Two-for-one offer at Cinnamon Kitchen

We’ve had a mixed experience at Cinnamon Kitchen in Devonshire Square, but as we generally do like the food – and there is a “Happy Days” 2-for-1 offer on the a la carte menu  – we decide to give it another go with S&L. 

 As usual the girls like a cocktail beforehand. B has found a place called Absurd Bird on the Commercial Road, so we meet up there. L is delayed again – this time because of a person on the tracks of the Tube at Aldgate East – S had seen some of the commotion. Anyway there is a 2 for £12 offer on here, so we get through a range of drinks – the “chicken rum” being my favourite.

 When we get to the restaurant, it’s very busy indeed, and we are seated at a table for 6, which makes conversation a little trickier. The booking process online hadn’t actually confirmed we were getting the offer, so B had rung up about it – so the first thing I do is to get the waiter to confirm we are on the offer.  I order a bottle of Trebbiano (£25) and an Australian Shiraz (£28).

 For starters, L orders the avocado hummus, which comes with Padron peppers. This is a little dull, but acts as a good partner for B’s chicken tikka, which is also a little ordinary. The spicy shrimps with passion fruit salsa that S orders are excellent, as are the pork ribs with chilli and honey glaze that I choose.

 S’s choice of lamb biryani is also very delicious – fragrant, spicy, its dryness complemented by the rice. B’s Tanjore style king prawn curry is also excellent, coming in a lovely think sauce.  The duck breast and char-grilled lamb rump that L and I order are a bit more ordinary, less spicy, but very good nonetheless.  We supplement the mains with garlic naan and B’s favourite black lentil dhal.

 All the portions are large, and apart from the prawns, we don’t finish them. B asks for the biryani and dhal to go.  Despite this, S&L order desserts: malai kulfi comes with honeycomb crumble, which is interesting, and spiced pistachio cake with peanut ice cream, which is gorgeous.  

 We’ve ordered a second bottle of both the wines  - they aren’t included in the offer sadly! – but don’t finish the red, so take that away too.  They don’t add service – which despite the full restaurant was efficient and timely without being over-friendly - and so the total presented is just over £200 – we’ve saved £64. That is incredible value for what we’ve had – even full price would be worth it.  The offer ends at the end of the month, so rush along soon.

 

 

Bryn Williams at Somerset House

It’s B’s birthday, so we’ve been to the Charlie Brown exhibition at Somerset House, and are then on to Bryn Williams – my father’s name.   I hadn’t realised by the eponymous chef also cooks at Odette’s in Primrose Hill, somewhere I’d recently been told was excellent.

We arrive a little early but are shown through the attractive bar and a couple of large, empty rooms to our table in the last room along. We have a booth by the window, which on this sunny day, overlooking the river and Waterloo Bridge, is a very attractive spot.  There is one table of 8 and about 8 other punters in there.

 There is a “Detox” set menu, but naturally we pass over this quickly.  The wine list unsurprisingly goes up fairly quickly (SB £34, Malbec £36), so we settle for the house Trebbiano at £23.

 The a la carte menu seems very veggie-oriented, but looking a bit closer there are other options too. For starters, B orders “heritage” beetroot with cured organic salmon and smoked rosemary mayonnaise, while I go for a starter sized tuna niçoise.  Our choices for mains are grilled hispi cabbage – with piglet belly – and boulangere potatoes – with slow cooked lamb.

 

Once we’ve ordered, we also get some soda bread, which comes encrusted with wheatgerm (I think) and butter with sea salt.  This is just one roll, but it is lovely; however, we’ve not eaten half of it before our starters arrive.

 B’s beetroot is three slices in different colours – yellow, red and black. The cured salmon is very pink, looking like beetroot has already bled into it.   The mayonnaise works very well with the salmon, and the beetroot is crisp, al dente.

 My salad, with yellowfin tuna, is also very flavourful and fresh. The tuna is cooked nicely pink, the egg and anchovy sharp, the tapanade a good complement and the beans also al dente. There is no unifying dressing or sauce, so the flavour of each the item shines through clearly.

 

Main courses also arrive quickly and are similarly sparse.  Cabbage, pork belly, apple sauce. The cabbage nicely singed and with some flavour; the pork (piglet – really?) belly perhaps a little dry on top, but good otherwise – no crackling though; cider apple sauce is a valuable, peppery addition to the pork.

 The slow-cooked lamb is what many places would call “pulled” – shredded pieces of meat rather than a solid steak. It is very full-on lamb flavour, perhaps a little fatty – it needs wine to wash it down. The sauce is not a big plus, but the caponata does give some good contrast. The potatoes (with onion) in their separate pot are very good indeed.

We opt out of desserts – nothing specifically appeals – to finish our second bottle. And the waitress suggests we might like to take the rest of the bread away. Both waitresses have been very attentive and friendly. The total is a pretty modest £120 including service. Lots of flavour for that money.

 

 

 

Re-opened old favourite

Our local tapas bar, Las Fuentes, has been closed for a while as the building it’s in is being re-developed.  It re-opened just before Christmas, though apparently it will need to close again while further work is done.

Previously it had been a very charming, very Spanish-looking restaurant with lots of blue tiles and friendly staff. Many of the same staff are back and are still as welcoming, but the atmosphere has changed as the décor is now much more ordinary.  The tiles are gone, and we just have a collection of simple wood tables, sitting underneath a ceiling of “industrial chic” air-conditioning tubing.

 We’re there with our neighbour K who for some reason is treating us. She wasn’t a regular of the place previously – unlike us, and another neighbour J who arrives with her son later. So the change in décor doesn’t worry her, though she’s not keen on the tubing.

 The menu is similar in content to before, though now organised by main ingredient (fish, lamb, beef etc) rather than tapas and mains. So you have to judge by the price what to order. They have always served relatively large portions for a tapas bar, and that seems to still be the case.

 We order the house white Rioja at £19, and the same wine as before arrives. K has a coke.  K wants us to suggest what we have, so we fall back on our usual selections – wild boar skewer (ordered with chips rather than polenta for K), kidneys, gambas pil pil and spicy mushrooms – plus a lamb cutlet each for K and me as that is one of her favourites.

 The wild boar, on its usual impressive vertically-hanging skewer, and the lamb cutlets arrive first.  The lamb doesn’t come away from the bone as well as you might like, and K declares it not as good as her favourite, Mekan.  We think the wild boar is very tender, but K seems to struggle, with some gristle and then losing interest.  The kidneys, despite arriving on a dish that is “too hot to touch”, are in fact lukewarm – still tasty but not the reliably warming dish I choose on cold days.  The prawns and the mushrooms are both excellent though – good hits of spice in both of them.

 K chooses ice cream for dessert, so I have a crème brulée to keep her company. It’s quite a good burnt topping, but the main body is far too chilled.

 K is paying so I don’t get a close look at the bill, but I think including service it is a little over £100 (2 bottles of wine).  It’s close enough back to its old ways for us to keep it as a regular, but I don’t think K was that impressed.