Life got in the way of posting this Cinnamon Kitchen review, so my apologies for the delay in writing. And if some of the dishes are no longer available, then I’m sorry for that too. What I’m not sorry for is still posting this and literally shouting from the rooftop (terrace) GO AND EAT HERE.
I’ve been to Cinnamon Kitchen three times since it’s opened and each time it is truly SO GOOD! There is a whole range of restaurants on the Westgate roof terrace, with a variety of budgets to suit you but please, for the love of your stomach, walk past the glamour of Victor’s, the hipsterness of The Alchemist and Dirty Bones, the value for money of Pho and even stroll on past my Pizza Pilgrims and Mowgli favourite. Cinnamon Kitchen looks upmarket and expensive and it can be but there’re also some cracking deals available there with SUCH GOOD FOOD. Are you getting the theme of this review yet?!
A summer pop up called Soho Joho has been running with a small selection of cocktails and tapas style dishes. Cocktails are £7.50 and include drinks such as pistachio shell daiquiri – Bacardi rum infused with pistachio shells and lime juice. That’s it. Rum and juice. I had two, I’m not sure what would have happened had I drank more….. A non-alcoholic and dairy free cashew butter milkshake was made with almond milk, cashew and crushed pistachio and that went down very well, if with a slightly smug, virtuous look!
We opted to go for one of each of the four dishes on the menu, samosa chaat, papdi chaat, Mumbai chowpatty bhelpuri and a chicken tikka wrap. Reading the descriptions of each didn’t fill me with enthusiasm or excitement but at the end of eating, I wanted everyone present to try each dish and taste how these random ingredients just came together in an oral explosion – I was genuinely evangelical.
For example, chutney potato, crisped wheat, tamarind drizzle and yoghurt. Sounds a bit meh?
Wrong! Hot spicy potato with sour tamarind, cooling yoghurt and then the crunch of crisped wheat. Ohhh.
Or, puffed rice (yes, like Rice Krispies), crisp chickpea vermicelli, peanuts, spiced potatoes, tamarind and pomegranate.
Or hot samosas with curried white peas, tamarind, yoghurt and coriander chutneys…
We added these little parcels of happiness too – sea bream ceviche with mango, nigella and pomegranate as well as the obligatory hot, blistered, garlicky naan.
Whether you go for their one dish lunch deal for £12, the two or three-course evening set menu for £19/22, the £37.50 sharing menu or off the full a la carte – please, just go! And be a little adventurous in what you choose – you won’t regret it!
Leave a Reply