Islands — Restaurant in San Diego

First time here and the food was pretty subpar. The waitress was needing an eye check as well. Maybe train your staff to become a little more cultured or literally just use their eyes. I hope management takes this as a learning lesson.

First, we ordered margaritas. She asked for ID, totally normal. My friend and I are both Chinese and look nothing alike. She then proceeded to say I can’t tell you two apart so she couldn’t give us our IDs back to the right person. My friend said hers was the Oregon one and I said mine was the California one. My friend was from out of town in Oregon, and so she said she wasn’t familiar with Oregon licenses and needed to double check. Fine. She comes back and continues to say I don’t know whose is whose. Really annoying. Just use your eyes.

Our next issue was that my friend ordered a burger medium. Not medium rare, just medium. We got the burger and it was rare rare. We waited 15 mins before a waitress came to check on us. Meanwhile there was staff all around just chatting it up and on their phones texting not helping. The waitress finally comes by and literally gasps at how raw it is, and proceeds to tell us that it is indeed medium and that’s how the restaurant normally makes it and we ordered it wrong. I said no, that’s not medium. We want an actual medium and if that’s the normal medium you should disclose before ordering that the restaurant likes to cook things way under the standard. Burger was comped but the waitress was terrible. First and last time here.

Fries were ordered were bottom of...

More like 3 and 1/2 stars.I recently dined here and the good news is the service was Excellent. Carrieanne was my server And she was awesome , friendly and efficient. 5+stars for her!! I also felt the establishment was clean from what I could see, and that gave me piece of mind . I'm also happy to see an Islands still in operations in SD because over the years I have enjoyed being a patron here . The vibes are surf and sports related and feel fun and very So Cali. The food however was unfortunately very disappointing. I ordered the Maui Burger veggie burger style . The cheese was cold and the shredded lettuce was more like a salad size and not shredded enough and was sliding out everywhere . The white onion which I was excited about eating was not edible on the burger because it was cut much too thick . The guacamole was Everywhere as well but IN the burger. Avocado slices would have been more logical .And the veggie patty was okay . Overall, it was a disaster really. And I should have taken a picture. Just imagine a bunch of guacamole and chunks of romaine, thick onion and cold Swiss cheese. I wouldn't recommend the Maui burger. If I return again maybe I'll try something more basic. When you're spending $20 on a veggie burger you definitely want it to make it into your...

Islands: "Fine burgers and drinks."

I dare say not.

I'm not even going to touch on the service (it was severely lacking, at best).

I wasted $50 on two burgers that could've been bested by Jack in The Box's Buttery Jack. I wish I was kidding.

It's obvious that the patties are not seasoned and little thought or effort is put into the burgers. I ordered the Hula - Swiss and sautéed mushrooms, lettuce, tomato and mayo. My burger was lukewarm and the mushrooms ontop were ice cold. Takes special talent to do that. Each bite was ruined by cold mushiness. There was no mayo. The burger was as a whole, completely dry and tasteless. I also ordered a side of the "cheese fries".

Think, day old fast food fries that you nuked in a futile attempt to pep them up. Completely dry and stale. They were (what I could only guess to be) thrown into a microwave with some shredded cheese then brought out. Missing the scallions and, "housemade chili" that might've at least added some flavor.

As a whole I'd skip the "Island" and go to whatever fast food burger joint you prefer; even In-N-Out would be a better option with it's 50/50 chance of the runs.

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