Great hunks of barbequed meat, rice and peas, goat curry, and pepperpot stew. Caribbean food, though a rare pleasure, is one of my favourite cuisines. Perhaps it’s the quite unbelievable fusion of different influences (African, East Indian, Arab, Chinese, and many more), or maybe it’s the fact it feels so unfussy, homely, and unsophisticated, reminiscent of the best home cooking.
For these reasons, I was both excited and curious to eat at the new Cottons restaurant in Notting Hill Gate. While Cottons has been delighting Londoners with Caribbean food for over thirty years at their Camden & Shoreditch sites (see our previous review of Camden here), their new ‘flagship’ restaurant promises its guests an more refined and upmarket dining experience. It represents a departure from the brand’s other two restaurants, where food is served in a more laid-back and informal setting.
Before I get onto the food at the new Cottons, let me briefly mention the décor because I’ve quite frankly never seen anything like it. Walk through the front door and you’re hit with a delirium of colours. There is a jungle mural running the length of one wall, and opposite this, an L-shaped bar overlaid with stripes of garish, bright colour. Thankfully, the rest of the restaurant is more neutral in tone, which slightly diminishes the feeling that you’re on an acid trip. It is a somewhat strange and audacious choice for a restaurant wanting to offer an upmarket dining experience, but the surroundings begin to soften after I enjoy one of Cottons’ signature cocktails.
The drinks here are superb. After spending a good 10 minutes perusing the cocktail menu, we are informed that Cottons boasts the largest collection of rum in the UK, with over 300 different varieties available. Both my friend and I consider ourselves Old Fashioned connoisseurs, and so we both opt to try Cottons Rum Old Fashioned. It is expertly mixed, with flavours of molasses, orange, and a hint of spice coming through. Feeling suitably quenched, we’re ready for the food.
For starters, I choose the barbecue glazed pork belly with pickled vegetables and my friends has the scallop ceviche with green mango, scotch bonnet and tigers milk. There’s a little wait for them to arrive, but when they’re placed on our table, it’s hard not to admire them both. The presentation here is excellent and both our dishes look as pretty as a picture. My friend’s ceviche is slightly lacking in flavour, but my pork belly is delicious, rich in smoky barbecue flavour, which makes for a nice contrast with the pickled vegetables. It’s just a shame the piece I’m given isn’t much bigger than a Lego cube.
Fortunately, the main courses are far more substantial. My friend and I are in the business of trying everything, so we opt for the Cottons signature meat platter and the Cottons signature fish and seafood platter. Although the restaurant claim to offer a more refined dining experience, I love the more rustic presentation of these two dishes. Again, it’s a mixed bag in terms of quality. The highlight for me is definitely the herb crusted salt beef, which has been slow-cooked and literally dissolves in my mouth as I’m eating it. The pork ribs are pretty damn good too, and bursting with jerk flavour. Perhaps the only disappointment is the lamb, which is a little dry and slightly lacking in flavour compared to the rest of the meat. The seafood platter looks wonderful and there’s great variety on the plate: scallops, king prawns, monkfish tails, lobster and squid. Everything is well cooked without being outstanding.
We are both feeling suitably stuffed by the time our waiter brings out the dessert menus, however, they prove too good to resist. I go for the chocolate praline bar with praline mousse, lemon curd, iced bubblegum and marshmallow. My friend chooses the banana napoleon with banana cream, coconut snow, tropical fruits sorbet and coriander. Both dishes look delectable, although my friend’s banana napoleon suffers from a little subsidence as the banana cream begins to melt between filo pastry sheets. It is a shame that given the wonderful presentation, both dishes are slightly lacking in flavour. There are good elements on each dish, but the chocolate flavour from my praline bar tends to dominate the other, more delicate flavours, and it is a similar story with the banana napoleon, which is a lovely mix of different textures, but doesn’t have the strong identifiable flavours I’m expecting and ends up tasting a little saccharine. As our meal is drawing to a close, we finish with a couple more cocktails, which again, do not disappoint.
Overall, I am reasonably impressed with the new Cottons, although I can’t help but feel that it is caught between offering diners two experiences. The décor, the loud R&B music, and occasionally, the quality of the food, do not seem to quite match up to the restaurant’s own ambitions of offering a £50 per-head, upmarket dining experience. There’s definitely room for improvement, but Cottons is nevertheless a welcome new addition to the area. It’s a good place to eat but a great place to drink.
cottons-restaurant.co.uk
157-159 Notting Hill Gate W11 3LF
Piece by Paul Stringer – Food Goblin Contributor
