Golden Krust Caribbean Restaurant — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

Honest review of service, oxtail with rice n peas and cabbage. (I ordered the Ackee n Saltfish once but want to give it another try before I review it).

Tip to customers: First, order online unless you’re a man! The 3 times I’ve been in the restaurant made me realize this. You will get a better quality plate as a woman ordering online. When visiting the restaurant in person I’m always respectful and nice. She gives me the tiny, tiny pieces with no meat and full of grizzle. The rest are fatty pieces and full of grizzle. When I order online, I get a much better selection of oxtail. Ask her to make your plate before you pay and make sure the it’s not full of the tiny end of the tail pieces under the few bigger pieces.

Tip to cook: Oxtail: The oxtail is usually pretty decent. This last time it was tough, had too much fat and what didn’t have fat was full of hard grizzle.

Rice n Peas: Good flavor but entirely too mushy

Cabbage: Good and no complaints

Advice to owner: How is the woman/cook who’s primarily in the back giving better service than woman at the counter? You don’t expect much friendly service from a caribbean restaurant, but… c’mon now. There’s a Jamaican restaurant in Tampa where the food is just ok to descent. HOWEVER, the level of genuine appreciation, love and kindness EVERYONE feels when doing business with this place is the reason they’re ALWAYS packed. (Doesn’t hurt that they’ve been there for many, many years and their store front restaurant is spotless). Your reviews are not wrong. You have decent food, but you need to appreciate and take your customers business more seriously. You’re not only losing business but money. When people order online they take a percentage right? I recently relocated to the area. You’re the closest to me but I will now try other jamaican restaurants in the area. I was overly displeased when I came home and seen what was in my plate. WASTE OF MONEY

Please put prices up. I feel like the prices change a little each time I’m ordering in the restaurant. If so, that would be unfair and borderline deceptive practices.

~...

I am Jamaican. Love my people and the food. I'm even somewhat accepting of the "it done", less than stellar customer service that can be experienced at Jamaican restaurants, however this place falls so far below the decency of basic Jamaican service. Our family has patronized this Golden Krust through the multiple owners but will no longer. We were excited when it opened and have seen the decline since this last owner took over. We put up with unfriendly service. We even put up with overbaked patties. Since I love to support my Yardies, I first mentioned that the patties were overbaked, hoping for a change. No such luck. Then I figured that I could still support the sister by buying the patties frozen and baking myself. Well, that ended in disaster. She clumped all three dozen patties together wrapped in parchment paper. Stuffed them in a old ziplock bag (with a broken zipper) and pushed them in a shopping bag as she says "you better put them in the freezer right away, cause them soft right now". Mind you, I had to wait for her to get them out of the back freezer and she made me wait till she served the 2 customers who were behind me in line because she seemed like she didn't want to make the freezer walk. I asked for the foil pan that they usually come in and she said it's only given when she bakes it there. The only reason I didn't order them prebaked was because last time they were overdone, hard and barely edible. I immediately went home and put them in the freezer. This morning I took them out to find a frozen clumpped mess. I spent an hour trying to separate them for baking. I have baked patties before on multiple occasions (before Golden Krust opened near me I got patties from Hammonds in Miami and baked them perfectly at home). I am leaving this review so that no one will think that this place is representative of Jamaican restaurants and hopefully corporate will intervene and make this franchise location adhere to...

Update: Service has gone under HARD. The woman making the food in the back is the best, but the counter person couldn't be less personable. I'm Jamaican and she thinks I'm a Yankee so all the slick talk during our interaction didn't go over my head. Aside from that I asked if they still had meatloaf patties as a friend loved them and I was getting them for his event. When I checked in last week she told me she'd have them and I requested 50 frozen. No matter how many times I said meatloaf today (for pickup) she kept telling me what I mean is beef. I tell her I'm Jamaican and I know the flavors as he doesn't like the beef since the meatloaf was less greasy. I checked online and it looks like they no longer carry meatloaf. I'm an empathetic person and have been in various service industry positions for 25 years. I still tipped 20% for bad service at a carryout restaurant and she was staring at the machine like I wasn't going to tip, then as soon as it went through she started talking to the person behind me as if I wasn't standing there. I just hope the owner sees this and can do better. Unless this is a money laundering op idk how it's still open.

2018 when the place was "fine": The don't always have everything you want and occasionally the patties are dry, but it's a quick Jamaican restaurant experience. Jamaican restaurants aren't supposed to have everything...