Not bad, despite the misnomer

The irony of a place called Islands, is that it's originally from Southern California. I suppose, perhaps that's not really as ironic as it is perhaps cliched, but I think you get my point. That being said, we stopped over here for dinner on the way home from a retreat. I had seen one of these near where I am in Northern California and was always curious. My SoCal friends said that it was a fairly generic burger chain from their neck of the woods. That being said, it still intrigued me.

As you may have already figured out, I generally go for the slightly spicy burgers. I enjoy a good kick to go with the burger, so I'm never averse to trying a burger with hot peppers and/or hot sauce. I think the contrast in flavor profiles makes the burger that much more enjoyable. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't like non-spicy burgers. That being said, I opted for ordering the Kilauea, which, incidentally was the spicy burger of Islands Restaurant.

The burger was encrusted with black pepper and jalapenos, that immediately was clear. The burger patty itself had a nice crusty texture to it. It made it a tad on the saltier side, but that's what you kind of come to expect in any sort of encrusted burger. The patty itself was fairly substantial, probably closer to 1/2 lb than 1/3 lb, and well-prepared. There was pepper jack cheese, chipotle aioli, and your typical shredded lettuce and sliced tomatoes. The jalapeno crusting was really just fried jalapenos on top. Overall, the burger was quite good, and the concept was sound, though I would argue some of it is redundant. The danger your run whenever you crust a burger with anything, is that the crust flavor overpowers everything else, which this burger had a slight tendency to do, so the chipotle aioli was at best, very subtle. Personally, I understand the ease of assembly using shredded lettuce, but I think if you want to be classier you'd want to use green leaf. Unfortunately, you also have to time it better with the green leaf because if you let it sit too long then the patty will begin to cook the lettuce, and that's no good. So shredded iceberg was a safe choice, albeit not my preferred. That being said, it didn't detract from the burger at all.

The fries were fries. Your typical frozen, prepackaged, already fried fries. They were good and well made. I think all-in-all if you're looking for a safe place to go without offending too many palates, and you happen to be looking for burgers, you certainly could do worse than Islands. It's a good fallback/safety option. However, I don't really think it's exceptional enough that you HAVE to make a special trip of it. Unless they get bottomless fries. Even then, it's only a maybe.