Clive's Cafe — Restaurant in Miami

I’ll echo another review that said there are way too many good Jamaican restaurants in Miami to be begging for good customer service at this place. We were visiting from out of town and unfortunately this was our experience.

We arrived around 11am and were instructed to go into the dining room. No other guests were there at the time. We chose a table to sit at and were greeted shortly after. The first thing we noticed is that there are no prices on the menu. But assuming the food would be good, we weren’t too concerned.

The server wasn’t rude, but just did the bare minimum. Maybe they weren’t feeling well, but just seemed low energy, didn’t offer much information (like, going over the menu and knowing what was available/ready, so we wouldn’t have to change our order), and didn’t interact with us much.

For example, my partner ordered soda ($1.29), so I assumed she would just bring me water. She brought the soda out, then didn’t ask if I wanted anything. Then, maybe 5+ minutes later, she brought out two glasses of water. I just felt like I’d be bothering her to ask for something, so I just waited until she asked me.

It was also pretty dark inside the dining room. We were the only ones in there for about 10-15 minutes, but it wasn’t until a man arrived, that the place came to life. He opened the window blinds, turned on the TVs, and started playing music. I would’ve expected this stuff to already be done since they’d been open since 8am.

We initially ordered oxtails ($20) and brown stew chicken, but the server came back and said the brow stew chicken wasn’t done, so I ordered curry chicken ($8.50). We also prefer a few beef patties ($4). The patties were really good but the other items were just okay. The oxtails had good flavor but were small and lacked sauce. The rice and peas were okay but like another reviewer said, would’ve been better if cooked with coconut milk.

The plantains were not ripe enough and tasted thick and starchy. The curry chicken was tender but lacked flavor. The sauce was also pretty thin and not enough to eat with the sides. We also got cabbage and it was okay but nothing great. Overall, the food was edible but didn’t have any ‘soul’ or depth (where it leaves you licking your fingers).

I understand that everyone cooks differently, but for a restaurant, I expected better. This tasted like the first time that I tried to make Jamaican food (and I’m not Jamaican) - it was edible but needed more...

On April 27th around 5pm I visited this restaurant and I was not satisfied with the service. I cannot remember the name of our waitress however she has braids and has a gap in her front teeth. She's extremely rude and doesn't need to work with customers, I know Jamaicans are known for bad customer service and she is clearly the definition of it. She came to our table to take our order and almost immediately I didn't care for her because of her attitude. We wanted to order soup and we had questions regarding the soup choices and she was clearly annoyed by our first question. Not sure why because it's not like the restaurant was busy, at the time we got there it was only two other people sitting at a separate table. Anyway she took our order for the soup and when she came to take the order for the main course she said to my BF 'gwan wid fi you order because it looks like you hungry ' I looked at my friend to see if he was paying attention to what she just said, anyway when she brought the food to the table she didn't brought the cabbage with her and she walked away and didn't say anything so my BF asked her where's the cabbage she waited until she got around the corner then she said "man stop rush mi nuh". I asked to speak to a manager, I spoke to someone a tall bald head guy, I explained our dissatisfation regarding the type of service, he didn't even apologized he just said OK....and based on his entire demeanor there was no sense of caring. I'm a manager and whenever a customer complained to me about the level of service or about a particular individual I always make sure I apologized whether the customer is right or wrong. Anyway I told him I didn't want that waitress back at my table. When I was stating my dissatisfation about her I noticed she stood close by with her hands folded listening to what I had to say. He did send another waiter to our table and the new waiter did apologizeed for his coworker behavior. Based on that young lady's attitude it tells me a lot about this facility that supposed to be serving the public, in between serving customers she sits around the counter chugging down a bowl of soup, apparently no one told her that it doesn't look...

This cafe confirms why I am choosing not to support my people. This business confirms that small black owned businesses feel very entitled to your hard earned money , but no respect for your patronage and ZERO IDEA what customer service is! If I go to Olive Garden or any other basic restaurant of similar caliber, I won’t spend $25.00 on a lunch entree meal- that is of ridiculously poor quality. There WILL be a MANAGER available as they value their customers’ feedback and experience. They WILL refund your money for subpar quality food or minimum offer an alternate dish. Today I ordered takeout oxtail at Clives Cafe. The older lady who took my order seemed so bothered. They always do seem bothered at Jamaican restaurants. The audacity! They NEVER have a Manger available cause tue owners are too busy enjoying our money without pouring back into our experience.Then they couldn’t get it together with only four people waiting on orders to go. For goodness sake, issues the orders by the ticket numbers! Not rocket science. My food was a really small portion for (25). Meat was full of fat and about 1/4 of the plate was OIL, not sauce, OIL!!!!. My plantain was fried on one side, raw on the other. My rice and beans was COLD.. My $5.00 sorrel was tasteless. That was 31.00 for a lunch meal that was tasteless, poor quality and poorly organized take out area. I did give my feedback to the server (I sat at the bar and ate). She said no Manager her was available (of course not) but she’d pass my feedback on to whomever. She however did let me know that “usually” , “they” cut the fat off the oxtails. They couldn’t be bother today I guess! Here I am going out of my way to support my people. To support small businesses. There they are, not giving a hoot. I’m done. I wish they would learn the value of customer service and peoples hard earned money. TGI, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden can take my money alllll day long. Their food quality isn’t great but they get customer service! I don’t need to eat Jamaican food that badly! They did have a clean bathroom though and the lady on the bar area was helpful and pleasant enough. That’s...