Island Tingz — Restaurant in Houston

Bottom line upfront: We both immediately got sick and had to stop eating the food and drink tea, take antacids, and drink coffee to let the food consumed be flushed from our systems. The rest of the food was either thrown out or given to our dog.

I hope this serves you well as a pathway to improve your business, customer base, and quality of food. I am a strong advocate in supporting small businesses especially Caribbean businesses but this needs to be said. I would be delighted to support your business again only if you are open to making some drastic changes. I encourage you to read this with an open mind and open heart.

Very Constructive Criticism: The quality of the food was very poor. After sitting down and opening the container, the presentation of the food was very basic. To start my orders were mixed up as the wrong rice was with the wrong dish and this is after the cashier repeated back the order to me and I verified on the screen. I began eating the food and immediately noticed that the taste of the food strongly lacks flavor. The white rice is very bland. The Rice and peas strongly lacks flavor such as coconut milk, thyme, pimento etc. The plantain was prepared pretty well not too oily or overripe/mashed out. The jerk chicken tasted subpar as it was not smoked well on the drum. Their was not enough seasoning used in the preparation process nor during the cooking process and I can tell. I noticed that you are using Chicken back and other cheap quality chicken parts. The jerk sauce or whatever sauce that was put on the meat actually tasted better. This signals to me that you are not using decent quality meat and cutting corners. Moving onto the stew chicken, the gravy was very runny and lacked flavor. Your also plating more ground provisions (potatoes, carrots,) than actual meat. That's another bad indication that you are cutting corners. The stew chicken has good coloring from the browning but is extremely bland again from lack of seasoning and spices and you also used Soup chicken parts and not regular parts such as leg, thigh, breast. The cashier was very nice to us despite the order being messed up at the end. Not her fault that is simply a mistake on behalf of the kitchen staff. She was also more dedicated to her phone and her music rather than focusing on the customer standing in front of her. I come from a strong Jamaican lineage and i frequent Jamaica very often so I know quality by taste, smell, and presentation. I also am from New York where there are at least 10 Jamaican/Caribbean restaurants within a 2 mile radius, so I always have options if I choose to dine out. Another thing to highlight is that your the first Jamaican restaurant I've ever been too where your food is not presented out front for viewing by the customer. I'm sure you have your reasons for that and if it's works for your business I respect that. Plus your also the first to not serve breakfast or typical breakfast dishes.

I have read through over 100 positive and negative reviews for this business and am saddened by the responses made to good paying customers about the quality of the food and treatment from the staff. They have made legitimate grievances and it seems that the quality has not made any positive improvements compared to years ago where you had a lot more positive reviews. I highly encourage that you try something different as your approach is not working. I don't care about the 5 star ratings as much as I care about the genuine answers from people. People can put 5 stars all they want but many times its not genuine. You need to put your personal pride and ego aside and let the pride, joy, and love of Jamaica cuisine be put into your food. If a food/health inspector ever visited your establishment, I'm sure they will find violations regarding the temperature...

Website says something similar to “everything made fresh to order”. If by fresh to order they mean everything freshly microwaved to order then hey they should just out right say that. Ordered online and expected to be ready in 15 minutes. My husband waited about 20 minutes for the order once he arrived because it was a little busy and our order wasn’t ready yet. We live about 3 minutes up the street from the restaurant. My jerk chicken wings were already majority cold when I ate them. He came straight home from the place, and I ate as soon as he walked in…there’s no reason my chicken should have been cold already. Especially since the cabbage and rice and peas were still piping hot. The chicken was not only cold (and I’m quite sure microwaved, definitely NOT freshly made) but it was also very fatty and flabby. It also tastes more like bbq chicken with a little spice than it does authentic Jamaican jerk chicken. The beef patties taste and feel like microwaved frozen beef patties. The chicken patty was just absolutely horrible. The oxtails my husband had were also extremely tough and the Mac and cheese…don’t even bother. Needless to say we would never eat here again. 10/10 would NOT recommend. Especially if you know and have had TRUE freshly made AUTHENTIC Jamaican food. This ain’t it!

**UPDATE: Since I can’t respond to the owners response, I’ll add my response here. FIRST OF ALL, if you read for comprehension instead of with the intent to defend, you would’ve understood that the whole purpose of me mentioning the time frame was to say that my chicken (that was apparently supposed to had been kept warm because it surely wasn’t cooked to order) should not have been cold by the time I ate it considering we live 3 minutes up the street. I have no problem waiting 20 minutes for fresh HOT food. I have a problem waiting 20 minutes to eat some cold food though. Also, I’ve had authentic jerk chicken a million and one times and one thing I know is that there’s a huge difference between the taste of regular seasoned bbq chicken and jerk seasoned chicken. Don’t get mad at me because y’all jerk chicken don’t taste like jerk chicken to ME. It’s great if other people had a great experience at your restaurant. However, the whole purpose of leaving a review is to state MY experience. MY experience was NOT great AT ALL. But hey, by all means, keep striving to satisfy the ones who love your restaurant. It’s just not for everybody and...

Cashier was totally distracted when taking our order she had on in ear headphones and was holding a whole conversation while taking our order. We had drove from Conroe to try the food because it looked very good in the pictures. When the food came out it came in to go packing and we were planning to sit and eat. No lie my girlfriend looked at her food and started crying it was dry food like it had been microwaved too long and it dried out.. plantain, dry .. rice and stewed beans were dry and the jerk chicken was dehydrated to the point most of the meat given was uneaten because it was hard. My girlfriend tried the oxtails and they too tasted like they were cooked refrigerated and then reheated. Not a single thing tasted like it was fresh. I spent $61 and it was the worst meal I have had in 17yrs in Houston period. I don't normally leave reviews but the experience was so bad I think this is more of a warning to others. In summary if you want leftovers and overcooked food then this is the spot.

Rebuttal to the response posted from the restaurant owner: As I stated this all took place while waiting to receive our food. When it came out it was extremely hot as if it was microwaved. The lady who was still talking on the phone brought the food to the table that we were sitting at. She place the bags on the table and continued talking on the phone and didn't ask us a single question about our food or if we needed anything. My girlfriend did not feel welcomed inside the establishment so we left. At the time there was a couple eating behind us who said as we walked out that they shared the same level of hospitality and simply shook their heads. Nothing was said to your staff for two reasons the food was very hot and the lady at the counter was very distracted and her concern was to whomever she was conversing with. I do appreciate the offer to attempt to rectify the situation but I digress. The proper way to address this is to take accountability not to dismiss my concerns and make my already bad experience worse. I chalked it up to the game and just said the we would not revisit the establishment based on our personal experience. That said, had you asked me after addressing my concerns and taking accountability I would have removed my experience but I think it being on here better serves as an example of why this platform exists. I have nothing left to say about this and wish you nothing but success in...