Getting Festive with Turtle Bay, Brixton *

As you should all know by now, I am not a Christmassy person at all, so when I get invited to Turtle Bay to try out their Caribbean Christmas Menu, you’d probably be surprised to know I fully obliged. Well, the reasoning behind that is because there was no turkey on the menu at all and that’s something I can get behind!

Upon arrival, we were seated by the open kitchen which I always enjoy as I love to see the hustle of food being prepared and cooked.

Our waitress took our drinks order and as it was happy hour we went for a couple of cocktails each to last us the evening. I had the Bahama Mumma which was recommended to me as I’m a fan of coconut and fruity cocktails. It consisted of Koko Kanu coconut rum, banana liqueur, pineapple juice, pomegranate syrup & bitters and Mike had the Jamaican Mule made with Spiced & dark rum, fresh lime, lime juice, our ginger beer and bitters as he’s quite the rum fan.

As our cocktails arrived so did out pre-meal sharing platter. This consisted of a stone baked flatbread, topped with fresh rocket, crushed chilli & garlic butter which was the dream and I think I’d like this as a side with most meals! We also had baked spiced chickpeas dusted with thyme & spice and spicy pork rinds served with jerk BBQ sauce. Pork Rinds are one of those things I always enjoy yet never remember to order so I was dead chuffed when they arrived! As I only really use chickpeas for hummus is was great to taste them in another way.

We then moved onto our starters…

I went for the Garlic and CHilli Pit Prawns which are whole shell-on king prawns grilled over our jerk pit, tossed in a herb & chilli garlic butter, with flatbread. I got a little over excited that there were prawns on the menu and didn’t notice they were the whole shell and I really struggle with taking food out of its shells so Mike had to help there. Whilst he was doing this we decided to share the starters and we both really enjoyed the prawns.

Mike ordered the Crispy Chilli Squib which was spiced panko coated squid served with mango mole, fresh lime and coriander mayo. This was our favourite of the two starters as we loved the consistency of the squid the flavours it was served with really complimented it.

One cocktail down, it meant it was time to dig into our main courses…

 Mike went for the slow braised duck leg cooked with potatoes, scotch bonnet, orange citrus flavours and served with coconut rice ‘n’ peas. He was so impressed with the portion size! He even struggled to finish all of the duck as there was so much! He loved the flavours, the textures and how tender the duck was.

I wasn’t quite so adventurous picking the 24-hour jerk marinated and pit grilled chicken, with coconut rice ‘n’ peas & Caribbean slaw. I went for the coconut glaze option and it was so good! I promise you it tasted a hundred times better than the photo looks, it was such a hard dish to photograph nicely!

For dessert, as we had the tiniest bit of room left, Mike went in for the Banana and Toffee Cheesecake which is a triple layered cheesecake with a crispy biscuit base, creamy soft cheese with banana & toffee. I may have been the reason that he ordered this as I really wanted to try it but not have the calories; I’m so bad like that! The good news is that we both really enjoyed it!

I tried to be as good as I could and went for the sorbet of the day which was coconut and it was so scrummy!

We had fantastic service, and the best bit, all of the food is available at £24 a head over Christmas!!