An Unplanned Lunch at Caribbean Wrap

Last Friday I found myself unorganised and without lunch. Usually I plan my lunches for the week and take them with me to work, anyway not this day.  So I decided to treat myself to a browse round St Nicks Market, where some of the best delicious lunch delights live.  It had been a while since I had lunched from the market and as it was much cooler than previous days, read rainy, I decided to go to Caribbean Wrap for some warming spices. I have only ever been here once and that was a number of years ago, definitely pre blog.  Caribbean Wrap has a pretty large menu for you to choose from, including various curries, salt fish and ackee and the infamous JFC, Jamaican Fried Chicken.

I chose the standard and popular jerk chicken with rice and peas plus some veg stew on the side. Asked if I wanted small, medium or large I decided to go down the middle with a medium, just as well really as medium, it turns out is pretty hefty. I took the spicy parcel up to a quiet area at work to accompany my current read, James Ellroy's The Big Nowhere in case you are interested.

For the money, just over £5 this was good value. It certainly wasn't the best jerk chicken I have ever had but the heat built up nicely and the rice and peas were really tasty. The vegetables were the only real disappointment, lots of squash seeds left in the sauce and there wasn't a great deal of flavour generally, it just was a bit stodgy.  So if you have a craving for Caribbean food that won't be ignored this will quash your hunger nicely.  You can find Caribbean Wrap on one of the corners at St Nicks Market you will probably be able to smell the spices long before you see the venue

A Surprise Lunch at Turtle Bay

The other Friday just before 12 I had my uninspiring rice lunch sitting next to me I was contemplating when to take it upstairs to accompany my current read when in swept in our head of division announcing he was taking us all to lunch.  There was a brief interlude while people decided whether to opt for for 4500 Miles from Delhi or Turtle Bay, luckily for the blog the latter was voted the winner.  When Turtle Bay first opened I heard a lot of varying opinions on it some good, some bad and some middling, I was curious, although my Caribbean food aficionado Becky had said that it was quite nice but not authentic, although i hadn't expected it to be really. Caribbean food can be scorchingly hot and as Rich always says, there is no way a chain restaurant would risk that level of spice in their dishes and have people send it back.

So with all that in mind when I walked in I was particularly impressed with the decor, bright, fun and quite the injection of sunshine into this stereotypical January day. I did wonder whether our large party of 20 would be able to just pop down without booking but we arrived pretty early and within about 5 minutes we were ordering drinks and heading to our seats. 

Rum Punch Cocktail

The menu has some Caribbean staples that you would expect like plantain, jerk chicken and scotch bonnets but a lot of items had a twist on it bringing in a few American barbecue favourites. We were all feeling pretty hungry by this point so Sharon and I decided to share a couple of starters the lamb patty and the jerk pit prawns, whilst I chose the street burger for my main.  A number of people had mentioned the cocktails that Turtle Bay did were pretty good and a few people on our table participated but the rum punch cocktail kept wafting over such strong rum fumes that it did put me off a little, but I loved the metal tins they were served in.

Jerk Pit Prawns

Jerk Pit Prawns up

Lamb Patty

The food arrived promptly and I tucked into the lamb patty first, this was nice and spicy and had a lovely comforting texture, and was sad when I had to swap dishes. The jerk pit prawns however were a massive disappointment the sauce you can see in the photos is just oil and smoky, read acrid, tasting oil at that. Plus the prawns were overcooked and tasted of nothing so all that was left was oil soaked flatbread at the bottom of the plate meant to moping up non-existent juice.

Street Burger

When my main arrived I was pleasantly surprised, for £6.95 this was a generous portion and the smell was a delicious one. The burger came with some caramelised onions and pulled pork on top, the pork was nice and juicy and added some smokiness to the burger. The onions were good but I could have done without the whole cloves resting in among them, luckily I spotted them before I bit down to experience the numbness that biting down on a whole clove can bring. The slaw also for me was a little bitter but I am fairly picky with coleslaw so it could have just been me. On the whole I was pretty impressed with the burger, really lovely flavour and nice and meaty plus the spiced fries were nice and crunchy.

one of the bright murals

So on the whole a bit of a mixed bag from Turtle Bay, if someone wanted to go here I would join them but I personally wouldn't be in a mad rush to return but there were some nice points.  For a fun atmosphere and a good value lunch it isn't bad at all but for proper Caribbean food Rice n Tings is a great choice. To find out more about Turtle Bay visit their website.