Island Grill Seafood and Steak House

I'm writing this as a review of their catering. I can say that based on their business practices as caterers, I can 100% enthusiastically recommend them as caterers and as a restaurant.

My fiance and I were looking for off-premise caterers for our wedding at the Women's Civic Club in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. You should have heard some of the outrageous quotes we got from some places. Finally, I emailed a bride who also had a wedding at the Civic Club that we were renting to ask about her caterers and she told me about the Island Grill.

We met with the IG's catering director Megan who was great to deal with. The prices were very reasonable. We agreed on three appetizers and three entrees and sides. We would have mini crab cakes, spinach pies and chicken quesadillas as apps, and penne with vodka sauce and chicken, grilled salmon, and meatballs as our entrees. For our sides, we chose garlic mashed potatoes, caeser salad and some sort of vegetable, green beans almondine, I think. We let them know that we wanted to provide dessert ourselves and they gave us no nonsense about that. No cake-cutting fees or anything annoying. We also told them we would provide alcohol which was also no problem. They provided a bartender and we purchased the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks ourselves. Word to the wise, we served boxed wine out of carafes and it was a hit! We chose the boxes based on a review in SF gate of the best boxed wines.

The Island Grill's service the day of was fantastic. Very professional. Our guests said the food was good but you can't go by them because what else are they gonna tell the bride and groom? The IG folks were great about packaging all the leftovers and packing our car with them. My husband and I loved the leftovers the week after the wedding, so I can say they do good food.

Even though they didn't sell us dessert, they put it out and were great about it - we had cupcakes and fudge. They actually cut up the fudge and served the cupcakes on plates.

Only two minor issues that don't detract from our overall great experience with them. Mashed potatoes were on the menu but they didn't have them day of - they substituted sour dough rolls which were very good, but they never told us what they were doing. No one knew but my husband and I so it really wasn't a big deal. There was plenty of food anyway and it was a spring day, so mashed potatoes weren't essential.

Also, the bartender put out a tip jar which we should have negotiated ahead of time. My husband and I hadn't wanted that because we were tipping him anyway but we should have specified at our first meeting. Also, the bartender didn't put out cans of all of our non alcoholic drinks so even though we had Sprite and Coke Zero there, none of our guests knew to ask for it. So two strikes against the bartender, but, honestly, he served the wine so nicely out of the secret carafes, so we were very happy with him overall.

If you're getting married anywhere near Ocean City, New Jersey, get these guys to cater it! They'll do a fantastic job, the food will be wonderful and the service divine.