Caribbean Scene Family

I have eaten from the Caribbean Scene in Stratford several times in the past and the food was OK, but after several months absence I returned today. The food was positively horrible, I ordered jerk chicken and oxtail and ended up throwing away the entire box after 2 mouthfuls, I don’t know whether they have changed the chef or the seasonings but as a Jamaican it was extremely disappointing. The oxtail had no taste apart from salt, it did not even taste like oxtail and the Jerk chicken appeared to be stewed with some sort of strange seasoning. I am very upset that I wasted my money and will not be purchasing anything from Caribbean scene again unless the quality and taste of the food improves. I would not recommend it as a place to eat.

I liked the jerk chicken and goat curry. It was alright given I have tried jerk chicken at only one other place.

Sadly this restaurant is awful, it just looks good from the outside. I tried 3 times, a glutton for punishment. Never again. Go and eat at the Stratford theatre restaurant and bar– much better

Bit of a mixed bag. The food is OK if you’re having an informal meal with friends, but nothing special.
St. Ratford is an easy enough place to get to for east London-​dwelling friends but CS isn’t, I feel, a ‘destination’ choice.
In my experience the service has always been friendly, but slow (a reason I don’t do Caribbean restaurants often — the service sucks) and, when I went last week, sometimes just plain clueless (the waitress forgot our drinks; Coke and sparkling water isn’t that hard to remember, and it wasn’t that busy, either).
Let’s talk about the food: I had the sharing platter (2 fritters, 2 festivals, 4 fried shrimp, and jerk wings) and a side of macaroni pie, which was ‘aight’ but not better than anything my sister-​in-​law could make. The platter needs to have more on it to justify sharing, in my opinion; I’m not a big eater and it served well as a light main meal.
If you’ve not been before, unless you plan to eat 3 or more dishes of the buffet, order from the menu. A buffet meal will cost you £15, unless you go during the weekday lunchtime. Make sure your belly is bottomless and your legs hollow, though; there’s a surcharge for leaving your plate unfinished. Is my dad running the place or something? I expect to be lectured about the Starving Children In Africa and get told off for ‘wasting current’ next!

it’s so going downhill. There are vouchers to be had hidden by the pay desk. Find ‘em then eat. useless service with each ‘manager’ mocking the other. Difficult to know who’s running the joint. As I cook better versions of the food there and as over the years I’d tried to love the place and therefore tried most of everything and showed off to visitors by introducing them to caribbean food (I know, amazing! Which part of UK doesn;t share recipes? Which telly foodie programme doesn’t show jerk and explain what goat is?) i thought I;d go for the something burger. Oh Oh Oh maccas was calling me around the corner.
The atmosphere is tacky.
The fish tank is lovely and no way could I condemn the ultra loud Marley music RIP.
Such a disappointment.

I have to this place (Caribbean Scene) the 1^st time was bad, everyone said try again so i did. 2^nd & 3^rd time just as Bad i will put it this way (they cannot Cook) i willnot ever go back there again. This is not Carribben food & it was Cold without taste. not for me

My partner and I dined at the stratford branch about 2 weeks ago and we are definately going back. The food and service was superb.
The restaurant was full we waited about 10 minutes for a table, but we were offered drink at the bar and snacks by the manageress. we took the drink but decided to wait until we were seated to eat.
I had the curry goat and rice and peas as recommended by our waitress, she said it was one of her all time favourites and my partner had the Jerk chicken with rice and peas as well. Both dishes came out looking really good, nicely garnished and tasted fantastic. the portions were pretty generous. we ordered an additional serving of jerk to take home for our daughter who recommended the place to us. she normally have their lunch time special.
The atmosphere was booming, candles, dim light, reggae music and about 10 birthday celebration. we loved the birthday song and the dance from the staff. Their interaction with the customers were brilliant, it was even their head chefs birthday and the manageress announced it and the whole reand singing. Its my partners birthday is next week so he we are definately going back with a few friends.
we highly recommend this place.

I have been there twice. The first time in 2008 for my niece’s 18^th birthday. Poor thing! After 45 minutes of waiting to be seated and another 45 minutes to be served food which cold and was supposed to be hot. We complained and got complimentary drinks, for 18 of us…(wow!!!) the second time I went a year later for my 39^th birthday with less of us. I liked it. The LCD screens and music was exciting however this time there was no video playing on the screens. I loved the happy birthday song the staff sang to me with some reggae tones. This was a lot better than TJ Fridays. The whole restaurant stopped to sing along because the music is nice and loud. I would recommend the oxtail compliments to the chef but will they have the same chefs and service when I go back for my 40^th??? I’ll let you know. 3^rd time lucky I suppose. This time may be even a little better.

I and my Kingsman went to the Caribbean scene for our valentine meal. the food and the service was excellent. i intend to go back with the rest of my family to celebrate my birthday.

I have to agree with all the previous (negative) reviews. Actually gave it two chances (several months ago) but won’t go back until the (inevitable) change of management happens.
It’s always a bad sign when the staff seem to be having a better time than the diners. The food wasn’t too bad — aside from a dessert that any Chef or Waiter should have been ashamed to serve — but the staff do seem rather irritated by the diners and the food is pretty bland overall. Avoid.

A bit of a disappointing evening quite frankly — my companion’s BBQ chicken was good and the portion was generous, but my curried chicken (which cost just shy of £7) was a few bits of stringy meat in a small bowl mostly consisting of bones :| We arrived at 9pm, and the sweet potato mash had apparently also run out, you think they’d plan ahead to have enough of one of the staple foods in the hard food dish of yams etc was also stone-​cold when it arrived
Given the much more satisfying Jamaican meals I’ve eaten, I simply can’t recommend this restaurant. A real shame given the nice atmosphere :|

I will not be visiting the Caribbean Scene Family restaurant at Stratford ever again. To begin with I am just recovering from FOOD POISONING after having eaten there. I have been vomiting non-​stop with stomach cramps and diarrhoea. I am 100% certain that this occurred as a result of eating at Caribbean Scene. I had food from the salad bar, fried fish, patties and curry goat.
I like to give credit where it is due and the staff there were very friendly and polite, but absolutely clueless. Meals were brought to our table and we had to ask for plates and cutlery for us to eat the food with. The restaurant was not packed but we had to wait ages for the food to show up.
Quality of the food at Caribbean Scene is non-​existent and is a very poor representation of caribbean cuisine. The food was bland tasting and did not taste freshly cooked at all. The salad from the salad bar should have been covered with cling film, as the top of the coleslaw and macaroni had become hardened and discolured from sitting out all day. The rice and peas was stale and very very dry. Spicy rice was not edible at all. I felt embarrassed in front of my friends who I had invited to sample caribbean delights.
The restaurant is spacious with visual entertainment on wide LCD screens, but this is all I can really commend the restaurant for. I strongly suggest they change their chef and buck up their ideas otherwise more bad reviews will keep appearing and they will quickly become a notorious establishment.

I visited Caribbean Scene on a Tuesday evening and it wasn’t busy at all. However, I should have been alerted to the quality of this place when, shortly after being seated, I saw two respectable-​looking women leave without paying their bill as they were so fed up with waiting for it.
My friend and I ordered some drinks from a waiter who then went to another table to take an order– and was there for 35 minutes!!! Obviously, because of this, we did not receive our drinks in this time or get our food order taken. The other waiting staff ignored us when we said ‘Excuse me’ so I eventually went and spoke to a manager. She was apologetic and got us our drinks and took our food order quickly. When the food came (curried goat) it was good but the portions were quite small.
I would not visit this restaurant again, and that’s saying something as Stratford is quite poor in terms of restaurant choice.

I visited the Stratford branch on a Sunday evening in mid October 2008. The restaurant was relatively crowded, buzzing atmosphere and Beres Hammond playing on the plasma screens — all indicating a pleasant dining experience was to be expected. I was wrong.
I ordered the macaroni cheese pie with oxtail (I requested cooked veg, but apparently they are not a Caribbean staple and so not on the menu!) My friend ordered the barbecue chicken, macaroni pie and coleslaw. After a moderate time, the waitress and waiter served us, only to advise my friend that the coleslaw had run out. It would have been better if they had advised her prior to serving us.
On to the food: whilst the oxtail was well cooked, it was salty and inedible. The macaroni cheese pie was how to explain? Synthetic-​tasting. I doubt the ‘cheese’ had ever seen a cow. I could not eat my food. I complained and they offered to serve me something else, but I truthfully replied that I did not want to risk another disappointment. My friend also complained but managed to eat her food (she said she was starving). To their credit, they charged us the price of only one meal.
Caribbean Scene was a big disappointment and I will not be returning.

A Caribbean version of Nandos, but cheaper! Serves good Jerk chicken in a very family-​oriented setting. Always packed in the evenings and weekends, which is a testimony to the excellent quality and value of food served. I personally still prefer Nandos chicken, but can’t help visit this place every once in a while!
19÷01÷09 Edit: It seems like the quality of the place has degraded drastically since I last went a few months ago. The chicken was horribly dry, the sauce nothing special. The service was also very slow despite it not being a full house. I think the only reason why its still in business is because there are no alternative restaurants in that area that people can go to.
18÷03÷09 Edit: Why did I decide to give this place a 3^rd chance and go back again? I went at 11pm to get takeaway, the restaurant was empty, and yet it took me 5 minutes to be attended to. After placing my order, the chefs and staff were lounging around, clearly not preparing my order! After another 10 minutes I signalled the waiter over to ask where my food was, and it was only then that he went over to the chef to pass the order on.
I had jerk chicken and rice and peas. The rice and peas were ok, a bit dry, but the jerk chicken was hugely disappointing. Very salty, although to the point of being inedible.
I have dined at many places in London as I am somewhat of a food junkie, and this has got to be the worst one I have been to in the last 4 years.