Isola Bar & Grill  

A credit to the decoration, decor and atmosphere. The white flowery decor is the main attraction for me to step my foot in this restaurant.Plus the sea view, other than these I go strongly disagree with the cooking skillsMy friend picked the salad without seeing it through, there's goat cheese mixed with the butter lettuce, not everyone likes the smell of goat cheese and I am one of them. Never in my life I didn't finish salad but not this time. Gave up after the first few bites.Tomato sauce, Mozzarella cheese and basil. Defintely Isola wasn't a nice Italian restaurant because she couldn't make the pizza well. The sauce didn't stand out and the crisp wasn't crispy. SO much more disappointed after ordering the wrong goat cheese salad, my memorable tribute paid to Pizza Express, a restaurant with a much better price and served with much better, hot, crispy, pizza with unforgettable many diff types of sauce.The pasta was hard , agreed by my friend and asked the waitor to send it to the kitchen to redo.The only standardize dish, we were ok with it, but it's nothing outstanding or exciting about either.

Nice interior design with good natural lighting.
We sat in the air-conditioned area of course, as it was so hot outside!
Perfect seaview of Kowloon on a sunny day!

Immediately after we sat down, the waitress helped us unfold the napkins (so quick lol), and helped us get 2 large bottles of natia mineral water.

Another waitor very soon gave us lots of bread, and of course vinegar and oil.
The bread was so soft and fluffy, yet a bit too salty.
For the crisp, nothing special.

We ordered the set lunch ($298 per person).

Starter: I got a mushroom soup. It was so huge, tasted very very nice!
(But I heard the appetizer and salad bar here is great too.)

Main course: Risotto with clam.
The risotto so a bit undercooked, making it quite hard to chew and swallow.
The sauce was a bit too salty.
The clams were really fresh and just great.
I couldn't finish it in the end, though I was quite full (although the size looked quite small).

I then ordered a cappuccino, which was okay.
Dessert: buffet with different types of cakes. (I didn't try it, but they do look nice.)

But overall not too good, with this price.

Having a decent lunch at IFC without reservation is always difficult. Luckily, I was having lunch alone and got one seat available there.

Honestly, I don't really prefer semi-buffet lunch in such a busy restaurant during weekdays. There are over hundred customers lining up for food..not that relaxing (getting old and lazy). I was there quite early, grasp a dish and took small portion of everything I wanted to have, one round. Quality was quite good indeed with wide variety of choices.

I picked Risotto as main course, portion was perfect, not impressed, more dried tomato would be much better. The bread was very nice, however, waitresses were too busy and it took a while for the olive oil and vinegar.

Good thing was, window seat, away from the crowds (major seating area).

Heard good things, but so disappointed.

Staff ignored patrons (really!) and other customers were complaining to us. No manager available, only servers.

Pizza arrived cold.

We won't go back.

9pm and the place is packed, but we were seated promptly.This is a beautiful resteraunt with great harbour views.

Our starters were excellent, calamari ($178) light and crispy, and creamy burrata with ham($168) was perfectly fresh and well presented. The burrata was the highlight of the meal.

Our mains were the hit and miss part of the meal One ham twist pasta ((198) was described as perfectly decent, as it should be for this price.

I ordered the lamb chops($288), medium rare, with mash potato and mint sauce. These arrived medium well done and were totally dry. If I had not been with a business partner I would have sent these back. They were served with sauteed potato instead of the mash, and I had to make a special request to the waitress who seemed unaware that this is actually what was advertised on the menu, but they eventually arrived and were extremely good.The next miss on this plate, and beginning what else can go wrong, was there was no mint sauce, and so had to make another request for it. This plate of food was totally unacceptable for a resteraunt of this quality charging over $300 inc. service for a plate of food.

With two glasses of the house red ($90 a glass) and a coke the bill was $1220.

A disappointing evening.

I haven't been to Isola for a long time. My friend and I want to have a nice pasta for Sat dinner. I made reservation for here so that we don't need to wait. It was a busy night at Isola. I always enjoy the nice customers and good service in Isola. That's what I pay for too. Fried calamari is a good dish to start the nice meal. Even the calamari was deep fried but not too oily and pretty crunch. We ordered a half bottle Italian White wine, sweet and chill, very refreshing. I ordered the crab meat and shrimp risotto.The taste was good but a little bit salty and heavy pepper. I tasted the crab meat and shrimp were fresh. Good dish to recommend. My friend ordered Lobster pasta, it was very very salty, could not eat at all. She changed to seafood twist pasta. It had shrimp, crab meat, clam and mussle. It was not salty this time. Their homemade cookies were very taste. I wanted to buy their cookies but not for sale.

This is a good restaurant for dating, gathering and business dinner. The service, atmosphere and nice Victoria Harbour view are the best party of Isola.

Isola is always full.... given the harbour view and the fact that its in IFC, there's no doubt why it shouldn't be. I finally got the chance to try out Isola but was quite underwhelmed with our dinner.

Sitting down in the evening outside of the isola on the top of IFC.

Poor service, Poor food (the calamari, sloppy, cold, and 1/2 the portion it was 2 years ago)

then why do they charge service charge when u have to pickup your own food and drinks?

ridiculously overpriced.

We went to Isola as a final diner with friends who were leaving that night. Convenient location and great views. That's all isola has to offer!

Our evening started with waiters unwilling to help us carry our wine from the bar upstairs to our table outside, then our table was half set, no cutlery or napkins. We had to wait 10 minutes before we even got our menus, and had to ask for bread several times.

A waitress then arrived with two bottles of olive oil for the bread, (instead of oil and balsamic vinegar), so instead of serving us all the olive oil, she panicked and disappeared! Having only served one of us...

Then our mains arrived, and none of us had cutlery ! Again we had to ask, and wait 10 minutes for these to be brought to us.

My friend then asked for a glass of limoncello and you've guessed it, we had to wait another 20 minutes before reminding them to bring it.

When the bill arrived we decided not to pay for the service as it had been bad the whole evening..

This is where the shock begins; the waitress wont accept our reasons for not paying , telling us that the service was good and we didnt get our napkins and cutlery because we were the second service of the night ?? ( does that make us less valuable customers) She then tells us to wait for the manager...

We wait... and wait... Finally we decide to go and see him ourselves as our friends had to leave and this was starting to become a very long meal!

The manager, also refuses to accept our reason for not paying and adds that they have the right to make us wait !

To add insult to injury the head chef walks past, muttering ' i bet they are french! ' so rude and racist. Yes we are french... The chef also refuses to understand our points and instead of apologising as any professional would , he started being quite abusive! Apparently they have 500 covers a day and we are not important.. 'just pay and get out'

We were shocked by the way in which they dealt with this situation, not once apologising or accepting fault.

DO NOT GO TO THIS RESTAURANT UNLESS YOU ENJOY RUDE, ARROGANT STAFF AND AN EGOTISTICAL CHEF. IF YOU WANT THE VIEW I RECOMMEND LOOKING AT IT FROM THE ROOFTOP!

Came here for a semi lunch buffet and the view's amazing. Love the simple white table clothes and the clean and relaxed ambiance. High ceiling and and lots of light. Staff are very polite.

The appetizer buffet is quite nice. Not too much raw salad leaves to choose from, they are mainly marinated salad dishes. Their couscous is quite good, the mixed seafood salad's good too. Most other choices are well flavored. Wish there were more cheese selections and perhaps some crackers to go with.

One thing to note - the bread basket could be better. A bit stale and cold.

For main course I had the mushroom and thyme tagiatelle. Not bad but nothing spectacular.

The desserts are better than I expected! The cheesecake is not too sweet, the chocolate cake is denser than I imagined. The best was definitely the mini chocolate tart with the raspberry on top! Delicious!!

For the view, ambiance, service, selection and taste, one of the top choices for semi-buffet lunches around the area.

Tried our luck at Isola without booking, lucky we got a table as it was always fully booked when I called.
Here's the bread basket, which wasn't served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar automatically (you have to ask for it).

Second time to Isola, and this time with my group of girlfriends for pre- xmas celebration. Frankly, I didn't come back for the food; but given its view overlooking the pier & harbour view, mid-range price & its prime location in IFC; Isola is definitely a convenient choice.

We booked a table of 5 at the terrace. I would highly recommend anyone coming here to reserve a table outside, especially when the weather permits it. We all know how rare it is that we can sit comfortably outdoor without putting ourselves at risk of getting a heatstroke. So make good use of the terrace, that view probably counts for 20% of the bill that you are paying for the meal!

For starters, we ordered the Baby Spinach Salad, Fried Calamari & Cured Tuna Loin marinated with tomatoes. I would say they are pretty standard. But the Cured Tuna Loin is worth mentioning, it comes with orange fennel salad & capers. It tastes a bit like lightly grilled tuna sashimi, and a hint of sourness. Perhaps of my personal like of orange fennel salad (which you do not often see in dishes, but it tastes amazing on its own!), this is the only dish throughout the night that is 'interesting'.

For mains, Isola is a place where you find simple Italian dishes. Pasta/ Pizza/ meat. We ordered 2 pizzas- Trifola (Black truffle, Mozzarella) & Prosciutto. 2 other Strozzapreti (short twisted pasta) & a risotto. I had the Trifola pizza, it is a vegetarian pizza with a lot of mache leaves on top. If you love Truffle then this pizza is for you, coz i am pretty satisfied with it since I can see and taste a lot of truffles on it! But I would have thought it can appeal to even more people if some meat are added on it, because I feel that it will not be substantial enough for some people.

In short, Isola is a reasonably priced, mid-range Italian restaurant with nice view in Central. Great location & ambiance. A suitable place for a group of close friends having a dinner with simple food, with some view, but not too formal. Equally, it can be a great spot for romantic dinners, try to request the seats on the side of the terrace, so you have the harbour view all for yourself. They have numerous heaters standing on the terrace, so it should be fine for a mild winter in HK. At times, simple & uncomplicated food make a greater night than those 'innovative' molecular food. At least you don't have to spend time studying the menu & try to figure out what you are eating when the food arrive.

I like coming here at night to see the view of Kowloon all lit up - especially nice during Dec. The patio is very nice, and I would recommend it if the weather is nice.

This is one of those restaurants that had at least 3 bus persons or waiters surrounding the table whenever they are clearing plates or serving food. The service is excellent and they are really friendly. For a last minute seating, they were really accommodating.

It's really just pizza and pasta here for dinner. There are main courses as well, but they never catch my eye. I've also been for lunch, where they have a very nice cold plates bar for you to choose from.

The pizza are authentic thin crust pizzas. We got the Piccante Spicy Italian Salami with olives. It was really salty.
The Gorganzola Gnocchi was amazing. It was cheese with a hint of blue cheeziness, but without the strong flavour. The added parma ham, gave it a nice kick. It was cooked perfectly.

After an extremely busy morning and had no lunch till 3pm...I was starving, thinking to grasp some food in Central, something light because would have thanksgiving dinner with family in hours....walked and walked, fully seated in Landmark, then came over to IFC...

Okay, Isola, came here for dinner with big group of friends before, nice environment with fasinating harbour view.Not much feeling on the food though.

There was a private party setting on the first floor, and only upper floor available...this was my first time, little white bar with comfrotable sofa seating area. Quite spacious and not many people, only 2 small groups of having business talk, a sweet couple having a huge pizza, then it's ME..

2 bar menus, one for drinks and one for bar snacks....OMG, there is nothing hot except that huge pizza....others are all cold cut and dessert, felt a bit down at that moment because I was so hungry and would love to have something hot like pasta or chicken wings...

Anyway, I ordered the cheese plate..4 types of cheese served nicely, with honey for the biscuits. I'm a cheese lover so it does satisfy me. Non-alcolic in the afternoon and I had the lychee drink, not bad...

I heard the couple sitting to me said the pizza is very good, can try if you have a group of people

Sat there for over an hour to enjoy the cheese and beautiful view, seeing people...very nice.

Décor: Contemporary white with lots of floor to ceiling glasses introducing natural light and offering an excellent view of the harbor, in particular, if you dine “al fresco”.

Ambiance: very busy and lively as usual

Sitting: reasonably spacious for some business discussions

Service: well trained and efficient... courteous? Not necessarily… just well trained.

Wine list: did not look at it over lunch…. Last time I dine there, I remember they have a good wine list of Italian wines.

Food: The antipasti buffet is excellent and offers a wide variety of choices. The sword fish was nice and moist, which is a delightful change from the traditional dry and tough servings. The dessert buffet could include a couple more choices of cakes. Food quality is good while the portions are reasonable.

Cost: $900 for three for lunch… inclusive of service charge, mineral water and coffee.

Value for Money? … 7.5/10

General: I have been there many times and Isola is habitually good for business luncheons.