Middlesbrough’s new upcoming Caribbean Restaurant: Turtle Bay to try their food and drinks menu and let me tell you, its worth the visit!
I arrived along with some fellow North East bloggers and we were greeted to cocktails on arrival. I just love the exotic feel to the place, with reggae art work, pastel interior and twinkle lights – it sure has an amazing atmosphere.
The staff were so friendly and we couldn’t have asked for a better service. The drinks were constantly flowing and let me tell you, their cocktails are bangin’. I tried 4 different concoctions with different flavoured rums and they were soo refreshing. Turtle Bay stock around 40 different types of rum from around the world so they definitely know a thing or two on what works.
So shall we get onto the food?
Turtle Bay treated us to practically the whole menu. We got to try their traditional dishes from curries, vegetarian platters to their Jerk chicken.
So for our first meal we got a vegetarian platter and for me, it was interesting to try a cuisine I’ve not really tired before. I’m not really good with spicy foods but it was good to get out of my comfort zone and take the plunge. Most of the food contained a mango or pineapple glaze, so definitely cools it down. The Sweet Corn Fritters were my favourite out of the platter, a little bit like onion bhaji’s but sooo much nicer!
The other platter contained steak ribs with an orange chutney and coconut jerk glaze and the Jerk chicken wings. Now these were yummy, like an explosion of flavours!
The next two courses were a vegetarian and beef curry followed by a full Jerk Chicken with… Sweet potato fries!
I’m such a fan of sweet potato fries and these were so yummy. I’m not a vegetarian but I actually preferred that curry to the beef version. It contained Butter beans, corn cob, carrots, sweet potato, coconut milk, herbs & spices.
Oh and for cocktails I definitely recommend trying the Jumbled Julep with white rum, Passoa, fresh strawberries with mint and apple. It was so refreshing and the Passionfruit Mojito – says it all really!
Oh and now for the best part. The guys treated us all to a dish not available on the menu.. Parmo! For any of you who doesn’t know this dish, it’s basically a local delicacy with Chicken breast topped with breadcrumbs with bechamel sauce and cheese. So when they made this especially for us bloggers, it was a real treat. I hope they add this to their menu!
The dessert platter as well, wow! It featured pineapple, Banoffee Cheesecake JUST look at the toffee sauce! Chocolate Brownies which was definitely the favourite on our table, Rum and Raisin Bread pudding and a passionfruit meringue cake.
I couldn’t believe the variety of food here, there’s definitely something here for everyone and if you don’t do spice there’s milder options on the menu such as barbecue sauce flavouring. A place that does 2-for-1 cocktails as well is always a bonus and I can already see this being a go-to place for food and drinks before a night out.
