Caribba Restaurant & VIP Cocktail Lounge — Restaurant in Wolverhampton

This has to be THE worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant in my life! We visited for my dads 60th birthday and our party consisted of around 40 guests, we were asked to pre order our meals which wasn't a problem and because of this we expected a very smooth service from beginning to end but that couldn't be further from the truth.

On arrival I noticed that there is no front of house to greet you at the door and to show us to our table so we had to find our table ourselves, not a massive problem but something I think the restaurant should address going forward.

Some of our guests had called the restaurant prior to the night and asked to be added to the booking, the restaurant approved their requests clearly without checking whether they could actually accommodate them which resulted in some guests not having a table to sit on as they hadn't put out any extra seats for them. Those guests (including the birthday boy) had to stand up until a table was made available to them which was at the other end of the restaurant so were sitting so far away we couldn't even see them!

As we had quite a large party, there were some guests who didn't arrive on time, but as we are waiting we notice that some of the starters are already coming to the table for guests who hadn't even arrived yet! At no point did a member of staff approach our party to check whether guests had arrived or even to let us know that the starters were about to be served so this caused some confusion and a lot of chaos. We chose not to make a fuss of this and those who were there began to eat their starters, I had the saltfish fritters which were mediocre to say the least, could possibly be the worst ones I have ever had, although they had a nice flavour, they were dry which suggested that they had been reheated and were not fresh and also very cold, served with a very sad looking, pointless "salad". The wait between starters and the mains seemed like an eternity which obviously caused some frustration. When my food finally arrived, I couldn't eat it straight away as they didn't bother to provide any new cutlery, in fact my dad had to eat his food with a SPOON. I ordered fried chicken which tasted nice and was hot so I was happy with my meal. I also ordered fried chicken and chips for my 4 year old son which still hadn't arrived by the time I finished my meal, I asked the waiter where his food was and I was told "I don't know", this certainly wasn't an acceptable response, I would have expected him to at least check for me.

After a very long wait and a very hungry 4 year old, I decided to approach the owner/chef to ask where it was, he aggressively informed me that it was brought to the table and sent back, this was completely un-true and it seems as though he was trying to make excuses for the diabolical service that we had received up until this point. At no point during this exchange did he offer an apology for having a 4 year old wait til after 10pm to be fed, in fact quite the opposite, he blamed US for their short comings. He continued with his foul attitude and proceeded to tell my brother to "pipe down BOY" for calmly asking where our food was. His demeanour was completely unprofessional and to be met with such aggression was shocking.

By this point, there were still a number of guests who still hadn't received their main meal and my Step-Mom was practically running the restaurant for them, standing by the bar with a list of everyone's orders, equipped with a highlighter and pen ticking orders off as they were coming out, which they clearly thought was acceptable. Some of our guests didn't get fed at all, in fact one of them left to go to KFC instead, came back and their food still hadn't arrived, what a joke!

And to add insult to injury, there was no apology to our guests and no offer of a discount etc. for the disastrous experience we all had. We certainly will never return to this...

As a church we booked a table of 11 for church fellowship. We dined in on Friday 19 August 2022. We booked Caribba based on the positive reviews I had read. I spoke to and booked the table with Carlton. Carlton mentioned that it would be helpful for Caribba if they had everyone's meal choice prior to attending, so this was done. All meal choices were emailed to Caribba on Wednesday 17th August. There were 10 that attended as I was unwell. The feedback from the night was extremely disappointing. Service was very very slow. The staff assigned to the table were clearly inexperienced. Staff had to be reminded to bring cutlery and drinking glasses. Meals were not bought in together even though people had ordered the same starter/main. When dessert was asked for, we were told they didn't have that dessert (Apple Rum mixed crumble) even though all meal choices were given 2 days before. We were told that they had had a menu change on the Friday morning of our meal and that I had been sent an email explaining this. I checked junk, spam, unwanted and the inbox and no email had been sent. In addition, I have just looked on the Caribba website and they still have the Apple Rum mixed crumble as a dessert option. One guest was told that the prices on the website were not correct and that the prices to sit and dine in were £2.00 more for the oxtail. Staff had to be asked to take dirty plates away. Staff didn't know the answer to very basic questions. Staff bought desserts out but no spoons. When a spoon was asked for, they bought out a soup spoon. The ice cream tasted of garlic, like a utensil that was previously used on garlic had been used to scoop the ice cream. Plantin is £2.00, but for this you get 3 slices of half a plantin! The night was a disaster. When Carlton heard that the guests were not happy he came out to speak to my husband. One of the first things Carlton asked, was "do you have children?" and then went on to explain that the children that were assigned to our table were in 'training!' and that he has a wealth of experience in what he's doing and he can serve silver service. He was trying his hardest to justify the very very poor service and unforgettable experience (for all the wrong reasons) we had suffered. I was unable to attend, but sent £25.00 to cover a take-away meal. I requested soup, oxtail with rice n peas, plantin and Apple rum mixed crumble. When I received my meal I had rice n peas, oxtail and plantin. Nothing else and no change. So now Caribba has 11 people that will share this poor experience with family, friends and colleagues and they in turn will tell others and avoid this place. We try our very best to support black owned businesses, but they will definitely not see us again and I certainly will not recommend this place. Very disappointing. I want to give no stars, but I am forced to give 1 star so I can post...

Such a shame to leave a bad review but I can't give anymore than 1star. To be honest, I'd give zero if I could and will never dine here again. Ever. Cut a long story short, we booked for our family member's 60th birthday and unfortunately the night became a shambles - from the VERY beginning. Nobody to show us to our tables, never mind to be greeted by anyone... when we eventually sat down (considering that not even half of the party have arrived yet) waiters were bringing out dishes for people that weren't even there...? Not one person even asking if the party was all present... Then, when the guests had arrived, the food just kind of stopped coming out and people were left without food for well over 2.5 hours - including my 4 year old lil nephew! Disgraceful really. Particularly when all of this food was pre-ordered! When asked what was happening, rather than the chef politely apologising or humbly explaining to his paying clientele when we can expect to be fed, he became antagonistic and started calling people "bway" and that we had "set him up" - how ludicrous?! Who goes to a restaurant for a 60th birthday, to deliberately not got fed for well over 2.5 hours, have some of the party have to sit the other side of the restaurant because the restaurant haven't accommodated for them, the birthday boy have to hitch up on the corner of one table because again, no seat available for him, have plates of chewed up bones and empty starter plates and tissues, stacked on tables looking desolate and uninviting just begging to be taken away, no utensils to eat your main meal (for those lucky enough to receive a dinner), no clue as to how drinks were to be ordered, have people so dismayed at not being fed nearly 3 hours later that they actually go to the local kfc! To then PAY full price without even a signof an apology...??? All because we wanted to "setup" the chef?!?! Genuinely, the food wasn't bad but it also wasn't great. To have the lack of any service in what is a self proclaimed "fine dining experience" I can wholeheartedly say, the worst service I've had at any restaurant ever. If it wasn't for someone's special birthday and not wanting to cause a scene, they would have received £0 from me or likely anyone else...