Josef's Restaurant

Having eaten at Josef's on two previous occasions and thoroughly enjoyed the experience we were looking forward to dining there again during our recent visit to Barbados.

We were lucky enough to secure a table right over the water with waves crashing below us. Everything started out fine and our appetisers were excellent and we enjoyed a great bottle of Chateauneuf -du -Pape. There were four in our party and three of us had ordered the Surf and Turf and the remaining person ordered the lamb. The menu stated that the surf and turf was 'lobster tail and tenderloin'. When the meals arrived it was obvious we were not being served tenderloin but New York Strip. We called the waiter over and asked him why we were not being served the tenderloin, he did no know so we sent one of the plates back and asked that he find out from the chef. We waited and waited for him to return (in the meantime the person who had ordered lamb ate their meal so it would not go cold), eventually the Maitre d' came over and explained that they had run out of tenderloin and thought it would be OK to substitute New York Strip. We asked why we had not been informed of this when we ordered as NY strip is considerably less expensive than tenderloin and there should have been a price adjustment. He did not know but informed us that we would be given a complimentary bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. At that point the waiter came back with three more servings of surf and turf with the smallest tenderloin steaks we had ever seen, I swear they found one tenderloin and cut it into three! That was enough, we asked to speak to the Chef. The chef came to our table and told us the same story as the maitre d' had, run out of tenderloin substitute NY strip. We expressed our disatisfaction at not being informed of this during the ordering stage (we would not have ordered the surf and turf had we known) lots of apologies and one meal removed from the bill.

We will not be going back! This restaurant was once a jewel in the crown of Barbados restaurants but standards have obviously slipped considerably and the staff are no longer of the same high caliber as we have found on our previous visits
Comment on this reader review

Dorothy
Tuesday, February 12, 2008