Calabash Island Eats

Should have left as soon as I walked in because the AC was out… only 1 waiter for the whole restaurant… They must be on «island time» because we waited nearly an hour for 2 entrees. Never received the appetizer we ordered. 1 star: at least the beer was cold. Calabash? More like CalaBUST!

Friday night. first timer… great food, ambience, and food and drinks
Loved the music. All 80s 90s n 00s r &b house music.
First heard of this place via the menu of menu event back in April. Good sample food there.
Happy hour til 8pm. $ 5 cocktails
Ordered the shrimp calypos dish n this delicious callones soup. Hubby ordered the miss piggy which he raved about. Appetizer was the duck jerk wings which huge duck drumsticks.
It was not busy probably due to the downtown location. Will definitely visit this place again.

Disappointed with the menu. Oxtails were dry. The place was empty on a Sunday afternoon. The first time i tried to go, I Checked the hours on Unilocal prior to going and when we arrived they said they were closed. This was at like 10pm, even though the door said they were open until 11pm. Was not a fan of their service/​attitude either.

Ordered pina coladas, 2 shots liquid cocaine, and tried a sweet rum flight. Food was good with room for improvement, I ordered the visitor which was ox tails, with a rice and macaroni and cheese, the best part was the mac, the ox tails needed seasoning but we’re tender. The other food options was the lamb roti wrap, it came with beans and plantain. I love plantain so they were a hit. There is an outside patio area upstairs and on a beautiful, dry night this would be the place to hang out. It was a Friday evening and a live DJ came and started spinning Caribbean tunes with a few other hits mixed in. I will return to try the duck jerk wings and even a dessert.

Best split pea soup I have ever had. our 5 year old daughter thought so too.
I hope this place makes it.
Pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. nice music. decent happy hour drinks. the Jerkface chicken was good too. I really enjoyed the sautéed cabbage dish and I am picky about vegetables.
I had been skeptical about trying this place even tho I see it every day and watched it as it was being built. but I am really glad we finally tried it out. We were however, the only people in the place. Maybe it was just a slow evening.
I really hope that they are able to thrive in that location. I can tell that a lot of care and money was put into the place. it really is worth a try. I wish them all the best.

I’m so disappointed to have to write a bad review, because I really wanted to like this place. The atmosphere is great, the music is awesome. But, the service is atrocious! We were seated right away, and at the time there were only a few more people there. We ordered drinks, duck wings, jerk chicken sliders and mo fongo. The drinks were delicious! We had the Miss Cindy, a mix of lime juice, rum, and sorrel which was so good that we ordered another. The jerk duck wings were also good, but could have used more dipping sauce. The sliders were disappointing. They were served on crumbly white bread with dry, slightly seasoned chicken, lettuce, and tomato. We never received the mo fongo. It took forever to get our food because on a Saturday night, there was one waiter and one bar tender. We personally saw a party of 5 men come in, sit at the bar, and leave because their presence wasn’t even acknowledged. Please hire some help before this business goes belly up! It’s a promising concept for downtown Houston!

Gonna have to bring up the ratings on this place. My food was delicious. Got the Jerk Face and tore it up. The waiter. was on top of his game. Came on a Friday night. Place was kinda empty but I guess it’s still early.
Cut out the valet for the whole parking lot and get mo people in here.

Super delicious duck wings! Filled me up and were cooked perfectly. Would definitely recommend this place.

When I first heard that Houston had a carribean restaurant, I was really excited!
I ordered the visitor which consisted of oxtail, a Mac n cheese patty, and rice. I also used the Unilocal coupon for an ‘extra’ in which I ordered the sweet plantains which were $ 6 on the menu. Although the sweet plantains were the perfect amount of sweetness and crispy tenderness for what plantains can be, the portion was really minuscule for the price and was a total ripoff. The oxtail, however was very tender and juicy and flavor explodes in your mouth (especially if you enhance it with their cucumber sauce that comes with the duck wings). However the Mac n cheese party was a little on the underdeveloped side of what it could’ve been. The bell pepper taste overwhelmed the Mac n cheese party and it wasn’t much of a patty either. Also, I was given both of the rices of the day, even though it benefitted me, they still got my order wrong the first time and had terrible service. Even for water, we had to ask them to refill our water and when we asked one guy, he just passed it on to someone else.
We went to this restaurant around 5 and we were the only ones there, they were totally not ready to serve people and didn’t even have lights, music or weren’t even ready to work, rather just chilling.
Go for the food which is still a little overpriced for some, but don’t expect good service.

I am in love with the décor and open design of the spot. Great smoker friendly patio with heaters that they were more than happy to turn on for the two of us that were seated outside. Staff was friendly and very accommodating. The menu was great. I wanted the oxtails but they were out. I went on Friday around 10pm. Parking was awful and I chose to park in the parking lot of the restaurant for $ 10 because there wasn’t any nearby street parking. The food was tasty. My friend ordered the Miss Piggy which was very good. I had the fish of the day. It wasn’t awful but it wasn’t fabulous. The main complaint that we had was that none of our dishes were hot. Not sure how we were one of 6 people in the restaurant and food isn’t freshly prepared. The Dj that night was great! This spot has potential but the kitchen and parking need to be addressed.

We went to Calabash Island Eats on a Saturday night with a few friends. The parking situation was a bit tough, but we found street parking for free a few blocks away. When we got inside, we liked the clean interior and the reggae music playing on the speakers. They have a nice patio outside in the back of the restaurant, but since it was a bit cold, we opted for a booth inside. The restaurant wasn’t too crowded, but there was one big party of 20 inside.
Looking over the drink menu, I ordered the Macao Beach cocktail which was made of Cuban Rhum, Apricot Brandy, Pineapple Juice, and Lime Juice for $ 9. The drink was nothing special to me and a bit pricey for what it was. For food, we came here on recommendation from a friend for the Jerk Face, the Calabash jerk rubbed chicken quarters served with fried sweet plantains and sautéed cabbage for $ 14. I should mention that my friend tried to order the oxtail, but they were «out» of them. From reading the other reviews, this seems to happen quite often. They may need to block this off their menu if they’re typically out of it and put it as a special.
Our server was nice, but he was slow and inconsistent. The food took quite a while to come out, and they actually got the order wrong. They didn’t bring out any sautéed cabbage (even though it was in the menu), and instead there was some sort of rice with the chicken. I wanted my cabbage, so the server said he’d bring it out, but in the end, he never did after multiple requests. The meal ended up taking almost 2-​hours due to slow service, but we were with good company, so it didn’t matter too much.
Overall, the chicken was pretty delicious and I’d come back for the food. I heard that this place opened up within the past year, so I am really hoping the service gets better over time. Right now, the service is honestly lacking. The restaurant wasn’t really busy, but they did have one party of 20, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt in this case.
What to order:
–Jerk Face (Calabash jerk rubbed chicken quarters served with fried sweet plantains and sautéed cabbage) for $ 14
Pros:
–Food is pretty good
–Atmosphere
–Outdoor patio in the back
Cons:
–Service is lacking

Came here on a whim. Looked like fun, but we were sorely disappointed. They offered us to sit outside, we said sure. We were walked outside and then told there were no seats available, no big deal. We went inside, and were sat in a section that no one else was in. No problem. But we were then forgotten about. For a half hour. We tried to get the attention of multiple people, to no avail. Finally, someone came to get our drink order and food order. And then we sat for another half hour before we decided to leave. No drinks, no water refills, nothing. And there were other people sitting in our section finally too.
Sorely disappointed with the service. The menu looked promising.

I was a VIP guest at the Caribbean Achievement Awards on January 23, 2016, which was catered by Calabash Island Eats. For us this was a very disappointing experience. The first disappointment was ordering white wine, which was served with ice cubes!
The pea soup was definitely nice. But something went wrong with the main course. It was a chicken breast with some small-​cut veggies. That the chicken breast was only lukewarm can be forgiven in a catered environment in a civic center; the taste was good. Out of about 20 tables of 8, all of them got a decent-​size serving, but table 16 (ours) got miniature portions (between ¼ and ¹⁄₃ of the others). When one of us went to the Calabash owner to make them aware of this she was promised additional servings, but these never arrived. We left there hungry, which is just not right.

I’m from Trinidad so I know what I’m comparing the food to. I’ll start with the positives:
Positive: the passion fruit rum drink was on point. The soursop (guanabana) was decent and the callalloo was also decent. Props for making a good callalloo in Houston. Also the staff were really friendly.
Negatives: chicken was red inside from not being finished cooked. I’m sorry I cook chicken and this tells me 1) it wasn’t marinated long 2) it wasn’t cooked properly. The «hops» bread was more like bake, and I was disappointed.
Also it was 7pm on a Friday and there were only 3 tables occupied out of what 15? I feel like the place has potential and a good space, but probably they should reduce the menu to fewer items, market more, and improve the food quality. They’re trying to be a catch all for the Caribbean with novelties and it’s leaving true Caribbean people scratching their heads.

It was ok. Being of Trinidadian descent I would say that I know West Indian food.
They have an interesting menu with a main stream play on traditional Caribbean dishes. Overall it was ok, the food was a bit too salty, they put salt on the plantains which was not needed.
The service was slow and it wasn’t even busy. Also, I ordered a dish that came with fried plantains and they actually served me fried regular yellow kitchen bananas… –_​– like I wouldn’t be able to tell. When I asked about it they said they ran out of plantains. Hmm, it was only about 7pm and they closed at 2am, how were they planning to swing that for 7hrs.
I would say to try it out for yourself, but I prob won’t be going back.

Parking is a little difficult, but it is worth it… just Downtown.
The service is amazing. We ordered the Red Parakeet and Calabash Hurricane… both great drinks, but the Hurricane is spot on.
The menu has some interesting options to choose from. Oxtail, macaroini and Cuban rice are amazing!

4.5 stars but i will give it 5 because i cant go 4.5. So it was closer to a 5 anyway.
A coworker and i work at Toyota Center went before a Rockets game we were working. Noone was there so they brought us to the table fast.
The host was our waitress she was good and attentive. We had 3 apps,
The first was the Mufongo, I have had this in Porta Rico and its a little different. It was pulled pork with plaintains that were crunchy. We put the sauce on it to make it a little more moist, but was a lot of food.
2^nd was the jerk chicken sliders, jerk sauce was right on and the sauce on the side will lite you up. Was good with or without the sauce.
3 rd was the tacos. Different kinda like a tostada.
I used the taco cover with the Mufongo yummy. Crispy and crunchy with good shredded pork, yum!
Also free plaintains because of the Unilocal check in were hot and had the plaintain sweetness.
The total was 11.50 each, we only had water no drinks
So everything was fresh and yummy we will be back

Service… food… price… and music… Wish I had 4 hand and I would give the 4 thumbs up.
The staff was very friendly and helpful for our first visit. my boyfriend wanted the oxtails (The Visitor) but it was for dinner only so we ordered off the Scooby Snack menu. LOL
The front was open setting the ambiance for a relaxing day. Each day has a different special or live music and hookahs. My boyfriend promises to become a regular and so do I.

I was so excited to find a Caribbean restaurant near my job. I instantly looked up the menu to choose my meal for lunch. When we arrived, the restaurant was nicely decorated and clean. Of course we were the first ones there but that meant fast service. The server was pleasant and provided his drink (nonalcoholic) recommendations. We ordered the roti wrap, oxtail po boy and the spiced roast chicken.
Let’s rate each meal (by comments of the person who ordered it):
Roti Wrap — lacked seasoning. It looked just like a regular tortilla you would get from a Mexican restaurant stuffed with curried chicken.
Oxtail po boy — pretty good.
Spiced Roast Chicken — OK, the chicken was very tender but dry. I don’t know how this was pulled off. We asked for a sauce to try to moisten the chicken. We received the oil drippings from the chicken. It was not seasoned at all. I normally don’t eat salt but today, I had to make an exception. Every bite received a bit more salt. You say spiced chicken, I say parsley chicken. That’s all that it was. The presentation was very good and you would have expected for the taste to be the same.
I ordered a side of «sweet» plantains but only to receive an order of bland fried plantains on my meal with no cabbage. When I asked about the cabbage, I was told that he thought I ordered plantains. But my friend received cabbage and plantains. Another friend ordered a side of «sweet» plantains and we still did not receive them.
When we were done seasoning our meal and making the best out of this new experience, the waiter took our payments. I paid by cash, which I was intentionally short changed and my other friends were charged twice on their credit card.
Its safe to say that I will not be visiting this establishment again. Waste of time and money.
If I could rate a half of a star, I would.

Great food and great drinks (a little on the strong side). The shots are also very affordable. I can vouch for the oxtails and the lamb roti! Staff was friendly and very helpful when it came to recommendations. It got crowded during the weekend so come early if you want a good spot.
I would definitely come back to try the other items on the menu.