Cinnamon Club, Westminster, London, 21st April 2008

Ahh… Cinnamon Club, what to say? For how long have I coveted the subtle use of spice and traditional flavouring of your Indian Fusion cuisine? (Jess: About a year, since you bought your mum the cookbook). So when, within a matter of hours, both Indy and Imran suggested that we take advantage of London Restaurant Week and go to a top restaurant on a pony how could I possibly resist?

Notwithstanding the company (which was, as always, damn funny) I feel we should have passed up on this one. Here is a brief precis of what we ate, the full details do not add much:

Starter

Jessie, Imran: Some sort of vegetable tikka (it was a while ago, give me a bit of a break)

Indy, Me: Chicken Tikka with mint and mango sauces

Main

Jessie, Imran: Pollack… Rice

Indy, Me: Lamb in an onion and coriander seed sauce, Rice

Dessert

Jessie, Imran, Me (Indy really wanted this as well): Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and a banana crisp

Indy: Steamed Yoghurt with fruit

Drink

Free glass of wine (red or white was as far as the description went) or strawberry iced drink, Water.

We also had some cocktails at the bar before and after, a cinnamon Bellini (that Jessie had) stood out.

My description shares something with the meal itself; a not insubstantial disregard for rigour. You have to wonder why a Michelin starred restaurant was going in for this kind of promotion if they were not intending to do it well. Presenting us with three courses that were neither particularly interesting nor well delivered (in either sense of the word) is a curious way of inviting us to return and splash out on the main menu.

Both starters were pretty dull. The chicken was cooked very well though, tender and moist. Just a shame that the marinade and sauces didn’t taste significantly better than many others I’ve eaten (big chicken tikka fan, me). Jessie pointed out that the starter was the most interesting part of the meal. Main course was the same, superbly cooked meat (Indy was salivating) but boring sauce. In addition, both dishes came with a side of rice. When does a restaurant of this quality serve the same accompaniment with two dishes as different as this lamb and pollack?!

Desserts were amateur, service was all over the place. They offered us bread with our starters and then forgot about them. The “blind” wine situation was bizarre, no explanation of what it was before or after it was served. They forgot about us often (with the water, with removing our plates, etc etc).

The room was pretty nice, as it is meant to be. Lots of books gives it a classy look (I’ve slipped on the language front, what can I say, I’m watching Goodfellas) and it would be quite fun to sit on the mezzanine and gaze down on the great and good of Westminster. But from the main menu and preferably both with 1) someone else paying and 2) some other set of people serving.