If You Can’t Stand The Heat… | Creole Kitchen At The Beachcomber, 86 Queensway London, W2 3RR

Chef and author of the acclaimed Creole Kitchen cookbook, Vanessa Bolosier has teamed up with a late-night Tiki bar – The Beachcomber in Bayswater. Together, they’re bringing a summery taste of island life to London, unfortunately they can’t do much about the British weather. We jumped at the chance to try this and it didn’t disappoint us one little bit.

Vanessa Bolosier – loves her lime juice!

Vanessa, the mastermind behind all these amazing Guadeloupe and Martinique dishes from the French Caribbean has been wowing crowds at supperclubs and popups since 2012.

Shake and pour! If only it was that easy…

As for The Beachcomber, it was transformed into an underground Tiki bar by Adam Gonna three years ago – it’s a cute, secret little hideout, within staggering distance of Bayswater tube station. Staggering is exactly what you’ll be doing after a few of their cocktails – Ade loved the Agroni (£8.50), a twist on the good old Negroni but with made with rum. My winner was the K.M.T Smash (£8.50) – bourbon, bitters, pineapple and lemon sherbert.

Vanessa’s food is punchy and simply too addictive, once you’ve popped one Salt fish fritter (£7) in your mouth then there’s no going back. In fact, the same goes for everything we ate – Aubergine patties (£4) had a glorious sheen to the buttery pastry, perfect snacking food.

Chips n dips Caribbean style…

Oh and the sauces! Avocado-mad London will love the Avocado Feroce sauce (£3.50) – creamed avocado, salt fish, herbs, chilli and citrus. We adored the tomatoey Sauce Creole (£2) – the great thing about these sauces is they seemed to suit everything we dunked in them. Including the donuty Bokit Dippers (£3.50) – in their signature Creole spice mix, fluffy bites of deliciousness.

Don’t miss the Coconut Coleslaw (£3), it’s delicious, delivered with a word of warning on spice levels, somehow Ade got through it without a hint of suffering, we’ll be making some of this ourselves (when we find the time, that is). This pop-up is worth venturing outside of the usual London hotspots for, that’s for sure.

The Beachcomber
86 Queensway London, W2 3RR

Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Thursday: 6:00pm – 1:30am
Friday and Saturday: 6:00pm – 2:30am
Sunday: 6:00pm – 12:30am

Book online here

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Nearest station: Bayswater (1 min walk) Queensway (3 mins walk)

We visited as guests of The Beachcomber, this does not affect our review in any way. We always write with complete honesty.

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