Top Class Jamaican Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Maitland

I spent $40 on lunch for my mother, sister and myself. I ordered the following:

Fried Whiting with rice and peas, cabbage and fried dumpling with oxtail gravy Beef Pattie and coco bread Jerk burger and fries Tropical rhythm juice Red stripe lemon

Listen…To start, let’s talk about why you charge a credit card fee BEFORE you charge the tax. You just taxed me on a fee which I feel totally disrespected about. One of the cashier’s had a really dismissive attitude…she was barely helpful to start. When I asked her about the soup, she said you had none…but then another customer came in and ordered chicken soup? What’s up with that??

My entire family is Jamaican so I’m always curious to see if any place can hold a card to what we do in our kitchen. Sadly, this will NOT be a repeat.

The fish was flavourless rubbery. The oxtail gravy was absolutely abysmal. The beef patty was dry and disappointing. The crust was flaky but again, it was terrible. Jerk burger where?? I’m not sure which part of Jamaica you guys are from but I never heard of a sweet jerk sauce. The burger was a freezer patty that was smothered in this sweet tangy sauce. Didn’t even have the decency to hand make this thing with the peppery jerk spice I’m used to.

Gorgeous restaurant. Impeccable bathroom! but y’all can keep the $8 charge for a $3 red stripe.

I have family here in Florida and back home in Jamaica who can do so much better with a hand made stove and some pimento leaf.

Come on

*In response to the establishment * I love the quick response to this review. That’s never happened before so kudos.

Also I’m not sure about your video footage but yes I’d classify telling someone that you have no soup for the day as dismissive especially when another customer walks in and simply orders soup…🤷🏾‍♀️ To be certain I asked the other customer what she ordered and she said chicken soup so I’ll leave that up to others to interpret how they will.

Also, I’d usually mention the dissatisfaction with the food if it were simply one item…but all?? That’s generally indicative that nothing is truly going to suffice. This was a first time visit so honestly I have this experience and other reviews to go on and from the previous reviews and my own experience…it’s not worth repeating.

I saw your credit card disclaimer, that was not the issue clearly. It’s the fact that you charge the fee BEFORE you charge the tax which increases the actual service charge by 6.5%. Your fee should be charged after tax to be fair.

Let’s compare apples to apples…it’s not the lack of pimento wood…🤭

Second follow up to establishment's remarks

While I can honestly appreciate the request to communicate personally with your team, you'll have to accept that its not a requirement. Sometimes...and most times...you are simply a "one and done" situation. It's my choice whether I bring it up to you personally or not. I made a choice that I and my family would not be returning so there was absolutely no need to bring it up. Leaving a review...scathing or not, is an OPPORTUNITY for you to improve...not argue.

NOTHING you served us that day was good. Accept that! Or are you going to say you tasted everything that day and everything was fantastic so I must be lying??

Its curious to me how much time you've dedicated to this review. I have every right to convey my true and actual experience with your restaurant. Nothing I've said here was inflammatory or false. What's apparent is that you've made it your mission to debate on negative reviews in an attempt to negate their validity. Truly misleading on your part. You might not like what I or others have to say but that will not change the truth. People have posted TERRIBLE reviews before...I am not the first, and I probably wont be the last. Beef patties and fried fish are NOT fusions...a jerk burger could be subjective...granted but you yourself blamed it on pimento wood...right? Its ok! You got the flavors wrong. The fish was rubbery and nasty but it's not a crime. We hated it...

This was hands down one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had—and I genuinely wish I was exaggerating. My friends and I visited Top Class Caribbean Restaurant in Orlando last night, and not only was the service terrible and the food subpar, but I also ended up with food poisoning from what little I was able to eat.

We were given a happy hour menu outside of happy hour, which led to incorrect pricing on our bill. When asked about it, no one corrected the mistake. I ordered a drink that was supposed to be served in a Patrón bottle, flavored with passion fruit. What I got was a warm, ice-less bottle of Welch’s passion fruit juice mixed with cheap mezcal—no Patrón, no flavor, and completely undrinkable. We ordered two, took one sip, and left them. We were told we still had to pay for them because we “tasted” them.

The food was no better: • The oxtail bao were overly sweet and unbalanced. • The chicken wings were fried so hard the bones crumbled, yet the inside was pink. • One friend’s snapper escovitch came with completely raw onions and peppers—not marinated or cooked at all. • I had to cancel my snapper order because they didn’t have rice and peas—a staple at any real Caribbean restaurant. • Another friend’s festival was rock hard, and the jerk chicken fried rice was almost chicken-less. • Oh, and the bartender couldn’t even mix rum and pineapple juice—they served it as a separate shot and cup of juice. Extra unnecessary steps for the consumer for no apparent reason. Make it make sense.

But what really pushed this into dangerous territory? Those wings were the only real food I had, and a few hours later, I was violently sick from both ends, dealing with full-on food poisoning. I’m still having sweats and nausea, and it’s clear my body is trying to get those toxins out. That’s not just bad service—that’s a serious health violation.

We brought up our concerns respectfully to the waitress—who said it was her second day—and then again to the assistant manager after the actual manager refused to speak with us. After listening to our entire list of complaints, she came back with an insulting offer of $5 off the nearly $150 bill. Not to mention, we tipped 25%! We weren’t asking for money—we wanted accountability. What we got was disrespect and a complete lack of ownership.

This place is not only overpriced and disorganized, it’s also a risk to your health. Avoid...

I have been to this restaurant location for more than 20+ years and the previous restaurant owners let it go down to where I could not even get food there any longer as it was in my friend's words "TRASH"... I was driving doing errands yesterday and noticed that "TOP CLASS" had assumed the location of a previous restaurant I mentioned up above and I went in and was greeted right away from a young lady and than she asked me if I had anything I wished to order and I told her in a moment I would let her know as I just had seen the new restaurant sign and wanted to review the menu before I had answered her and after a few moments I did place an order for 3 staples I think every Jamaican Restaurant should always have and that was Chicken Soup, Rice, and Mac N Cheese and all 3 of these were excellent 5 out of 5 stars for all three things, I had ordered plain white rice and I was asked if I wanted gravy on it and I said yes and I asked for the brown stew chicken gravy and it was excellent and the flavor was great and the rice was nice and fluffy as well, my macaroni and cheese was piping hot and it was delicious and my soup was also excellent and had amazing flavor as well and it had spinners which I like quite a lot and a lot of places do not always include them so I was very pleasantly surprised. I will definitely be back and I will also be sharing with all of my Caribbean friends that this place exists and it is a new restaurant and new restaurant owner as well and not just another marketing ploy to bring in customers with the same old trash food. I also had spent a few minutes speaking with the owner of the restaurant and that too made an impression on me that they would take out time from their busy schedule to make sure everything was good and if I had any concerns that I should let him know personally, I really liked this. Anyway I give a 5 star review of this restaurant and I would recommend this restaurant to anyone without hesitation. Thank you for a great lunch yesterday!! I cant wait for your brunch specials so I will look for them soon. Kind...