Islands — Restaurant in Thousand Oaks

It's hard to say how many years we've been going to this Islands restaurant, but it certainly dates back at least 16 years. Over the last few years the quality of service has diminished precipitously while prices have gone up faster than is reasonable for the area.

For a long time, we were doing take-out twice a month on Fridays for 6 people. Take-out is hit or miss and you absolutely must check the order before you leave. They are notoriously bad at this Islands about getting your take out order correct or ready when they say it will be. But knowing this made take out a little easier. We finally just gave up on take-out because it was just too much work to go through every box and bag then wait for the order to be corrected.

Table service is usually better but has gone downhill over the last several years. Tonight was the end of our Islands visits. We arrived for dinner just after 5 pm. Our truly and honestly wonderful server took our drink orders then our food orders a bit later -- maybe 10 minutes. Drinks took almost 20 minutes to come and food for 4 came in 4 installments starting 15 minutes after that. First the fries came out. Then the burger and chicken bowl came out 10 minutes after that. The tacos finally arrived. By the time the chicken wrap came out the bowl and tacos were nearly gone. The chicken wrap finally came. We were offered chips and salsa comp as a courtesy for our now well over an hour wait for food. They never came.

The Malibu burger didn't have have it's bacon but I decided not to complain about that since there was so much more going on. However, the burger was ordered medium and came tartar and almost completely inedible. The chicken wrap came completely prepared wrong for what was ordered and not even as described in the menu. We sent that back and our server said she would comp the wrap and have it remade.

Our server offered to bring the manager out and we agreed. We figured that the manager would make good on the inedible burger and wrap but proceeded instead to be insulting that the meal was actually just fine but he would have the wrap remade. We said it was already being taken care of. His response was "Very good." and tried to walk away. To the manager's credit, he did apologize for the bad experience but "there's nothing he can really do since there are new people in the kitchen."

The result of this experience? Since it's not the first time and the manager was rude and inflexible, they lost a family of frequent customers and a second family of the Friday get-together, and the goodwill that we could have offered by recommendations. They won't go out of business because a few of us won't go back but they did lose some good customers tonight. And the chicken wrap? It came at 7:25pm.

With so many good restaurants in this shopping center and in Newbury Park itself, there's no reason...

Used to eat the MDR location frequently back in the 70's. Always loved it. Great burgers and fries that would toss Micky D's in the trash.

Been meaning to try one of the other locations as they expanded from the OG location in MARINA. They recently opened one in Newbury Park. Convenient for me 'cause we work in TO and Westlake so frequently.

Jacki, granddaughter and I stopped for lunch on Thursday. Greeted and seated quickly and enthusiastically. We'd finished work and an adult bev was warranted. A Mojito for Jacki and a Sunset Margarita for me. The drinks were disappointing given $10 a pop. Mohito was lacking mulled mint. Just tossed in the glass. Definitely tight PC on the pour. Maggie was passable but without raves. Drink order and delivery was quick like a blink.

We ordered burgers and fries. Jacki and I split the "Longboarder" and gdaughter had the "Bluenami". The order was a little slow coming out. Maybe more than a little. Burgers were very good. The super star was the fries. Simply, the consensus was they are the best fries in the history of mankind!

The snail pace of the order production was dealt with very effectively by both the server, Tori, who was a pleasure and the manager. Didn't catch his name but he was totally on top of the issue before we brought it up. Competent guy. Hope Islands thinks as highly of Tori and the manager as we do. We'll for sure be back. Very pleasant lunch thanks to a grand combination of food and...

I remember this restaurant Being better than this. The restaurant was only about half full and our servers section was about half-full. she was horrible, it took her ten minutes just to show up and asked us if we wanted any drinks so yes we order drinks immediately order an appetizer and As She's Walking Away I told her to wait because we had plenty of time to look at the menu so we went ahead and ordered our food good thing we did because we didn't see her again for another 10 minutes. And then about 40 minutes later the food finally comes out and it wasn't her bringing it it was one of the Busboys bring the food to us. (The food was not good at all.) And seeing how we were there for a total of an hour and a half with a restaurant that was not busy obviously the kitchen was slow also, it was obvious that it was not just our table other people there were having issues. And other wait staff in the bus boys were the ones waiting on other table is also not her.

Long story short I ended up giving the tip to the bus boys who are doing all the damn work. and told them that she was horrible.. And I complained...