Location, Location, Location may be the mantra in the property market
but when it comes to finding a restaurant for three busy women including a
foodie, a veggie and a whirlwind, it’s pretty key. Thankfully living in London, we don’t need to
sacrifice taste for location and found a hidden gem at Liverpool Street.
Cinnamon Kitchen is the more accessible sister of Westminster’s Cinnamon
Club – serving the same modern eclectic Indian without price tag. Housed in contemporary space with indoor and
outdoor options in Devonshire Square, it was a little empty as we arrived on a
wet Wintry Monday night, prepared to catch up on love, life and career with
perhaps a bit of food and wine on the side.
The wine – from the wide ranging and not overly pricey wine list –
arrived quickly with a mystery amuse bouche.
Well, if we had been listening to the lovely waitress, it would not be a
mystery but it was tasty, vegetarian and made us hungry enough to stop the
character assassination and consider the menu.
Starters arrive quickly and we were soon tucking into crumbed Indian spice
chickpea cake pieces with mango chutney which had a satisfying KFC crunch. I adore Indian food but am woefully ignorant about the spice alchemy behind the flavors - that said, the chef in the kitchen is a genius. Or at least he was when he was conjuring the sharing kebab platter that the meat eaters tucked into without too much jostling or fighting over choice pieces.
Pork isn't a more common Indian ingredient outside Portuguese inspired Goa but the beauty of the Cinnamon Kitchen is that they take inspiration from across this colourful continent. And char-grilled honey and chili glazed pork ribs are pretty inspirational as well as sticky, dirty and hard to share.
I'm not a cheesophile but Paneer isn't too bad. Not worth swapping a good rib for but a great option for a veggie - especially when its done with a lovely spicy Indian tomato sauce with a kick of heat. The final member of our Trio chose Tandoori spiced red deer with pickled root vegetable, yogurt sauce which seems a little wrong at Christmas but at least it wasn't reindeer.
An excellent evening with gorgeous food and excellent service! Well, the waitress might have been a little heavy handed with the wine but we did drink it so I can hardly blame her for my thick head in the morning.
Lx
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