Caribbean DutchPot — Restaurant in Great Britain

Absolutely disappointing experience from start to finish! Unfriendly staff except one young girl! No warm welcome, felt unwelcome from the moment we stepped in. Seemed unable to find our booking! There was no table ready for the reservation!

Finally shown to a table. A scrappy laminated note on the table! Told to use QR reader for menu, but to order from a the member of staff who seated us!

Waited and waited! 20 minutes later finally realised that no one had taken our order!

Ordered starters: Fish Cakes and Stuffed Dumplings.

Mains: 2 Curry Goat, Jerk Chicken Supreme, Curry Chicken, Mac n Cheese side and Fried Dumplings.

Drinks: 4 Bigga and 1 "pressed apple juice"

Waited again! Drinks turn up! Apple juice not pressed, but out of a carton! No offer of ice, had to request.

Waited and waited! Finally starters arrive! Fish Cakes overcooked and hardly any Salt Fish! Stuffed Dumplings sweet and a little amount of Mince inside.

Again we waited for ages for our mains! Please note it was NOT busy!

Mains finally arrive bit by bit! Presentation is OK! Now we're waiting again for cutlery!

Food is NOT piping hot! It's warm!

We start to eat and we all look at each other!

Curry Goat meat was like Pulled Pork, no chunks! Zero flavour!

Jerk Chicken tasted mainly of Coconut! Zero flavour!

Curry Chicken was supposed to be made with breast, but I suspect it was made with the cheaper cut of Boneless Thigh! No flavour just very salty! The potatoes in the curry had absorbed all the salt!

Mac n Cheese was bland! My daughter looked at it, took one sniff and taste and said it has no flavour!

Dumplings were crispy on the outside and ok on the inside, but were totally different to the stuffed ones, which we found weird as it's the same mixture for dumplings!

Nobody finished their meals! It was a major disappointment as we were all so looking forward to going to an independent Caribbean restaurant and experiencing some great food! This was not the case!

We asked for the bill and waited and waited and waited! Finally it arrives and I nearly fall off my chair! The full cost was £106! As it was Monday, the EOTHO scheme kicked in, makng the bill £56!

If the scheme was not in place, I would have been FUMING as the food did not warrent a bill of £106. I have been to other restaurants, who offer better quality food, less waiting time and a better atmosphere for less!!!

Waited for them to take the payment! No one came back to the payment, so went to bar and paid! Was asked how the food was, advised it was OK! Meh! There was no response to this.

Obviously the transition from take away to restaurant is not working for them! They need to take a course on Customer Services! Very unfriendly!

Was noted when their regulars came in, they were greeted in a different manner! It was like there was a two tier system in place!

Zero atmosphere. Unfriendly staff except the young girl! Overpriced bland food!

Also no Track and Trace in place!

I would like to add, that I received a call the following day, from who I assume is the owner. They advised that they had received my review which I had submitted through the booking site. (Unforntately I was not able to put as much detail as I had here.)

They apologised and said that they don't know what had happened and why it happened. That they are normally friendly and would like to apologise! That if I had read the other reviews, I would have seen how great they were! I confirmed that I had read the reviews and did not receive this "great service" that they provided to others.

The joke of the apology was that, even though she was apologising, she didn't know which customer I was,or where we were seated! In other words was just trying to offer some form of lip service, but the damage was already done!

Will never go back again! Will stick to Turtle Bay...

The news that this well known Northampton gem was moving from it's humble and cosy Kettering Road home to much bigger premises on Abington Square was excitedly received by our entire household. We are big fans of Caribbean food and the only other dine in offering in town is a branch of Turtle Bay, we will always lend our support to a small business over a Goliath, but, when you're in this position, as a new business you have to be much better than the competition or you find yourself in trouble.

The transition from small takeaway to restaurant appears to be too much for the new owners, our greeting was clumsy, as was the service that followed, it felt like a cafe experience at restaurant prices.

The waiting time for between courses totally unacceptable, especially as we had children in our group, they were bored between courses, the one hour wait for food was excessive. On this basis we declined dessert.

I'm not a fan of crayons in restaurants, but when the wait time is this long, then they almost feel like a necessity. Turtle Bay certainly know how to cater for their young customers.

The food lacked depth of flavour, with some mouthfuls tasting like the burnt bits at the bottom of the pot, I asked for a mild Goat Curry, another member asked for the spicy version, the two dishes came out with hot sauce squirted on top of the spicier one to differentiate them, this felt slightly lazy, why not just have dish with more scotch bonnet for those who like more fire? The meat? A bit overdone.

A Junior member of the group (aged 4) complained that the Macaroni Pie lacked flavour. It looked totally unappetising.

The saltfish fritters were all fritter with very little saltfish!

I've eaten Caribbean food in various West Indian restaurants across the UK and in the Caribbean, and this was by far the worst I've had. I'm hoping that this is down to teething troubles rather than the standard that they have set for themselves. I would recommend that the new owners treat themselves and their staff to a meal out in other restaurants to see how service is done properly and take some notes or at least pick up some ideas.

Perhaps, between dishes bring out something for diners to nibble on, create a buzz, bring out some hard dough bread and a little dipping gravy, or fritters, and contact Bigga/Busta and think about serving those soft drinks from Post-Mix rather than plonking a plastic bottle on the table with a glass and no ice (you aren't a takeaway anymore!)

I'm really hoping things improve here, but for now, for Caribbean food in Northampton, I will have to either cook it myself, or head on down...

It was super exciting to see a well known takeaway become a restaurant so me and my family went last night to sit in. We already knew the food was going to be great and the front of house service was good. The issue was the timing. It took an hour for our starters to come out and then a further hour if not more for our mains. The starters were delicious so we were happy to wait but we were about to leave just before our mains because we could not take the wait. With it being a week day, having a late meal like that did take away from now nice the food was. I already know the issue is the chefs in the back and this will be the cause if the place has a down fall. We overheard the waitress stating to another table that they were waiting for four tables of food to come out first and then their food would be ready. We made the assumption that the chef is clearly cooking one table at a time which is never going to work. We witness 4 tables of people leave, and it’s such a shame because even with discounts our meal came to £96. Just think of how much money was lost. The place is great. The decor is fab and the front of house staff are amazing but the timing of the food coming out is a huge problem. People unfortunately won’t return when they’ve had bad service and it’s a shame because your food and atmosphere is great! My mum suggested to the owners that a buffet option would be so much easier and so much quicker. It’s great and we will return because we’re excited to enjoy a sunny day there in the garden. The issue that I’m dreading is, how long would the wait be for the food if it was a sunny day and super busy? Last night wasn’t too busy and it caused tension having to wait that long. Just wanted to give some constructive feedback as you have so...