I first ate at Turtle Bay in Winchester back in July and as you can read in this post, I loved the food. So, as we were in York for the day, I decided that we just had to go to Turtle Bay for dinner. Since my last visit, Turtle Bay have a new menu, so I was excited to see what had changed. Luckily, they are still doing the amazing Passionfruit and Vanilla Mojitos of which I had two.

The atmosphere in Turtle Bay is always brilliant. It’s the ideal place to go whether you just want a couple of drinks or a full meal. I met a couple of my blogger friends for cocktails in this particular one when I was up in York in March.

Turtle Bay, York

Turtle Bay in York is situated on Little Stonegate and was really easy to find. It’s just a short walk away from where the Christmas market is currently located. When we got there, we decided to get a couple of drinks at the bar before we went to our table. As I mentioned, I had the Passionfruit and Vanilla Mojito which was delicious. Leigh went for the Long Island Iced Tea which he really enjoyed. When we arrived, it was happy hour so all of the cocktails were Buy One Get One Free. Our waitress for the evening was called Ella and she showed us over to our table and gave us a chance to look at the menu.

• 

• 

The food

Starters

We both decided to go for starters despite already eating a lot that day. I skipped the starter when I was in the Winchester restaurant, so I was excited to see what they had to offer. After browsing the menu, I chose the Jerk Ribs and Leigh went for the Duck Rolls.

I find that ribs are always hit or miss in restaurants. You’re either really lucky and get ones that are really meaty or you get the complete opposite where it’s a complete mission to get any meat off the bone. Luckily for me, these ribs were very meaty and the portion size was very generous. The sauce that covered them was a really spicy jerk marinade and I absolutely loved it. It had a really nice kick to it and if I’m honest, I probably could have it with every meal! The blood orange salsa that was served on top gave it a bit of sweetness but didn’t add too much of an orange flavour.

Leigh’s duck rolls were a huge hit! These were flatbreads containing slow roasted duck, sweet onion, coconut butter and sour orange chutney. He said that they contained so much flavour and he really enjoyed them.

Main

For my main, I chose the Jerk Sirloin Steak. Even though I had a steak the night before at Hazlewood Castle, I had enjoyed it so much in Winchester that I wanted to have it again. I asked for my steak to be well done and it was cooked to perfection. It was cooked through with no pink bits but it wasn’t at all tough and still had enough flavour. The jerk sauce that was on top was different to the one that was on my ribs, but I still really enjoyed it. The steak was served with fries and coconut callaloo but I think that next time I would like to try it with green herby rice.

Leigh went for the Jerk Chicken which was served with fries and coleslaw. He enjoyed his chicken but it was quite a large portion so he didn’t manage to eat all of it. We both also shared a side of Jerk Halloumi. I had this last time, however it didn’t come in a sauce like it did in York. I definitely preferred this new version!

• 

• 

Dessert

For dessert, I had originally asked for the Caymanas Upside Down Rum Cake, however Ella came back to tell me that they had ran out of it. I also wanted to try the Spiced Rum and Chocolate Pot however that was unavailable too. Eventually, I decided on the Passion Pie. I wouldn’t usually go for something fruity for dessert but this did sound really nice. It was basically a lemon meringue pie just with passion fruit instead of lemon. The meringue on top was really soft and I loved the taste of the passionfruit filling. Leigh went for the Salted Caramel Brownie which he thoroughly enjoyed – there was definitely none left on his plate!

If you’re ever in York, I really recommend you visit Turtle Bay. The service was excellent and the food was delicious. The atmosphere in there is really nice as well, with its dim lighting (hence the quality of my photos!) and its reggae music. I will definitely be going back next time I am in York.