Update! We still LOVE Islands in Vista! Now we can add our excellent catering experience to the list of reasons why we love this place! Food for catering is not only reasonably priced but it was ready at exactly the time I needed it! This means we ate it when it was hot and were able to feed our guests right when we planned to! The manager made sure we had everything we ordered and even helped carry it out in the pouring rain! We love Islands and will ALWAYS go to this restaurant! read more

Came in to treat myself before a split shift with a burger. My waitress Jen was a total sweetheart, super helpful, and all around a great server- my food was fresh out of the kitchen when I got it. Islands has terrible fries, but their burgers are always really good. Jen was super helpful with making sure I got refills on my soda and when I asked for my check at the start of the meal she made sure to bring it out to me with the food I ordered. read more

Islands is one of my staples. I love the ICE COLD mugs, cold and fresh brews, as well as their consistent menu options. You really cant go wrong. The positives: This location of Islands is conveniently placed just off the 78. It is also right across the street from one of the best but slowest carwash in SoCal so we often find ourselves crossing the street to get a clod one. Consistently great food. Bottomless fries are either a positive or a wild negative for those of us watching the notches on our belts. Check the boxes on the avocado and bacon for your burgers and you wont be disappointed. Finally, many of the staff here are a hot bit of eye candy...or so I hear... The not so good: I have no issues with employees taking breaks but they should be limited to the side or the back booths of the house. Here they let the servers take up precious bar and bar table space during peak times. I have seen as many as 6 servers at and around the bar taking a break at peak hrs. The issue is limited seating forces patrons to wait for the employees to be done to get a seat at the bar. Additionally, all those folks seem to draw a crowd of more servers. You spend more time waiting for the servers to get done visiting with each other at the bar so you can get served. This also causes bar tables and spots at the bar to go 15-20 minutes before they get wiped down and ready for someone else to use. Otherwise this locale is really some stronger management away from being a strong 4 or even a 5 star for all it does right. Either way, you wont find a better place to get an ICE COLD brew, catch a game and get some good chow! read more

Islands Restaurant - Typical, Bartender not working and hanging out with her fellow employee and her kid at the bar!! - Burgers Near Me - Vista, California

Since they are down the street, Island's is the place where I come for a quick burger or taco. Service can be slow here, but depends on the server. I'll have one of two things, the Hawaiian Burger or the Yaki taco's If you like a sweet kick (pineapple slices)to your burger, definitely try the burger. While I am spoiled to what a real taco is like, these are my favorite dish. Chicken teriyaki in a tortilla? Sounds funny but they are quite tasty. Maybe I just like their teriyaki sauce. Either way, try some if you want something a little different. What's better than a side of fries? Unlimited fries, as they you don't have to order a side to go with your burger/sandwich. While the fries aren't "the best", they'll work to satisfy your fry urge. They do get better if they are the smothered in cheese, which is a good appetizer if you aren't counting calories. Their Passion Fruit Iced Tea is really good, and sometimes I'll come here on a hot day just to have a few of these. Overall a good place to have a restaurant style burger that doesn't hurt the wallet too much. read more

Good service. Easy location. Great parking. No wait for Saturday at 2pm. I had the Malibu burger. It came with applewood bacon, cheese and lettuce, tomato and onion. We were here for lunch. Hit the spot. Priced right at 13.09. Try it if your in Oceanside. read more

Islands Restaurant - Forgot to take a photo of my food. Here is the drink offered. - Burgers Near Me - Vista, California

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The 5 stars are for the amazing service we had this past weekend at this location. Connor and i hope i remember his name correctly went above and beyond to take care of us. Wonderful experience! read more

I love their blue cheese burger and sweet potato fries. My food is consistently delicious and exactly what I ordered.

I give two stars to this location because the food is decent and My wife and I come here 2-3 times a week. However i can not give 5 stars. I would give 5 stars if the bathrooms did not always smell like an open sewer line and the establishment was upgraded and cleaned. Staff is cool, managers are cool. read more

Every time I give it another shot it gets worse ! Hamburgers have no flavor worst burgers ever !

100% have food poisoning from here. I'm dying. Never again. P S - small portions for the price, bland flavors. read more

Great food! My favorite restaurant, it's been my favorite restaurant for all these years, Jenn was a great waitress also!

I went here last night (12/10/18) for the football happy hour and had a good time drinking beers and watching the game. I ordered the happy hour sliders for dinner and on my second slider I bit into a piece of paper from the cheese slice that must have been missed. I told the server right away and he took it back to get remade, and within 2-3 minutes the manager was at my table with the new order of sliders, looking delicious BTW. He apologized profusely and comped the sliders from the bill. What I wasn't expecting was for him to ALSO bring a $15 gift card for our next visit! That was so cool and a model of great service. So please, if you're reading this, if in the future something is not satisfactory with your order at this establishment or any other, just bring it to the attention of the server or manager and let them try and take care of it and make things right before you leave a bad review. It is their job and their pleasure to make sure you have a pleasurable experience. Cheers! read more

Let me start of by saying the food is always good. But honestly that's it. My boyfriend and I have both grown up going to islands our entire lives so over 20 years, but unfortunately our perspectives have completely changed. We came to this location about two weeks ago and everything was fine but at the end there was an issue with our bill when we were first handed our bill it was around $28 but then when we got the bill back it was $36. The manager came by and we told her what we had noticed so she took the bill and fixed it and discounted it, cool. But then when my boyfriend looked at his account the next day he was still charged $36! So he called and spoke to a different manager he told us that he "wanted to make things right" which okay great! He sent us a gift card for $10.which in reality doesnt even cover the cost of a burger there anymore but fine. So we go there today and sat in the bar. My boyfriend ordered the Malibu burger. When the waiter took his order he said "okay the muai" which I heard so at first we just thought it he just miss spoke because when my boyfriend said he just wanted bacon and cheese (which isn't on the Maui so the waiter should have caught it then) the waiter goes " okay sweet bro so just bacon and cheese plain. Okay cool thought the mixup was fixed, nope. They brought us both Maui burgers. When we tried to catch the waiter to tell him he was extremely hard to get his attention. I will say he owned up to the fact that he heard us wrong, however our bill didnt reflect that at all. AND we were already paying with a " complementary card" because of the last time we were there. Oh and when he took the burger away to fix it my boyfriend was literally in the middle of a bit of fries and he took everything way. On top of it, our table didn't have napkins until we asked, they were very slow at getting us refills Unfortunately we will no longer be customers with islands. There are too many good local burger shops to compete with a mediocre overpriced chain. read more

I'm really bummed to write this review. This place has normally been solid, and has been our go to for takeout for awhile. Our last visit was about as one star as you can get. We ordered curbside to go. The phone call took long because we were put on hold for a almost 5 minutes. When I arrived, I sat in the curbside parking spot for 15 minutes and had nobody come out. I finally went in and stood there for another couple minutes with nobody talking to me. After I spoke with a waitress and saw my food sitting under a heat lamp, I paid and left. I walked out to my car only to see they forgot part of my order. After going back in to have them fix it, it was only when I got home that they completely screwed up the order and put the wrong items in our burgers. UPDATE: The manager contacted me and was very nice. She sent us gift cards and was very apologetic. The visit did not reflect her personal customer service. She went above and beyond to rectify the situation. read more

We generally enjoy Islands as a casual place to have a quick lunch. Today we went and were shocked to find out that during a pandemic, while Delta spreads, they felt like having anyone sit outside would be "really hard" because a server would need to go onto the patio. In other words, they simply decided not to have outdoor dining today, when they normally do. They want people without vaccines to wear masks indoors, but didn't offer a way for them to eat outdoors, so we didn't trust that everyone inside was vaccinated and left. Such a bummer. read more

It's a decent place to take kids for a burger or to meet friends for a drink and watch a game. Not impressed with the menu selection but what they do offer they do well enough. Really noisy, which makes it kid-friendly but not very relaxing. read more

Islands Restaurant - Really big mojitos. - Burgers Near Me - Vista, California

Great service. Good burgers. Fun atmosphere.. love the decor.. nice place to come watch baseball and hockey games read more

Islands Restaurant - Burgers Near Me - Vista, California

Tiffany at the vista Islands was very sweet and nice and very knowledgeable on drinks and pairing my food . i had a great experiences and i will recommended other to go and see her direct for great service read more

Been such a loyal customer for YEARS. That past two times I've come here at two different locations within a week and things have CHANGED. Service wasn't the best, i get it, everyone is understaffed. Manager took our order which wasn't the problem because he's doing what he's supposed to do when an employee is busy but it just kinda went downhill from that. Honestly probably won't return to an islands anymore, one reason cause they changed the ranch and it's AWFUL. Tastes bottled and fake. Sounds silly but i used to enjoy a lot of my food here with the delicious ranch. The soup was delicious as always. Not a fan that they charge you for a side now. Burgers and sandwiches used to come with fries. Took awhile for us to get drink refills. Sucks everyone is short staffed these days. Took awhile for us to get our check. We just wanted a quick lunch. I'm babbling now but just the worst experience I've ever had here. Sadly won't return until the company makes some changes. read more

I write this review because I know restaurants are struggling to figure things out, and I complement those that make things right when they fall short. I waited longer than the online system said, and items were missing. But they called me after I left when they recognized their mistake. When I returned, they accommodated my purchase and gave a gift card for a return visit. Thank you to manager Jeff for your owning up. I may suggest that you have staff check off each item on the order receipt when items are placed in the bag so that they ensure all items are included. The food was all good as expected. read more

Ok,. Burgers were not cooked as ordered. Still delicious. Service by breezy was perfectionWe addressed the issue to only enlighten the chef, not to be compensated. The manager and this restaurant's overall statement was very clear, 'Be proud of what you serve, strive for repeat business and a steller reputation' As a local patron, I am impressed with restaurants such as this one whom effortlessly and consciously know the definition of Customer Satisfaction. Great job and enjoyed the whole experience, read more

Came here with my wife for lunch and This place has the best chicken tortilla soup and sandwiches. Everything is fresh and made to order. Burger are huge and juicy, fries are freshly cut, and drinks are good. I got a custom chicken sand which that was huge and my wife got the kelua burger. Both cane with fries. read more

Islands Restaurant - Burgers Near Me - Vista, California

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I love islands all the food and drinks are amazing. I have been there many times and have tried many of the burgers and I was very pleased with them all. I would recommend this place if you are looking for a good cheap place to get burgers but don't want to go to a fast food place. 5/5! read more

food wasnt bad their cool breeze smoothie/Shake was awesome. hiw ever the bathroom hasnt been cleaned at best in days at worst in weeks the smell was enough to make you vomit. at the vista ca location. They said it was cleaned last night bs. No way it smells thar bad from a 1/2 a day. Piss everywhere the smell of urine was enough for me to walk right out. Worse then any dive bar or club I have ever been to. read more

Why oh why do I always have to ask for cutlery??? And, why don't they include a knife when I ask??? Where's the mindset? We live coming here at happy hour, but find it distressing to have to ask for cutlery. read more

This place is over priced like crazy especially for the horrible food quality. This franchise is known for endless fries. I figured it would be a delicious experience. I ordered a Hawaiian burger. Paid 14$ asked for medium well. I was given medium raw some how. The patties must come from frozen.. In this place the burgers are as thin as a kids meal at McDonalds.. The pineapple slice was thin and somehow no flavor. How do you ruin a slice of pineapple? The fries looked nice sized when they came to the table too. They were just fried crunch with no potato. Those 100% were from giant frozen bags of low quality potato starch and refried. They have a "secret spice" on the table next to salt and pepper. Tasted it, it's just Adobo nothing special. We did have a nice waiter and he should leave to a better restaurant. This franchise isn't a restaurant. It's overpriced fast food disguised as a restaurant. read more

The service is the best, I've came with my mom a couple times and we always get the best service from the servers!

We love Islands! We had a get together there today with all our family friends while my mother in law was inn town and they were so accommodating to our ever changing party size. The manager, Allison, was so friendly and helpful and really made everything perfect for us! Thank you Allison and everyone else at islands! read more

I went to the island today to order wings because I was craving buffalo wings. I ordered the wings without knowing the prices for nine piece wings has went up to almost $20. I talk to the bar person who put the order in and told him that I need to speak with the manager. The manager comes to talk to me and I explained that I wasn't aware that the wings were almost $20 and so I asked if I could at least get fries because of the price being so high for only nine pieces. He told me that fries were being dropped as we were speaking, and I said thank you. By the time I receive my fries, I noticed that after I handed my card to pay for my food., a new amount appeared on my receipt. That amount was $24 and some change. I requested to see the manager again. I explain to the manager that I wasn't really trying to pay $20 for nine wings and now my new receipt has $24 and some change and I wasn't too happy about that. The manager told me employee who taking my order already closed out.and so he offered me a $30 gift card on my next order. I made it clear that I wasn't to happy about being charged more money. That being said. I'm over it and I should have followed my gut and went to Panda for fried rice and the greens. read more

The food is pretty good and I've never had bad service. I love the passion tea and fish tacos. Went to lunch with a group of 10 for a birthday celebration today and everything was perfect!!! The only thing I was not happy about was the coleslaw. I used to love their coleslaw but it was really off today. The veggie tacos are also delicious! read more

Showed up at 7:30 to eat. The hostess says it's a 5-10 wait. And we close in 30 minutes. So we asked if they didn't want to serve us. She says I don't know and was going to ask her manager. We just left, if you don't want to serve people, lock the doors 50 minutes before close. Thanks for chili's down the street, food was great. read more

We often go to the Vista Islands and the manager, Jeff and the bartender, Sarah, always make the visits enjoyable. They are really good at their jobs and they are always conscientious about making the customers feel welcome and important. As soon as the stay at home was lifted, this restaurant was one of the first places we went to for dine-in and are happy to support them in the outside dining environment as well. We did do take out but it just isn't the same as the in-person Islands experience you get with Jeff and Sarah. Thanks for making our eating out experience enjoyable. read more

Very friendly and speedy service, food is tasty and comes out fast. Great atmosphere and drinks are good.