Food

The Rhum Shack: Camden’s Cottons celebrates 30 years of Caribbean cuisine

Cottons Rhum Shack is a Caribbean restaurant in Camden located on Chalk Farm Road.  Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with a culinary revamp and redesign of its restaurant, ONIN London were invited to try out what it had to offer. As a rum and jerk lover I was positively salivating and I wasn’t disappointed.

We began proceedings with a Rum Punch cocktail which was tangy and refreshing and they didn’t scrimp on the rum. My friend and I then shared a starter – Braised Squid & Octopus – and the tender seafood was perfectly marinated in the spicy barbeque sauce.  At one point my friend (who I like to call ‘the idiot’) said he didn’t realise octopus tasted so much like cake. The dish included cassava cake (as well as aubergine) and I told him it wasn’t the octopus that tasted like cake, it was the cake that tasted like cake. A delicious starter and the sauce put me in the mood for jerk…

new menu (29)

And so for the main course, I ordered Jerk Spatchcock Baby Chicken, which was slow roasted with pimiento and spices with fried savoy cabbage and jerk sauce and rice and peas. It is the best jerk chicken I have had. ‘The idiot’ ordered Mandeville Beef Stew and he was initially concerned by the flattened dumpling lying over the top (he thought the chef had put the placemat over the dish in error). This was very good too (the dumpling placemat in particular).

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When I popped to the toilet ‘the idiot’ slyly ordered two more cocktails. He got a Mojito (tasty) and I got ta Killer Doppi. The latter included four types of rum and with each sip it was like delving down into the next level of hell (in a good way). ‘Killer’ may have related to the hangover the next day… Dessert was a delicious Chocolate Tart with raspberry puree and roasted pear. Before we left we were given a complimentary shot (cinnamon, pineapple and rum).

The staff were very friendly and extremely attentive throughout the evening. The atmosphere was relaxed with a real sense of fun bouncing off the walls and into the cocktail mixers. It is a large space with lots of nooks and crannies and equally suited to dates and small parties.

Main meals vary from £12 and £20 and cocktails between £8 and £12. See the full menu and to book a table click ‘booking’ at the bottom of the website.

Highly recommended.

Written by Gareth Brown @GarethBrown26

Gareth also has Booksie page for his stories and Youtube Channel for short films.

Cottons Camden

55 Chalk Farm Road

London NW1

Tel: 0207 485 8388 Email: [email protected]