Islands - Irvine

During our visit to the Irvine shopping center, we stumbled upon this restaurant. Despite not having a reservation, we were able to add our names to a waiting list.

Irvine Marketplace's one-year anniversary is fast approaching! As you can see from my previous Yelp review, I initially discovered Inseln at the Irvine Marketplace.

I miss Inseln so much! It's great that we can see them in the marketplace center. The service was really quick when we went on a weekday.

Visited this restaurant during a typical Thursday lunch with a few of my work colleagues. Since it's located in the Market Place Plaza, there's plenty of parking available. The restaurant boasts a tropical-themed ambiance with ample seating. Their burgers are generously sized, and with a side of fries, they make for a fulfilling meal. For those looking for a lighter option, they offer a burger bowl and a beach bowl. The beach bowl with fish, however, was a bit too salty and didn't quite hit the mark, while the burger bowl was pretty good, though the portion size was a bit on the smaller side. The service was a little slow, which was surprising given that it wasn't a rush lunch. Overall, if you're craving a burger joint that's different from the usual chain spots, this place is worth a visit.

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.