Islands — Restaurant in Seal Beach

I don’t usually write reviews, but this was such a bad experience! It was both my husband and my birthday, and we did not have a pleasant experience and we wish we went somewhere else or to another location! The hostess was so kind and sweet! Greeted us and we told her it was both our birthdays, she took our cakes in the back to the fridge. We loved her! Everything else was a mess. It started when our original waitress took her break and another guy took over, gave us our check before the cakes were brought out (might’ve been a miscommunication) but it was quickly fixed and we were okay. That wasn’t a big deal. But then, when we got our cakes, which was in the boxes still, (usually would not be a problem, but wait for the rest of the story) we asked the two people at the hostess table if they had a lighter, (because we were literally sitting there for a couple minutes with unlighted cakes, blank faces and nobody acknowledged us) they said no and looked the other way, so we took it into our own hands and asked someone from the kitchen for a lighter. (They have an open kitchen, we didn’t go inside the kitchen lol). I kid you not, 5 minutes later, another table across from us got their cake served to their table with like 10 candles all lighted up! Then, we cut our own cakes and served them, and guess what, not enough cake plates and spoons, we were left there with our ice cream cakes melting and half of the table eating their cakes and half just sitting there awkwardly waiting for someone to pass by so we can ask them for extra plates and spoons! The hostess ended up bringing us the spoons and plates, because again, the waitress/waiter was not available. It was just a complete mess! We wanted so badly to not tip at this point but we did anyway! We are definitely not coming back to this location! Guess we weren’t...

In collaboration with ABC's 10th season of "Bachelor in Paradise", Islands has a limited time special. Islands' "Flight to Paradise" is only $9 on Mondays, till August 25, 2025.

The "Flight to Paradise" is their "Tropical Flight", renamed in theming with "Bachelor in Paradise", i.e, Shipwreck to Emotionally Wrecked & Deep Blue Sea to Sea of Love, etc. The regular price is $17+, making the Monday "Flight to Paradise" almost 50% off! Great deal!

On a hot July day, the flight was thirst quenching, and buzzed me up real good. Of the 4 drinks, I preferred the Golden Mai Tai, as it was the most stiff. The others were a tad too sweet and/or bright. However, still refreshing.

Service was good, and the wait for the "Flight to Paradise" was exceedingly minimal. Ample seating, Islands Restaurant is located off Seal Beach Blvd., with parking at Old Ranch Town Center.

Cheap way to get drunk! The $9 "Flight to Paradise" Monday special is a cooling reprieve on a hot summer day. I thoroughly enjoyed the cocktail flight of Islands favorites, and look forward to indulging in this great promo again, before the collaboration expires...

If I was allowed to leave zero Stars I would. I have a job where I travel through southern California quite a bit but I live in San Diego close to another location in Carlsbad which I never go to because the last time I went there the food was absolutely terrible period if you know anything about restaurants they have the choice of what quality food they purchase to serve their customers. Line cooks are a dime a dozen and don't usually need very much training which is what they use with their pre-packaged food.

On this occasion I was in Orange county and thought to myself well they can't have two locations that serve terrible food...

I was wrong not only were the chicken wings chewy and you could absolutely tell they were pre-packaged and thrown in the fryer Frozen but they do not clean their beer lines which is a huge red flag because you can get very very sick and end up in the hospital.

my advice stay away from islands completely their food is not worth the money you're going to spend on it and a very high potential to get sick from...