Turtle Bay, Southampton

I've been meaning to try out this Caribbean restaurant ever since moving to Southampton. Almost a year later and we still hadn't so we decided to check it out last night. The weather has been gorgeous this weekend, so it seemed appropriate to indulge in some barbecue-flavoured food and fruity cocktails.

To start we shared the Pepper Roti, flaky pastry encasing a pepper and potato filling. Nice and light with lovely flavours without being too hot. This was accompanied by a couple of Jumbled Julep cocktails (vodka, passoa, strawberries, mint and apple juice). I love cocktails and these definitely didn't disappoint, fresh and fruity with just the right amount of mint. They're also two for one for a good majority of the day so even more of an excuse to try them out!

For my main I had a burger, topped with pineapple and cheese and served with sweet potato fries and coleslaw. 

I could quite happily have carried on eating those fries for ever, sweet potato is so good, especially with Jerk BBQ sauce. I tried out the pepper sauce as well from the bottles provided on the table - a really nice flavour but wow it's hot!

I recommend the burger if you like them well done - I do, though I did think this one was a bit overcooked even for me. That was probably the only negative I have to say about the meal though, everything else was great. 

Tom had the 1/2 Jerk chicken with rice and peas (which is my new favourite thing, I will definitely have to try and make some soon). The chicken was cooked perfectly, and he got loads, the picture doesn't do it justice. I don't know how anyone could manage the whole chicken!

We didn't try any of the desserts as we went to watch The Avengers afterwards so pudding had to be munchies in the cinema of course. 

Overall the food was full of delicious flavours with lots of fresh ingredients, served in a friendly, laid back environment, perfect for a summer's evening meal. At the moment there's only a Turtle Bay in Southampton and Milton Keynes, but apparently they're opening up in Nottingham and Bristol soon. Great news for me for when I head back home to Nottingham!