Tropics Grill — Restaurant in London

I did wonder why the restaurant was empty, but it could’ve been due to it being a new restaurant or slightly expensive in hayes (which let’s be honest isn’t a nice area , we love our bargains here) , food in hayes is usually pretty mid, our best options are kfc a few Indian restaurants and roosters (imo). Once you venture out of hayes u have options ofc but I wanted to try one of the local restaurants, heard jerk chicken , thought it would be good as it’s just spiced chicken right? (I know it’s allot more but at its basic form). The rice was okay, definitely not made fresh (albeit I ordered it at 10pm) , but it tasted like it was yesterdays , the jerk chicken I’d give a 6/10, it was definitely tender but unfortunately was on the overcooked dry side , which I can forgive if the flavour was banging , it tasted like a bit of jerk seasoning on bbq chicken grilled on a fire. Not bad but roosters has more flavour , almost any grilled chicken shop in hayes has allot more flavour. The rice tasted good , I know it’s called rice and peas but the peas is kidney beans (the only bean you get). Id say it’s better than a kfc spicy rice , but I’d stop there, on par with any egg fried rice from a regular Chinese in terms of flavour.

Now let’s get to the bad , you see fried chicken from a Jamaican place , ooh it must be spiced. It was so bad I’d rather go to the worst chicken place in hayes and get more flavour of the chicken. Yes it might be the crispiest chicken ever , but not good crispy, it’s like they added too much potato starch or cornstarch in their batter and fried it to oblivion . It’s so crunchy but that’s all they aimed for. I bet it’ll be the driest chicken you have ever eaten , maybe they refried yesterday’s chicken (albeit it definitely didn’t taste old or off at all so don’t be worried about food poisoning here) but a places positive of not getting food poisoning is not really a positive. Okay so let’s say the food isn’t the best but I am hungry and want something crunchy and have some sauces at home , you are charging me 8£ for 2 pieces of chicken, when kfc is giving 10 mini fillets (which somehow are less dry and have more flavour than a Caribbean place) for 6£ , uh uh .

Finally the fresh juice. 5.25£ , okay sure freshly squeezed , it tasted like they got 1£ tropical juice put it in a blender with some watermelon , (and not allot) . Bosman shop next doors has American drinks like Dr Pepper vanilla float (way better than coke vanilla) , for 1.50. Id steer clear of their fresh juice, I don’t expect to be charged this much for juice unless your some coffee shop or in central London. I don’t even have anything to say about it except the fruit punch is not worth it , maybe the others like the Guinness cream or whatever is called might be more interesting.

I really should have checked the reviews before I came to place and will laugh if they accuse me of a fake account when I have left multiple reviews which are at different levels for an old account. I definitely will never come here again , for any reason , as unfortunately it has nothing going for it , not price , not flavour , or portion . If this place actually considers getting a chef , who actually has some idea on jaimaican or Caribbean or I don’t know flavour , even a indigenous home cook or mother , I’d consider coming here again after the reviews get up , but something would need to change for this place to survive , because it won’t , anyone who says the food is good , must either have the pallet of a child, be a fake account/review or thinks McDonald’s spicy veggie wrap is spicy . school dinners destroy the food at this place that it made me miss school dinners ….

I tried the food within 3 minutes of receiving it for take out(not delivery), so I can’t even fault anything but the restaurant. The reviews that are 5 stars have max left 2-3 reviews so you know...

So this isn't the first time we have ordered from grill and bites. Unfortunately it may be the last, every time we have ordered they either haven't got the food in stock or the food doesn't arrive within the time stated. This time 2 separate orders were placed through just eat to be delivered to the same address...when the driver arrived he didn't have any change and said to call the restaurant to get a discount on the next order, we told him no as we didnt know when we would order. So I had to call the restaurant to cancel my just eat order and place the order over the phone, the restaurant had the cheek to charge 50p for using card over the phone. Reluctantly I paid it as the order was there. Then we asked if he had the 2nd order and he said he didnt. When I spoke to the restaraunt they said they never sent it out as they didn't have sweet potatoes fries (no surprise there) but the order was in the shop still...so we had little choice but to go and collect the order from the store. As we had paid delivery charge through just eat you would have thought the restaurant would be decent as say "have 2 drinks in place of the deliver charge"...no they ummm'd and ahhhh'd and said we couldn't have 2 comes because it costs more...listen the food is nice but the customer service is shocking! As a black carribean person (as are my friends) I am embarrassed for this restaurant...the food isn't enough to retain customers and although it is working now your cards will run out soon...dont let another black business lose out due to sheer blackness.. .please fix up...i would have loved to give you 4/5 stars but I've had this experience several times now and it just...

Where do I start, I fancied a carribean meal some jerk and curry mutton I ordered over uber eats, first off this is where the negatives begin. The delivery from order to recieveing took over 90 minutes. 90 minutes where you can't see their order as they deliver in house, 90 minutes where me nor even uber could get in contact with them to find out an update.

Then when I revieved my order I found a tub of what I can only describe some bland, congiled mac and cheese that they microwaved for 10 minutes before leaving it to go cold and then giving it to me. Photo has been attached.

Next the jerk chicken while actually rather nice was let down with the fact it's cold, dry and tough rather like it's been smothered in sauce and warmed in a microwave and then still left to go cold before arriving to me.

Next the curry mutton this is probably the only thing I can praise about this it was tender and had loads of flavour and was WARM! The rice and peas sadly let it down even further tasting like they were a day old or had been sat there for hours allowing it to just go dry while also being undercooked.

Overall if you did have to eat here plan well in advance and expect to wait a long time and the only thing I can currently recommend is the mutton. Other than that avoid the mac and cheese...