Review of 'Cinnamon Kitchen'

Being in the Liverpool Street area on a Saturday we decided to go for a set menu offer at a restaurant in the area. Having heard of Vivek Singh it was good to finally try his restaurant “Cinnamon Kitchen” located off of Devonshire Square with a set meal of 3 courses for £21 including a welcome cocktail.

We were about 15 minutes early for our dinner booking of 6 pm and they told us there were no waiting staff yet on duty so were told to have a drink in the attached bar (“Anise”)…unfortunately, there was no one there either so we stood around, awkwardly, in the concierge area waiting for someone to serve us. Interestingly, when reserving they TOLD us to come early to enjoy a drink in the bar. So, starting off on a bit of a dud note.

The restaurant itself is quite modern looking though it reminded me a lot of eating in a warehouse with the exposed utilities in the ceiling and the somewhat basic decorating throughout. We were pleasantly surprised as the evening went on that despite the lack of curtains or wall coverings the space was quite quiet meaning we could actually talk to one another.

The welcome drink (a “Bellini”) was a Preseco with cardamon, ginger and cinnamon that my dinner companion very much enjoyed (given that I do not drink I had to satisfy myself with a bottle of sparkling mineral water, £2.50). We were asked if we wanted bread and we were very happy we said “yes” - Six small naan bread (two plain, two curry, and two spiced; £6) served with three different chutneys (spicy tomato, hot pea with wasabi (?), and a chilli;£3) - Very tasty if all a bit spicy (which turned out to be a theme of the evening). Compliments of the chef at the same time we received two small onion-bhaji-type balls. The flavours were all very nice and quite subtle though often a bit hot (pretty much all of the chutneys, for example).

Onto our set menus, I had the duck livers that were wonderfully tender served with, again, subtle spicing. My companion had the celeriac soup which was surprisingly spicy (perhaps too spicy for my companion's taste). For our mains we both choose the beef which was served with rice and a butter sauce. The beef itself was not terribly tasty though the spices it was cooked with were quite tasty. The rice was perfectly cooked and the butter sauce was interesting complement to the rest. We were both disappointed here.

I had the date toffee pudding which was quite nice - a small slice of a very moist cake with date throughout served with a side scoop of ginger ice cream. Very nice. My companion had the chocolate mousse that was served with passion-fruit sorbet. Also very nice - Quite sweet though (I am a big fan of passion-fruit so had to “try” a few extra spoonfulls).

Well, having had the bread at the start of the evening we were now very full but I needed something different to drink and had a wonderful fresh mint tea (£2.50) that turned to be the bargain of the evening as it provided me with at least 4 cups full of wonderful freshness.

The service throughout was polite but not overly friendly. They seemed quite patient but not talkative at all. Ok.

All in all, a pleasant if not fantastic evening. There are other alternatives for Indian food that have far better food, service and prices, going on what we were served here. Cinnamon Kitchen do have something like an eight course set menu for £60 which sounds quite excessive but might be worth a try. For the two of us, our bill came to £63 which included a 12.5% service charge.

Rating: “A bit better than average”

Review Date: 2013-04-21

Cuisine: Indian

Address: 9 Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4YL ENGLAND

Public Transport: Liverpool Street

Location: London (England) - Bank

Map:

Telephone: +44 (0) 207 626 5000

URL: http://www.cinnamon-kitchen.com/