Having been to The Rum Kitchen in Notting Hill, I was excited to try out their newest restaurant. Located on the first floor of Kingly Court in Carnaby Village, The Rum Kitchen is situated in a corner without very much else up there. Despite this, booking a table, especially in the evening is recommended as it gets extremely busy, particularly towards the latter end of the week. A late evening table isn’t a problem as food is served throughout the night.

On our visit, we were greeted by friendly staff who took us to our table and handed us our menus. We were pre-warned about the strong rum cocktails here, and couldn’t wait to choose our tipple from the long list of Caribbean inspired cocktails. Spice is the name of the game with regards to the food. Our starters, the sticky BBQ ribs and jerk chicken wings, left our lips feeling like we had just had lip fillers! The soft shell crab and jerk chicken burgers were generous in size and highly recommended alongside the sweet potato chips. Now we are ready to go again and try the rest of the menu!

The Rum Kitchen is a great place for a fun and tasty meal with friends, the music is cool and you really get into the party spirit. A ‘buzzy’ atmosphere is certainly the way to describe it, from the background music, the hum of the chatting diners to the clatter of rum bottles as the various cocktails are made.

I was also a big fan of the fit out, a real shack-like feel with various signs and drums dotted around the place. This is a cool space and, like the Notting Hill restaurant, located in an equally cool area attracting the right crowd. It is a great example of a restaurant working on a first floor inward facing scheme, however we have to remember this is in the heart of central London.

http://therumkitchen.com/