My wife and I always come here to eat when we are in town for soccer tournaments. This is my favorite sit-down burger place. We ordered the Maui and Hawaiian burgers, last time was the Maui and the Hula Burgers I always have to have one or two of the Hawaiian Longboard beer. The food and service is always great here when we come to eat. The place is not as decorated as other Island restaurants, but it's still nice read more

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After our Disneyland day, we went to Islands for dinner. We made it right on time for the happy hour specials, which were delicious and a great deal! Cheddar fries, tiki tenders, spinach dip, and sliders. Everything was prepared just as we asked and came out quickly. Our servers were on top of their game, made sure that our drinks were always full and that we were happy with our items ordered. Fantastic friendly service and tasty comfort food. Perfect ending to a great day! read more

The purpose of this update is to include photos that for some reason didn't post at the time the review was compiled. read more

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Great place for family hangouts. I love the onion rings!! I think it's the best in OC. My kids love the variety of hamburgers to offer. Service is friendly and quick. I also love the nachos here. It does get crazy packed so come early. read more

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The sliders were amazing Piña colada was flavorful The fries and artichoke spinach dip was great Shout out to our server Mikey he had great service and made sure we were well taken cared of. read more

Our server Mia tonight was incredible and so patient. She was just overall so nice and accommodating and really made us feel at home. The food was great as always but this review is mostly for Mia because she did such a great job - thank you!! read more

The wife and I picked up two hamburgers tonight, one with fries and the other with onion rings. When the heck did this company stop caring about quality? Man oh man, we spent close to $48.00 for the order to go, no drinks, nothing special, nothing fancy. The burgers were really bland and why where the patties gray in color? I mean these were like Walking Dead zombie gray. Are they grinding up 'walkers' in the back as pre-Halloween treats? Heck if I know! There honestly wasn't any taste to them. You know, Shake Shack burgers actually have good flavor as do In-N-Out, but these were just bland. Not another word to describe them. Dry and just plain sub-par. The fries were pretty soggy and tasteless, somewhat like a coated fry product but certainly nothing special. As for the onion rings, they just opened a box of US Foods delivered Diamond Brand ( I believe that's the manufacturer's name) onion rings and fried them up. Bleh! Same garbage hundreds if not thousands of hack restaurants serve across the US. It's honestly not terribly difficult to actually make onion rings from scratch, you know, the large Maui onions, buttermilk coating, corn meal. Why do so many of the independent Greek owned burger joints make their own amazing onion rings and this place, a multi-million dollar chain can't be bothered. I'm pretty convinced people just go here for the nice 'Surfin' Bird' atmosphere and the drinks. Get hammered with your buds, eat garbage and leave. Night on the town accomplished. Yeah, I'm old and because I'm grumpy and ancient, I remember years ago when Islands was pretty damn good. Not any more. I guess when a corporate restaurant is turning a profit, no more thought as to quality should be considered or dare I say, 'mentioned'. There is a Shake Shack opening up about 100 yards away, I'm looking for that and Islands should be very concerned. There is also an In-N-Out across that street with a line that drapes across the REI parking lot. The line is long for a reason. It's good! Sauced, about 1/4 mile away is another reason why Island should be concerned. There just isn't a good reason to come here any longer. They need to hand form their burgers using quality meat and spend a bit more time creating their own sides, something done right, something done well, something high quality, something unique. Will the wife and I go back? No. It's not worth our time and money when so many other restaurants are actually working super hard to capture our (and yours) business. read more

Seems like the company has given up. Our burgers, fries, and onion rings were very bland, couldn't finish eating it. Onion rings were probably Blue Diamond and tasted fishy, fries were dried up and didn't taste good. Burgers were very bland, tasteless. Won't return, almost $45 for two burgers and two sides. Years ago Islands Restaurant was great. Sad they changed. read more

I ordered the Moa Kai tuna sandwich with fries and a cocktail. I was happy with my order! I like that there's plenty of TV monitors around the entire restaurant, so it's a great spot to watch major sports games while grabbing a drink or some bar food. read more

3 years later and nothing has changed... I only came here because of a friends birthday and he wanted to eat here, I'm sure after this experience none of us will ever step foot inside here again. My first bad encounter with Islands was back in 2021 {during COVID, so it was just take out at the time}. This time, we actually ate inside which I'm sure he regrets picking eating there. 08/11/2024 Server: Armando Arrived around 7ish, {receipt says we finished at 9:40PM} It was not crowded, or jam-packed. I don't understand why we had to wait 15 minutes for a booth when we did get seated there was tons of empty booths! I wish we had been seated in someone else's section because it was obvious Armando did not want to wait on us. My mom and I noticed the female servers were on point with their tables and had great customer service. We did not get any of that.. First, we all ordered soft drinks, waters and (2) alcoholic beverages.. yet we asked for straws when we gave the drink order and he only bought back TWO straws for all of our drinks! We had to repeatedly ask for more straws and napkins. That immediately let us know service was not going to be good and it wasn't.. it was AWFUL! Second, we ordered appetizers and since the service was already showing to be going downward we decided to order our entrees as well but my sister SPECIFICALLY said to the waiter, do NOT bring out all the food out once {meaning the appetizers + entrees together} please space them out. He said yeah sure no problem. Can you guess what happened? ALL of the food came out at once and we had no space at the table for it, the food runner was so aloof as well he had no clue what he was doing. Armando took the entrees back, {who knows where and probably microwaved them while we had our appetizers}. My mom ordered the chili cheese fries as her entree and he bought it out as her appetizer, it was missing CHEESE & ONIONS, when she asked the food runner where is the onions and cheese he bought a whole raw onion. Mind you, we were never given any utensils so she couldn't even cut the onion if she wanted too. Chasing down utensils was as hard as trying to get the straws and napkins. We told Armando and I still don't think he comprehended it, he swore there was cheese on the fries there wasn't nor was there onions. He ended up bringing a manager to the table, that was useless too. The manager didn't correct the situation and didn't take the item off the bill since it wasn't made right and my mom said her food was cold when it was "supposedly freshly remade" it was still missing cheese. Armando did not take away the dirty dishes so when they bought out the entrees we didn't have room, we literally had to flag him down just to do something basic. I took my food to go and wasn't impressed, even if I had eaten it there it wouldn't have changed anything. This place is a rip off, for the subpar quality, cutting corner on ingredients. The ranch was so watery and thinned out! My sisters drink was so watered down she had to ask for a shot to add to it to bring it life. Charging high prices for low quality food with bad service?! I don't think so! You guys can have this place! No wonder why the Barranca location closed. There are way better places to eat and not get ripped off , with better quality ingredients. If you want bad service, bad food and want to get nickel and dimed for every little thing, then this is the place for you. read more

I came here the other day since I was in the area. We were gonna go to a noodle house but it was too crowded. I haven't been to Islands in quite some time so figured I would try this location out. Our waitress was great. She was helpful, friendly, and even got our food out to us quickly. Like always, the fries were the first thing out. They were great. I like the seasoning they provide on each table and would love to know what they put in it. I ended up ordering their version of the Teriyaki Cheeseburger and it was great. It was fresh and had a great taste. It wasn't too salty either. The meat was cooked perfectly as requested so that was also a plus. This is a quick sit and go restaurant, so maybe a trip here after a long day of shopping will be great. Truly a great location and accessible to many. read more

Food was great. Burgers were cooked perfectly. French fries were hot. We were sat very quickly. Howeverour server Maya, was very rude. For that, I'll give 2 stars. read more

Me and my daughter ate lunch on the patio today and was served first by Maya and then Danielle. We ordered one of the bowls and of course the fries! It was all great. We also took some food to go. All of the food was good but the service made it great. Even on a hot day like today, the girls were super attentive to the patio and always had our drinks filled. I work at a restaurant as well so I know what good service looks like! Happy we came in. Thanks ladies! read more

I ordered the original fish tacos (3).. which are supposed to be "lightly fried" .. It was disgusting and greasy worse than the Gorton's fisherman fish sticks in my tacos.... I even took a picture... I ordered an extra side of the white sauce that goes into the taco and it had a layer of grease sitting on top of it. That was disgusting! Don't they know that we want a lighter fried fresh fish taco?... in today's day and age when we're trying to watch our waist lines? It was disgustingly greasy...we want FRESH or lightly battered options ... this was disgusting and pre-prepped frozen fish! Ugh!! read more

Islands Restaurant - Please note the extra fried crap top rt corner/sauce w/extra grease on it - Sports Bars Near Me - Irvine, California

" I've tried emailing and it is directed to a - this email address can not be found!!!- good luck getting anything from them!! " I tried paying early to help the server but was dealt with a server who repeated to not serve us for the rest of the night. I stood up to find my server and he was flirting with the staff in the back when I decided to go to the bar, the bartender decided to leave the station leaving the bar wide open for 10mins while I stood aimlessly trying to get a drink. The server only refilled my drink 1 time for the whole night. When I did try to get the bartenders attention I was met with the manager trying to solve my problem but was told swiftly that they do not serve bottomless mugs when I see it says bottomless mugs. Left for myself to fend for myself hoping I could get a box to go but he was still going around the table intentionally going around and kept not looking over to us so he could go back to flirting with his lover in the back of the place. If ur tryin to save money don't come here because of rules and the untitled people they want you to spend more money, we tried to save money but not spending much and we got a serves I will remember and never come back to this establishment after giving a 50% tip and then rudely just abandoned. read more

Islands Restaurant - A downwards thumb to show islands employees need a better attitude towards customers who give a 50% tip and just get forgotten. - Sports Bars Near Me - Irvine, California

I miss, I miss, I misssss Islands!! Glad we got to check out this Islands in Market Place Center. The Service was great & quick! We went on a week day so It wasn't busy at all. We decided to get our usual, Kilauea Burger & Classic Margarita ~ I felt an instant flash back to when we use to have one in Ala Moana mall. I can't wait to come back & eat here again. This was a great comfort food and best place to go for Happy Hour! CHEERS ! read more

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My husband and I both ordered hamburgers. There was sooooooooo much mustard on each of our burgers. we tried scraping off the mustard but there was so much that you just couldn't escape the mustard. The burger was drenched. It was terrible. We spent almost 50 dollars. I will never go back. It was clearly done on purpose. I can understand one burger but not both. My money and time are to valuable to waste. read more

The restaurant was so clean and inviting. Food was delicious and the price for the lunch special was fantastic. The service from Riley was amazing. Will definitely be back in the future. read more

Gosh I really tried to give this place another chance. Needed to charge the car and BF wanted a burger so I took one for the team and said ok we can do Islands. Tried their new Tortilla Beach menu and asked if they can make my a burrito a wet version. She said yes we can give you extra side of salsa. I didn't want to explain how that's not technically how a wet burrito work but realize why even bother. It's obviously they're too Americanize to attempt to make Mexican food authentic. When the burrito came it was smaller then I expected. To seal the experience I had a surprise bone that looked more like a dog nail because it was curled up so I'm hoping that was a chicken bone. It just sucks to pay $15 for sub par burrito when Santa Ana is so close. read more

Islands Restaurant - Shard chicken bone in my burrito - Sports Bars Near Me - Irvine, California

We came here with many families after a water polo game. There were probably 25 of us? We were able to secure a few tables. As crazy as our group was, our service was excellent! Our waitress was on top of everything, running to each family, taking orders, and super patient! She wasn't flustered at all, and was cool under pressure. I have to give props to her for that! Food is good. I really wanted the fish tacos. Glad I asked what the fish was because it was swordfish and I'm deathly allergic to swordfish. So I ordered the China Coast salad instead with fried chicken. Hubby ordered the Big Wave burger, son ordered the Maui burger, and daughter ordered the Moa Crisp chicken sandwich. Everything looked and tasted delicious. read more

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Great Cobb Salad. You can find the Bleu Cheese and lots of bacon - it's why I love a Cobb you can pretend you are eating healthy while you down a ton of bacon. Leave it to me to come to a burger joint and get a salad read more

Islands Restaurant - Islands Dining Room - Sports Bars Near Me - Irvine, California

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Visited on Saturday, a little after 5 pm .. Not terribly busy .. Two hostesses at the front desk .. offered the bar, we declined, then a small 4 top near the front door .. Clearly much too small .. Hostess was asked for a larger table that was unoccupied but she said no .. She was asked why not and we were told, that's the way this restaurant is ! Manager came up front, we asked for the larger table and he agreed to sit us there, one of our party members is disabled .. I cannot understand why management would leave a hostess up front alone that does not care to accommodate guests .. We discussed leaving but my nephew wanted to eat and enjoy the Dodger game .. Personally I will not return ! Will tell other family members and friends how rude the front desk staff behaves .. Maybe a class on manners is necessary .. Rude staff ruins your business !! read more

I was not in the mood to cook so I decided to come get some sliders and soup and my son wanted a burger so we had a quick lunch since I was tired and had a stressful day I didn't want to talk frankly I wasn't in the mood for anything but my server was super sweet still tried making small talk I wasn't rude or anything just didn't really interact just wanted to say I apologize for my lack of communication but I did appreciate her service food was excellent and service was amazing read more

Islands by Irvine (Barranca) closed down 2 years ago so the one at Tustin Marketplace is a nice alternative. It can get very busy during peak hours (ie 11:30am on a Sunday means get ready to sit/wait for at least 30 minutes.... That happened with us during our last stay and it was because they were understaffed. read more

This location is our go to. The service is always great. Thanks to Victor, Steven, Daniel and Maya. Food is good for hungry people . Always accommodating. read more

Very good chicken tortilla soup but needs Tapatio to make it spicy! The fries need double fried but hamburgers good as usual. Seems like menu prices have doubled ! read more

I wish I could give more stars. Just such a great experience all the way around. Our server, Arianna, was so sweet and helpful. I wanted the Hula burger which was no longer on the menu and she had the kitchen make it for me. I had sweet potato fries and my friend had the Maui burger with onion rings. Service was great and the food was delicious. Arianna was nice enough to let us sit and chat after we were done with the meal. Diego brought us yo go boxes and our meal ended. I work down the block from this location and definitely recommend it and will be back. read more

Just a so so place for a burger in my mind. The burger is big, but the mustard overpowered everything else. They also were out of pickles. If you are a fan of fries they are bottomless here. I got free chips and salsa on the app. The chips were cold like they came from the walk in. Service was pretty good. They sanitize your table before you sit down. You view the menu on your phone. Everyone wears masks and gloves. They have lots of TV's for watching sports on weekends. I might return, but probably wont get a burger. read more

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Tldr; food and drinks were not what they should have been. The drinks tasted bad and the fries were repeatedly brought out cold, and the service was not good either. We came here for dinner and hoped we might have better luck at this Irvine location than we had been having at the orange location lately, but that was not the case. We ordered a Diet Coke and it was really bad (worse than the machine at the Orange location). When we let the waitress know that it was bad she was basically arguing with us and talking about how the machine should be fine instead of just taking it and that was the first red flag right there. We ordered a burger and fries and a chicken sandwich and fries. The two baskets of fries came out before the rest of the food and neither of them were hot from the time they hit the table. So when the waiter came back we let her know and asked for fresh fries. It took a little while for them to come back and when they did one basket was relatively hot and the other one was not. When the waitress came back over there again we let her know what was going on she decided to argue with us and Said she watched them come out of the fryer. So I held out the basket to her that we were trying to send back and asked her to feel the fries because they were cold and she refused, so I asked her to just take them back because we weren't going to eat them and to get the manager please. The manager was receptive and apologized but it still soured the whole meal obviously. We definitely won't be going out of our way to make it back to this location again. read more

This restaurant used to be our neighborhood "go to" spot where you'd always see friends and have a good meal. We've slowly moved away from eating here because the service and quality just aren't on par with the price. Decided to give it a try again and we're so disappointed. Service is still poor. No refills. Took a long time to get our order taken. Fries were so salty they were inedible. Hope they can turn things around and be the fun spot they were when it first opened. We probably won't be back for a while. read more

We had an amazing server this evening - Dylan T was our server. He was attentive, patient, explained menu items well and delivered refills on drinks quickly without prompting. He also gave us beverages to go and went above and beyond to make our experience great! read more

My family has been coming to Islands for years and have always been taken care of. Today we were sat at Mikey's table and truly felt like we were with family. He was kind, attentive, and was never annoyed with our young kids asking him a million questions. Even when our son spilled his drink, the entire team was ready to help and quickly communicated it to Mikey, who brought out another drink for us. We always have great service here but today was just an absolute wow from start to finish from the whole team! read more

My wife and I went here on a small date nite last Friday and firstly, the parking situation wasn't too bad. It looked much more crowded than it actually was, but found parking pretty easy. The hostess gave us a 15 min wait time and a text with a link to check where we were in line and it was exactly a 15 minute wait! On a Friday night? We'll take it! So far so good with the wait and with the ambiance of the Hawaiian theme, with surfing on every TV, it made passing the time much easier. We get our booth and the menus are at the end of the table, and our waitress introduced herself and we had ordered our drinks and appetizer of the chicken strips. When she came back to take our normal order there was no mention of any specials going on or anything. While it's on the table, other establishments of a similar caliber usually take time to mention any new seasonal offerings or new menu items but we didn't get that. But because we're the type of people that like to look at a menu and know what we want before we get there, I knew what the specials were and my wife ordered her usual burger the Big Wave and I ordered their special burger of the season. Time passes and realized we never got our chicken strips and when we finally do, our main meal is right behind it as well! For an appetizer, we pretty much got all our food at once which is pretty disappointing, especially for something as simple as chicken strips. Not only that but our drinks were only refilled once the entire night. I had to put my drink pretty much at the edge of the table for our waitress to even notice it was empty, but we were never checked up on and why I had to resort to doing that. However, the food was good, the fries, chicken strips and burger was as I remember it having it for the first time as a kid! So while the food still holds up, the service could be better. The food and ambiance here are what you go to Islands for, you know what you're getting, but as a kid of a retired waitress of 20+ years, there's a standard in my mind that every waiter/waitress is being held up to and this place does not meet it sadly. read more

Came in today for a quick lunch with my husband- we headed to the bar and were instantly greeted with a smile and fantastic service. Danielle was fantastic. Gave great recommendations and super attentive to our needs. Thanks! Definitely coming back if she is working! read more

Food had no flavor, horrible service. Had to ask the waiter for my son's drink 3 times. Not sure how people give this place 5 stars. Won't be returning!! read more

I have recently discovered the Burger Bowl at Islands and I'm hooked. The Burger Bowl is on their lunch menu only however they are kind enough to take my order of the bowl during dinner time (only a few dollars more). Burger Bowl for the win! read more

The burger my husband had disappeared right away. I assume he loved it. The carnitas burrito I had could have been better. The restaurant ambiance was busy. The floors were a bit slick from the cleaning. Overall a restaurant we would return to. read more

Islands Restaurant - The Hawaiian burger - Sports Bars Near Me - Irvine, California

I enjoy the food here. However, I have a real problem with Geena and I'm not the only person that has complained. Tonight I sat at the bar and she talked to the people sitting to my right and my left. She didn't acknowledge my presence, so Carlos came to the rescue. After I finished my food another customer sat to my right and Geena was engaged in light hearted conversation with him and never acknowledged my departure. Thank God for Carlos. I am the third person who was been treated this way by Geena and I think she should be disciplined or she should find another job because although I'm a person of color my money is green and I should be treated with the same respect that the non-people of color are treated. Continue with this behavior and there might be consequences. I used to enjoy going there until I experienced Geena. read more

What a surprise! All the other times I have been to this chain it has been a great experience. And I have been to nearly a half dozen other locations! So let's start with how we came at 6:30 on a midweekday night expecting to be seated right away (usually the Marketplace is slow) but the place was PACKED!! I know that should have been a red flag but the employee told us 15-20 minutes so we said we could wait. 30 minutes later still no table...when they finally called our name it wasn't because a table was ready...it was because there wasn't going to be a table big enough ready for a very long time. At first they said we could sit outside so we decided to do that but when we saw the tables they had it set up where our group (just 6 of us) were going to have to sit at separate tables?! So we told the employee and he said they would move the tables together. Ok so we are seated...no waiter to even come take our drink order...so we went and told the front employee about it. He said he would send someone right away. 5 minutes later someone did come and he apologized and said it was more busy than expected. Ya apparently they have a party of 25 coming that they had to leave a bunch of large tables empty. The only reason they didn't get 1 star was because the food did taste great and it was prepared right away. But that's honestly because of all the empty tables the kitchen was probably very slow! During the meal the waiter did come to check on us and we asked for more fries, which by the way, when they bring them out they make a big announcement that they are bottomless. So we asked for more fries and the server never came back!! When he finally did we were done with our meal and ready for dessert. At least he brought the fries that tasted super fresh, straight from the frier. Last time I come here with a free dessert coupon. All this work for the free dessert so wasn't worth it. It was good but not worth all that we went through. Unless there is no wait and we are seated right away, we will not be coming back here again. I also bumped the rating from 2 to 3 stars because the waiter did try his best and near the end of the meal the service was much better and faster. read more

We ate at Islands last night. Ordered a well done burger. It came out pink in the middle. I didn't tell our server because frankly I didn't want to wait another 30 min to eat. There were lots of people waiting to eat also lots of empty tables. I mentioned that to a female server standing at the hostess counter chatting with the male employee. . I got an evil look. I prayed she wasn't our server. read more