TriniSoul

I really hate to leave a poor review, as it is important for me personally to be supportive of small business owners, but Trinisoul seems to be struggling with some of their operational processes, which I hope they resolve soon,
Over a year ago, I was one of three winners of a Facebook food contest the company ran, the prize being a $ 500 gift certificate. I was thrilled! Excited at the prospect of learning about Caribbean cuisine, I sought to use the certificate numerous times. Classes which were scheduled, were cancelled. I emailed the owners, asking them to let me know when a class would be available for the use of my certificate, they told me they would get back to me, and never did. They have not returned subsequent messages I sent to follow up.
At this point, I doubt I will ever get to use my certificate, which is disappointing. I wish Trinisoul well, and hope they take some steps to resolve whatever challenges they are facing from an operations standpoint which make it difficult to fulfill their commitments to potential clients.

I hate to join the chorus of reviewers completely unsatisfied with the operations of this business, but I felt I had to leave a review so people know what they are getting into and can avoid this drama. BUYER BEWARE!
I purchased a groupon for a cooking class for 2 with trinisoul almost a year ago. Initially I had trouble scheduling, like many others have mentioned, and I couldn’t understand why they didn’t have enough classes. Why put out all these vouchers but not have the supply? Anyways, eventually I booked a class but (surprise) it got cancelled a few days before. I saw my voucher was expiring so I emailed the business to confirm an extension. It took forever to get a response and I found the responses to be very brusk, but I figured hey it’s NYC and continued on my business. I booked another reservation… again it got cancelled. I waited a few more months and I made ANOTHER reservation. This time their system had changed, it wouldn’t allow me to make a reservation for 2, and I got no email response from the email I sent confirming my groupon would be validated and it would be for 2. Yesterday I got an email from their scheduling system telling me their was an update. I thought they just changed the location… but they changed the DATE! So basically they cancelled my class THREE times. You can’t update a class with a new date like that. I’m so lucky I looked closer and realized it was a new date, and one I could not make. After all this back and forth i finally reached my limit and got a refund from groupon. They apologized and said they have had multiple people complaining about this particular business.
Bottom line: I unfortunately can’t say anything about the class, but if it’s run anything like they run their business (not telling you the location until the last possible minute, rude, not answering messages promptly, impossible scheduling) save yourself from a waste of time and money. Great concept, but horrible business practices. And now I see many on Unilocal have shared in my frustration. Get it together, Trinisoul!

First and foremost I’m not sure if the negative reviews in here are phony or not but I absolutely LOVE TriniSoul!
I’ve had the pleasure of using them to cater a luncheon, I’ve done a cooking class, and I’m gonna sign up for there new «Underground Brunch Club» pretty soon.
The food is better than my moms cooking haha and the two chefs are so personable. I felt like I was just hanging out with friends while being pampered with crazy good cuisine!
I would def recommend this food experience to anyone who has a «see it to believe it» kind of mentality. Don’t believe the hype from the negative reviews. haha These people know what they’re doing and you have fun all the while!

Trini Soul is a very unprofessional business and I hope that individuals will read all of the reviews before considering supporting their «business» I also believe they should consider getting some training in customer service and basic communication skills.
I unfortunately purchased a groupon in January of 2012 and was not fortunate to have these reviews to look at prior to purchasing. The groupon I purchased was for 2 people to attend a Trini Soul Cooking Classes. I made several attempts during the time prior to the expiration of the voucher to schedule a time that fit into my schedule and when the business actually had availability and was unable to do this.
I do not understand how a business offering deals for classes on Living Social, Groupon and on their own website does not have enough classes. I started to feel like it was a scam to not have enough classes and then have individuals vouchers expire. I was then surprised when they offered an extension to all vouchers and I finally got a date for February 24, 2013 and the morning of the class I received an email that the class was cancelled.
I then attempted to reschedule the class and noted there were no classes available. I got fed up of the running around and called Groupon and they encouraged me to contact the business again and they would also look into things on their end. I attempted to contact TriniSoul with no response and approximately 2 weeks ago I received an email with a list of their new classes. I attempted to sign up with my voucher but I was unable to sign up so I emailed them my information and the class and mentioned that I had attempted to use the voucher for a prior class on February 24^th.
I did not receive a response and resent the email today once I saw I received an email regarding their most recent deals. I finally got a response from one of their staff members today and found her to be very rude, condescending and unprofessional. I immediately contacted Groupon to request a refund for my voucher which they promptly gave me. The staff member was only apologetic once I told her I would no longer need her assistance in setting up a class because I received my refund from Groupon.
Overall they have a wonderful concept for their business but unfortunatley their lack of organization and customer service has turned me off.

I should have taken heed to what 98% of the other reviewers spoke of, unclear barely working website, rude customer service and bad scheduling. Thank god I was able to at least get a refund in the form of groupon bucks from Groupon after explaining to them the issues I was having just trying to find out what classes were available.

Trinisoul has been a big disappointment to me in the scheduling process and I have yet to take the class, but hope that it will be redeeming and not what the many negative reviews have previewed. They are not responsive and so unprofessional in their interactions.
I purchased my groupon for us to take a class. The web site and class schedules are not user friendly and I could not get anyone to call me back when I had questions.
I tried to enroll in 4 classes before I finally received a confirmation email from them. Then the class was cancelled the day it was supposed to happen. So I continued to try to find a class that fit our schedule, but the links to classes do not always work and the voucher upgrade system does not seem to work either. Most classes are full when you check the website, but then they get cancelled frequently.
I left multiple messages and emails asking someone to call me so that I could discuss and confirm a class for us so that we could use our vouchers. No one got back in touch with me. So I posted on their Facebook page and portions of my post were deleted.
I finally (about a week later) did receive an email response after posting on Facebook — basically a rude and unhelpful email from someone not showing much interest in helping a customer with their process. The email said that I should have read their web site questions and I would have known what to do — but after all of the confusion that had happened before in trying to schedule, I wanted to speak with someone so that I could be sure that we were on the same page.
I will take the class in a few weeks and hope that I can revise this review to say that it was fantastic and worth the trouble in scheduling! But I would not recommend getting a voucher for classes — I have never been so disappointed in a groupon — usually businesses are excited to have new customers and turn them into repeat customers. This business is nothing but unprofessional, unorganized, and deserving of the negative reviews from others.

This company is completely unresponsive, unorganized and unprofessional and I wish I had paid more attention to some of the negative reviews I had read prior to purchasing a deal with them because now I can’t even get in contact with anyone there to get a refund!
I purchased a Groupon for a cooking class in late August and when I attempted to register for a class, their poorly set up website had half of the classes listed as full already and the other half didn’t even have dates and times listed for over two weeks! I tried calling and followed up with an email (when I didn’t get a response) to find out when the schedule was normally posted, or how I could go about booking when the dates were all listed as TBD. I never received a reply…
Then in late September they posted up a notice saying that the schedule wouldn’t be up until October. I was annoyed that they waited so long to let anyone know but I complied. When they finally listed the new October schedule (on October 9^th, to be exact), they again did not list the dates, just times. As a working and traveling professional, I cannot just book a class without knowing what date and day of week something is taking place. There weren’t even links available for some of the classes so that I can view the class details.
I finally decided that it was too much of a hassle to deal with and I went to the Refund Request page. But it of course stated that the form was disabled and i had to contact the Billing department, which was conveniently a voicemail. I left a voicemail and followed up again with a lengthy email requesting a refund and I FINALLY got a response. One of the chefs (pretty sure it was the wife) sent me back a very personal response explaining that they had a personal family matter and some issues with the commercial kitchens they’ve been renting. I felt terrible and completely understood, agreeing to give them another shot and book a class for November.
Sooo (over 3 weeks in advance) I finally was able to book a class for November, which is actually scheduled to take place next week. But the automated email I received back in October said it wouldn’t be confirmed until I actually received a confirmation email. After a few days without having received the email, I emailed to follow up and see if I was confirmed. Of course I never received a response, so I finally said «that’s enough!» and called AGAIN last week to vent my frustrations to a clearly pointless voicemail system and get my money refunded. No one has still gotten back to me… I’m usually a really patient person, and I go out of my way to support small businesses. But this is has been such a headache and I can’t even understand how this company is still in business with such poor customer service. Now I have to go through Groupon just to recoup my money. WTF, UGH I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK!

It’s been a while for me to write this update, but I’m glad to give the experience a 5 star review. That said, I LOVE caribbean food. I’ve been to Jamaica and surrounding Caribbean countries almost 8 times for work and pleasure, so I know authentic Caribbean food and flavors. This place lets you in on the good secret ingredients that make the flavor close to the Caribbean taste in their recipes.
After the class was over and our stomachs full, a few days later, I received the recipes from the class. It was very thorough which was great. The recipes give you a chance to tweak the taste accordingly (there are ingredients that have side notes to adjust to your fast so you know what to change, like salt) and I found that very helpful.
I have made the recipes a few times now, and compared to other recipes I have tried for jerk chicken, theirs was really the best. Lots of flavor and it was really easy to make, following their recipes.
The best part about it was that during the class, you got to try cooking it as you followed along so at home with the recipe, you weren’t completely lost.
I would recommend the Caribbean Dinners class which was the one I took. I’ll be back to try some other classes that they offer. Thanks TriniSoul!

This is a husband and wife cooking team. I don’t think they are trained chefs, but just people with a knack for cooking. Apparently they rent a commercial kitchen in Harlem, but the day before my class they contacted us to tell us it was moved to Brooklyn. Far out in brooklyn. Ugh. Well these things happen so I sucked it up. Got there to find it it was their apartment. Yeah, AWKWARD.
While the menu was appealing, there was little to no actual instruction going on. Chop an onion, cut up garlic, press this button. That was the extent of it. I’ve taken other cooking classes that are VERY hands on, a work surface for each person/​team, and dialogue all the time as to why we’re doing what, corrections/​tips, etc. This wasn’t like that. It was more a bunch of people sitting there an then one person would cut an onion while everyone watched. The woman was in the kitchen actually cooking on her own, we weren’t involved in that. We really just did cutting. Meh.
The food was good. Not «oh my gosh,» but good. We were, however, promised to have the recipes mailed to us and that never happened. I even emailed to ask for them and still nothing.
Would I recommend it or return myself? no. But fortunately I attended on a voucher so it was probably worth just about what I paid or at least not poor enough for me to really raise a fuss.

And who would have guessed that a cooking class could be so much fun? Well, TriniSoul Cooking turned out to be that and a great addition to an already fun packed Memorial Day Weekend for me. As part of my holiday plans this year, I decided that I would take a cooking class with TriniSoul Cooking Classes, a small recreational cooking school located in Harlem. TriniSoul offers classes in preparing authentic traditional Caribbean dishes from Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados and a few other Caribbean places. Classes are taught by an experienced cooking team, Mr. B. and Chef D. (Bryan and Deborah), who ran a restaurant in upstate NY for many years before moving to the City to offer cooking classes. Instead of enjoying the typical Memorial Day weekend at the beach or park, I thought, why not try a 3-​hour Sunday cooking class with twelve other New York cooks-​to-​be? And on the menu for our Sunday afternoon class: «A Simple Caribbean Dinner» with brown stewed chicken marinated in fresh herbs; red beans slowly simmered in spices, peppers, onions and a few other things; coconut rice; baked plantains coated with cinnamon; and a tropical salad with slices of sweet juicy mango. And let’s not forget passion fruit and sorrel ginger drinks provided compliments of Bryan and Deborah. Our class was a combination of demonstration of cutting techniques and hands-​on cooking of the food. Our class of cooks-​to-​be eagerly stepped forward to join in all the cooking tasks. The great thing about how the classes are run here is that you have the option of laying back and watching as dishes are prepared, or you can jump in and help prepare any dish that interests you. Lots of hands are needed for all the mixing, dicing and pot stirring going on. And new dishes are always being prepared while earlier ones are slowly cooking on the stove.
Everyone seemed to be having a good time with lots of laughter and cell phone picture taking going on. Some of the cooks even brought along wine, beer and champagne to enjoy while cooking. As you can imagine, this soon turned into one good old cooking party with a lot of tipsy folks by the time we sat down to eat dinner.
A few of the other classes being held at TriniSoul include: «Caribbean Street Food» (think beef patties, or salted fish cakes), «A Taste of Jamaica», «Caribbean East Indian Flavors,» and «Caribbean Seafood Madness.» TriniSoul holds classes in Harlem, Brooklyn and Tribeca. The Harlem classes are held at City Cookhouse, an impressive state of the art commercial kitchen located on the edge of Central Park North at Fifth Avenue. As a heads up, from time to time they may need to reschedule a class to a different day or time, as in my case, because the calendar at City Cookhouse gets pretty busy. However, don’t get too undone about it because they will usually let you know as far in advance as they can. Three hour classes usually run around $ 95.00, but they frequently have discount online deals at sites like Unilocal and Groupon, so keep an eye out.
And did I forget to say that our dinner was absolutely delicious?

You’re looking for a fun, hands-​on, super laid-​back environment where you’re going to cook AMAZING food? Look no further.
I purchased a deal for the Taste of Two Islands and attended the class last night. What a blast! Chef Bryan and his wife, Chef Debora, are the cutest/​nicest couple. Chef B is super patient and endearing to everyone in the room. He’s like that amazing high school/​professor you will always remember from your days in school. Chef D, although fairly quiet, is incredibly sharp and hilariously witty.
Although the class ran a bit late, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to spend and evening with!
Also, BRING TUPPERWARE. So much food left over, you’ll be amazed.

I bought one of the deals for a class at Trinisoul without really reading the reviews, so after reading the mixed reviews I was a little bit unsure of what to expect going into it. The class definitely exceeded my expectations. There was a bit of confusion with a venue change two days prior but other than that I was very pleased. I went to the «Taste of Trinidad & Tobago» class where we made stew chicken, macaroni pie, plantains and a number of other delicious dishes. Debra and Brian were very friendly, and thanks to the small class size I got one on one time and learned a few new kitchen techniques. We finished ahead of schedule (probably due to it being a small class) and sat down for a nice meal of what we cooked at the end. I got to take leftovers home with me as well which was nice.
There are only two of them so with a large class I could see it being a bit more of a challenge. And like a lot of the previous reviews say, this isn’t a cooking school. It’s two chefs specializing in caribbean food that cook with you and give you pointers, and they couldn’t have been friendlier. I wouldn’t hesitate to do another class with them.

I can understand why others would be frustrated with Trinisoul, but fortunately I had a very positive experience. Maybe it was because we were the first class of the day, and they were doing open house after, we only had about 12 people… but everything started on time, there was plenty of food and lots of room to do things. I can see if there were more people how things would be a little hectic. But we all had a great time. I admit I commandeered a lot of the tasks because I love cooking and there were many people who were apprehensive/​opposed to doing some of the stuff, so it balanced out. The food was delicious and they even offer free classes if you stay and help clean up/​wash dishes. Both chefs were really nice, gave great advice and told cool stories. If you are apprehensive about cooking, or class sizes, etc, I would call them and try and arrange the best class possible. It was a lot of fun, give it a shot!

After my wonderful experience here I was very surprised to see the horrible reviews from fellow Unilocalers. My boyfriend got us a groupon for a cooking class here and it seemed a few other people were there for that same reason. The food was delicious, there was good company from fellow class participants and we picked up some cooking tips along the way. This class is not meant to teach you how to cook but instead to teach you how to cook a specific dish and they did a fantastic job of doing just that. I would recommend this to any of my friends and it is also a great date night idea.

I did not want to come on here and write a review but… I had to. I got a groupon for me and my friends to go together and we did. Class was suppose to start at a certain time but they changed the time without informing us of the time change. Not even an email, phone call or nothing. Luckily I went back to the website before going to notice the time change. But yet it still didn’t start on time. The class was suppose to start at 12 and didn’t end up getting started til almost 1 pm.
Okay so now the class begins and so far so good… It starts off good but then many times my friends and I found ourselves being pretty idle with nothing to do. We were just getting stuffed thrown at us saying to cut this, mash this, or peel this, dice that. But we are not given instruction as to which dish are we doing it for. I got lost and stopped trying to figure out as to what I was working on.
The class was so unorganized. No sense of direction and no sense of organization. The class was suppose to end by 3:30…we didn’t finish until close to 5pm. I felt bad for the people who came in at 3:30 expecting a class just to find us still cooking.
The food came out bland and after a while we just wanted to leave. The only thing that came out good was the fish cakes and the sauce. At that point we were starvingggggg and please believe we tore it up.
We were so hungry and thirsty that we went outside to the corner store to buy something to drink.
The only reason I give them two stars is 1 for the fish cakes and 2 for actually emailing the recipe’s… 3 weeks after the class so I can give them a star for keeping their word.
Will I be back again??? NOWAY​.COM. Not even if I got a FREE voucher to go. That was a first and last experience. That whack cooking class took up half of my day just for an epic failure. –_–

Okay so let me begin with I haven’t actually done the class yet and that’s solely because what everyone else says about redeeming your voucher being impossible is completely true. I had my class cancelled a day before it was scheduled and was very frustrated. Additionally, when i was looking at the reviews a few days ago there was a 5 star review, so contacted the reviewer regarding his/​her experience since it was completely opposite to what everyone else has been saying. Not only did I not hear back from the reviewer (i emailed twice), but the review has now been taken down. So that pretty much confirms that the reviewer was either the owner himself or affiliated with the business. That itself is shady and an unprofessional way to run a business. I am now working on trying to get a refund.

STAY AWAY! This is not a legit cooking school. It’s basically a guy and his wife who rent a commercial kitchen space in Harlem. It is clear that neither is a trained professional chef. I have been to cooking school myself so I know proper technique, and I have taken cooking courses in the city at Eataly and other respectable places. Honestly, the husband-​wife team at Trinisoul do not even take the time to instruct during the class. They just throw ingredients at you and tell you to chop them. They never go over the recipes or even hand out hard copies of the recipes so you have no idea what you are preparing. As a previous reviewer said, there is not enough utensils, cutting boards for everyone which slows things down even more. They had the woman next to me chopping and peeling garlic for an hour – that was not teaching her how to cook! The class I took at Trinisoul began at 7pm and by 10pm (3 hours later!) we still had not eaten 1 thing! This was largely because the people running the class were highly unorganized and did not seem to have a clue what they were doing. I was starving! My husband wanted to just get up and leave midway through, but I wanted to try the food. When the food finally was ready it was cold, mushy and gross. We didn’t even get to make one of the dishes that was supposed to be included in the class. On top of that, they promised to email us the recipes and never did. I don’t really write Unilocal reviews that often (this might be my first), but I saw a living social ad featuring Trinisoul and figured I had to warn people. PLEASE stay away!!!

If u dare to venture into a Trini woman’s kitchen, u must be ready to work, bring a drink, sip-​n-​chat & most times, expect «some not so eazzy» talk; it’s always a nice lime, if u know how to act!
As a Haitian-​american, with a Trini woman, I’m glad I cautiously followed thru on this cooking class deal; not just 4 cooking tips & a nice date night social event with the mrs, but as pleasantly expected, it was fun-​filled social lime, with BYOB wine, jokes, good people & possibly new friends. I would recommend it for singles or couples. You may want to go with add’l couples/​friends; if your class is filled with anti-​social, tight-&@$ types, expect a long boring class
If you’re a foody, this is not gourmet experience. If u want to unearth Caribbean trini tricks /​basics, you will eat good, drink merrily & learn alot. The only caveat being that you MUST ENGAGE the cooking chefs; they can cook, but are not necessarily captivating instructors; chef D gave me grandma’s olé «stay out my pot/​whatchu doin in my kitchen» look, while I tried charming her with wine offerings. As a west Indian, it helped break the ice; so if u don’t know, ask somebody.
The food turned out impressively tasty (4.5 out of 5.00 stars). I’m looking forward to my Trini /​carribean friends hounding us on how we improved in making our next truly delicious authentic Trinidadian Sunday meal, including brown stew chicken, macaroni pie, red beans & rice, callaloo, provisions & sorrel.
Also don’t forget to call ahead, just in case the class is rescheduled.

I am a very easy person to please but this cooking class was so bad.
They are lucky they got one Star! They deserve none! I have been meaning to write a review for a few months and then I saw the groupon was like I HOPE NO ONE BUYS THIS!
My boyfriend wanted to surprise me with a couples cooking class since he hates to cook. They showed up an hour late and then my boyfriend had to go help them buy groceries for the class. The class started an hour and half late. The Instructor didn’t know how to instruct, He had everyone chop an onion and did not know the proper way to cut or show people how to cook. Due to my job I knew the proper way to cut vegetables. I then had to take over and teach eveyone how to cut the onion so no will get hurt. He did not have enought food, cutting boards or knifes or things for everyone.
All he talk about was the rum that Trini’s like and his wife that cooked the whole meal. After we cut the onions we sat around for 3 hours for the food to be made and it wasn’t even delicious. Then at the end of the class he promised to call us all and schedule a do over becasue he knew how bad he did and then mever called.
BAD! Don’t waste your money.

Bought the Living Social Voucher in August and here it is November and I havent been able to redeem it.
Booked a class for September, got a confirmation and thought everything was good to go. Was later told that date was already booked for a private event and that I should reschedule. Fine, things happen.
Booked another class for October. Later rec’d an email from Deborah Burchell (the owner?) stating that there was a problem with the kitchen and I’d need to reschedule. Fair enough, cant cook without a kitchen, right?
Booked another class for a Saturday evening in November. Got a call from Mrs. Burchell that afternoon asking if I could come in at 8ish instead of the scheduled time which was 7pm because I was the only one who’d registered for that time slot. I didnt want to be a burden and make her come out just for little ol me AND I wasnt about to be in a «class» by myself so I said, «just put me in a class that others have already registered for». She said she wasnt near a computer, couldnt see the schedule and would call me back on Monday. I reminded her that this was the third cancellation and she offered me an additonal free class. Monday came. Monday went. That week came. That whole week went. The next week came. The next week went. I was gonna call back and attempt to reshedule — but why bother? 3 strikes, youre out!
TriniSoul has offered deals via Unilocal,groupon and living social yet mine is the first review. Suspicious.
…and now you can gimme my 45 dollars back.