Review of Tangerine Caribbean Grill, Carolina Beach

            For a place that touts itself as bringing the Key West island magic to Carolina Beach, I expected just that.  However, I found myself feeling as though the magician’s biggest trick was a failed, simplistic card trick.  I really should take Urbanspoon’s ratings into more consideration, especially when only 33% of the people who visited Tangerine actually liked it. 

            Let’s call it like it is, the Tangerine Caribbean Grill is more of a bar than a restaurant.  The massive bar inside takes up almost half of the interior.  However, there is a patio and rooftop dining in case you prefer outdoor dining.  Inside the dining room, it is alive with color, as any Caribbean restaurant should be.  It is a fun atmosphere to dine in, with a fake palm tree in the center of the room for added ambiance. 

            For our appetizer, we ordered the Paradise Crab Dip (they need to correct the spelling on theirwebsite too, unless they are serving a Pradise Crab Dip).  It combines crab, supposedly lump, with horseradish, and melted cheeses.  It is then served with warmed pita bread.  Honestly, it was a very good dip; not the best I’ve ever tasted, but far from the worst.  There was just enough horseradish to add a mild heat to the crab, making it rather delectable.  Also, the slightly charred top surface added a nice texture difference to the melted combination underneath.  If we ever go back, we won’t, but if we ever did, I would order this again. 

            Megan ordered the Jamaican Crab Cakes.  They were, as advertised, blue crab with red and green peppers in the cake.  It mentions a roasted corn and mango salad, but on the crab were chunks of mango and a few kernels of corn.  The cakes themselves were overcooked, but they did have a decent taste to them when lightly dipped in the Dijon sauce.  For her sides, Megan got the sweet potato fries, which she said was the best part of the meal and the fried potatoes.  Neither one really deserves much writing, as I couldn’t even tell the fries were house-made.  The Crab Cake meal was decent enough that I would recommend it to someone who ventures into Tangerine, but I have no idea what makes them Jamaican other than their name. 

I ordered the Yellow fin Tuna served “Island Spiced and Seared” style.  First off, the tuna was small, very small for the $20 price.  It was seared nicely and was clearly very fresh.  That’s where the niceties end.  The Island spices were barely present.  Flavor did not exist in this dish.  Perhaps I should have tried one of the other styles like blackened or rum and citrus grilled, but I didn’t.  And if a restaurant is going to advertise island spices, then they should produce them.  My sides were pasta salad and French Fries.  The fries were without salt or seasoning and most likely came from a frozen bag.  Additionally, they were slightly undercooked.  The pasta salad was inedible.  It was multicolored rotini pasta with julienned carrots and black olive slices.  Then, what I believe was the powdered, grated Parmesan that Kraft makes, was mixed into the pasta.  No Italian dressing, no flavor of any kind, just dry, chalky pasta.  It was horrible. 

            The Tangerine Caribbean Grill has no idea what Caribbean is.  Caribbean food is about big, bold, spicy flavors.  Sure, I understand that restaurants need to pander to the moderate eaters and not the adventurous, but they need some help in a major way.  They are Caribbean in name alone.  I’ll be honest, I really wanted to like this place.  I love Caribbean food, culture, and ambiance.  But the food was just flat and uninspired.  Maybe it was the fact that we were there at about 4pm on a Sunday night, but time or day should never impact quality. 

Category	Scale 1-5 stars
Food Quality
Food Creativity
Service
Atmosphere
Value for the Price

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