Summer Menu at Turtle Bay Chelmsford

The best place for cocktails, jerk chicken and gooey chocolate desserts? Turtle Bay of course!

I need to make a habit of trying new restaurants in Chelmsford as I’m guilty of going to the same restaurants (because I know how much I love them) like Wagamama and Bill’s, and trying the same things.

Turtle Bay Chelmsford invited me down to try out their brand new menu, and I of course asked my boyfriend James to come along! (He’s been to three blogging events with me now – what a good little egg he is!)

I’ve only been to Turtle Bay once, and that was for their VIP Launch when it opened back in August last year, for a night of BBQ pork belly, jerk ribs, street burgers and rum cocktails!

I absolutely love the decor and interior of Turtle Bay; it’s fun, it’s exotic and it’s just exciting! I especially love the industrial hanging lights, graffiti on the walls and super comfy chairs.

We perused the menu and ordered our drinks so we could have a look over the menu.

 

James ordered the Pineappleade, a home made pineapple & fresh lime juice topped with club soda. I ordered the Elderflower Cooler, a soda and lime juice drink with elderflower, cucumber ribbons and fresh mint. Both drinks were deliciously sweet and tasted really fresh. I loved the packaging of these drinks the most. They both came in glass bottles with a brown paper lid, which goes to show they make their drinks fresh and don’t just order them in!

 

After a little peruse of the menu, we finally decided on the Garlic & Chilli Pit Prawns and Duck Rolls.

 

Garlic & Chilli Pit Prawns

James ordered the whole shell-on king prawns that were grilled over a jerk pit, tossed in a herb & chilli garlic butter with roti flatbread. The prawns were so flavoursome and juicy, but it was quite messy to eat. It’s a good job they provide a towel and finger bowl as it’s a very messy starter! The sauce is quite spicy too but has a nice sweet kick, and the flatbread was so soft and soaked up all the juices – it was delicious!

 

Duck Rolls

I ordered the slow roasted shredded duck, with sweet onion, soy sauce & chilli, stuffed into a toasted rolled flatbread and served with sour orange chutney. The duck melted in the mouth and the sweet onion sauce soaked into the toasted flatbread well. I really didn’t like the orange chutney however – it certainly has an acquired taste!

 

Comfortably full with our starters, we browsed the menu for our mains. It was a tricky decision as I really wanted to go out of my comfort zone and try something new, like the One Pot Jamaican curries or a jerk pit BBQ dish, but I stuck with something a little simpler.

 

Jerk Sirloin Steak

James ordered the jerk pit grilled sirloin steak, which was served with spiced fries, a dressed salad with sweet onion chutney, and a fresh green seasoning. The steak was tender and cooked well-done, as he had asked.  You have a choice of jerk glaze, (classic, pineapple jerk and coconut jerk) James had the classic jerk spice and said it was nice and quite mellow! The chips were his favourite part, the spice was incredible – it made the chips so mourish! The salad was a little on the perfumey side, but was a nice little accompaniment to the steak.

 

Two-way Chicken Burger

I’m not great with spice, so I went with the spicy panko crumbed chicken fillet burger, topped with pull jerk chicken, fresh pineapple chow and herb mayo in a sweet bun, and served with spiced fries and Caribbean slaw. The panko chicken burger was surprisingly tame, I wouldn’t say it was spicy at all but the chicken was super tasty. The pineapple chunks and herb mayo was a nice addition, and the caribbean slaw was crunchy and tasty. The fries were definitely my favourite part – I need to gin out what the spice is because omg, it makes the fries so mourish!

 

We couldn’t pass on desserts now, could we? In fact, I have a sweet tooth so I certainly wasn’t going to pass up on a sweet treat!

 

Banana & Toffee Cheesecake

James ordered the triple layered cheesecake, which had a crispy biscuit based, creamy soft cheese and banana and toffee on top – not forgetting the generous drizzle of toffee sauce! I really wanted to try this so I nabbed a spoonful of his. The biscuit base was crumbly and crispy, and the cream cheese was nice and soft. The toffee sauce was rich but soaked into the biscuit well!

 

Dark Chocolate Brownie

Brownies are my go-to dessert, so I had to try Turtle Bay’s rich, dark chocolate baked pie served with vanilla ice-cream! I am SO glad I ordered this. For those who love chocolate, and I mean love, then this is a must! It’s super thick, super gooey and super chocolatey… but SO good! The vanilla ice cream was so fresh too, a great little accompaniment!

 

Over all, we had a fantastic meal at Turtle Bay in Chelmsford and I look forward to returning again soon, especially for those super delicious spiced fries!