Caribbean Scene

well the first time i came here i was fairly happy, but on returning 2nd and 3rd time, i werent so impressed anymore. Their food is ok, but service is quite poor…. with a bit of fixing up they have great potentiall :-)

I liked the jerk chicken and goat curry. It was alright given I have tried jerk chicken at only one other place.

I visted the stratford branch last sunday with my family (what a mistake). We opted for the buffet menu so we could taste a bit of everything, the food was DISGRACEFUL. the curry had no flavour, the oxtail lacked in so many ways; the BBQ chicken upset my stomach and so called ‘jerk chicken’ was actually stewed chicken with jerk seasoning. the food provided is of NO CARIBBEAN STANDARD whatsoever. the guiness punch is the worst i have ever tasted and the so called sorrel drink was coloured water and rum, it had NO FLAVOUR at all.
my mom’s partner was sick in the toilets after eating the food. and we all left hungry and dissapointed. I would NEVER EVER recommend them to anyone and i certainly would not be going back there. the staff was as disgusting as the food, they were very slow and have no customer service skills.

Sadly this restaurant is awful, it just looks good from the outside. I tried 3 times, a glutton for punishment. Never again. Go and eat at the Stratford theatre restaurant and bar- much better

Bit of a mixed bag. The food is OK if you're having an informal meal with friends, but nothing special.
St. Ratford is an easy enough place to get to for east London-dwelling friends but CS isn't, I feel, a 'destination' choice.

In my experience the service has always been friendly, but slow (a reason I don't do Caribbean restaurants often - the service sucks) and, when I went last week, sometimes just plain clueless (the waitress forgot our drinks; Coke and sparkling water isn't that hard to remember, and it wasn't that busy, either).

Let's talk about the food: I had the sharing platter (2 fritters, 2 festivals, 4 fried shrimp, and jerk wings) and a side of macaroni pie, which was 'aight' but not better than anything my sister-in-law could make. The platter needs to have more on it to justify sharing, in my opinion; I'm not a big eater and it served well as a light main meal.

If you've not been before, unless you plan to eat 3 or more dishes of the buffet, order from the menu. A buffet meal will cost you £15, unless you go during the weekday lunchtime. Make sure your belly is bottomless and your legs hollow, though; there's a surcharge for leaving your plate unfinished. Is my dad running the place or something? I expect to be lectured about the Starving Children In Africa and get told off for 'wasting current' next!

Food better than average and friendly staff. Got a very nice deal as I bought a £40 voucher for £16 at http://www.ukcitydeals.com

it's so going downhill. There are vouchers to be had hidden by the pay desk. Find 'em then eat. useless service with each 'manager' mocking the other. Difficult to know who's running the joint. As I cook better versions of the food there and as over the years I'd tried to love the place and therefore tried most of everything and showed off to visitors by introducing them to caribbean food (I know , amazing! Which part of UK doesn;t share recipes? Which telly foodie programme doesn't show jerk and explain what goat is?) i thought I;d go for the something burger. Oh Oh Oh maccas was calling me around the corner.
The atmosphere is tacky.
The fish tank is lovely and no way could I condemn the ultra loud Marley music RIP.
Such a disappointment.

I have to this place (Caribbean Scene) the 1st time was bad, everyone said try again so i did. 2nd & 3rd time just as Bad i will put it this way (they cannot Cook) i willnot ever go back there again. This is not Carribben food & it was Cold without taste. not for me

I visited the Royal Victoria branch on Saturday 18th December and will never go to this resturant again, it was awful. The mains were disgusting. The Curry goat parcel was watered down, the oxtail was so hard and the macaroni pie was truly disgusting. The service was also very slow two hours for two courses. I think 1 star is even too good for them. Do not go unless you want a huge disappointment. The one good thing about this place is that the location is great in the summer and the cocktails were ok.

I gave it two starts because the food was acceptable but pricy. We opted for the buffet only to find out u cant actually help urself to food but a waiter puts it on a plate for u and u can tell he has been told to put as less meat as possible. The rice and peas was quite dry and hard too. I wont be eating there again.

My partner and I dined at the stratford branch about 2 weeks ago and we are definately going back. The food and service was superb.
The restaurant was full we waited about 10 minutes for a table, but we were offered drink at the bar and snacks by the manageress. we took the drink but decided to wait until we were seated to eat.

I had the curry goat and rice and peas as recommended by our waitress, she said it was one of her all time favourites and my partner had the Jerk chicken with rice and peas as well. Both dishes came out looking really good, nicely garnished and tasted fantastic. the portions were pretty generous. we ordered an additional serving of jerk to take home for our daughter who recommended the place to us. she normally have their lunch time special.

The atmosphere was booming, candles , dim light, reggae music and about 10 birthday celebration. we loved the birthday song and the dance from the staff.Their interaction with the customers were brilliant, it was even their head chefs birthday and the manageress announced it and the whole reand singing. Its my partners birthday is next week so he we are definately going back with a few friends.

we highly recommend this place.

I have been there twice. The first time in 2008 for my niece's 18th birthday. Poor thing! After 45 minutes of waiting to be seated and another 45 minutes to be served food which cold and was supposed to be hot. We complained and got complimentary drinks, for 18 of us...(wow!!!) the second time I went a year later for my 39th birthday with less of us. I liked it. The LCD screens and music was exciting however this time there was no video playing on the screens. I loved the happy birthday song the staff sang to me with some reggae tones. This was a lot better than TJ Fridays. The whole restaurant stopped to sing along because the music is nice and loud. I would recommend the oxtail compliments to the chef but will they have the same chefs and service when I go back for my 40th??? I'll let you know. 3rd time lucky I suppose. This time may be even a little better.

we held a funeral reception at caribbean scene stratford yesterday and i am very pleased with both the food and the service which we received, the staff were very helpful in organising the seating and drinks which were provided, and they had reserved a section of the restaurant for us which was much appreciated. I would definately reccomend caribbean scene for a function, as i cant really fault them in any area. (and the fruit punch is a must, delicious) Thankyou caribbean scene for your help on such a difficult day!

I and my Kingsman went to the Caribbean scene for our valentine meal. the food and the service was excellent. i intend to go back with the rest of my family to celebrate my birthday.

I have to agree with all the previous (negative) reviews. Actually gave it two chances (several months ago) but won’t go back until the (inevitable) change of management happens.

It’s always a bad sign when the staff seem to be having a better time than the diners. The food wasn’t too bad - aside from a dessert that any Chef or Waiter should have been ashamed to serve - but the staff do seem rather irritated by the diners and the food is pretty bland overall. Avoid.

A bit of a disappointing evening quite frankly - my companion’s BBQ chicken was good and the portion was generous, but my curried chicken (which cost just shy of £7) was a few bits of stringy meat in a small bowl mostly consisting of bones :| We arrived at 9pm, and the sweet potato mash had apparently also “run out”, you think they’d plan ahead to have enough of one of the staple foods in… the “hard food” dish of yams etc was also stone-cold when it arrived…

Given the much more satisfying Jamaican meals I’ve eaten, I simply can’t recommend this restaurant. A real shame given the nice atmosphere :|

A Caribbean version of Nandos, but cheaper! Serves good Jerk chicken in a very family-oriented setting. Always packed in the evenings and weekends, which is a testimony to the excellent quality and value of food served. I personally still prefer Nandos chicken, but can’t help visit this place every once in a while!

19/01/09 Edit: It seems like the quality of the place has degraded drastically since I last went a few months ago. The chicken was horribly dry, the sauce nothing special. The service was also very slow despite it not being a full house. I think the only reason why its still in business is because there are no alternative restaurants in that area that people can go to.

18/03/09 Edit: Why did I decide to give this place a 3rd chance and go back again? I went at 11pm to get takeaway, the restaurant was empty, and yet it took me 5 minutes to be attended to. After placing my order, the chefs and staff were lounging around, clearly not preparing my order! After another 10 minutes I signalled the waiter over to ask where my food was, and it was only then that he went over to the chef to pass the order on.

I had jerk chicken and rice and peas. The rice and peas were ok, a bit dry, but the jerk chicken was hugely disappointing. Very salty, although to the point of being inedible.

I have dined at many places in London as I am somewhat of a food junkie, and this has got to be the worst one I have been to in the last 4 years.