I did however thoroughly
enjoy the offer of £24 for the three courses. If you don’t mind eating either very
late or very early (the offer is between 5-6pm or 9.30-10.30), it’s a smashing good
deal for some really very tasty nosh. If you are booking a table at the
Cinnamon Club I would strongly recommend arriving earlier to enjoy some of the
fiery cocktails at the rather raunchy looking cocktail bar downstairs, at £8-12
a cocktail you would hope for a very special concoction and that they were,
full of spice, delicious fruits and plenty of booze. The Cinnamon club is
located just around the corner form Westminster; set
in the historic Grade II listed former Westminster Library. The interior as
much grand as the outer building, still with ornate book shelves in place and
hundreds of leather bound books on the mezzanine level surrounding the dining
room of dark brown leather and high white arches, giving the atmosphere of a 1920’s
Poirot scene.
Arriving at our small
table in the corner, we were presented with an appetizer of deep fried chick
pea ball, heavily spiced and sitting on
a cool mint raita, “yes please I’ll have more of them”, fiery little numbers
and very moreish. Being the greedy bugger I am, thinking with my stomach rather
than head, had the more heavier of starters on offer which in hindsight wasn’t
such a good idea as I thought to myself afterwards, waddling my way back to the
station feeling especially full. ‘Coorgi style stir-fry of
pork with kokum berries’, not the fresh flash cooked stir fry I was expecting,
but more a deeply rich, dry sauce surrounding thin slithers of slow cooked pork,
very rich but equally delicious. ‘Pan seared sea bass fillet with curried
chickpeas, green mango and coconut chutney’, has now set the bench mark of how
chick peas should be cooked, packed with flavour, soft yet still holding there
shape and texture, a million miles from the tasteless dry cannon balls I’ve
found else where, curry slightly over powering for the delicate fish but tasty
all the same. ‘Grilled rump of Galloway beef with masala mash, rich onion
sauce’ and rich it was, but sadly let down by the tough lump of jaw exercise
sitting on top, perhaps the Wagyu beef next time?
Now I’m not one for turning
down a pudding, especially if it’s included in the price but, at this point I
was starting to feel more than a little over indulged (was the assortment of
flat bread really necessary?) but, thank god I didn’t. ‘White chocolate parfait
with pink peppercorn crisp’ was nothing short of heavenly, moving swiftly past
the tasteless crisp and strait to the parfait covered in crunchy praline full
of chocolaty nuttiness, a deliciously light end to a very rich meal!
