Islands — Restaurant in Monterey

Just came here with my family for a night out dinner after a movie.. it was a big mistake. When we first came there we got seated fairly quickly, but they failed to give us children menus. While looking over the regular menu it took about 30 minutes for a server to even come by. Once he came by, i requested children menus for my kids and he came back with one. When i asked him for another child's menu he rolled his eyes and got them. After that whole ideal, we ordered our food. About 15 minutes later the food came out. We all got burgers and none of them came with fries. I had to ask the food server if these burgers came with fries and they came up a lame excuse of "oh we are cooking them fresh and ate coming out right now"... They spoiler alert, they were not fresh. They were both soggy and cold. Then they delivered our order of chili cheese fries missing the chili. I told the food server again and about 5 minutes later he came back with a bowl of chili and said it was on the house. My family started eating the food. Not going to lie the burgers were juicy and flavorful. Fries sucked.

After awhile we started running low on drinks and our server was nowhere to be found. The whole meal we didnt even see him once. This would be understandable if it was super busy but there was probably only 4 other tables in the section. After me and family finallh finished eating we had to wait another 30 minutes before even seeing my server again. I requested boxes, refill on drinks and the check. He then proceeded to walk away into the abyss again. Another 30 minutes later he finally pops up and starts servicing other tables avoiding eye contact with my table. 15 minutes later after him repeatedly doing this he finally comes by and gives me two child cups of drinks and a glass of tap water instead of lemonade my other daughter had and was empty. I then if he can bring me boxes and he walked away sluggishly rolling his eyes. Came back a few minutes later with boxes without a bag.

All and all it was terrible service and time for mediocre food. Not coming...

Not sure when this restaurant turned into a "SPORTS BAR" atmosphere but dam its loud in this place!!! 😳 now granted there is a bar in the middle of the restaurant but is this NOW the focus of Islands?!!! I guess it's been a while since I've dined.

We went to join up w/ some friends & upon walking in I was discussed w/how many empty dirty tables had to be bussed & then there sat our friends surrounded by 4 more dirty empty tables! First thing my friends asked was"Is it to loud in here?" My immediate response was "YES!" & we asked to go out on the patio. The patio volume a a bit better, not as loud considering we could have a conversation w/o yelling at one another. However, the dirty tables were still noticeable even out on the patio. Every table was in need of bussing (its 6:30pm dinner hour). Our table was thrown together & 2 other guest tables were already seated outside as well. The food came & went, service was on point which was really nice.

But one thing that was even better was that once the basketball 🏀 game was over the volume of the TV was OFF & music 🎶 was on at a comfortable listening 🎶 volume! Now granted what was displayed on the TV was a bit out of taste for a 👪 family eating place "whacked out sports" showing women's bikini 👙 wrestling?! Seriously?!! What the he'll is happening?!! What happened to the surf videos of current & old? Competitions? Has Islands lost ALL of its foundation & fell into the commercialism of being just like any other "sports bar" in Monterey?

Yeah I won't be back... the fish tacos I had were ok, my son had the Hawaiian burger 🍔 aside from it being alot to Handel he enjoyed every bit. The rest of the company also ate thier meal in full but made mention that "don't ever eat the fries"there terrible bcuz they are too...

Update: The customer service here has definitely improved!! We came back because my kids love the food here. We were seated, served our apps then food came shortly after. Our server was very attentive despite the full side of tables he had. Great service, great food and great atmosphere!*

The food was great... the customer service, not so much. I was trying to be understanding since I know we’re in the middle of a pandemic but the service we received was unreal. She spilled my daughters lemonade on the table and didn’t offer to clean it before leaving. Just looked at it and continued to place everyone else’s drinks down then walked off. We had to ask another waitress for napkins so we could clean it up ourselves. Our waiter dropped off our appetizers and didn’t even stop to ask if we needed plates or utensils. We were a party 7! She came through one door, dropped off the app and then back through the other door. Another waitress that passed by was kind enough to drop off plates and utensils, after asking her for some, and apologized for not having any on the table. The ONLY time our waitress appeared is when my kids started to get up to go to the bathroom and she offered her services to cash us out. There was a glitch or something in the system notifying me the payment was made (which it didn’t) and she RAN in to grab the manager. Again, this was the MOST service we’ve received from her all dinner. Reprocessed payment and her customer service skills must’ve kicked in when the manager was around because she was suddenly offering service. Should’ve went a couple stores down to Lala’s!!! Two star rating was only for the customer service.. the food was AMAZING!! Order take out, if you chose...