Turtle Bay Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

We picked this place as we all love Caribbean food and being of Caribbean descent myself I have had many decades of eating this type of food so my expectations were that we would be receiving great basic Caribbean food. We ordered the starter ribs small with little meat on them, macaroni cheese balls and sweetcorn fritters. The McCheese was very doughy without much flavour, the sweetcorn fritters were plain but ok. The thing was everything was covered in the same very hot sauce. This wasn’t a very good start, but we carried on as in my opinion, this should be basic cooking with bold and amazing flavours. My curried goat arrived. To say the dish had no flavour is an understatement. No flavour just tasted like salt and hot water stock cube. The goat was so chewie-like eating rubber. I was expecting it to still be alive and walking past our table licking its fresh wounds. What a disappointment! My wife had a tofu Jerk curry and that was also bland. The Tofu was still wet inside, it was not marinated so no flavour or colour could reach the centre of the few pieces or in fact any of the tofu just the outside that was again covered in that same hot sauce. How could they get this so wrong? Basic cooking basic. The rice was overcooked, soggy and with very few kidney beans. Whoever cooked this meal needs to go back to basic cooking and learn how to cook Caribbean food. I did speak to the waitress who was lovely and a credit to the establishment. She spoke to the manager who advised he was too busy to speak to me and even though we waited he ignored us for the rest of our stay. We advised the waitress we wanted to pay our bill and didn’t want to choose anything else from the menu but just wanted to speak to the manager before we formed an opinion, but he chose not to speak to us. That’s no way to run a business and I will post my review as many places as I can to let the unsuspecting public know what they will receive or at least my experience with the blandest tasting food I have ever had the displeasure to receive. This food is easy to cook and anyone who has a basic understanding and competency of cooking can cook amazing and tasty Caribbean food. Please buy a cookbook and try it yourself before you go to this establishment and waste your hard-earned money. If it was just stars to rate the waitress then I would give her a 5, Just a shame about the manager and the cook AKA...

I did not have a reservation and apparently walked-in on a saturday afternoon at around 2:50. The restaurant was very lively and completely reserved for the next 2-3 hrs. However, they acknowledged I was a solo traveller and let me dine near their bar counter, which I definitely didn't mind as I so badly wanted to savor carribbean cuisine and it was my first time doing so. The food was exceptional and I'm definitely going to try more Caribbean in the future. The service was extremely delayed, even though the staff were trying to push out as many orders as possible & I could understand it was due to the packed restaurant. The atmosphere was not very distinct. They had some good seaside Caribbean music playing and it was too small compared to their other restaurant chains. Speaking of the food, I must admit that their house sauce is a banger. If you are someone who is very much spice sensitive then I don't recommend you try, but if you are not, then you must absolutely go for it. I ordered their chicken breast jerk pit which came along with some coconut rice, beans & slaw. The chicken was succulent & well done. The coconut rice was also brilliant & the slaw was as usual. Their sides of jerk pit wings is something you are really missing out on if you ignore. As I expressed, it's their house sauce which takes it to the next level. Certainly was a banger for me. I had also ordered their mac and cheese alongside jerk chicken (added option). The mac & cheese wasn't the best I've had, yet, was cheesy and satisfying. The jerk chicken was also up to mark. You may add some jerk bbq sauce to make it more scrumptious. They have sauce bottles and you might need to ask them for it, just in case you are not aware of it. The portion sizes are good and I'm quite happy with my...

I really regret booking this venue for a group instead of other options in the area. We got to the restaurant, got seated and told that they still have happy hour for the next 15 minutes. The issue is that the waiter would not show up again for 25 minutes, and the happy hour would unfortunately not apply anymore (good business tactics, have to admit). We could see the waiter taking 10 minutes to put cutlery down on a few tables though, and we could see the manager telling him off for not taking orders from the customers, as the table next to us complained.

The drinks would not show up until we were in the restaurant for 45 minutes, and we had to remind the waiter - apparently the drinks were already sitting at the bar, but he wouldn’t pick them up.

The rest of the food was okay, despite the presence of coriander in almost everything, we had multiple starters which were okay, but the spicy squid was not great, as it was left in the fryer for too long, the ribs were delicious though. For the mains, we got different dishes and the fried chicken was also good, apart from the fact that the coleslaw was warm, and the chicken was in such a weird shape that you wouldn’t know whether it has bones in it or not.

The place was around 60% full over the 2 hours we spent here, which for a Saturday in central Oxford seemed odd. The music was very loud though, you could not hear the others next to you, and we were not even close to the speakers. They also have speakers outside, so you can’t escape it either.

Overall, the service was appalling, slow, the music was too loud, but the food was okay with some...