Tortuga Caribbean Bar & Grille — Restaurant in Washington

This is my fault for ordering from a "Caribbean" restaurant I never been to before, while being a native of the Caribbean expecting quality Caribbean quisine.

I ordered the Escovich Red Snapper and Conch Fritters through Uber Eats yesterday.

The Red Snapper was completely bland with absolutely no seasoning whatsoever. It was not properly cleaned as there were too many scales still on the fish.

There was no Escovich sauce on any of the fish nor in the dish period.

Also, the Red Snapper was heavily breaded in a sugar based breading which took away all the natural fish flavor making it taste like a dried up biscuit or burnt pancake.

The conch fritters were over cooked and had a really bitter taste profile, with jalapeño salsa doused all over it, making the taste turn really dull and unpleasant.

For a person who was born and raised in the Caribbean and was expecting something remotely similar to the taste and quality of authentic Caribbean food around this area of the US, I am more than disappointed.

The high price I paid for this meal came up to almost $60 which was a complete waste, as I could not even finish this meal due to the poor quality of taste and preparation.

Any person that is not familiar with quality Caribbean quisine, will think this food is decent and give it a good review because they sadly don't know the difference.

The presentation was very clean, but the taste was purely horrible to say the least. I would recommend this chef take trip to the Caribbean to research how to properly cook these dishes, because this was a dreadful attempt. I don't mean to be harsh but criticism is always constructive.

Needless to say, if you're a a beautiful and proud Caribbean person like myself, I would strongly advise you to save your money and spare your disappointment by not ordering from this establishment. If you're expecting quality island food, this is not the place to find it. I ordered from this place based on good reviews on Uber Eats, so either this was a different chef, or lots of people just are unaware of what authentic Caribbean food is supposed to taste like in this area.

I will take responsibility and fault for this unfortunate event, as I was gullible enough to expect good Caribbean food in this area of the US. I learned my lesson and will wait until I visit the islands once again so I can get real...

Me and a friend went here Friday night after a long week. We asked to be sat in the section with the couches. Our initial server was new, so it seems she was replaced with another server after getting our initial drink orders wrong, that happens, she’s new, that’s not the concern here. The next server was a young woman with Blonde locs. We never received water, my friends drink was nasty, a fire started and the server used her drink to try and put it out, it didn’t, and didn’t replace it. The food came, we had oxtails and crab cakes, the oxtails were literally two pieces for $35 and they were over rubbery, the peas and rice were nasty. The crab cakes were blah, my rice was over cooked and my vegetables weren’t properly cooked, the hardest squash I’ve ever eaten. In addition to this we paid 58% gratuity due to a lie told by the server. We’d been drinking and asked her about the bill, we asked was gratuity included she said no. While under the influence I still wondered why the bill was so high especially given the fact that neither of us even did appetizers. After looking at my bank account and cross referencing with my friend who had a copy of the recipes we realized she lied about gratuity, so the combined 40% we paid her was money we were scammed out of. Then I recognized I was charged an additional $20 that can’t be accounted for. She did ask to have a card to hold the tab on which I thought was weird but figured it just must be their policy, now I need to have my bank change my information out of fear that my card is being scammed. I would say do not go, this was absolutely not good Caribbean food, the service was subpar and to be cheated out of your hard earned money during these times where prices are high, and treating your self to a meal is a true luxury feels like a different kind of low. We sat at table 332, the bill...

Wow! Where do I began, this was a VERY horrible experience to say the least. I'm not just coming from being a dissatisfied guest but also having 2 successful 5 star businesses and have been in the restaurant industry for 10+years I'm highly disappointed on how I was treated as being a first time guest in this establishment. I ordered to go and wanted snapper and I asked what's the difference between red and yellowtail and was told one was fried by the host. First mistake bc the host gave me misinformation, their is a big difference one is a whole fish and the other is filet. When I received my order looked at my food and this isn't what I wanted, I wanted a whole fish. I asked her to cancel this order and I will pay the difference for the red snapper. She proceeded to say she has to get a manager named Dan who then told he's not giving me another order without paying full price after already paying almost $40 for my entree, unacceptable! He said per the Owner Tom Lahren stated that their not refunding any orders unless there is their is something physically wrong with the food and it was that's not what I wanted and he wasn't taking a credit of what I already paid towards a new order. In any restaurant establishment I have NEVER HEARD anything like this before, so what tells me is Hill Group that is all you care about is the money in your bank accounts then guests being happy and satisfied with the food and experience. You guys are not living up to your mission statement, that states of wanting to exceed all guest expectations and experience. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS KEY TO ANY BUSINESS AND IF YOU PLAN ON ANY LONGEVITY I SUGGEST YOU PUT PEOPLE BEFORE YOUR MONEY. NEVER COMING...