Cottons Camden — Restaurant in London

Yesterday, I visited Cottons restaurant in Camden for my husband’s birthday, and I was somewhat disappointed. First, the furniture looked tatty, with seats that were falling apart. However, my biggest frustration was with the waiting staff. I ordered a pineapple juice, but it was drowned in ice, which I rarely have. After removing all the excess ice myself, I saw that there was barely any juice left, practically only half a glass. Given the small size of the glass to begin with, I was essentially paying for a sip of juice. I complained to the waitress about this, and when she brought me my drink back, she poured the remainder into an even smaller glass. I questioned her about this, but she acted nonchalant, which really bothered me. While she wasn't rude, she made no effort to resolve the issue, such as simply topping up the drink. Considering it was a cheap carton drink that they mark up, it wouldn’t have been a big deal to just top it up in the first place.

Secondly, while the bar staff and other servers were dressed appropriately for a restaurant setting, except the same waitress stood out for all the wrong reasons. She was dressed in a bandeau crop top with her midriff showing and skin-tight jeans. It felt like she was on her way to a festival, a night out, not working in a place that charges restaurant prices. How can a restaurant position itself as a restaurant while allowing staff to dress in such an inappropriate manner? Does Hygiene not come into it?The attire felt completely out of place and didn't align with the level of service or the prices being charged. Overall, the experience didn’t live up to the expectations of an authentic Caribbean restaurant, which Cottons used to be known for. It felt more like Turtle Bay than the place it once was, as the food was not the greatest to be honest, very average.

However, if it hadn’t been for the manager, Clayton, (who I have to say is a credit to the place) I would have left in a much worse mood. He took the time to listen to my concerns and resolved the drink issue in a way that didn’t leave me feeling completely ripped off. In fact if it was not for Clayton I would have given a 1 star review, that show's how much he was able to turn things around just by being warm, friendly and more considerate.

Some serious improvements are needed, as it seems like more time and investment have gone into the other branches rather than this original one. I think it will be a long time, if ever,...

I had not eaten food from Cottons for over ten years as I never really felt it lived up to or deserved to be considered true West Indian cuisine. But recently I figured I would try out all of the local West Indian food joints around Camden, so I ordered from Cottons once again. Mistake! I ordered Curried mutton with rice and peas (beans). I prefer actual peas, like gungo but I can do the whole kidney bean thing too. Sadly I got a child size portion for some reason? The curried mutton has six chunks of meat all of which had thick slabs of flabber on them and the gravy was more of a thin ‘jus’ than the thicker gravy you would experience back home. The flavours were ok but nothing blew me away there. The Mac and cheese was very soggy, portion size was teetering on small and taste was just average. The salt fish fritters were nice. Good flavours and portion size was good. I must say though that as this was a delivery order, upon arrival, the entire meal was stone cold & I had to reheat some of it or suffer eating it below an adequate temperature, which affects flavours massively when working with spiced dishes. The reputation Cottons has is gimmicky and it’s a shame because this is a West Indian culture’s food being played with and is not reflective of how and why our food is so delicious. The ingredients missing here are love, historical and traditionally passed down value and understanding of our dishes. When you learn these thing from your elders teaching you in the kitchen and you learn why we eat these meats or use those spices, your food tastes different, better, because you start putting in that love. Who ever cooked my food was not West Indian, I can say that and know I’m correct. Even if they protest different. I couldn’t taste that love. Learning to cook a dish is one thing, but learning its story first will always make it taste better. I do not recommend Cottons at this time, but maybe I’ll try them again in another ten years. Who knows?!

Please note that the photos are exactly how the portions arrived. I really cannot get over how small they are because at £14.50 I would have expected twice the...

I went to cottons yesterday for my sisters birthday It was a party of 13 us that was booked. We were waiting for 1 hour before a waiter came to serve us, we had to take it upon ourselves to approach someone and ask to order drinks. Once our drinks were ordered we waited half hour if not more before we recieved the drink then 20mins before they came to take orders for our food. We were told that they could not serve rice and peas because it was too salty but our meals arrived with the salty rice and peas any way The food arrived 1 hour later cold , salty rice n peas Salty "jerk pork" if it was even jerk and no salad was on offer on the set menu. we orderd another round of cocktails n still haven't revieced those yet they were added to the bill any way. When we asked for white rice we were told that there was no white rice and then given cold bottom of the pot rice that's wasn't even cooked properly it was hard. We were told when we asked for the manager that he decided not to show up for work and wasn't there, a man told us we would get 50% taken off our meal and drinks and apparently this man is the owner. When we recieved our bill the "owner" had disappeared and our waitress was telling us that we had to pay full price for our food and that she didn't know any thing about 50% we argued our case and ended up paying part of the bill and full price for the cocktails apart from the ones we didn't not recieve, the waitress can pay for those when she finds them. In all worst resteraunt ever the Notting hill one is much better but this one no class and no respect even the chefs were arguing in front of us. They get 1 star because I have to give something otherwise they...