Ester’s Kristina Crab Chill Grill — Restaurant in South Caye Caulker

Disappointed that my sister ordered her food first and they got her order messed up. She ordered grilled lobster, jerked chicken, and shrimp kebabs. One skewer was burnt chicken and the other skewer had only 1 small shrimp on it that was also burnt. No flavor, no sauce like mine. I ordered after my sister and received my food first. It took a long time after they tried to give her lobster and snapper that she didn’t order and had to start her shrimp kebabs and chicken late. None of my sister’s 3 plates had plantains like mine either. It’s upsetting when you order something and they try to give you something else, then purposely give you another wrong item. My shrimp kebabs both had 3 shrimp on each and were very flavorful, so we were shocked at what my sister received. My snapper was also tasty but it definitely felt like they burnt my sister’s food and gave her a second incorrect order on purpose. Would have been better if they explained the situation, like if they ran out of shrimp or something. But serving burnt food is crazy. If we knew the kebabs would be burnt, my sister would have just taken the snapper they made on accident. Hopefully they won’t rush so much and take the orders correctly next time to prevent situations like this. We won’t be coming back unfortunately.

I recommend checking your food before leaving, especially if taking food to go. Or better yet, go to Kareem’s next door. They are always on point.

Wish we had look at other reviews before eating here. Seems like they can be forgetful...

They had a friendly man on the street who encouraged us to order food. He gave us the menu and explained that each kabob order included two kabobs, rice, and beans. Since our group was small and we just wanted a snack, we decided on two kabob entrees and two corn on the cob.

When I placed the order, the cashier told me I could opt for kabobs without the sides, which we agreed to. However, the math she did in her head didn’t make sense, and we were not clear on what we ordered.

I also mistakenly assumed the food would be ready soon after we paid, as I saw it on the grill. But we waited for about 15 minutes, and then decided to sit at a table and wait longer. After 30 minutes, we received one kabob with the explanation that the second one was on its way. This led us to believe the initial claim of "two kabobs per order" wasn’t quite accurate. We ate the first kabob and waited for the second, it took so long, half of our group decided to leave. This was not “island time”, it was an uncomfortably long wait as we watched people ordering after us receiving food.

In the end, we walked by the grill to leave and saw that our second kabob was just sitting there, untouched. The order was all mixed up: we didn’t get the chicken we’d expected, and while the lobster was decent, it was overpriced—$20 Belize (about $10 USD) for just three small pieces of lobster on a single kabob. The corn was also disappointing—mushy and unremarkable.

Overall, the experience was frustrating and not worth the price. I...

I ended up with horrible food poisoning from the lobster meal and hope no one ever goes through that while on their vacation. I was down for a while day… It didn’t smell or taste off, but something kept me from finishing it. I ended up learning from the place we were staying at that food poisoning is a common complaint about this place so please consider literally anywhere else, including the other two grills right next to Esther’s.

The other reason I’d recommend going elsewhere is that this was the only establishment on the island I felt heckled by. Every time we passed by, someone was trying to persuade us to give Esther’s our business. They even remembered us each time and would ask why we hadn’t been by. My husband and I would try to laugh it off and keep walking but it got really aggravating and I finally said “We won’t be coming back, your lobster gave me food poisoning!” The response… “Well I’ll try again later.” 😒 The heckling got so bad we avoided walking by anymore.

Read other reviews as well. I was so disappointed by the ones who experienced blatant racism.

Just don’t do it. There are so many way better options that won’t make you sick or hassle you every time...