When Haydy came down to Winchester a couple of weeks ago, all we did was eat and drink cocktails. Not that I’m complaining! Another place I visited for the first time was Turtle Bay. Turtle Bay has quite a few restaurants around the UK and while I have had drinks at the one in York, I’d never eaten in one before. We were invited along to try out the menu and a couple of cocktails which were on a 2 for 1 promo as it was happy hour.

The location

Turtle Bay is located on Jewry Street, opposite Wetherspoons. It’s just a five minute walk from Winchester railway station and if you’re driving, the nearest car park is the multi-storey in Tower Street. If you’re using the Winchester Park and Ride, then there’s plenty of bus stops nearby and it’s a five minute walk to the main bus station.

The interior of Turtle Bay is just what you’d expect from a Caribbean restaurant. Everything is so bright and vibrant – there are huge murals and neon signs dotted around the place. The atmosphere was fantastic and the staff were amazingly friendly. The restaurant was completely packed by 7pm which is definitely a good sign!

The drinks

My go to whenever I have cocktails is always a mojito. Mojitos are my absolute favourite cocktail and I could drink them all summer long. When I saw that Turtle Bay do a Vanilla and Passionfruit mojito, I just had to try it. I had two of them as it was still Happy Hour when we arrived and I think I may have found my new favourite drink. I love anything vanilla flavoured anyway, so I was bound to like that aspect. The passionfruit just made the whole drink so much sweeter and perfect for this hot weather that we’ve been having. If I wasn’t such a lightweight, I would have ordered a couple more!

The food

I’m a big fan of spicy food, so I was really excited to try some Caribbean cuisine. Instead of having a starter, we went straight onto mains and I chose the Jerk sirloin steak “Prime grilled sirloin steak, cooked to your liking with Caribbean spinach, spiced fries, green seasoning, sweet onion chutney and your choice of jerk sauce”. I chose to have my steak cooked well done, as I usually would and I went for the classic jerk sauce which is the spicier option.

I’m not sure what the green seasoning was on the steak, but it was delicious. I really enjoyed the whole dish and didn’t find the sauce to be that spicy. I am really good with handling spicy food though. Haydy and I also shared a side of Jerk Halloumi which was really nice. I polished off everything on my plate but of course I still had room for dessert!

For dessert I chose the Caymanas upside down rum cake. I’m a big fan of rum but I’d never had it in a cake before, so I just had to try this. After eating so much earlier on, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to manage the whole thing. Luckily, the portion size was just right. I loved the flavour of the cake, it was delicious and the rum wasn’t too strong at all. The ice cream that was served with it went down a treat.

I definitely recommend a trip to Turtle Bay if you are in Winchester. The atmosphere was brilliant and there’s so many different dishes to try. I’ll definitely be going back to try some more things off the menu!