We recently came across The Rum Kitchen totally by accident, whilst walking along Carnaby Street. It is located in Kingly Court, just off Carnaby Street, which is a lovely open building full of small restaurants overlooking a central courtyard area. I believe that there is another sister restaurant located on Portabello Road in Notting Hill.
As we walked into The Rum Kitchen, we were immediately taken by the chilled out ambiance. With brightly coloured wooden planks across the wall, colourful chairs, mismatched tiles and themed wall signs, this was not a sophisticated restaurant but rather a “Caribbean inspired beach shack restaurant” (as stated on their website). There were individual and communal tables and a great sociable buzz around the restaurant.
We stopped at around 4pm and, despite it being outside of usual meal times, the restaurant was packed. We thought this was probably a good sign, although we noted that a lot of people were understandably using the bar at that time of day rather than eating.
Unsurprisingly given the name, the drinks menu contained a great selection of rum based cocktails. They apparently serve over 200 rums! It was very difficult to decide which cocktail to try. I went with the traditional sounding Grog, a mix of rum, grog cordial, ginger beer, lime and bitters, which was fairly lethal! My husband went for the Rattle Skull Punch, a more fruity based cocktail which, whilst tasting less alcoholic, was pretty potent. We enjoyed both cocktails, although we agreed that the Rattle Skull Punch was our favourite of the two.
After choosing our drinks, we moved onto the food menu. The menu itself has limited choice, however the selection available was all very tempting.
We were pushed for time and not overly hungry, so we both went for the Jerk Chicken Burger with Scotch Bonnet Mayo and shared a helping of Sweet Potato Fries. Whilst this wasn’t the most adventurous of choices, the food was good! The jerk chicken was moist, tender and very tasty, although I would have expected there to be a bit more chilli in the marinade/seasoning. I am very fussy about sweet potato fries and I am happy to report that they were perfectly crispy (the biggest no-no for me are soggy sweet potato fries!). The food was all served in old-style tin plates and bowls, which was in keeping with the theme of the restaurant and a nice extra touch.
We didn’t see a dessert menu, so I am unsure it they do desserts or not. I would have expected some ginger or rum-infused deserts to be available for those of us with a sweet tooth.
The food was essentially bar food and the prices reflected that. For a London restaurant, we found the food prices to be very reasonable. The main expense for us were the cocktails!
The waiting staff were busy but friendly, helpful and helped add to the overall atmosphere of the restaurant.
Being big rum fans, the selection of rums and cocktails means that The Rum Kitchen Carnaby is a
place that we will most definitely be visiting again!
Address: 1st Floor, Kingley Court, Carnaby, Soho, W1B 5PW
Disclaimer: We were not invited to this restaurant for the purpose of a review and we paid for all food and drinks consumed during our visit.
The Curious Ginger Cat 