Mark's Jamaican Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Florida

I hate to be the one to give this restaurant a 1 star, but I just had to. To start off, the food is okay. Not the best Jamaican food I’ve had but decent. Everyone knows the best way to run a business is to always keep the customer coming back through GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. First of all, I went to purchase a couple of Jamaican beef patties. Just like everyone else, I love my Jamaican patties cooked just right which means NOT BURNT/OVERCOOKED. I notice there was only one that wasn’t extremely burnt and I asked the lady/cashier politely (which is one of the owners of the restaurant I assume) to give me the specific patty of my choice. Since I’m paying for something, I would assume that I had the right to choose which patty that I wanted to buy. After telling her this, the lady looked back at me and asked me “why, why would you want that patty, what’s wrong with the rest” (making It seem like It was a problem). I was shocked and confused as to why there would be a problem choosing a patty that I’m spending my money on and the fact that I was being questioned as a PAYING CUSTOMER. I Bought the patties just so the situation wouldn’t be any worse than it already is and shrugged it off (assuming that maybe she was just having a bad day). The next time I went there, same lack of great customer service but this time, it was worse. I asked her for the specific patty that I wanted since once again, were burnt and over cooked. I expressed my concern and asked politely if there’s anymore being made and she stated “oh there’s nothing wrong with the patties we have here, that’s how they’re suppose to be”. On top of that, the other restaurant owner (Which probably was her husband) joined in the conversation and stated that the patties are normal and that’s how they make it in Jamaica. I was very insulted, puzzled and shock as to why the restaurant owners would try to sell a lie and some burnt beef patties. Out of all the places I’ve bought the patties from and I’ve eaten in my life, not one was ever burnt. Or ever been in a situation where the owners have given me the ridiculous lie of the patties being normal when they were actually over cooked. To make things worse, after purchasing the patties at the state there were in (which I regret) the owner told me to bag my OWN FOOD and rudely handed me the bag. If that’s not bad customer service I don’t know what is. I’ve been there a total of three times trying to give them a chance to prove themselves and they failed every time. I won’t be returning there. I don’t know which restaurant owners in their right mind think it’s okay to serve burnt food and continue to lie about it stating “that is how they do it in Jamaica”. Even if the food is okay/decent, that shouldn’t give them the right to treat a customer like that. How dare they, All I wanted was some “not burnt” Jamaican beef patties but I guess that was too...

On yesterday, 06/16/21, I went to Marks based on the reviews. I’m new to the area., and I love Jamaican food, so I was looking forward to the new experience. UNFORTUNATELY, I was extremely disappointed.

After I ordered, their kitchen had a small fire. When I went to pick it up, they explained about the fire, but they still gave me the 3 plates that I had ordered MINUS THE CABBAGE AND PLANTAINS AND CHARGED ME FULL PRICE. I didn’t think that was fair, so I called them back to advise that they owed me a credit or something else. Per Damikia, she kept giving me excuses as to why I still had to pay full price. She didn’t even apologize! I told her several times that I was sorry about the fire, but she never apologized about giving me 1/2 of my plates. I told her, just like she wouldn’t want to pay full price for 1/2 an order or service, I didn’t either.

Eventually, I just hung up on her. No credit, no refund, no apology, no justice, ONLY EXCUSES! You would think that she would want to do right by a “newcomer” to the area, or simply just be FAIR to her customers…NOPE!

I am thoroughly disappointed!

To the owner:

Right is right, you are addressing all of you customers, I’m addressing how I was treated. If you had refunded my money or even prorated my bill for not giving me the whole order, then you would not have received this negative review.

Yes, you had a fire, which I apologized for, BUT don’t overcharge your customers when you can’t fulfill the...

The lady taking orders & phone calls is very ignorant when it comes to customer service. She takes it upon herself to laugh about whatever you're requesting. After several times ordering food through Uber Eats I finally broke my silence about orders being sent out with no tamper resistance in place to ensure safety. I called to request tamper resistant tape which I was rudely interrupted aggressively saying they don't have tape but do have a stapler which I agreed was suffice if stapled properly in a sensible manner. Of course the food came with the same loose knots not preventing tampering. When I called back the cashier acted so ignorant about the issue playing dumb as if her 4 years working there justified not even attempting to put a staple above the knot tied on the plastic bag saying the staple can't go through the knot. Obviously that's not stopping a sensible human from putting a staple or two above the knot. It's a shame people don't really care about safety especially handling food. I removed the good review I made prior to this one. All it takes is one ignorant person to sink a whole ship. True integrity goes a long way which she has none. This is the second time I was laughed at while trying to resolve a issue with this restaurant. Acting as if tamper resistant restraints on food sent from a well established restaurant is too much goes to show the level of a bad mind she has. I hope y'all come down to earth to see this...