local we...

Owner and waitress were attentive. Bottom line up front for the rest of this, overpriced, food was not good, waitress could have been more upfront. Unfortunately the chicken Philly was soooooo dry and COLD. Cheese was under the meat and not melted. The person I was with ordered the exact same sandwich, for some reason his came with cream cheese in mine did not. For what it's worth he said his tasted pretty good. He also said the cream cheese might have made the difference. But where we both agreed was that it was overpriced. $14....... For Just the sandwich, no sides! In the future I will stick with Pepperjacks. They're half the price and so much better. The sides... When the waitress says "What do you want for your side?" that sounds a whole lot like it's included. Shame on me for not asking. But when the person I was with asked if the side was included she said yes, and then ended up charging us extra for sides.. shame on her. Why do they have to act like used car salesmen and sneak in a side for an extra $2 just let us know what we're paying for. I have no way to validate this but the pina colada did not taste like it had alcohol in it, at least not enough for the $8 price tag. And yes it took a long time to get the check. But hey the atmosphere was good if you're into that...