Cottons Vauxhall

Cottons started as a long-running and popular Caribbean restaurant in Camden. Now the Cottons chain is in all four corners of London, with branches in Notting Hill, Shoreditch and West Kennington – they’ve taken over the riverside site at St George Wharf that was previously occupied by the Moroccan restaurant Souk River Lounge.

Cottons exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

It’s hard to imbue St George Wharf with character but Cottons have given it a fair shot with this colourful wall mural:

Cottons wall mural - kenningtonrunoff.com

The centre piece of the restaurant is the bar, with many different rums on offer:

Cottons bar - kenningtonrunoff.com

This seafood platter with rice & peas, plantain and jerk sauce was top notch, as you’d hope for £18.50. In true Kennington Runoff tradition, we enjoyed it so much we tucked in before taking the photo:

Cottons seafood platter - kenningtonrunoff.com

Less successful was this order of vegetable coconut rundown for £12 – basically just some veg in an over-flavoured sauce. They should really add a vegetarian jerk option to the menu.

Cottons Vegetable Coconut Runover - kenningtonrunoff.com

We went along on a Friday night and they were playing the greatest hits of dancehall too loudly for our middle-aged tastes, but the restaurant certainly has a party atmosphere you won’t find elsewhere in the area, except perhaps on Walworth Road late at night.

Cottons interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

They do a daily happy hour on cocktails (£6), wine and beer (Carib for £3.50 a bottle) from 5pm-9pm and a bottomless brunch from 11am-5pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday which we plan to try soon.

Cottons Vauxhall. Unit 12 Flagstaff House, St George Wharf, Vauxhall, London SW8 2LE

T: 0207 091 0793

Souk River Lounge

Souk River Lounge has now closed and been replaced by Cottons.

Did you know there’s a rather good North African restaurant in West Kennington?

Souk River Lounge is the most recent opening of a chain of three restaurants. It’s in St George Wharf, between the Riverside pub and the appallingly named Steax & The City, and, as its name suggests, it faces the river. There’s plenty of outdoor seating for when the weather is good, or for smoking shisha:

Souk River Lounge exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

We were reminded of our visit to Pop Art Sushi (also in St George Wharf) in that we were pretty much the only people in there for a late lunch. We believe it’s more of an after-work hangout, especially on Friday nights when they have belly dancing and apparently get very busy (they’re open every day from 10am to midnight except Sundays when they close at 11pm).

Moroccan cuisine has become rather unfashionable of late, perhaps because it was fashionable in the late nineties when Momo opened, but it can be great and Souk do it well. This soup with warm pitta was delicious for just £3.95, as was the Moroccan classic chicken tagine for £10.95.

soup at Souk River Lounge - kenningtonrunoff.com

The interior is quite something:

Souk River Lounge seating - kenningtonrunoff.com

So is the bar:

bar at Souk River Lounge - kenningtonrunoff.com

It’s worth ordering the fresh mint tea for the pot alone:

fresh mint tea at Souk River Lounge - kenningtonrunoff.com

Address: 12 Flagstaff House, 9 St George Wharf, London SW8 2LE.

Pop Art Sushi and sushi in Kennington

Kennington has three sushi restaurants we can think of. SW9 Sushi at 62 Brixton Road is a reasonable neighbourhood Japanese. The Sushi Chef at 1 Kennington Lane (in between Toulouse Lautrec and The Lobster Pot and owned by the same people) mainly does catering for events but you can get individual portions as takeaway and it’s always likely to be fresh. But the strangest and most enjoyable of the three is Pop Art Sushi at the bottom of St George Wharf, facing the Vauxhall Gyratory.

Pop Art Sushi exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Why strange? There rarely seems to be anyone in there – we were the only diners throughout our visit. But the sushi and the service are really good, as are the 194 reviews on TripAdvisor which make it the 114th ranked restaurant out of 18,000 in London. What’s more, it doubles up as a pop art gallery, the Amstel Art Gallery (named after its founder so not to be confused with the beer). They say they were the first art gallery in Vauxhall back in 2011. They sell prints by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein alongside some original pieces by people we’d never heard of.

Roy Lichtenstein print

Roy Lichtenstein print

Imagine if Planet Hollywood did sushi, and pop art. You’ll never have seen a restaurant interior quite like it:

Pop Art Sushi interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Back to the food. It’s fresh, flavoursome, and affordable. The avocado nigiri (£7.19) were flawless:

avocado nigiri

The sweet potato croquettes were a little on the dry side but only cost £4.19:

sweet potato croquettes

Japan is not renowned for its deserts but these mochis – spice mango rice ice cream balls – were fun:

Mochi - spicy mango rice ice cream balls

Or if you want something more familiar, they do pancakes:

pancakes

We really would recommend paying a visit soon, and we want this unique restaurant to stay open so tell your friends how good it is.

Address: Pop Art Sushi, 8 Wandsworth Road, Unit 7 St. George Wharf, London SW8 2JW.