Annika Jones samples Turtle Bay Leeds’ first ever alternative, sunshine inspired, Caribbean Christmas experience.
‘Tis the season to put on 5lbs in the name of social obligation.
For the occasion, national restaurant chain Turtle Bay have come to the rescue with their first ever festive menu. Because nothing quite says ‘we all know this work’s do has nothing to do with Christmas, and frankly you’re the last people I’d want to spend it with’ than vaguely Caribbean food.
The decor in Turtle Bay is certainly extensive. It’s bright and colourful, and not an inch of wall has been missed. The style is caribbean street-kitchen. Rustic, but in that contrived way that lets you know that you could walk into any other branch of the restaurant anywhere in the country and find it almost identical. The music is loud, and get louder as the night wears on.
The atmosphere is fun, but not convincing enough to be immersive. I know I’m still on Albion Street, in Leeds, not a tropical paradise. The merriment of my fellow patrons suggests cocktails are the remedy to getting over that obstacle.
We start with crispy chilli squid and duck rolls.
The rolls are a logistical nightmare. They are open ended meaning the filling falls out the bottom when you take a bite. A sour orange chutney is served on the side. And, frankly you need the chutney, because the filling of onions and occasional shred of duck doesn’t taste of a great deal. This leaves you either trying to pile it on top of the wrap or unwrapping the rolls yourself to put it inside.
The squid, however, is excellent. It’s fresh, crispy and hot. Not a hint of rubberiness and actually tastes of squid. Even the fact it was swimming in sweet chilli sauce at the bottom of the dish could not deter me from finishing it.
As curry is a speciality of Turtle Bay we opted to try both the goat and vegetarian varieties. These are served in dutch-pot style dishes traditionally used in caribbean cooking which is a nice touch.
The goat has a creeping, pleasant heat to it. Not a huge depth of flavour but lots of additions like fresh coconut, coriander and onion chutney keep your palate interested. Be warned, the meat was a little tough despite claiming to be braised, and contained a shard or two of bone.
The spinach, aubergine and sweet potato curry has a less inspiring tomato base, but was also perfectly pleasant.
We rounded off our meal with banana and toffee cheesecake and upside down rum cake. The cheesecake has an alarmingly strong flavour of ripe banana right the way through, and is made with the increasingly common fridge-setting method, rather than baked. The slice of rum cake looked a little sad in comparison, but was warm and had great texture. If it wasn’t a freshly baked cake, it certainly did a good impression of one. Like the banana cheesecake, it lived up to its name and delivered a hefty hit of rum.
The front of house staff were faultless, but all seemingly very aware of my purpose there in reviewing.
At £24 a head for three courses plus nibbles, the festive menu does not offer any great deduction over the standard pricing. The cooking and service are all well rehearsed, you’re unlikely to have a disastrous meal here, but you are equally unlikely to be bowled over by what’s on offer. A safe choice for an office ‘Christmas’ meal though.