Isla Bonita

Oh yes love. I am from Seattle but have lived in Northern California for over 20 years in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods. I have never had food this good in California. Definitely will take the ferry back to have this yummy food again. So worth the trip and the kitschy ambiance is so endearing!

Being from S California mexican food is tough to compare. This food had a different flare from what we are used to. It was ok… a little too sweet for our taste. Not bad but wouldn’t return… just not our style. We eat real mexican down here… been some kick!

For starters my friend pulled a near 2 foot long piece of black hair out of her chicken taquito. That’s not disgusting at all. After that we dissected anything before putting it in our mouth. Shredded chicken in the tacos was terrible. Absolutely no flavor. Chimichanga with pulled pork also flavorless. Last I checked, chimichangas were deep fried, theirs was just soggy. Ended up using the bathroom a total of 8 times through the night after eating there. I’ll go to the bar for karaōke but will never eat their food again.

The margarita was delicious & the service was so fast. I really enjoyed the meal (chicken enchiladas) and the laid back atmosphere. A little pricey for the meal, but still great food!

Great Food. Very surprised to have such great Mexican food in Bainbridge island, the staff was friendly, they made sure our needs were met,

Slow service.
The server didn’t refill chips without us asking. We also asked to get more mushroom dips, but they didn’t refill it.

Got a 3 star solely on service. It looked like they had 3 people working. They had atleast 6 groups of people eating. Poor management as they have a lot of people in the area as it is summer. Like really staff accordingly and know your business needs. Fail here. I should not have to wait over 8 min for drinks or to pay my bill. YES 6 – 8 MIN NOT ACCEPTABLE
Food was great. No problems here. Tasted really good and solid as freshness and how it was made. Thank you there. Just fix your staffing issues and your good.

Been to this place multiple times now, the chips are always fresh served with salsa, refried bean dip, cooked mushrooms. The food never fails to satisfy the taste for mexican. Great service, served quick great over all. I will continue to be back

Standard Mexican fare. It look 15 minutes to place our order and the place was filled with screaming kids. The fajitas were tasty and the bean dip with the chips was nice.

We stopped in for a quick drink and some snacks after just missing the ferry one day. We shared the sampler platter and each had a sangria.
Nothing was amazing, but it’s solid, standard Mexican-​restaurant fare. I will say everything came out very quickly which was nice since we were only waiting 45 minutes for the next ferry boarding. Service was a little brusque, but maybe they don’t get many people on the bar side at 11 am on a Saturday.

Reading all the reviews of this place, I can’t quite understand why anybody would find the food good in any way.
First off, the re-​fried beans are so soupy that you could suck them up with a straw.
I got a stuffed chicken breast, which ended up being two very thin pieces of chicken with something stuffed between them. It tasted like a medley of canned spinach, canned mushrooms, and canned olives. The chicken had that rubbery quality that would seem to suggest that it was microwaved, and the consistency of the spinach confirmed that.
All of the food served was inexplicably bland. It’s like the kitchen ran out of salt, and just didn’t seem to think it mattered. The salsa we were served literally just tasted like tomato purée, with a few specs of onion and cilantro for color. There was not a hint of any kind of spice or seasoning in the salsa at all. The re-​fried beans were similarly bland, they reminded me more of a bland Nordic porridge rather than something you would find in a Mexican restaurant.
Somehow, despite how horrendously bland everything was, I still got pretty ill after eating here and am nursing quite a stomach ache the morning after.
I would suggest driving down the road to Poulsbo where there are far better options.

Great food — way too much food. Their signature margarita very tasty and a great value for the price. Our service was a little slow, but we’re on an island they run on a different time schedule.

Visiting from Massachusetts where good Mexican food is virtually non-​existent, I was thrilled to find this place! My kids and I took the ferry over to the island and stumbled upon Isla Bonita. Best salsa we’ve ever had! I ordered albondigas and it was so authentic, down to the mint in the delicious meatballs. Great service, extremely affordable (less than $ 30 for myself and 2 hungry teens), and just an overall great lunch spot. Would go back in a heartbeat.

Great cranberry orange margaritas and carne asada!

If this island were deserted but for Isla Bonita you would be stranded in paradise. Great food, good service, vegetarian options, call off the search planes.

Free chips and salsa. But the food was not that good. kind of pricy and it was pretty packed when I got there. How ever they did have good micheladas. I won’t come again

Excellent… nuff said!
I had the Fajita’s and my wife had the Arroz Con Pollo, both were excellent. The CoronaRita’s were great! Fantastic customer service and quick food delivery!
And Mariana was NOT grumpy!

A nice surprise! Great service, quality ingredients, and a satisfying meal. We ordered a couple of drinks which came quickly. The salsa had fresh cilantro on top, tasted fresh, and will hook you quickly.
I am generally skeptical of tilapia but they did a great job using it in their ceviche. A hearty portion with large quarters of avocado made the plate pop. Sharing the crab enchiladas was a good idea as we had another hour before we took advantage of $ 1 oysters down the street.
5 stars for doing nothing wrong and being great at what they are.

Ok, I know I just came from New Mexico, and I was a little leary to try Mexican food in WA, but Sunday’s being what they are, with not a lot of choices, Isla Bonita was open and serving food. We were met by a friendly waiter, sat down quickly. They have big, and I mean Ginormous, Negra Modelo, and it was good.
When we sat down we were brought Salsa, beans and chips. And, some sort of ceviche mushrooms that were really really good. I thought the salsa had nice flavor.
We ordered the Fajitas for 2, with Chicken, Shrimp, and Beef. We each got a big plate of sides, really tasty corn tortillas, and the fajitas came out sizzling and smelling wonderful. It was the first time i had ever gotten carrots on a fajita plate, but I really liked them. I also liked that there was plenty for 2 hungry people.
I will go back and try the Carne Asada, next time, which the waiter said was very good. It’s not New Mexican food, but it has nice flavors. Overall, I was very happy and I will come back.

4.5-star American-​Mexican food! If you are looking for genuine Oaxacan, Chihuahuan, Sonoran etc. then this is NOT the place for you. BUT if you’re looking for comfort Tex Mex-​style, then pull up a stool like I did recently ^_^
I don’t crave Tex-​Mex generally, but after a long day on the island, I wanted something gut-​sticking and didn’t care if the food was chain-​restauranty or not.
So you know those round giant plates that serve «combinaciones»? Usually, the beans or other sides fill up the whole plate, making it looking like a trampoline of food – when it’s really not. The menu lists what’s on the Plato Patron plate by separating each food with a capitalized «AND». It was those «ANDs» that made me decide to split the food with my friend. Good call. He’s a 6′+ 220lb guy, and I’m a garbage dumpster; between the meal and chips/​beans/​salsa, we didn’t finish it. Stuffed chicken breast with spinach and Molcajete sauce, chicken enchiladas finished with Cotija, saucy potatoes, a sweet corn tamale, tortillas, a non-​red rice, beans with cheese. ($ 16.50) They have my FAVORITE kind of salsa here!!! If only they served Fonda La Catrina’s chips… ooooh…
I can only recommend this dish as the Polla a la Crema is not that memorable here. At least it wasn’t back in the day (?)
I’ll be back; I love how fast the food is here so you can catch your ferry back to Seattle! Friendly service too :)