Recently I was invited to an Island’s Restaurant event to try out some of their new menu items.
The thought of Island’s does make me a little nostalgic as it was a common hangout during my UCSD days.
We started with three new cocktails: Paradise Mai Tai, Maker’s Wedge and Jager Bay. The highlights for me were the Mai Tai and the Jager Bay. The Mai Tai comes in a tall skinny glass and the sweet pink cocktail is only 149 calories.
The Jager Bay was really sweet, much sweeter than I expected. It’s quite potent but you can’t tell when drinking it, so you do need to be a little careful.
Next up were some new appetizer sliders, topped with caramelized onions and bacon.
Aside from the caramelized bacon, these were your typical sliders. I thought the meat was a little on the dry side.
Finally, Island’s recently introduced Big Beach Bowls. They are topped with either chicken or mahi and are under 576 calories. I like Island’s effort to offer a healthier option at a burger restaurant. Taste-wise, the bowls reminded me of Chinese stir fry as it contains ingredients like snow peas, water chestnuts and hoisin sauce. I’ve had a lot of good authentic Chinese stir fry though so this wasn’t as good in comparison.
While there we also decided to try out their classic chicken tenders.
