The Islander Bar & Grill

How is it possible to mess up Nachos? Go to the Islander to find out, but I’ll save you a trip by explaining our whole experience.
First off waitstaff has a tendency to vanish. Then once we sat ourselves the journey begins. Remembering how our previous order of Nachos arrived I intentionally and clearly explained how we would like them prepared. Which by the way is normal but knowing what we received the last time I wanted to make sure it was corrected this time. NOPE, same over cooked burnt cold Nachos. You know the ones that the cheese is hard on the chips and glued together? Yep that’s what we got AGAIN! How frickin’ hard is it to prepare NACHOS? Then came my highly anticipated Shrimp Cocktail. Hmmm. looks different than what I had remembered, Hmmm… new presentation, hmmm… less shrimp, not as spicy cocktail sauce and two huge lettuce leaves stuck in the cup for garnish. Pretty but NOT a good change. Customer gets half the amount of shrimp as before. Then came our main course the good Prime Rib Dip, and it was, Yahooo. But where’s our waitress, she’s nowhere to be found. Waiting, waiting… we hear lots of kitchen conversation and someone has a cold because of all the coughing back there and then she pops out for a second and she’s gone again. I see the change in quality and customer service and it’s not a good change. Everything/​everyone seems tired.
Sorry but I’ll come for a beer but your food must improve. MUST IMPROVE or you’ll lose a lot of business. Locals will stop coming and only a few blurry eyed boating tourists will be your only customers.

I had a perfectly pleasant experience here with my family. After a bike ride we needed somewhere to grab a late lunch and this was the closest thing. The service was good, our waitress was friendly and timely. We all ordered standard bar food, burgers and such, and they were good and unremarkable. Exactly what we were looking for. If you need a place to eat on Lopez Island, this is pretty much all there is anyways, and it’s not bad.

As a previous waitress I always tip but today I did not. The service was so incredibley poor and when I went to the bar the bartendress ignored me.
The food was delivered cold. The only redeeming part was the busboy-​who we did tip.
The only thing this place has going for it is the deck. Enjoy the view cause you’ll be there along time.
Run away from this place.

Poor service from the beginning. We walked out before being served. A hostess seated us outside. We sat there for 10 minutes before a random waitress walked over and advised us to move as the bartender could not see us. This is after the hostess to a specific waitress that we were her new table. I don’t understand their attitude and behavior. They lost our potential business. Go to Galley or the Bay café for best local service and food.

Fun atmosphere, especially in the evenings. Definitely a must for couples wanting a night out of booze, music, and dancing.

This is a 2.5 star review. 3 stars for food and 2 stars for service (although today’s service was 0 stars — see below).
We have been eating at the Islander for more than 10 years when we are on island at our cabin (usually during the summer months). The food has usually been well-​prepared bar/​pub food. Nothing super special, but consistently good.
Outside of two visits earlier this month, also consistent, is the bad service. The two times prior to today we experienced excellent service (prompt and attentive one time and the other time the server was backed up but he was very gracious in letting us know and thanked us for our patience). Today, however, didn’t even meet our lowest expectations and resulted in our canceling our order and going to Bay Café for dinner.
To set the scene — we had friends fly up for the weekend and we were going to have a beer while they waited for their seaplane to come pick them up. Service was initially fine and we specifically asked whether it was okay to sit at an outdoor table with only 1 out of 4 of us ordering something from the menu — the answer was «yes.» As we sat there, my husband suggested we stay for dinner … so when our friends’ plane arrived, I asked our server if he would save our table as we wanted to order dinner — he said «sure.» So far so good. We arrived back at the table after walking our friends to the dock and then proceeded to wait 15 minutes — at which point we told some other employee that we’d really like to order dinner and beverages (no one had stopped by our table despite the delivery of food and drinks to all other tables around us). Our server arrived on the deck shortly thereafter with drinks in hand for another table — I told him we were ready to order — he said «I’ll be right back to take your order.»
We then watched him deliver drinks to one table (no issue with that) and take orders at two other tables and walk back to the kitchen (took issue with that). By now, we’d asked 3 people about placing an order. The table next to us had been asking for their bill for about the same 15 minutes we’d been sitting there, neglected — they finally got up said «good luck» to us.
I got up and asked our server if he would please come take our order — his response was «I have to get a bill for someone first.» I suggested that he really needed to come take our order, which he did begrudgingly — after he left my husband suggested that we should eat elsewhere and I agreed.
I found our server near the bar (inside) and told him we were canceling due to the bad service, to which he snarkily responded «thank you.» I inquired whether he was going to charge my husband for the 1 beer he was able to order and drink and he said yes. So I asked him for the bill. As he turned around he said «just so you know, you’ve only been sitting out there for 5 minutes.» I replied, actually, we’ve been sitting out there for about 15 minutes. He then told me that he had the entire section of the deck (which was a lie, because there was a blond woman and another dark haired young man) and I said «I’m sorry, but that’s not my problem.» I specifically didn’t want to call out his lie. His reply? «It’s not my problem either» and «I’m not getting paid enough for this.» At this point I went from annoyed to pissed off, and asked him his name — he refused to give it to me, so I turned around to find the manager.
Since the manager was not then on site, I explained the unpleasant exchange to the woman at the desk — she hung her head and said «he didn’t really say that did he?» Unfortunately, yes. She did offer to pay for my husband’s beer (which was nice but not what I was after — this young man needs to be much better trained and work on his interpersonal skills, told me the young man’s name (and told him in my presence when a customer asks for his name he is to give it) and gave me the card of the manager.
Despite today’s appalling service, we will no doubt be back because my husband likes their Chicken Burger and I like their Fried Chicken Salad (subbing the tempura chicken from the entrée menu for the little nuggets normally put on the salad).