Tropix Pots Cuisines Bar & Grill - Caribbean Authentic Cuisine — Restaurant in Frederick

This was my family's first time trying this restaurant. My husband and his family who are here visiting from Jamaica wanted some Jamaican food and I didn't feel like driving an hour away to our usual place. My husband and I often talked about trying this place since they opened, but hadn't gotten around to it until today. Let me start by saying I'm not only a consumer but a small business owner so I understand conflict resolution from both standpoints. Having a dissatisfied customer is never good as it may have an unnecessary negative effect, especially on an initial encounter with a business in the food service industry. First impressions matter. I ordered 4 different items but had a unit total of 5, meaning I ordered 2 of the same item. I ordered the cocktail beef patties(1), Rasta pasta with oxtail(1), Rasta pasta with jerk chicken(1) and sweet plantains(2). My order came to approx $73.00. Although we thought the food was a bit pricey we still wanted to try it. We had the food delivered via Uber Eats (additional fees)and it was delivered in a timely fashion. When the food arrived we received a small bag with 3 small containers in it. I asked the driver was this everything and he responded "yes". Being our first time we didn't know what to expect so I rushed and opened the bag only to find that some of our order was missing. I immediately stopped the driver who hadn't made it back to his car, and asked where is the rest of my order? He said that was everything and the store double checked it. He said I must call the restaurant myself if my order was wrong, which I did while he was standing in my drive way. After being placed on a brief hold a nice gentlemen listened to my complaint and placed me on hold to find out what was going on and why my order was missing items, especially the most expensive item.He assured me everything would be OK and he would take care of it. After returning to the phone he initially stated there was 2 bags but I only received one. Then after another hold he came back and said he spoke with the person who packed the food and confirmed everything was in the bag so the driver must have removed it. I let him know that the bag I received was tied up(a jamaican thing) and I only received 1 bag not 2. He then said there was only 1 bag not 2 and the person who dealt with my order confirmed everything was in there. After a short back and forth I questioned how the bag was tampered with and how everything fit in 1 bag? He said the driver must have untied it and took the food and tied it back so I must call Uber Eats about the driver. So I asked how do I get my food? He said call them because I watched the camera and seen everything put in the bag. I instantly got angry because you just went from 2 bags to one, then you talked to the employee who prepared the order, now out of nowhere you went and watched the video. I highly doubt that so I hung up. Not only did he not take care of the issue which he could have done by offering to replace the 2 missing items, but he also gave conflicting stories that made no sense. Not to mention that if all 5 of my items were in one bag it would've been pretty hard to tie as the bag would've been full to the top. I contacted Uber and they gave me a refund for the missing items, but that didn't help the situation of having hungry family waiting for an hour to eat. I shared the plantains and split the 1 Rasta pasta. The 2 people that got to eat liked the portion sizes. I won't be ordering from here again in the near future due to this incident and their lack of resolutions. Not to mention that $25 for the pasta that barely had meat(chicken) in it was not worth it. Since I never did receive the other pasta which was $27 (oxtails) I can't say what the meat ratio was, but if they put such a little bit of chicken in the other one I can only imagine. This was a waste of time and money. I should've driven the hour and everyone would've gotten their food and for less. Now I have to wait 3 to 10 days for a refund and still go out...

I had an extremely disappointing and concerning experience with Tropics Pots at the SoCo Wine Festival. I ordered two plates of food. The first plate was an oxtail and curry goat combo with rice and peas and cabbage. The second plate was oxtail with rice and peas and plantain. The only thing that was remotely edible was the cabbage. The plantains were old and hard as a rock, the Jamaican beef patty I received was cold, and both the rice and peas and the oxtail were served cold as well.

After eating the rice and peas, I ended up with food poisoning. The rice had a very strong, unpleasant smell that made it clear it was old. I even noticed that a lot of people at the festival weren’t eating their rice and peas — and in hindsight, that should have been a red flag. From what I saw, and from the expressions of the workers serving it, it was obvious the rice had been sitting out for hours and was being reheated.

This isn’t the first time either. At a previous festival in Brandywine, I also had food poisoning after eating from this same vendor, but I assumed it was from somewhere else. Now I know the source was Tropics Pots.

The conditions around their booth were unsanitary. My friend even saw roaches near the windows at the festival area. To make matters worse, when I interacted with the owner, Kamik, she seemed completely unconcerned about the quality of food being served or the experience customers were having. That lack of care reflects heavily in the way the food is prepared and handled.

Most of the food was clearly reheated instead of freshly cooked. I even saw workers warming up dishes on the spot, which makes me question if a lot of the food is frozen or pre-made in advance rather than prepared fresh for the festival. For a food vendor at public events, this is unacceptable and unsafe.

I also looked at the reviews on TropicSpot, and it seems like every single time someone leaves a negative review, the owner’s response is nothing but excuses instead of accountability. Rather than addressing the real problem — serving old rice and peas and reheated food — the blame is always shifted elsewhere. That says everything about how little this business values its customers’ health and safety.

If you want food poisoning, eat from here. Otherwise, steer clear.

Overall, Tropics Pots is unsanitary, careless, and a serious health risk. I strongly believe a health inspector needs to review their practices immediately. Between the old food, poor handling, unsafe serving conditions, and the owner’s refusal to take responsibility, this vendor should not be allowed to continue operating at festivals until major...

THEY REFUSED TO SERVE ME UNTIL…This place is so bogus. I would post what I ate except the waitress refused to serve me. The waitress took the orders of the three people next to me. She then skipped over me, went to assist the lady on the other side of me. When she was done I said, “May I please” and then she cut me off and said “I’ll get to you later”. She then goes to assist two people on the other side of the dining room. She’s answering questions, pulling out her order taking device, and giving them all the hospitality in the world. She then leaves and comes back five or so minutes later with drinks for several people. She leaves and comes back again five or so minutes later and gives people utensils. The lady next to me says to her, “excuse me, he still hasn’t ordered yet”. She replies, “I’m a get to him”. At this point out of fear she might now do something janky to my food I say, “I’m actually not really hungry”. Waitress replies, “I’m a come talk to you”. I respond, “I don’t wanna miss the speaker”. She says “can I please come talk to you?”. I then repeated myself. She then came around the table and said “what chu want, what can I get you”. I repeated myself and she walked away. She hasn’t even offered me a drink at this point yet she’s doing everything else for everyone else. I then excused myself and headed down to Olde Mother Brewing Co. to have a drink and a burger from Fifty Fifty. I did comeback to only hear the speaker who is a 99 year old man. He’s a walking library on borrowed time, respectfully. What’s the kicker? She was Black and I was the only Black person in my party of at least 15. She ignored and marginalized me but was buckdancing, shucking and jiving for all the white people in my party. The whole floor staff was pleasant except for her. One lady, who seemed Caribbean, gave me some oil for my ashy hands; I wash my hands a lot after shaking hands prior to eating. As you can see in the video besides our party there was no one else in the establishment for a good amount of time. I looked back and seen they maybe had 2-3 other tables and a couple at their bar. The utter lack of clientele and their bars featured 4pm-8pm M-Th Happy Hour shows that customers might not be feeling that place. Black waitress refused to serve me until a white lady intevrened. That’s a problem. I found two boards that support what I said. Granted they’re from 21/22 but it appears this is still a...