Island Prime — Restaurant in San Diego

I was so excited to make reservations at Island Prime for our 20th Anniversary. After making our reservation, we called a few days in advance and spoke to Brenda to see if we could possibly request a view for our dinner. Brenda said she would make note of it but no promises. We totally understood. Upon arriving you are greeted with a sizeable parking lot, although spaces can be a bit tight. More so due to other drivers not parking within the space correctly.

When we arrived for our reservation we asked again about possibly getting a table with a view. The hostess was so sweet and asked if we can wait a bit, we would be able to secure the a view. No problem. We waited and not much time passed and we were getting seated. We were seated in between the two dining areas with an obstruction to our view close to the kitchen. We noticed a table that has not been cleared with a better view. Our server greeted us, took our drink order and I will say you can tell she was going to be AMAZING. When she came back with our drinks we asked about the table in question and she said she would go check if we could move. Luckily, it was all good! We scored a great table that felt intimate, roomy and had a wonderful view. Our dinner was for sunset and it is a perfect view.

Unfortunately moving into that section we lost our server and we were transferred to Chris' section. Chris initially was kind of friendly, although not too interested in talking to us. Chris took our order and after that we didn't see him much. He was busy checking on other tables. Finally after we finished our meal we needed our food boxed. A gentleman came by to ask if everything was ok, we told him yes, it was great, we just need some dishes boxed up and a dessert menu. He was great, came back with the food boxed up and Chris came by. Chris gently tossed almost threw a complimentary dessert down on the table and casually said, yeah for the anniversary. He seemed annoyed. It was at that time we decided to just take the check and forgo the dessert menu. I think our experience would have been better with another server. It unfortunately kind of put a damper on the night. It is a memory I'll be sure to never forget. I don't foresee us coming back to...

We chose Island Prime from a recommendation of family who had previously gone to its adjoining restaurant. Now this review will need a bit of explaining at the end regarding how I came about giving it the full 4 stars and not 3. The restaurant is beautiful in a simple way. As we walked to the table I could see the beautiful and tasty plates people were enjoying. They appeared to be a good selection of options. We were seated at table with a nice direct view of the port. It was just after sunset and the view was spectacular. At one point some fireworks were going off in the distance and it made it look as if the sky was on fire. We were greeted by a very nice young man who presented us with the specials but also with the worst news I wanted at the time. They were out if the ribeye I had come to devour. I was bummed. But plenty more steak options were available. My husband and I chose the tone for two with sides and we started odd with the Caesar Salad. It was beautiful dressed, or we thought, until my husband and I simultaneously developed a morphed like face as we both bit into a chunk of straight SARDINE 😲😳🤢. We made it through that. But let me backtrack a bit a dinner roll with a beautiful butter was dropped at table and we'll you will need to go to experience everything about the bread. It was delish. The food came it was very good. The steak perfectly cooked. We had started out with oysters and those were fantastic and I am super picky. We ended by a complimentary anniversary strawberry cake that was delish in it's simplicity. The true and fresh taste of each element made it melt in your mouth. Now here is the reason for star rating adjustment. When my husband made the reservation somehow it ended being the day after our anniversary and not the day of. My husband called the restaurant and explained the situation and was told they were completely full, but if we would be patient he would try to squeeze us in. And he did!!! Thank you so much. That kind of customer service can always make up for a few mishaps. I recommend Island Prime for a dinner...

Very disappointing and atrocious cost to quality ratio. Came here for a date night because I knew the view was amazing (I’ve been to C Level and Coasterra in the past). My hopes were not super high regarding the food quality since I’ve been to the other two restaurants here and they’re all owned by the same people.

I’ll start with the highs: the service was very quick and our server, Desirae, was friendly and attentive. We started with some cocktails and lobster bisque. The bisque was actually great and the cocktails were just good - not amazing, but not disappointing either. As I expected, the view is fantastic at all three of the restaurants in this corner of harbor island. Unfortunately, they know this and seem to not care at all about the quality of their food.

Now to the lows: first of all, the pricing would be fair IF the food was actually good. As I mentioned earlier the bisque was great and the bread was ok, but everything else ranged from barely edible to disgusting.

I ordered the Snake River “Eye of the River” steak, (which the menu claimed to be American Wagyu). I have had higher quality steaks from Walmart. The steak was perfectly prepared, but it was extraordinarily low quality. It reminded me of the chuck steaks I had as a kid at O’Charley’s, except instead of $8, it cost $82.

My girlfriend ordered the salmon with mushrooms. We both eat salmon all the time. This salmon tasted like it had been sitting around for quite a while. It was far from fresh and tasted pretty fishy. She was not able to finish it.

We ordered a side of mashed potatoes for the table and, good god, these were absolutely the worst part of the meal. They had a distinct taste that I can only describe as kind of how the goats at the zoo smell. Totally inedible. Had one bite each and we were done.

I really wanted to like this place; they have such a pretty location and nice building. $232 before tip though for food that could be beaten by Chili’s - no thanks. I would expect to pay about $60-70 for the...