Turtle Bay Menu, Bottomless Brunch, Locations and Latest News
Turtle Bay is a British chain of Caribbean-themed restaurants that has spent more than a decade turning jerk pit cooking, rum cocktails and reggae into a high-street formula. The company dates its founding to 2010, and it operates from a Bristol base. It grew from a single Milton Keynes opening into a national name. In July 2026, it also made headlines for a formal restructuring. This guide covers what the brand is, who runs it, what the menu looks like, how bottomless brunch works, where the restaurants are, and what the latest company news means for anyone planning a visit.
What Is Turtle Bay?
The concept is a relaxed, beach-shack take on Caribbean eating and drinking. The brand’s own story begins with Surfside, a simple Caribbean beach bar where easygoing hospitality brought people together, and the restaurants try to recreate that spirit. The menu centres on fiery jerk, rich curries and island favourites, with herbs, spices, marinades and sauces prepared fresh in the kitchens. The business itself is registered as Turtle Bay Hospitality Limited.
In casual-dining terms, the chain sits somewhere between a cocktail bar and a family restaurant. Friends meet for happy hour and brunch, and families use the kids-eat-free offers. Live music nights and seasonal events add to the calendar. The name is also shared with a Manhattan neighbourhood and a Hawaiian resort, so searches occasionally surface unrelated places. This article covers the Bristol-based Caribbean restaurant group.
Turtle Bay History and Founders
From Las Iguanas to a Caribbean Concept
The story runs through founder Ajith Jayawickrema. He moved from Sri Lanka to the UK at 15 speaking no English, and later studied economics at Birmingham University. His first restaurant, the Latin American-themed Las Iguanas in Bristol, was opened with a £10,000 loan. He left Las Iguanas in 2009 to co-start a Caribbean-themed chain, which the company dates to 2010.
Growth Timeline
The first restaurant opened in Milton Keynes, followed by Southampton and Nottingham, with Bristol next. Private equity firm Piper, which had also backed Las Iguanas, invested £6m to fund expansion. Piper then backed the business from 2013 until the founder bought it back in 2025.
London followed, including a Brixton restaurant scheduled to open in October 2015 after £800,000 of investment in a 4,000-square-foot site. By March 2024, the company had 52 UK sites. The 2026 restructuring described below has since trimmed that estate.
Turtle Bay Restaurant CVA: What Happened in 2026
A company voluntary arrangement (CVA) is a formal restructuring process that lets struggling businesses keep trading while renegotiating debts and commitments. Creditors voted on Turtle Bay’s proposal on 16 July 2026, and about 92 per cent of the value of voting creditors approved it.
The reported split across the then 48-site estate was as follows. Twenty-nine sites were unaffected and 15 had their terms altered but kept trading as normal. Four sites, in Solihull, Walthamstow, York and Middlesbrough, stopped trading immediately, and 76 staff were made redundant. Interpath’s Gareth Slater and Will Wright act as joint supervisors.
The owners pointed to rising operating costs, reduced discretionary spending, changing footfall and legacy property commitments. Accounts for the 52 weeks to 30 March 2025 showed sales down 10% to £84.3m and a pre-tax loss of £10.2m, against a £1.9m profit a year earlier. Founder and chief executive Ajith Jayawickrema said the outcome provides a stable platform to protect most jobs and sites.
For diners, the practical takeaway is simple. Most restaurants carry on trading as normal, while the four closed sites are gone. With 48 sites before the vote and four closures, roughly 44 remain.
Turtle Bay Menu
Jerk, Curries and Caribbean Favourites
The official menu highlights signature smoky jerk, small plates and fresh vegan dishes. Reviews of individual restaurants add colour. A write-up of the Durham restaurant described a curry goat hash topped with fried eggs, a side of cheesy jerk fries, and a sticky ginger pudding served with rum ice cream. That gives a sense of how jerk pit dishes, brunch-style plates and desserts sit side by side.
Vegetarian and Vegan Choices
Dedicated vegan dishes appear alongside the meat-based mains. The menu describes fresh vegan options as part of the range. Staff replies on review sites have also repeatedly pointed to a good spread of vegetarian dishes.
Cocktails, Rum and Happy Hour
Drinks are a major draw. Two-for-one cocktails are promoted every day, spanning tropical favourites and rum classics. The “Island Night” offer pairs two courses with 90 minutes of unlimited drinks.
Family Offers
Kids-eat-free offers are listed among the regular promotions. Terms can differ by restaurant and date, so the booking page of a specific branch is the safest reference.
Turtle Bay Bottomless Brunch
Bottomless brunch is probably the chain’s best-known deal, and one of its most searched.
What Is Included
Standard bookings include two hours of bottomless drinks, with cocktails, mocktails, prosecco and draft beer on the list. Food is typically any brunch dish, burger or wrap. A 2025 London review noted an option to upgrade to a jerk dish, soul food item, curry or sunshine bowl for £4.90. The same reviewer also found that happy hour was running after the brunch sitting.
Booking Rules
Last booking times are 3pm, moving to 5pm from Sunday to Friday. The maximum table size is eight, and card validation applies to parties of five or more. Restaurant listings also state that the whole table must take part. Individual restaurants can set their own terms, so the branch page is the place to confirm details.
Turtle Bay Locations
The chain’s website has a location finder for restaurants across the UK. After the restructuring, the estate is roughly 44 restaurants in city centres across England and Wales. Each restaurant has its own page with an address, opening hours and booking link. The flagship sits on Bristol’s Broad Quay.
Midlands and East of England
Turtle Bay Birmingham operates in the city centre on John Bright Street, with a separate Brindley Place listing in the chain’s network. One venue guide describes the food as running from spicy brownies to cooling Buddha bowls. Turtle Bay Coventry, Turtle Bay Leicester and Turtle Bay Norwich all appear in the chain’s current restaurant list. Turtle Bay Lincoln is a comparatively recent arrival, with a student-paper review of the new restaurant and its student deal dating to October 2023. Turtle Bay Nottingham is one of the originals, as the brand expanded there in 2012.
North of England
Turtle Bay Leeds and Turtle Bay Sheffield both feature in the chain’s list. A local Sheffield restaurant guide shows opening from 11am on most days, with late finishes of 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. Turtle Bay Manchester has two restaurants, Northern Quarter and Oxford Street. The Northern Quarter site is on Oldham Street and, according to a September 2026 listing, closes at 12:30am on Thursdays and 1:30am on Fridays and Saturdays. Turtle Bay Newcastle is on Newgate Street, next to The Gate complex.
Turtle Bay York is a different story. It was one of the four sites shut under the CVA, even though some cached location menus may still list it. Anyone planning a Yorkshire visit would need to look at Leeds or Sheffield instead.
South of England and Wales
Turtle Bay Bath sits on Bridge Street, beside the riverside entrance to Waitrose and near Pulteney Bridge. Turtle Bay Bournemouth, Turtle Bay Exeter, and Turtle Bay Southampton also cover the south coast and the West Country. Southampton was among the early sites, opening the year after Milton Keynes. Turtle Bay Winchester occupies Sunley House on St George’s Street, about a five-minute walk from the cathedral and the Great Hall. Turtle Bay Cardiff was reviewed in its opening weeks, with the reviewer noting the site’s upcycled fittings (see the next section).
Turtle Bay Atmosphere and Décor
Interiors vary by restaurant, but the theme stays consistent. A review from the Cardiff restaurant’s opening period described a bar roof built from wooden closet doors, sinks made from rubber tyres and flattened jerk oil cans, and reggae posters covering the walls. The same reviewer found that the reggae played at a medium volume, louder than in most restaurants.
The Durham restaurant offers a different layout. It has two levels, a ground-floor island bar, a kitchen behind a red shipping-container-style wall with hatches, and a terrace overlooking the River Wear and Durham Castle.
Is Turtle Bay Worth It?
The case for it rests on shareable plates, daily two-for-one cocktails, family offers, vegan options, and wide city coverage. Turtle Bay bottomless brunch tends to work best for groups that book a sitting and use the full two hours.
The considerations are worth knowing too. Local reviews are mixed. A Sheffield restaurant guide, for instance, includes praise for the music, food and atmosphere alongside complaints about slow service at a busy brunch. Older staff replies indicate that the meat is not halal (see the FAQ below). Offers and prices change, and the restructuring means some sites have closed and others have altered terms.
Does Turtle Bay Franchise?
A 2022 Q&A from a franchise advice site stated that the brand did not franchise in the UK at the time. Anyone considering an investment or franchise enquiry should confirm the current position directly with the company, particularly given the 2026 restructuring.
Turtle Bay FAQs
Who Owns Turtle Bay?
In May 2025, private equity firm Piper sold its stake back to founder Ajith Jayawickrema. Chair Jane O’Riordan stepped down, with co-founder Crispin Tweddell succeeding her as chair. Jayawickrema was still described as founder and chief executive in July 2026. The operating company is Turtle Bay Hospitality Limited.
Where Is Turtle Bay?
The company is Bristol-based, with restaurants in city centres across England and Wales. The official website’s location finder lists each branch with its address and opening hours. The name is shared with other places, including a New York neighbourhood, so “Turtle Bay UK” or the restaurant’s city helps narrow searches.
Where Can I Buy Turtle Bay Sauvignon Blanc?
Turtle Bay Sauvignon Blanc is a Marlborough, New Zealand white wine. It is a separate product with no link to the restaurant chain that this research could find. Wine-Searcher lists an average price of about $16 per 750ml bottle in the US, notes that only a small number of outlets in Asia and Europe stock it, and shows recent vintages from 2023 and 2025. Delivery platforms such as Uber Eats also list the bottle. UK availability was not confirmed, so anyone hunting for Turtle Bay Sauvignon Blanc should check specialist wine merchants and marketplaces.
Is Turtle Bay Halal?
Staff replies on review sites, posted between 2015 and 2018 at several restaurants, said the meat is not halal, while pointing to a range of vegetarian dishes. Suppliers and menus can change, so the safest step is to ask the specific restaurant before booking. The current menu does include dedicated vegan dishes.
What Time Does Turtle Bay Stop Serving Food?
No single chain-wide cut-off time was confirmed. Closing hours vary by restaurant and day. Bars run late from Thursday to Saturday, as the Manchester and Sheffield listings above show. The kitchen usually finishes before the doors close. At the Durham restaurant, brunch dishes were served from 10am to 3pm Monday to Saturday and until 5pm on Sundays. The branch page or a quick call gives the reliable answer for a given evening.
How Much Is Turtle Bay Bottomless Brunch?
Recent listings put the price in the mid-£30s. A Newcastle offer listed £36 per person for a promotional window running from January to 23 September 2026, so current pricing should be confirmed. A March 2025 London review gave a starting price of £33.30. A late-2024 article put it at £35 to £36.80 depending on location. The £4.90 upgrade to main-menu dishes mentioned earlier is an optional extra.
Final Thoughts
Turtle Bay remains one of the UK’s most recognisable Caribbean restaurant brands, built on jerk dishes, rum cocktails and a beach-shack mood. The Turtle Bay restaurant CVA has trimmed the estate and reshaped its lease terms, but most restaurants continue to trade. Anyone planning a visit should check the branch page for current hours, offers and bottomless brunch terms, and should be aware that closed sites such as York no longer serve diners.
