The Rum Shack

This was part of our International Food Night arranged by our very own International Unilocaler Man of Mystery Rocco G. It sounded like a nice wee change and a visit to deep south of Glasgow. This was indeed a special wee Unilocal outing as these don’t happen very often.
I was looking forward to my Caribbean treat and meeting up with my fellow Unilocalers. I managed to find the Southside by train to Queen’s Park Station and it’s only a 5 minutes hop, skip and jump to The Rum Shack.
I was unfortunately in still a bit of pain from the Kiltwalk so think I didn’t get to enjoy the experience as much as I had hoped. We were seated on stools at 2 separate high tables. I think I was craving a normal seat, which are available by the way.
The menu had a fairly nice varied choice of Caribbean dishes, some with a Scottish twist. So I opted for the Haggis Balls to kick off this food night. The starter was absolutely delicious, the sauce wasn’t too hot and with a pleasant amount of sweetness to compliment my balls. Oh yeah! OK, so they were actually «fritters».
I felt some of the menu for me was a bit on the spicy side so opted for the vegetarian dish of Cuban black bean and rice with fried plantain and sweet potatoes. I have to say it was very different but quite palatable.
It was lovely décor and the staff could not be any more helpful, they were very accommodating and polite. I’m not sure I would venture back here as I felt there was nothing else on the menu I would really try, I think it would be nice to swing by for some drinks as they have a fully stocked bar and I’m sure there’s a rum lurking in there somewhere that I may like.
Try for yourselves, for me I just wasn’t blown out my boots.

The Rum Shack is located at 657 Pollockshields Road. This Caribbean kitchen and Rum bar is a bit of a cool dive bar with lovely food. With the laid back décor they are clearly trying to create a Caribbean vibe, which I think they do pretty successfully. Between the distressed wooden furniture, twinkly lights and metal can style light fittings, they have created a chilled relaxed vibe to enjoy a rum and some tasty bites to eat.
The staff were lovely and really friendly. Our waiter was super smiley and checked on us often through out the evening asking if we needed drinks or wanted to order any more food. It was a very relaxed service, in keeping with the bar like surroundings.
Not really knowing what to expect of Caribbean food, I went in to the evening a little bit blind. I had looked at the menu on their Facebook page but still wasn’t really that enlightened. In the end I just picked some stuff I liked the sound of.
To start with, I opted for the Spiced Haggis Fritters. These were to be rolled in spiced breadcrumbs and served with a wedge of lime, tamarind sauce and fresh garden leaves. Our starters arrived really quickly, much faster than I expected when there were 11 of us dining together. My dish consisted of 4 smallish delicious haggis bon bons coated in a lovely crunchy coating. For me what really made this dish was the light tamarind sauce, which is where the heat in the dish came from. A lovely way to start the meal.
For my main, I decided to try the Jerk Fish of the day, which happened to be Salmon the evening that we visited. This came served with peas, rice and corn on the cob. I absolutely loved this dish — the large piece of salmon was cooked to perfection — it was soft, flaky and the jerk seasoning tasted amazing. The large portion of peas and rice was the perfect accompaniment to the jerk fish, it was just plain enough that the jerk seasoning was definitely the over-​riding flavour in the dish but tasty enough that you could eat it alone. The corn on the cob was juicy and tasted amazing.
The stand out dish of the night though had to be the Banana Parcels, Choux pastry and sweet banana, served with dark chocolate sauce and rum n’ rasin sauce. Let me get the bummer out the way first — I never got any dark chocolate sauce with the dish! To be honest, I don’t think the dish actually needed it but it was on the menu and I never got any (boo)! Now on to the good stuff… these 3 little hot donut-​like banana parcels were a dream. They were similar to the type of slightly greasy donut you get at the carnival rolled in sugar and cinnamon and inside was a banana purée rather than chunks of banana. They were incredible and I could have very easily eaten about 9 of them.
It was 1 giant bill for the table but including Mr Gs 3 course meal and 2 drinks the cost came to £41.50 which was an amazing price for the food we got.
This is a brilliant little bar in the South Side doing something a bit different when it comes to their menu. I loved it and will definitely visit again soon.

I have had a few unexpectedly greats meals recently and Rum Shack has kept up the trend in massive style. Long may it continue!
It was with slight trepidation that I attended International Food night yesterday, I was expecting rundown pub décor and average food.
What I actually got was superb food and nicer than expected surroundings.
Sharing starters allowed me to try two dishes. Popcorn Prawns and Accra Salt Fish balls. You can see in my pictures below the exact descriptions, but basically they both came coated with spiced crumbs and fried. Served with dipping sauce and salad and were pretty good. I would say a 3.5 out of 5. So far so good…
Then came the main! Chicken Brown Down. It was a superb succulent chicken stew, with macaroni cheese pie on the side and spicy greens. The portion size was really good and the chicken and mac pie were so tasty. Honestly, thinking about it right now, I want it NOW. I could eat this meal every day.
For dessert I rolled the dice and went risky with a sweet potato pone with coconut ice cream and chocolate sauce. I had decided I might as well try it as I would be unlikely to see it on many other menus and I am glad I did. It was like a sticky carrot cake with lovely chocolate sauce and tasty ice cream. It was brilliant.
I can honestly say if I got to go back tomorrow, (I would like to) I would get the exact same main and dessert again. These guys are offering something really different from the norm. Throw in that they do three Caribbean beers I had never heard of and you can take your mutt in for a pint, I am not sure how I can fault it.
Get yourself along to Rum Shack and give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.
«Rum Shack… Baby… Rum shack»

Wow, the Rum Shack totally blew my socks off — and I didn’t even have any rum!
I’m a south sider, so it’s pretty embarrassing to admit last night was my first visit. At first look, I think it looks like a standard kind of bar with some Caribbean décor spotted around the place. We had a booking for a large group (as organised by the legendary Rocco G for International Food Night!) and they split us over two high tables which wasn’t ideal but we made it work.
The menu is pretty interesting and has a lot of stuff which sounds super tasty. I went for the popcorn prawn starter followed by chicken brown down for my main. To be honest I really didn’t know what to expect but these folk really know their flavours — the food was excellent. The popcorn prawns were deliciously battered but served with nice light accompaniments like lime and salad to make it the perfect starter. The tamarind sauce had a nice spicy yet sweet punch to it.
By this point I was super excited for my main and it was even better. Luscious chicken stew (a really generous portion of around 3 pieces) and the macaroni pie was nice and crispy. Again, the flavours were outstanding and I was left wanting more when I finished it purely out of greed rather than small portions!
I even had dessert which is pretty rare for me. The trio of sorbet (mango, pink grapefruit and passionfruit) was a nice way of topping off the meal. Service was helpful and friendly all night and they were always back checking up on us to make sure we had everything we needed. What an awesome night — I can’t wait to return, and thanks Rocco for making this one of my fav IFNs so far!
Note: they take Swipii card although I didn’t realise this until after we’d left!

Popped in for lunch on Saturday after having it on my list of places to try for a while. It was quiet and when walking in to the main bar for the first time there were no menu’s on the tables. We weren’t sure where to sit or the set up of the place but after finding a seat the staff were welcoming and helpful.
We were in for food more than drinks, however I did have a tasty dark rum and ginger beer or two which was as nice as you’d hope. The service was quick and after ordering the waitress brought over a bottle of their house chilli sauce with a warning that it was incredibly hot — she wasn’t lying! It was lovely though, not sure if they do, but they should sell it by the bottle.
The menu was small which I find a welcome sign, I always hope this means the kitchen have perfected the few dishes they list and I was not disappointed. To start we had Accra and Popcorn Prawns, the prawns were nice and came with a tasty sauce but the Accra was the definite winner for the starter. For our mains we had Jerk Pit Fish of the Day and Jerk Pit Pork belly, both came with corn on the cob and rice and peas. The jerk seasoning was great, and had a good heat to it, as you would expect. The rice was well cooked and well seasoned and the fish tender and flakey. I could have done with an extra corn on the cob — that dipped in their hot sauce was a highlight for the veggie lover in me. Not eating meat personally, I never tried the pork belly, however I was told it was delicious.
It’s not far from a top rating for me (I’d give it 4 and a half if I could), the only downfalls I found were the atmosphere little a lacking, probably down to the time of day we visited, between lunch and dinner. I think it would be a great evening trip. I found the material of the plates a little distracting, it felt a little like eating off of paper plates. Over all I’d recommend it, I’ll definitely be back to eat here again!

Call me a Negative Nancy but I gave this place no hope of being any good at all and I’m honestly not sure why I wrote it off so blatantly. This was a classic case of «don’t judge a book by its cover» and for that I am going to give myself a little slap on the face as punishment.
I do very much like rum and after visiting Cuba a few years ago I thought it would be worthwhile visiting Rum Shack to see if I could relive those hot Cuban nights filled with delicious rum cocktails and simple but tasty food.
I can honestly say that Rum Shack delivered on every front. Firstly from the excellent music selection, the nicely prepared Cubatas (dark rum and coke), super friendly and efficient service and the outstanding food.
The food is really what sets Rum Shack apart from any other pup in the South Side at the moment. The Caribbean inspired menu is a real breath of fresh air and there isn’t a burger or American food in site.
To start I opted for the fresh and fragrant Ital soup made from vegetables and coconut juice. It was served with roti style flat bread. It was super tasty, wholesome and filling. For main course the fish of the day was salmon, jerk style so I thought, why not. A beautiful, plump and pink fillet, nicely spiced and flavoured with a good side of rice & peas and corn on the cob. Again it was really satisfying and felt that it had been lovingly prepared.
By this stage I was pretty full and was going to pass on desert. Well that was until I realised that pretty much the whole group had decided to order a sweet treat, and there was no way in hell I was gonna sit out on another course. And boy am I glad I didn’t sit this one out. I ordered the banana fritters. They were kinda like a doughnut generously dusted with sugar and tonnes of cinnamon. They were absolutely delicious and reminded me strangely of Italian style potato doughnuts.
The final surprised arrived when the bill was brought to us. Simply excellent value for money.
Rum Shack Caribbean Kitchen you rock! Thanks for bringing the warmth and sunshine of Caribbean food to Glasgow. Unique and different, loved it :)