La Isla Bonita — Restaurant in Lyons Township

My first visit was about 9 months ago and everything was great. Food delicious and seasoned well, great service and entertainment was awesome. Ive visited 3 times since then and it declined more with each visit. The worst was my last visit on Saturday 5/13/23. We were celebrating my niece college graduate.we were a party of 13 and 3 guest was moved to a different area in spite the fact of an empty table next to everyone else. We were told the others would be able to move if no one arrived by 12:15 and then 12:45, table still empty yet time to move kept getting pushed back. No one EVER show up but guest was not allowed to sit with everyone else. On first visit, placed was packed, this time empty tables. I ordered lamb chops and the customer next to me handed me the salt and said you’re going to need this. My first visit, juicy, well seasoned and delicious. This visit NO season and dry. Pancakes were served cold. A couple of people ordered surf and turf that includes steak and shrimp. No shrimp and was told it’s extra for shrimp, not according to menu. Someone ordered fish and grits asked for fried fish and told they don’t serve fried fish during brunch after seeing fried fish on other guest plates. None of the lamb chops entrees were seasoned, steaks were not seasoned and the eggs were taken from buffet and served with entree. The entertainment was great and vibe is nice. The worst part of our celebration was one of our guest food arriving as we were leaving. It was cold and not edible. The horrible waitress who gave.wrong information about the menu all day said it would be taken off the bill. The manager overrode that decision and refused to remove it from the bill, COLD food and I mean cold. I explained to the manager they were traveling from Atlanta and only came to celebrate with their niece and granddaughter. I pointed out the elderly grandfather and informed the manager that should be in Atlanta but stay for the celebration. The manager stated she never said there was no charge and it the food leave the kitchen, the guest pay half regardless of the kitchen error. Needless to say, the entire entree was returned to the kitchen, entire. Not edible. We were forced to pay for a bad meal and bad service (tip is included regardless). Drinks were weak. You are charged the cost of an entree if you share, so basically no sharing or you will pay a premium. Regardless of how bad of food the kitchen serves you, you will pay “if it leaves their kitchen” the most bizarre policy I’ve ever heard of. I tried to support but this was my last visit. I hope service improves, taste and quality of food improves. Maybe they should hire private guest to evaluate and give honest feedback to improve because there is clearly a theme with unsatisfied customers. I never read reviews until now, maybe I should...

Edit: 2 weeks later and no response to this post. Never eating here again and sharing with others not to give this place a try. Also, the responses to “customers” feedback is mediocre and a joke. #CloseThemDown

Attended for a friends birthday celebration last night and that was my first and last time visiting. Placed an order for baked chicken with Mac and cheese and collard greens around 9:30 pm. Hour goes around and people who joined our table much later received their food within 30-40 minutes. Asked the two waiters the ETA of my order and my friends chicken Alfredo. They asked me “the food never came out?” and went to check.

Food comes out and isn’t placed in front of me but at the end of the table at 11:35pm and it is the wrong order - this was fried chicken with Mac and cheese and steamed carrots/cauliflower. Took forever to locate a waiter; my mom sitting at another table had to alert their waiter who provided excellent service to them and went to see why it was taking so long and why the wrong order was brought out. I received my food at 11:42 pm after the experience of the live band was over with and the establishment was emptying out. The chicken was okay however, the greens were not seasoned (no salt/pepper presented on the table when anyone’s food arrived) and the Mac and cheese was a spiral noodle with greasy and runny cheese sauce.

I asked to speak to a manager as I wholeheartedly disagreed with paying the full $32 for the meal that came more than two hours after placing an order and I never was approached by a manager (or anyone that acknowledged they were to apologize for the long wait on my food). It was also never confirmed whether a discount was applied to the individual baked chicken meal total as my friend whose birthday we were celebrating was disappointed that I didn’t have a good experience.

I love supporting Black businesses especially those in white neighborhoods, but this business missed on a guest’s first dining experience. Also, I appreciated the security guard Brother reminding patrons that baseball caps needed to be removed (and did so very respectfully - kudos to him), however, the guy MC’ing before the band played should not have been wearing a baseball cap if this is truly the dress code and should have less time talking and more time for the live band. Also the joke about Gary, Indiana when we had two patrons that were guests from Gary was distasteful. This was a huge miss and took away from the...

I took my husband here for his birthday on a Saturday 06/03/23. First the positives. The atmosphere was nice and the decor fit the space. The drinks were ok but overpriced. I hate to have to write these kind of reviews for our black owned businesses, but at the same time I have to be honest about my experience. The customer service was very nonchalant and impersonable. The waitress acted like she didn't want to be there. Left empty plates of food on our table for what I thought was way too long,even though the place was not crowded at all to be a Saturday night, mind you our reservations was for 8:45 pm. The food was luke warm at best. We both ordered the lamb chops which were so small,after taking one bite the meat was gone off of the bone! It was served with what tasted like unseasoned spinach and mashed potatoes. I was very shocked at the food because the reviews raved about the food! My advise to the owner is one of two things need to happen. You need to hire people with great customer service and waiting skills or step up the food game. Not having either is a recipe for disaster! I know for myself, I will frequent an establishment if they have awesome customer service and subpar food or I will go back if the food was good and the customer service was subpar but to have a bad experience with both is a "NO" for me! The entertainment that night was good as well, but we left early b/c even though the singer was good I could not sit to watch her sing song, after song of 90's R&B. Oh and the bill for 3 drinks and two entrees was $198.00. Btw they automatically charge 18% gratuity to your bill which wouldn't be a problem if we had better customer service! But with service and food being subpar I see why they have to automatically tack on the gratuity to your bill otherwise, the waitress definitely wouldn't have gotten a tip from me! Maybe if they worked for their tips they would have better attitudes? Again, sad to say but this is the problem with a lot of our black owned businesses. We need to focus more on customer service skills and hiring people with those skills naturally b/c honestly you really can't teach that. Safe to say we will not...