The Barbary Coast Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Douglas

I always like to give five stars, so here goes...

We had to go to see what they meant by their "brand new eating concept" and walked into a smart, spacious and sophisticated looking restaurant with a small army of teenage staff. We were told to order at the bar and I wasn't impressed to be asked to pay before even seeing my meal. To me this is just wrong and it has cost them a star in my review.

There were about twenty customers dining and I'd estimate their average age was perhaps 45 years. There was music blaring loudly from the speakers which sounded like the stuff that my 14-year-old daughter plays in her bedroom; unsophisticated cheesy modern pop. This is also totally wrong and there goes another star.

My partner and I both ordered peri peri chicken with the allegedly hot sauce called "Pure Jamaican Pain ...Try only if you dare!! [sic]" The food was served quickly and the chicken had been cooked absolutely superbly and was juicy and tasty. For this, I award one star back!

The side dishes (which they call "sides" for some unknown reason but I suspect is a nasty Americanism!): Mexican coleslaw was excellent though the chips and fries were extremely small portions and the seasonal leaf salad was gritty. When I mentioned the gritty lettuce after the meal I was told that it was a "bad batch of lettuce and we had the same problem yesterday!" So, to put it another way, in 24 hours your chef hasn't figured out how to wash salad leaves and thinks it's a manufacturing error? Hello, anyone home? Unforgiveable: and pouf another two stars gone, sorry.

The Pure Jamaican Pain sauce was fairly hot and had quite a nice flavour to it. I wasn't expecting it to be as hot as it was described, and I was right.

I was asked if we'd finished eating before I'd put my cutlery together but I guess spotting that must be a real challenge for young staff probably brought up on TV dinners. This is a staff training issue (as was leaning across the table to serve the customer).

We were asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu which, if we'd ordered anything, presumably would have meant I would be making a second trip to the bar to make a second card payment. Er, no thanks.

Music rubbish and too loud. Timid young staff pleasant but with no noticeable personality. Food dodgy. So much for the "new eating concept", pah! Smart place but flawed execution which could so easily be greatly improved although, when we visited, nobody...

We went for Sunday lunch 11th May. We were so looking forward to it as people said it was good. Sun lunch exists only of chicken no other choice of meat and it wasn’t even tender. I certainly wouldn’t call it good believe you me. The plates were packed to the hilt with food and small dishes, so removed the dishes to get to the food. A proper dinner plate wouldn’t go a miss. The cheese caulyflower was so hard we couldn’t cut into it so we sent it back only for it to arrive back and when I put my fork into it, it was burnt just like the Yorkshire pudding which was just a big empty tasteless shell. As for the chicken mine had so much bone and very little meat at all. I have no idea how the so called roast potatoes were cooked but they certainly were not roasted and tasted dreadful just like the mash. The only thing that was hot was the gravy and that was the best tasting thing on the plate except you can’t eat gravy. What a disaster and a complete waste of money. We just shoved the plates to one side, finely the lovely young waitress came to clear the table. Generally with practically all the food untouched the waitress should ask what’s the problem but she didn’t ask and we didn’t say anything as we didn’t want her to be upset as she is not the so called chef. I hope she showed the chef all the food that was returned as it was inedible. He should be ashamed of himself whoever he was. I can still in my lats 70s cook a wonderful roast dinner and with all the extras like bread sauce, bread stuffing and pigs in blankets and proper delicious roast potatoes. Do these chefs have no idea what to serve with the different meats. It really is beyond me. What started out a beautiful day ended up a disaster. So finally I got home and had cheese and biscuits and a nice glass of red. A darn site better than what the Barbary served up. We have eaten there plenty of times and yes it’s not always been good but not too bad either. The problem is there is no consistency and that’s not just at the Barbary, it’s quite a lot of places I’m afraid on the Isle of Man. I should know as I go out every Fri and it’s really quite impossible to know...

Firstly, I don't usually write reviews (life is too busy) but on this occasion I'll make an exception.

Just had one of the worst experiences at this restaurant. Took my elderly mom, aunt and 2 babies for a meal tonight, managed to get seated in the small side room. everything was going fine, ordered our food and the staff were great. Then, for some reason the staff thought it would be a good idea to seat the loudest, most drunk and frankly rough looking group of 8 people alongside our family gathering just as we began eating.

Let's just say the meal was a disaster, the babies began crying, my mother was literally covering her ears and we couldn't enjoy the meal. We hurried our food and left as soon as we could. We complained to the staff, and they said we should have asked to be moved.

Couldnt believe  my Ears! We had already started our meal, so how could we move. We are paying customers, it is not our responsibility to move or ask other customers to be considerate. They should not have been allowed in the restaurant in that state,  or even placed beside a family. At no point did any of the staff think this might be a problem (I actually felt sorry for the staff having to serve them)

Anyway, never got offered a discount. Just got a " were very sorry", here's the bill. £90 wasted - shame as the food was nice. Ambience...