Cottons

Awful experience! We came here purposefully after reading positive Yelp reviews I was looking forward to it. Alas! It wasn't meant to come up any close to my expectations. It was very stuffy inside. The server seemed to be very sweet at first, took our order, brought cocktails and mains, but then completely forgot about us. When we finally caught her she said to wait a minute and never returned to us. We meant to order desserts, but no one came to us, so we skipped it. We asked for the bill and waited for 20 minutes! We were about to leave and I'm sure we could with no one to notice. Ridiculous! As for the food, my sister had mixed fish and I had mixed meat plate. Both of us had our mouths burned with the sauce on top and of course was no way to recognize any taste of the meat or fish itself! The decision is up to you, but, especially with the current service, I would avoid the place.

The jerk chicken is the reason to eat at Cottons, I give it a 4 star. But other than that, the food was 2 star.

Ordered the mezze starter platter. I'd say there was nothing special tasting about it. The coleslaw was not good and the red sauce and the jerk side sauces were lack luster- if anything, wasn't tasty. Not sure if it's a Caribbean thing (but even my Caribbean friend wasn't familiar with this technique), but they leave the banana peal on the plantains. If it's to keep the plantain moist and juicy, doesn't work. Plantain was dry and dense. The callaloo side order tasted like butter and nothing else.

Service is good, staff friendly.

Mmm... Goat curry and plantain with awesome rum cocktails. Doesn't get much better.

Disappointing! After the pretty good Yelp reviews, I was looking forward to some Caribbean food. What I got was a jerk chicken wrap that had hardly any chicken inside. It was mostly dry layers of wrap. There were a few bits of salad on the plate as well.

There was only one staff person visible, and he was on the phone most of the time. I eventually had to interrupt him to get the check. He never brought water.

Bamboula in Stockwell is better. I still have to try Negril and Jerk City.

The first time I ate here the food was spectacular. The second time it was awful, they need to work on their consistency.

I was a little skeptical about Caribbean food in London. Not to further spread the stereotype or anything, but my taste buds were feeling under-utilized and under-appreciated after a week in the UK. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself reaching for a glass of water after one bite of the jerk chicken. It was pretty intense, but still flavorful. The rest of my meal worked well with the chicken and helped balance the heat out. The drinks didn't stand out quite as much - a little too sugary for me.

We also had some issues with the service, and it seems that it was our server's first and/or last night on the job. There were a couple of times we caught the manager chewing him out in the kitchen and he bungled our orders a bit. The restaurant was quick to fix things however and he did seem to be trying, so in the end he was too much of a sympathetic character to really get upset with.

This jerk chicken, which I've now had twice, made a believer out of me. It's a lovely confluence of spicy, juicy, savoury and sweet.

The cocktails, however, are less impressive and overly sweet. Beer or wine's probably a better option at Cottons.

So, fine, the food wasn't masterfully executed. There were bones here and there and the chicken was overdone in spots. But the flavor! Oh the flavor was there like it didn't even care it was in London. It was unique and strong and urgently necessary.

They also have a tiny kitchen with three cooks so come in with that island mindset, no rush, no worries, your food is going to take a while. That doesn't mean the service was bad. They refilled our water without needing to beg (clutch) and were very attentive, but the pace was otherwise definitely laid back.

Really, I wasn't sure about cottons until Tupac came up on the playlist and then, I mean, they played Tupac. That's worth a star on it's own. Music was great all around and its just a great way to escape for an evening meal.

The food menu at Cottons looks fantastic but I have yet to give it a go. This review is purely for the cocktails! The hub and I stopped in for Saturday night happy hour and had the pleasure of tasting four of their tasty Caribbean concoctions, all totaling under 20 quid. They were all delicious and the staff were so welcoming. Love this place and looking forward to having a meal here soon!

Free dinner! Well for me at least as a beautiful girl learned the hazards of betting against me (although to be fair since the stakes were loser buys dinner I was going to win either way). And when she suggested we try out this outpost of island cooking in London I was pretty damn excited.
Cottons is pretty much what it says it is: a restaurant specialising in true Caribbean cooking. Now, I admit my experience with such foods is limited to one trip to the Dominican Republic and I reckon it was adapted for American mainstream tastes. However, I did manage to sneak a meal in outside of the resort and was quite intrigued by the combination of sweet and spices that several dishes exhibited.

The atmosphere of Cottons does make you feel a bit like you've been transported away from dreary Londontown (especially in the Rhum Bar downstairs although I suspect the rum itself may have something to do with that). The waitstaff were attentive and very friendly with our waiter trading jokes with us from the start.

So let's talk food. Being the carnivorous curry lover that I am, I of course opted for the curried goat. My date choose a more delicate option of sea bass and plantains. And to round out the meal, a simple juicy merlot fit the bill.

First off, a word of advice: the portions are quite large compared to the average British restaurant (nothing compared to the average US one but then again I've held feasts for 20 people that involved less food than one meal I had in Miami). The curried goat was full of rich, bold, spicy flavours and tender chunks of seasoned meat. I could eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without a word of complaint and given the option probably would do so in a heartbeat. One significant flaw is the treatment of the bones from the goat. Now, I'm not sure exactly how one manages to shatter bones in such a fashion (I considered that they may have pureed goat on the bone into the curry or perhaps opted for a sledgehammer instead of a knife when carving up the animal) but you have to be extremely careful when eating now to scoop up a shard of bone and end up skewering your tongue to the roof of your mouth. However, once you've got past that hurdle the food is all fun and games.

The sea bass was almost enough to inspire food envy as it was perfectly cooked with silky flaky flesh and lightly seasoned with a sweet (potentially mango influenced) marinade. It lacked enough spice for me personally (I blame the curried goat for spoiling me) but my date loved it and the presentation was spectacular. The plantains made a nice addition with their sweetness complementing the sea bass marinade quite well.

One more thing to note, the bathrooms are incredibly basic but seemed to fit with the theme of the place. No nonsense and fuss, they get the job done without trying to distract you with shiny mirrors and porcelain thrones that cost more than what I make in a month. I suppose that's what Cottons felt like. Good food, good fun, and not much else to get in your way!