Rum Kitchen - fun but a little bit more punch please

The Eatery: Rum Kitchen, Kingly Court Carnaby Street, W1B 5PW
The Site: www.therumkitchen.com
The Companion:Post work drinks and tipples with your mates or a boozy date
The Dolla: Around £25 per head for a side, a main and a cocktail (tip: don't bail on the cocktail)

A couple of weeks ago I decided to see what all the hype surrounding Rum Kitchen was about and went to check out their recently opened restaurant tucked away behind Carnaby Street in Kingly Court, Soho.

The atmosphere in there is great, you step in and feel like you're in a little beach shack in the Caribbean. Covered in beach hut planks and colourful plaques and with some pretty good Reggae and Calypso tunes playing, Rum Kitchen takes you away to a happy place.

Best to tackle the most important element first: THE RUM. They stock over 100 varieties of Rum at this glorious establishment and they've got a pretty hefty cocktail list which makes your drink selection a pretty hard decision. We went for the Grog - pussers rum, grog cordial lime & bitters with a splash of ginger beer and the Rubin Carter - their take on the Hurricane; dark rum, passion fruit and tropical juice - both had the perfect level of punch and were rather tasty.

Now onto the food, to start the freckley boyfriend and I shared the saltfish fritters with grilled lime and chilli jam - these were REALLY tasty and had a great texture; crispy outer and an amazing light and fluffy inner - hadn't had anything quite like them before.

For mains, we avoided giving into our usual soft shell crab weakness (a soft shell crab burger was calling out to me on the menu) and  ordered the Jerk Fried Chicken Thighs with shoe-string onion rings, pineapple slaw & rum jerk bbq ketchup. Jerk chicken is a personal favourite of mine and I have had a fair few in my time so my expectations were quite high. I thought the sides were fantastic - particularly the pineapple slaw (crunchy, tangy, TASTY) BUT for me there just wasn't enough flavour or spice to the chicken.

We also went for their classic; curried mutton with rice, peas and slaw. Again, the sides were tasty, the texture of the mutton was  pretty perfect  but it was lacking that extra Caribbean kick that you get for £5 at Notting Hill Carnival!

It was all going swimmingly until the mains which left me just a LITTLE bit disappointed - maybe I should have had the soft shell crab?!

Verdict is: this place is fun, different, serves some great cocktails and some pretty good food. I'd go here again and would definitely recommend it as a fun place to go with friends (or lovers) BUT in terms of achieving that rich Caribbean flavour - they really need to take it up a notch please - thank you kindly RUM KITCHEN.

Duck & Waffle - a winner's breakfast

The Eatery: Duck & Waffle, Heron Tower, 110 Bishopgate, London EC2N 4AY
The Site: http://duckandwaffle.com/
The Companion: Group of colleagues for a cheeky pre-work breakfast/ hot date for dinner or late night munchies.
The Dolla: Amazing value without booze, a little pricey if you want to get tiddley. Around £115 for a meal for 2 with wine and service.


Duck & Waffle, everyone's heard the hype but lots of people still haven't tried it especially if they don't tend to venture into the city. I can confirm it's absolutely worth the trip and you don't have to be a big city banker to have a good time.


On the 40th floor of Heron Tower, D&W offers stunning views of the city and as it's open 24/7 it makes it a little difficult to decide whether to go at dawn or dusk. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner - they do it all pretty well.

The signature dish; the Duck & Waffle, is a winning combo. A crispy confit of duck on a bed of two light and fluffy waffles topped with a fried duck egg and a sweet but subtle maple syrup spiced with mustard seeds. Delicious.

The sweet options weren't bad either...couldn't resist the belgian waffle with carmelised banana and home made nutella. Delicate, light and makes you feel a  little warm and fuzzy inside.

The views in the evening are spectacular and there are some tasty dinner options (spicy ox cheek doughnut with apricot jam) and some genius late night snacks (bbq pigs ears with sugar, salt and spices in little brown paper bags) but my cheeky tip for D&W if you're strapped for cash is to go for breakfast or brunch. The food is incredibly affordable but once you add the tipples into the mix, that's when it starts to get pricey. Freshly squeezed orange juice, a pot of hot coffee, golden waffles and a panoramic view of the city starting to wake up is a pretty winning way to start your day....