Last Updated on March 9, 2024
Rum, Reggae and Rice’n Peas at Cottons:
The Cottons group of Caribbean restaurants have been bringing tropical tastes to Londoners north of the river since 1985. But with the opening of Cottons Caribbean Restaurant & Rum Shack at St Georges Wharf in Vauxhall, South Londoners can now join in the fun too.
Situated right on the riverside, Cottons Vauxhall has a large indoor tiki-style restaurant and Rum Shack bar with a glamorous outside terrace on the river for those long summer evenings.
The innovative Caribbean menu is inspired by islands from Jamaica to Margarita and in an innovation for Cottons features a Caribbean pizza menu (anyone for jerk salmon or chilli shrimp & callaloo pizza!), as well as enticing breakfast and brunch, offers such as Caribbean spiced scrambled eggs with sada bread or the Yardie Breakfast of ackee & salt-fish with dumplings. To wash all this down there’s a rum shack bar which has 300 different types of rum. I suggested to the PR that I should review them all but my kind offer was turned down… so we settled on a dinner review.
But before food it’s rude not to have a drink and a couple of rum cocktails priced at a very reasonable £8.50 were just what the doctor ordered. The Reggae Rum Punch, a blend of Wray & Nephew 63% overproof rum, orange, pineapple and lime juices with Grenadine, was a deliciously fruity, long, tropical-flavoured rum cocktail with a bite.
But my favourite was the Rum Old Fashioned, a mix of House gold rum, Demerara sugar, bitters and orange peel. It was smooth and slightly sweet with caramel notes. A great way to start the evening!
With reggae versions of Pink Floyd and reggae classics on the sound system, it was clearly time for another drink. Our bottle of Flagstone Noon Gun, South Africa, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier 2016 had a well-structured acidity with a hint of sweetness allowing it to cope with the upcoming spice fest. And so onto starters…
Fluffy crisp Salt Fish fritters were given a kick by a sweetly spiced mango chutney.
Pan-fried King Prawns came with toasted cocoa bread and a rich, spicy jerk butter sauce which complemented the prawns without overwhelming them.
Tender and moist Jerk half chicken was slow-roasted with pimento and lovely warming spices, stir-fried vegetables, jerk sauce and rice and peas. It had a citrus tang and the sauce was effectively mopped up by an authentic tasting dish of rice and peas.
Spiced coconut bouillabaisse with scallops, lobster, squid, sea bass, annatto potatoes and a Scotch bonnet rouille was delicious with a real home-cooked feel. It was packed with scallops and infused with the flavour and heat of the scotch bonnet.
The only dud dish of the meal was the chocolate and honeycomb cheesecake with passionfruit honey spiced granola. It was too dense and heavy to be really satisfying but I loved the light and fluffy Jamaican bread and butter pudding with caramelised banana, cinnamon and crème fraiche.
Cottons Vauxhall joins the original Cottons Camden, the boutique shacks in Shoreditch and Notting Hill – which currently holds the Guinness World Records title for the bar with the most varieties of rum stocked – 372! They are well worth a visit for a touch of Caribbean sunshine at any time of year.
Cottons Vauxhall
Unit 12,
Flagstaff House,
St Georges Wharf,
Vauxhall, SW8 2LE
0207 091 0793
t: @CottonsLDN / F: wearecottons / Insta: cottonsldn
Ordered a takeaway for lunch today menu states jerk ribs with sweet potato crisps… the waitress informed me that i would be only getting 3 ribs and i stated this would be fine. It cost £7.00. got back to the office and there was my 3 ribs in a container but no sweet potato crisps. I rang the restaurant and informed them i did not get my sweet potato crisps and the women stated that they are only a garnish???? and the chef forgot. This menu is very misleading and £7.00 for 3 ribs…. to take away… absolutely disgusting.
was told i could come back and order something but i have only 1 hour lunch break… my poor colleagues are having their xmas meal there tomorrow evening…and pre ordered their food. hope they dont leave there starving and the service will; be better than today. there was only one other customer sitting in the whole of the restaurant he must have ordered a hell of a lot of food for the chef to forget my order. hate to see service when they are busy.
very very slack for a new business and wont be going there again even if food free as for the attitude of the waitress who was insisting this was my fault and she told me about the ribs and there was only 3 of them….thought sweet potato crisps was a fancy form of chips not a garnish. why cant they just state this on their menu, actually I know the answer its because if they wrote what you were really getting for your money you would never purchase it in the first place.
will be telling my experience to everyone i know that is for sure because no one likes to see a mate being mugged in broad daylight.
The food looks lovely and I love a cocktail or three.
This sounds like my kind of place – you had me at 300 rums. And jerk chicken – I love it. In fact you’ve given me an idea for what to cook for my Caribbean-loving brother in law’s birthday dinner next week.
My kind of place,thanks for the great review x