De Clay Oven — Restaurant in Barbados

Got to Barbados from the US today and I would like to tell you my experience with island direct and De Clay Oven

Ordered food at 5:38pm. Order was accepted by the restaurant in under ten minutes with a prepared time for 6:28. Sounds good, we are incredibly hungry

At 7:20 I call the restaurant to check in as I feel like it’s been a while since the food was ready - I was told would be 30-35 mins. I’m incredibly sleep deprived so I said okay.

At 7:25 I call back as I did the math and decided and hour and a half to deliver is way too wrong and maybe I said the order number wrong or there was some miscommunication. She said she would try to call the people who were going to deliver the food as they had not picked it up - it took them an HOUR and MULTIPLE calls from me to call the driver??

She asked I call back five minutes later. I did, and she said she couldn’t get in touch with the driver.

At 7:45 I call back to check in and she hands me off to her manager. Her manager explains that their delivery service is third party so it’s not their fault and says they had tried to call the driver after I called in. I ask if they’re still planning on sending food (including fish) that has been sitting for over an hour and she says it’s not her fault.

Call back at 8pm and there’s no update but they’re going to contact the driver again.

Food finally arrives at 8:26. Wedge potatoes are sad, limp oily beings and the food is lukewarm at best. Sauce has fallen away from the pasta (it was under salted and undercheesed anyway for an alfredo) and the garlic bread is soggy. Most of the flavors are good and I think the food fresh may be nice, but the lack of response from the restaurant (as someone who used to work in the industry) I find alarming.

Contacted Island Direct via their “chat” function and they got back to me over 30 minutes later. They put USD2.50 back on my account for the issue. I paid USD6 for the delivery in the first place.

Personally, I feel that the bad parties are both Island Direct and De Clay Oven but while I may consider eating at De Clay Oven again in the future (never delivery!!) I will not be using Island...

First off, the guy they hired to play live music was great. His name was John Ryttersgaard and surprisingly, the country music he played was very nice. So the atmosphere was fun and pleasant. But that's about as far as the fun times went.

The food took almost an hour to come out. The pork chop my wife had was dry. The chips that came with my burger were oversalted. The burger itself had a dry, grainy texture and was also too salty. As for service, I ordered bacon and cheese with my burger. When I got the burger, there was none on it. I had to wait another 15 minutes for that to be rectified, even having to remind the server. However, the way it was rectified was very unprofessional. Rather than taking my plate back to the kitchen to redress the burger, a smaller plate with bacon and cheese was brought out and given to me... I had to add them on myself. The bacon itself was undercooked... so it wasn't crispy and delicious. It was tough and fatty. And the cheese was just a thick slice of a block of cheese that one would buy at the supermarket. I could not believe it. All in all, this place suffers from a lack of staff who are trained in both cooking and serving. I expect much more when the total cost of two meals comes...

Mixed bag on this one. Having just arrived in Barbados, we wanted something to eat after a long day travelling. This place was a 5 min walk from our accommodation and had been recommended by one of the staff. The food was very tasty (we all had different - pizza, fish, pork, etc.), and we were able to kick off our rum punch tasing! However, the service was extremely slow. I felt quite sorry for the woman working there as she seemed to be struggling on her own, but equally I couldn't fathom what was taking so long to get drinks especially. Also at the end of our meal, my daughter couldn't finish her pizza and they said they could box it up. We waited over 15 minutes by which time it was pretty clear she'd forgotten and just thrown it out. Rather than admit that though she just kept saying "its coming", which made me suspect they were cooking a new one. Tired and hot, we called it a night and left without it. I would recommend this place for the food, but I just hope they have more staff on...