Caribbean Croft — Restaurant in Bristol

Unfortunately on a day that was supposed to be filled with joy. My son turning 21! He chose this restaurant and we were really looking forward to it. We drove all the way from London and had booked a big table of 12 people & had sent our pre orders as requested. The waitress definitely did not want us there, she made it clear she did not want to serve us & wanted us out as quick as possible. She was rude with an attitude as soon as we walked in. The waitress had an attitude of she’s been there a long time she doesn’t need to make any more effort as she’s very secure in her job and she was even bossing the manager around. And the manager out of either friendship with her or liking her as a friend didn’t seem to want to separate friendship from being a manager and make sure she was doing her job correctly. As is customary when you’re in a restaurant, the server normally runs through the order with you ask you if you’d like to add any sides or any extras If they have everything correct and then proceeds to put the order through to the kitchen that however did not happen and as such there was a lot of things wrong with the order. Although we pre-ordered, we had not specified the sides we wanted with the mains and as such that should’ve been asked so they just assumed everyone wanted rice and put rice that’s not right. And when we said that there was a child and one other person who wanted chips instead she got so upset. She refused to serve us went over to the manager who was behind the bar and told him to serve us. And As I said with the dynamic of being her friend rather than manager, he did what she said and came to serve us with her leaving the bar and not making our drinks. Then, when all the food had come and we had no drinks, the manager had the cheek to say it’s our fault because he had to leave the bar to serve us. that statement in itself shows the type of service we received this day. Everything was our fault And we must be terrible customers, despite the fact we’re coming to spend a lot of money at this restaurant. We spent £300 but My husband was treating everyone and the budget was unlimited so if we were welcomed & had a good time they would’ve easily got an extra £300+ out of us from a few extra drinks & desserts alone. But unfortunately, our visit was mared with mistake after mistake. Unfortunately, one person was unable to attend and that would’ve been spotted if as I said the waitress had done a run through all the orders with us on arrival, but as she didn’t and just put everything through, they made the meal for the person that was not here. When this was noticed, the manager immediately came over and said ‘you’ are going to pay for that’ in a very abrupt manner. Not even negotiating or speaking in a nice way and consider we’re spending so much money. And once again blaming us for things that with the correct service should have been avoided, you don’t blame the customer. That’s just number one rule in business. He did come over afterwards and apologise for the way he spoke to us admitting it was very abrupt but by this time the damage had been done. A good manager would have told the waitress to continue serving us and while he made the drinks and then would have dealt with any issues afterwards or if she really didn’t want to serve us she could’ve made the drinks while he was serving us and that way, our drinks would not have got to us late. Also one person ordered soup she didn’t have any spoon to eat the soup with The spoon wasn’t brought to the table for awhile after the soup served. If a table of 12 is big that it needs two servers then you should have made sure you had two servers on that day and someone at the bar don’t blame the customer when we’ve ordered ahead. We’ve told you our numbers your responsibility not ours. I’m really sad because what should’ve been a great memory of my sons for 21st and we’re quite fun people so we would’ve had quite a ball there but the attitude of the waitress in particular and the lack of being able to separate friendship & being...

Date: 28th September 2024 Cuisine: Caribbean Cost: £160 for four

Upon learning from Jez that his area in Bristol sits not too far from a strong Caribbean restaurant scene, I enquired whether it might just be possible to find out just how strong we were talking here. Revitalised from a morning trip to the community sauna, it was agreed that we could find space in our bellies and already packed foodie schedule to squeeze in a lunchtime visit to Caribbean Croft so long as we didn’t overdo it and impact plans for ramen that evening, already booked for 7pm and looming over us in such a way that we were counting down in the manner of those who’ve realised they’ve stayed up drinking too late and are doing the maths on the number of hours’ sleep they’re going to get before an alarm jerks them awake again - “if we eat right now, we might be hungry again in four hours?!”

Overdoing is a subjective term, and having foregone a morning pastry I reckoned I could manage a broad sampling of the extensive menu we perused with fervour over a pint of Red Stripe each. Chris had joined the gang by this point, increasing our combined ordering power, but even so we probably did opt for slightly too much, supplementing a generously portioned main each with sides of okra, mac n cheese and coleslaw.

Mich’s wings - ordered, at my gentle encouragement, at a quantity the rest of us would benefit from - arrived swimming unceremoniously in a ginormous jacuzzi of watery brown sludge. The sludge was of course a delicious jerk sauce, at just the right level of everything. Consistency, so as not to congeal, but with enough texture not to render the wings dry and plain in the process of picking them up. Spice, so as to tickle and tingle and tease the tongue rather than cause it any actual pain. And flavour, so as to allow me to return again and again to them without stepping on the toes of my curried goat; in fact, I reserved some rice to pour back into the jacuzzi once the wings had been dealt with.

The curry was meaty and blissfully distinct from the flavour of the wings. You know how you pay big money - like over a tenner - for a curried goat combo from a truck or shack flying a Jamaican or a Grenadian flag at lunchtime whenever you happen to see one, because you can’t resist, and the goat turns out to just be bones and potatoes? And you know how sometimes you get the jerk wings on the side, because you’re intrigued and/or just why not, despite it destroying that week’s entire lunch budget even though it’s only Tuesday, and they turn out to taste exactly the same as the goat? And you kind of just wish you’d got a meal deal instead? This wasn’t at all like that.

In fact, the constant to-ing and fro-ing between my bowl and Mich’s meant that I didn’t take the time to appreciate everything else on to offer until right at the end when I started mopping up. I blame the waitress, who absurdly let us sit and enjoy our meal without interruption other than when we caught her eye for another beer or cocktail. (That was a joke; I blame my debilitating lack of willpower.)

Jez’s oxtail was tender, but not as delicious as the other meats as far as I recall. The mac n cheese was mac n cheese but unnecessary. The okra was good, but spice levels put off most of the rest and two portions were far too much for me to tackle on my own given the alternatives. I did also enjoy the homemade hot sauce - homemade in a good way - though it, bizarrely for me, went almost untouched.

It can feel with restaurant dining that quality, quantity and value can’t co-exist, like a modern-day inconsistent triad, but Caribbean Croft has maybe disproved that notion. The only thing preventing full marks is that it all felt a bit chain-y: there was no nuance to the presentation, and at its heart we were eating simple, homely food - done incredibly well - but with no invention or creativity. Many more pastries will need in future to be foregone in order to offset such a lunchtime (not to mention the subsequent carbon emissions) but that sacrifice will be well,...

Came with a Group of twelve for my sons 21st. Had pre ordered as requested when my wife booked. My wife has already written a review on this however just to add on that. When we were leaving the manager came over to inform us that the waitress was very experienced she had years working as a manager herself and years working as a server so of course the problems must be from our side rather than hers. I think that's the problem really because she was the years working as a manager she believes that she should be the manager and as such she is bossing the manager around and the manager has no authority at all. Really as a professional, manager should be like a mediator not taking one side or the over the other but trying to solve any issues. Aside from the service being dismal, my wife got food poisoning she vomited straight away in the toilet and two other people have now since had diarrhoea. Also as we are Caribbean people we know our Caribbean food and the plantain they served us was completely unripe when we sent it back they admitted this was true and apologised for it however they should not have served it in the first place. As chefs your know your produce and you know that the food isn't right then just say we don't have plantain at the moment. They served us two portions of that unedible unripened plantain it was rock hard. I must say that the meals that we did have did taste very nice, so it's just a shame about the service and all the rest of the issues. My son has been here several times and he always had an excellent time hence why he asked to attend this restaurant for his birthday out of all the restaurants he could have chosen. The waitresses attitude and the managers lack of professionalism absolutely ruined my son's 21st birthday and as a family we are so upset by this. I really hope that A Change Is Made in the restaurant so that this kind of thing does not happen again to anyone else. Even when the plantain was sent back and they admitted it was not right the chefs were laughing in the kitchen about it. One of the CHEFS came to the table to tell us that ITS not good to waste food and that they would have to throw it in the bin. As if we are little children that need a lecture from the chef, and once again if you're blaming us for the fact that you're serving unripened plantain. The whole atmosphere was completely off and it felt like they just wanted us out of there as quick as possible before we even sat down. Reading the other reviews I can see this is obviously not a very typical experience in this restaurant but on this day it was atrocious and just sad because staff didn't realise it's your day of working, you may not want to be there, but you should yry to understand how important it is for your customers, it's my son is 21st birthday, you don't realise that these are big events for your customers, memories for the rest of their lives, we didn't even get to sing him happy birthday because we just definitely we're not welcomed. Just a Smile upon entry and a genuine care, wanting us to be there and welcoming us would have made all of the difference that this whole experience. Genuine friendliness is a big factor in service & can make a big difference. And maybe a bit of humility not thinking you're too good to serve as was the attitude of the...