Well this review is running a little late, I did promise this to be out last Sunday but I’ve been a wee bit busy with some friendly super hero based competition. Anyhow, myself and a group of my closest friends headed to the restaurant on the 2nd of October for some birthday festivities, lured by the promise of genuine Jamaican cuisine.

First Impressions:

Upon entering the building you are immediately bombarded with items that are meant to evoke the feeling of being in Jamaica, reeds covering the roof, reggae background music playing and of course a large picture of Bob Marley. It is a small establishment staffed by four staff, three in the open plan kitchen and one Waitress. As far as I could tell they could seat close to the twenty-five mark at one time. However the tables themselves didn’t impress me, one of my pet peeves in a food establishment is lack of uniformity, especially with the chairs. Every chair on the table we sat at seemed to belong to a different set. Also, the table mats used by the restaurant appeared to be sushi rolling mats or something of that style. Though these looked nice they were very easy to play with, and break. It was easy to see previous customers had the same idea and as such they were all different shapes and in different states of disrepair.

The Service:

The service at the restaurant over-all I would say was OK. The chefs are quite happy to chat to the customers and really add a homely feel to the restaurant that you don’t get with some larger establishments. Unfortunately there was a slight language barrier with the waitress working that night. Now I understand that when you put a Glaswegian and someone from anywhere else in the world but Glasgow there is going to be a language problem, but our drinks orders were brought incorrect twice.  When it came to paying we were presented with jut a figure on a piece of paper. The lack of an itemized bill is a little frustrating if you plan on splitting the bill. Finally, the time between courses was also a bit of a wait, but that can be forgiven by the sheer quality of the meals.

The Food:

For all of  Kool Runnings light niggles, it can easily be forgiven by the high quality of the food on the menu. The menu offers a range of meals, catering from Jamaican classics such as Jerk chicken to twists on regular British classics such as ‘Jamaican style fish and chips’. They also serve a variety of European favourites like steak, but frankly why would you enter an establishment that prides itself on authentic Jamaican cuisine and order steak?

Between us we ordered scallops, a shell-fish bowl, spicy chicken wings and pig cheek for starters, followed by Jamaican style fish and chips, curried goat, jerk chicken and a jerk chicken pizza. Followed by coconut crème brûlée, potato pudding, spiced fruit pudding and mixed ice-cream.

The food was served beautifully. By the homely feel of the building I was expecting the food to be served in a very ‘just like my mother used to make’ fashion, but it actually had a great visual impact which showed the talent of the chefs. The food itself did not disappoint. The meat was so tender you could give it a nasty look and it would just fall apart and as i was expecting the food to be as hot as the surface of the sun, I was pleasantly surprised to find the food to be well-flavoured and cooked beautifully. The curried goat however, felt like someone was stabbing my tongue with a large hot knife. I have really never tasted anything that hot before! but the people who actually enjoy spicy food assured me it was brilliant.  The fish and chips however was exactly that, just fish and chips. Though it was cooked to perfection none of us could find this Jamaican twist.

The desserts for many were the highlight of the meal. As was the standard with the meal they were beautifully presented and flavoured. The potato pudding in particular was rather notable, a sweet sticky dessert that was close to being a sticky toffee pudding but not quite. A special mention has to go out to the ice-cream, most places have this as an after thought for the people who don’t want to pay for a large dessert. However the icecream served was flavourful and rich, and the mango sorbet was like being smacked in the face with a sack of mangos, but in a good way!

The meal of the night had to be the shellfish bowl. I’m a huge lover of seafood, and when confronted with crab claws, langoustines, oysters, mussels and razorfish I will just go to town on that, making as much mess as humanly possible. It was served with a fantastic butter sauce and really made my evening.

The Drinks:

Not much to say on the drinks front. The restaurant offers a bring your own beer policy, which is great for folk who drink. For the folk who don’t like a beverage the menu offers a variety of none alcoholic Jamaican beverages. However I can’t review them because much to our frustration they were sold out of everything but coconut water!

Conclusions:

All in all we had a brilliant night at Kool Runnings. Though we had some little issues the food far outshone them, and for a very reasonable price as well! I would say however it is not a restaurant you get dressed up to visit.  I would feel a little out-of-place being all suited and booted in such a relaxed place, definitely a jeans and trainers sort of place.

Mr Josh