After being seated in a booth, where the surface of the table was supposed to resemble a shiny waxed surfboard...because when I think of eating off of any kind of surface, I hope it's someone's surfboard! ha!...we were asked for our drink orders. Drinks are ridiculously expensive here for some reason, but I was willing to get...
...a strawberry lemonade, which I remembered being decent to drink in former visits to Islands, but this sucked. Way too sweet - it was like drinking pure strawberry flavored concentrate. I asked for an ice water, which I mixed with this to make it somewhat drinkable.
These little pop up flier ads to promote the fact that Islands burgers FINALLY COME WITH FRIES. I like how they make it seem like they're "free"...I'm sure the marketing team was patting themselves on the back for that one. Just to explain - every other time I've gone to Islands, their burgers do NOT come with fries. The extremely expensive price for each item includes ONLY the burger, and you can choose to get a "basket of fries" for "an extra price" to share with the group. Note on those baskets of fries - I never really liked the fries much at Islands, making it even more futile of an investment. The fries had a ton of skin on them (the every fry I ate there before has been abnormally large amount of peel on them, while I don't usually mind there just seemed to be just extra skins. Almost like they were adding EXTRA skin for my displeasure.) Well, I guess they finally gave in, and switched to "free fries".
This is the half order of caesar salad I got, with the addition of chicken breast slices. I thought it was just okay but Owen really liked it a lot - he ate every last bit. The chicken was real chicken breast, and not that processed nasty preformed chicken, so that was a huge plus. I also like the addition of the extra shredded cheese that adorns the greenery, a nice touch.
This is their Maui Burger - a beef burger with guacamole, bacon, swiss, mayo, lettuce, tomato on a whole wheat bun, with their now "free" fries. This is actually the best burger I've ever had here at Islands - a good mix of toppings, good and griddled burger patty. Perhaps I've been too harsh on this place - they have made changes for the better. The fries were actually good this time around too, with a good crunchy bite to them.
Bryan got a "Kaanapali Kobb" salad, which contained: Grilled & chilled chicken breast, crumbled bacon, fresh avocado, tomatoes, chopped hard cooked egg, scallions, bleu cheese crumbles & lettuce. This usually comes already tossed with dressing but Bryan asked for no dressing. He finished this so I assume it was good, it looks basic and decent,with fresh ingredients (that avocado looks especially appetizing).
So maybe I was wrong about Islands, maybe I can deal with their burger flipping existence a bit longer. A lot of good points on this trip - they were open later, burger and fries were good, salad was decent. Thumbs down on the strawberry lemonade though.
Islands (various locations around the west coast, I went to the West LA locatio at:)
6081 Center Drive, Unit 104
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 670-8580
1 comment:
THANK YOU for this post. I ate at Islands once and swore I would never eat there again... that was something over ten years ago... can you tell that I can hold a grudge? :-D Anyway, if you had a good experience I may go back there sometime, but the Mitsuwa food court sounds much more interesting and I think I will go there first!
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