Restaurants / Calypso Kitchen
Calypso Kitchen – restaurant review
Can Wapping Wharf put a foot wrong? Bristol’s newest food and destination has just got even better with the opening of Calypso Kitchen, a Caribbean restaurant from the team behind Biblos.
Since 2010, Will Clark and Ariel Czaczkses have been fusing their Caribbean and Middle-Eastern roots into wraps, served from their restaurants in St Werburgh’s and Stokes Croft, as well as festivals across Bristol and the South West.
Biblos’ wraps can still be found in Calypso Kitchen – but there is also more food here with inspiration drawn from across the Caribbean.
The restaurant is reminiscent of a simple shack by the side of the road in Jamaica, with a corrugated iron bar and – perhaps in a nod to nearby Cargo – toilets within a shipping container.
The drinks cage at Calypso Kitchen
Order at the bar and go to the loo in a shipping container
Starters include arancini (£5), jerk pork ribs (£5.50) and pepper shrimp (£7), with a drinks menu including Banks beer from Barbados and two varieties of rum punch.
The arancini is also available as a wrap filling alongside the likes of jerk fried fish, halloumi and roast vegetable, with a regular wraps £5.20 and large £7.
From the main courses, highlights include a king prawn gumbo (£12.50, goat curry and butter beans (£11), and jerk pork ribs (£11.50).
A ‘no fire’ jerk chicken (£8.50) was beautifully seasoned and accompanied with rice and peas and coleslaw. As a children’s menu, this dish costs £4.50 and contained exactly the same amount of chicken as well as some particularly good triple cooked fries – all demolished by the six-year-old on our table.
‘No fire’ jerk chicken
The children’s chicken meal was also substantially bigger than the vegan gumbo (£9.50) from the mains.
The stew made from chickpeas, aubergine and caramelised sweet potato, served with rice and peas, received a big seal of approval from my vegan wife but could have easily been twice the size for the same price.
Food is paid for here before it arrives and includes tea, coffee and cakes for daytime customers.
Ten months after Mokoko became the first arrival into Wapping Wharf, the Gaol Ferry Steps jigsaw has been completed with Calypso Kitchen. It’s a fantastic final piece.
Calypso Kitchen, Unit 3, Gaol Ferry Steps, Wapping Wharf, Bristol, BS1 6WE
0117 329 1314
Read more: My Bristol Favourites: Will Clarke
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