Turtle Bay, Southampton

One of the perks of making a relationship work when you live in far apart cities (I can assure you, there are not many!) is that when you do see each other you use your time wisely. You now allow all those little extras you wouldn't normally - such as going out for dinner, cinema etc. all those extra splurges.

Whenever I am in Southampton, or J is in London, we always end up buying the nicest foods and going out for a scrummy dinner somewhere to spoil ourselves and catch up. Southampton was our university city so I know it fairly well. When I was a student, I used to lust after eating in all of these lovely places but being a student - budget did not allow! 

Towards the very end of my final year, up popped this cool looking Jamaican, Caribbean style bar and restaurant called Turtle Bay. I was always very keen to go to but I never did get around to it before leaving. When J got a job back in Southampton, we finally got around to going. I had been a few times for drinks (I can recommend the peanut butter and banana smoothie!) and always poured over the menu, thinking how delicious it all looked and saying we should come back for dinner sometime. On Tuesday evening, we did just that!

The last snap was me trying to get a shot of the cool bar in the middle of the place but our food starting arrving (that's it right there!) so ended up a little blurry! Thought it was a good action shot so kept it in though)

Turtle bay boasts a fantastic array of cocktails, smoothies and fruit punches that are to die for so I was hoping their food menu would match up. In case you weren't already won over, they have a happy hour on their cocktail menu where they are 2-4-1, a great thing to do for a night out with the girls, summer drinks outside or just if you fancy it.

I went for the hand pulled Chicken burger which came with bbq glaze in a grilled bun, served with Caribbean slaw & fries.

J had a jerk chicken flatbread which was topped with coriander, grilled tomatoes and fresh thyme.

We also had a bucket of sweet potato fries to share - who could resist these from any menu ;)

That is the end of the snaps as we couldn't wait any longer to tuck in - J was already annoyed enough that I made him take a pic of his flatbread - already tucking in there with that bitemark hey!

The food came out on wooden boards, and little metal buckets which I thought was a really nice touch. The food was absolutely delicious, but a little word of warning - not for the weak hearted when it comes to spice! I should have really figured that jerk chicken was quite spicey but I just saw the BBQ bit and was sold. The burger was so full of yummy flavours and the chicken was super succulent but damn, it was hot! We both found it super fiery but still yum. The flatbread was a lot more mild but still had a bit of a kick to it.

Both of the portion sizes were really generous considering that they were from the 'lunch 'n' light' section of the menu. We both left totally full up and satisfied. Couldn't quite manage a pud but the ones we did see whizzing out looked super scrummy and again, very generous portions. All in all, great value for money :)

I would definitely love to eat here again, the food was beautifully served up and came out really quickly - especially considering that it was a bank holiday weekend and there was hardly an empty table in the house. There is a large food and drinks menu to suit all tastes. The decor is so chilled that you could smarten up for a date or wear it casual for hanging out.

It's so nice to find places like this in Southampton popping up. There seems to be a lot of effort going in to 'doing up' certain areas of the city and if there are more places like this, I will certainly be happy.

E x