Cinnamon Kitchen 4 course feast

 After Rick Stein last week, we have moved on to Vivek Singh's Cinnamon Kitchen. Their 4-course feast at home is £120, but we thought we would indulge.  The package duly arrives in the morning of the agreed day, and we begin unpacking. One of the sauces has spilled a little in transit but it's not a big deal. Items for each course are labelled with a coloured sticker. There are also cooking instructions for each. 

The first course is Bhel papdi chaat. There are three packs for this - some spiced potatoes, a pack of little popadums and other bits, and another pack of shredded things. The instructions say mix the cracked wheat, spiced potatoes and puffed wheat, so we mix the three together, with tamarind sauce and coriander chutney. It then says to sprinkle with chickpea vermicelli, which we don't have - or more likely have mistakenly already mixed in. Anyway we end up with an amorphous mixed bowl of stuff rather than the layered version in the picture. It's a huge portion, so we just have half. It tastes just fine, but not as good as the version you'd get in the restaurant, no doubt due to our error.

We decide that the portions are too large for one sitting, and think it better to leave the shrimp second course until tomorrow, moving straight on to the lamb shank roganjosh.  The lamb has to be boiled in its bag for 25 minutes, and biryani rice for 15.  There is also simmered lentils (black dhal). The instructions call for the lamb to be fried for 1-2 minutes at the end, but we skip this step.  There's a ginger and onion garnish, and an evil-looking pink raita chilli and garlic. 

It is very tasty indeed, rich oozing, spicy, with a lot of other subtle flavours going on too. The meat falls off the bone easily, and again we leave half for another day. 

The next day we eat the other half of the bhel, and then cook the Madras shrimp pepper fry.  This needs frying for 2 to 3 minutes and then its sauce added (described as a "crust" but it doesn't come up crusty for us).   There is a garnish of fried curry leaves and a vivid yellow curried yoghurt pot. This is also a very tasty and spicy dish, a slightly more modest size, so we manage to eat all of it. 

Then we turn to the dessert - ginger and garam masala toffee pudding. Again, the dish is warmed through in boiling water, before covering the pudding with the toffee sauce and nutmeg custard. It's very sweet, though the spices do shine through, the nutmeg especially.

So our £120 has paid for two full meals each, and we still have some lamb left. It would easily be enough for four people, probably better as you'd get all the different courses.

So: top marks for flavour; over the top portions; some complications in the cooking instructions; not as much washing up as Rick.  

JANUARY OLD FAVOURITES

It’s been a busy month so far, and there’s more to come, with visits to Chez Bruce and The French Table planned. Mainly places we’ve been to before – oldies but goldies – so just brief update reports.  

Cinnamon Kitchen

As they have a £25-off offer on in January, we go along to Spitalfields for B’s birthday for a late lunch.  There are not many people in, and those that are generally leave fairly soon after, so there’s not a lot of atmosphere. One stalwart table orders more wine, then desserts and brandies, so we are not entirely alone.

We have shrimp pepper fry and chicken leg tikka to start. The chicken is very dense and almost gamey – very good indeed. The shrimp are more prawn-sized, and quite spicy.  For mains we have Tanjore prawns and, to B’s disgust, Chettinadu-style mutton curry.  But in fact the mutton is rich and tasty, and probably nicer than the rather predictable prawns. The prawns came with rice, so we just order one garlic naan, and inevitably the black lentils.  

With two bottles of Trebbiano – practically the cheapest on the list at £28 each – the total is £120, but with £25 off comes to £95.  Good value definitely – the offer is on until the end of the month.  

Cherwell Boathouse, Oxford

The team is celebrating a successful workshop last year, so we treat ourselves to lunch in Oxford.  There are five of us, and we get a nice table overlooking the river which is bathed in sunshine.  The restaurant is quite busy, but the staff are attentive and helpful – and very French. 

There is a set lunch menu, but only one of our number goes for that, choosing a big hunk of salt beef brisket as his main. The other four of us all have confit of duck leg with cassoulet for our main course.  It’s a large portion – must have been big ducks! – two people ask to take away what they couldn’t eat. The meat falls away from the bone very easily, and the cassoulet is warming, though rather salty. I had had rillettes of pork to start – very firm meat, but not a lot of flavour. Other choices included partridge scotch egg, and haddock and octopus terrine.  

D chooses a Duoro red (Touriga National) at £29.50 – which lasts us all lunch (two people were driving, but even so!).  So the bill works out at £36 a head.  It’s a lovely place, and overall the food was pretty good, but not exemplary.  

Rosa’s Thai

Eleven of us are meeting up because our friend B2 has come down from Wigan to watch the Orient.  So we have booked into the large space of Dim T in Wilton Road, Victoria.  We’ve settled in, got our wine, and are just deciding what to have when the fire alarm goes off. It’s very loud, making conversation almost impossible. The lead waiter tries to do something to shut it off, but can’t.  Eventually our waiter comes over and explains the alarm has been set off in one of the flats above us, and so for safety reasons the gas in the restaurant’s kitchen has been automatically turned off.  All they can do is salads! And we’d have to live with the noise. 

So we decide to go somewhere else, and luckily we can fit in to two adjoining tables at Rosa’s Thai just along the road.  This has a simple café vibe but the waitresses are helpful. The menu is very extensive, with a separate regional menu (Isaan, from North-East Thailand), and a couple of vegan specials.  We have 50/50 prawn and pumpkin crackers while we decide. After much deliberation, I have prawn tom yum soup to start. This has six large prawns in it, and is a really spicy broth. B (on the other table) has deep-fried crispy prawns – five very large prawns.  Starters generally are large.  

For main course I have spicy pork off the Isaan menu, and share some brown rice.  This is marked with two chillies on the menu (max is three) and it is certainly hot. It looks a smallish portion when it arrives, but in fact I can’t eat it all. The pork is a little tough, but the dish is very tasty.  B had the spicy steak salad (also two chillies) which she enjoys.  

We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc at each table along with some Thai beers (including their own-label “Thai PA”).  When we come to order more wine, the SB has run out, so we have Viognier.  That too runs out, so finally we have the Spanish house wine.  The bill comes to £43 a head including service (plus £5 a head for drinks in Dim T).  A more than acceptable substitute that everyone enjoyed. 

Brown Derby

I’ve arranged an afternoon meeting at the Oval, so decide to go along earlier and have lunch nearby at a rather quirky pub on Kennington Park Road, just two minutes from Oval tube.  It’s a little hard to describe – it has two oriental style fans on the ceiling, six leaf-shaped, bamboo “blades” each, gently wafting back and forth; it has a traditional old-style juke box (I don’t know if it works), though Miles Davis is playing on the sound system; there is a big clown-like mask behind the bar; mis-matched tables and chairs, including a child’s set with mushrooms as seats.  

The menu is unusual too. There is an all-day breakfast and a cobb salad with chicken and avocado, but they are the only typical pub dishes. Otherwise the choices are noodles or poke bowls (rice dishes) - I choose the spicy tuna poke bowl.  It’s a large bowl, with plenty of tuna, about a quarter of an avocado, edamame beans, coleslaw and tons of rice which I can’t finish. The tuna is nearly raw, but not that spicy.  With two glasses of SB, this comes to just over £20.  Worth a visit for the setting alone. 
 

We’ve been out and about locally too.  

The Argentinian Los 4 Locos  is always reliable. I have their “gourmet special” menu choosing empanadas and a chicken milanesa. B has her usual rib-eye with (runny) fried eggs.  Both are big portions and we take half way. We have one bottle, then two glasses of their lovely, velvety Tapiz Malbec (that’s £31 + £22). For some reason they are doing a 10% discount deal, that save us nearly £10, making the final total with service about £95.  

We’ve been a couple of times to Tulsi, the quite up-class (for Purley) Indian. The first time we have the usual king prawn dish, but also try a lamb jalfrezi. This is pretty spicy. On the second visit, I try a paneer starter (not a great success) and a lamb rogan josh, while B and K have two different chicken tikka dishes. Both times – as always – the portions are so large we take half away.  

And of course there is the always reliable Las Fuentes tapas bar. Old favourites are the wild boar skewer, gambas pil pil, and kidneys; newer choices are monkfish and prawns croquettes and minced beef “patties” (a bit like empanadas).  Typically if we have two bottles of Rioja, it comes to about £75 (only 10% service charge).

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.

 

 

CINNAMON KITCHEN, BATTERSEA

Vivek Singh’s Cinnamon empire has expanded again with a so-called “pop-up” restaurant in the new development at Battersea Power Station. It’s a little tricky to find, hidden under a railway arch, in the new developing up-market area.  A nearby shop has a huge range of posh foods, several of which I’d never heard of (chia seeds anyone?) and a fine wine selection that goes up to £2,000!  They must be expecting oligarchs to buy all the apartments – the one with 2 bedrooms at £2.4 million looks quite nice.


Cinnamon Kitchen is a mid-range offering, like the one in Devonshire Square.  We’re particularly attracted because there’s a 50% off food offer on until 2^nd April. So we round up P&M and head off there on a chilly Wednesday.

The restaurant is long and fairly narrow, and we get shown to a table down towards the far end, fairly close to the open kitchen. It is at least nice and warm in here! The welcome is warm and friendly too.  There are good few people in, for a mid-week lunch in the middle of nowhere.  The décor is a calming dark green, with industrial chic exposed pipework. It looks rather more substantial than the term “pop-up” suggests (in fact the website now describes the offer as a “soft launch”).

The wine list gets a little steep, but we find a Trebbiano/Chardonnay for £25 that is perfectly acceptable.  P&M both have draft Cobra.  We’re offered the lunch menu only, which seems a little limited.  I ask whether the a la carte is available, but no, only in the evening. But we are OK for the 50% off the lunch menu too.

The menu is divided into a “small plates” plus one course lunch, and a two/three course set lunch. P and B both order the tandoori chicken tikka, and spicy lamb curry off the two-course menu.  M has tandoori fruit cups off the “smalls” followed by honey ribs. I have  samosa chat and tandoori chicken korma.  P orders a tadka dhal, and B the black dhal – the waiter suggests a 3-dhal option (with chick peas), but they stick with their choices.  Also a garlic naan.

The starter tandoori tikkas are nicely moist meat with a subtle range of spice. M reckons her tandoori fruit is spicier, and my samosa chat is a riot of flavours with spicy chick peas. The spicy lamb curry isn’t that hot, but very tender and full of flavour. M’s ribs are excellent, gooey, with seeds on top, and falling off the bone. The one low note is my chicken korma, which is rather bland, though again the chicken itself was good. The dhals and naan are good too.

P is the only one to venture on to dessert - spicy bread and butter pudding. A modest size portion, very light with candied peel – not that spicy. Service has been very good, chatty when we wanted it. The main waiter is loan from Devonshire Square, and tells fun stories about not recognising Vivek when he was first there.  Total bill is just £115; the 50% food saving was £47, so even at full price this was exceptional value.  

January selection

M&S are over visiting as part of the Christmas festivities, and we’ve decided to go out to Obia, the smarter of our two fairly new local Italians. We invite K along as well. It describes itself as “Ristorante, Vinoteca, Bar”, but I think it’s unlikely you’d go in just for a drink, though there is an area with high stools.  There is a garden area too, where you can get snacks like arancini, but obviously we’re not going there on an early January evening.

It’s fairly busy when we get there at 7.30pm, with a couple of larger groups, as well as couples. Our table is near the main path through the restaurant, but as we are only 5, we can leave the most affected seat vacant.

The very friendly waiter/maitre d’ comes over and rattles off some of the specials, all of which sound nice. The menu is anyway pretty interesting.  I order the Soave at £19.50, though M has a Moretti on draught, and S a lime and soda.

Three of us have the grilled sardines and fennel off the specials list, while S has buffalo mozzarella. The sardines are very good, nicely marinated, and filleted.

For mains, between us, we have seabass fillets (specials), pan-fried cod with borlotti beans, lamb cutlets and I have pork belly; we also have zucchini fritti, steamed spinach and chips.  My pork belly portion is huge, and I’m not able to finish it, instead taking about half away. It was also a little on the dry side, making it harder to get through.  Others were very pleased with theirs, all with clean plates.

K orders the sorbet and gelati for dessert, and is offered the mince pie gelati as one of her three choices. It genuinely tasted of mince pie – very good. B has the semifreddo, which is covered in gooey toffee sauce and nuts – lovely.

The service has been very friendly and efficient throughout, despite it being quite busy. With a second bottle of Soave, the bill comes to £225 including service, pretty good value we felt. And the whole thing was rounded off with a complimentary glass of limoncello to send us away feeling very good about the place.

 

 

It’s B’s birthday, so first we do the cultural bit – Cezanne portraits at the NPG – and then on to lunch. She’s chosen a simple enough Thai place, actually from the same chain as we went to in Kingston: Busaba Eathai in Panton Street.

We finish the exhibition rather earlier than expected (it’s not that large), and so first repair

The Chandos in St Martin’s Lane. This Sam Smith’s pub has lots of character, with nice wood-panelled booths, and was surprisingly quiet for such a central location. And reasonably priced too.

Then off to lunch.  It’s pretty quiet in here too – there wasn’t really a need to book. The tables in the centre of the room are large (8-seater) sharing ones, but there are some 2’s and 3’s by the windows which is what we choose.

Service is attentive enough, and we have some edamame beans with our Viognier (French - £26) while we decide on the order. To start we have garlic and pepper chicken livers, which are excellent, and “son-in-law” eggs. These are boiled eggs with a coating and a little spice – fine, but not as interesting as they sounded.

Main courses are Asian salmon fillet – a nicely poached slab of fish with a spicy support – and jasmine beef rib – sturdy but comes away from the bone well. Supported by a “Som Tam” salad – seriously spicy.

With a couple of other glasses of wine and service  (JUST 10%!) the bill comes to a little over £100. The way prices go these days in central London that is probably fair, but at over £100 I start to feel the meal should be special, and this was only fine.

 

 

J&G are over from NZ, so we meet up for lunch with them and M&G at Mber in Pudding Lane. It describes itself as “Pan-Asian tapas”.  It’s down in a dark, seductive basement, with enormous metal stanchions. We have been a couple of times before, but after wine-tastings, so this is our first time sober!

We’re sat at a high table with stools in the middle of the restaurant. There are quite a few others in, but there’s no problem with the acoustics. The wine list shoots up pretty rapidly, but I do find a white Rioja at £35 which meets with approval – later we also have a Carignan red at £31.  The range of food choice is extensive, so with there being six of us, we decide to go for the set 6-dish lunch with a couple of add-ons.

First to arrive is the salmon salad – nicely smoked, poached salmon with cos lettuce and edamame beans.  Next the chorizo and prawn gyoza (ordered extra), which are lovely; and then the beef glass noodle salad, which was seriously spicy. These are followed by the satay chicken (vg), soft-shell crab tempura (also vg) and the cha sui pork doughnuts (nice pork but the doughnut is oddly sweet).  Finally the beef rendang curry with rice and pak choi.

That seems to have defeated most of us, but a couple of valiant souls move on to dessert. A Pannetone bread and butter pudding meets with G’s  approval; my peanut butter parfait also gets lots of takers.

In the end we have 4 bottles of the Rioja and 2 of the Carignan. That takes the bill, with 12.5% service, to over £500 for the 6 of us. Clearly, more abstemious people could have got away with less!  So very good value overall.

 

 

Meeting up with S and L, we head to The Escapologist near Seven Dials,  as the girls like to start the evening with a cocktail.  We’re there first and are surprised to find that it is 2-for-1 happy hour, even though it’s a Friday night. The place is busy, and it takes a while to take the order and bring our drinks, by which time S has arrived and can order hers. L arrives late, having got the time wrong, so just shares our drinks. Six cocktails for £35 is pretty good!

Then we’re off to Cinnamon Bazaar: in Maiden Lane. Last time we went the food was excellent, but the service shambolic, so we’re hoping for better this time.  The place is busy and buzzy, but we get help with ordering and our wine (white Rioja at £38 – the prices do go up quickly) quite quickly, so things are looking up.

For starters we share a crab bonda, watermelon chaat, dahi bhala chaat (lentil dumplings) and crisp whitebait. We’d had the crab (with beetroot) before, but today it seemed rather heavy. The watermelon was both refreshing and spicy. Lentil dumplings were also heavy, but the whitebait were indeed crisp with a good spicy powdered covering.

 Mains are served reasonably promptly despite the full house. We have Tandoori lamb fillet, pork belly with curried yoghurt, Tandoori king prawns, and haddock curry. The lamb was tender and the pork interesting, but the king prawns (though large) were rather ordinary, and the haddock curry not impressive. We had tried to order rice, but the dishes came with some, so we just had a garlic naan and a black dhal in support.

We share a couple of desserts – an excellent kulfi on a stick and chocolate golis, four different flavoured truffles, of which the dark chocolate with chilli was by far the best.

Service was much better than before: timely, cheerful and helpful – clearly the A-Team on tonight. With three bottles of wine the bill comes to a bit over £250 without tip - we left £30. £70 a head is perhaps a bit on the expensive side (to an extent due to the wine), as this time the food wasn’t stand out excellent, just good.

 

Cinnamon Bazaar - great foood, shambolic service

We’re meeting J&K to mark K’s birthday the next day.  Our first choice, House of Ho, is fully booked up – odd as it’s a big place.  Dishoom also can’t take the booking – not for the first time.  B finds an offer on Bookatable of 9 dishes and a cocktail at Cinnamon Bazaar, so goes ahead and books that. We’d been interested to try this latest incarnation of the Vivek Singh Cinnamon chain, because we have liked both the upmarket original Cinnamon Club, and the tapas-style Cinnamon Soho, and very recently enjoyed the “Desert Island dishes” (DIDs) at Cinnamon Kitchen.
After some drinks in Davy’s, we arrive at the restaurant a little later than originally planned. It’s a nice bright room with interesting streamer decorations around the high ceiling. We’re shown to a table by the rear fire exit – nice and light, but I doubt health and safety would have approved of B putting her coat on the steps! 

Menus are brought, but nothing said about the offer, so we ask. No, they’re not doing it. Not their fault if Bookatable got it wrong. No recognition that we might be disappointed. So, with no cocktails on their way, I quickly scan the wine list and choose a Macabeo at £25.  This takes an age to arrive, while the waiter is harassing us to choose our food – when we had been expecting to have a fixed menu.
We do then order starters and mains. The waiter says – “it will all come together” (ie “our convenience is more important than your enjoyment”).  I’m starting to sulk, but J goes off to sort him out.  

We’re enjoying our wine and conversation, but it does seem an age before any food arrives. I check my watch – it’s an hour since we arrived.  Eventually the four starters do arrive – J’s efforts paying off.  The Mirchi vada chaat (stuffed padron peppers) in yoghurt with pomegranate are super as the first dish I taste (and strangely not on website menu). The Kachori chaat (described as spiced onion dumplings, but actually much crispier) is also good. Crab bonda (crab in chickpea batter, similar to one of the DIDs) is full of crab flavour, and the shrimp dish drier and also very tasty. Portions were ample to share between four.
I’m beginning to feel they have redeemed themselves.  But another slow order of wine (regular readers will know that “quick wine” is important to us!), and an age for the mains  - presumably because they didn’t start on them straight away – makes me wonder again.  

When the mains do come, we’re presented with two cauliflower dishes instead of our order of one cauliflower and one aubergine.  We complain and they take one dish away, and return with the aubergine three-quarters of the way through our meal. They’ve also brought two pilau rice when we only ordered one. 

Once again, the quality of the food comes to the rescue. I’d chosen the cauliflower because Vivek Singh had given it us as an extra DID, and I’d been so impressed - it didn’t disappoint here either.  The aubergine when it comes is very good too.  Mains include lamb galauti, a very spicy burger-like patty on paratha, pepper fried shrimp which is sharp and dry, and a very rich and spicy mutton curry – all top favour dishes. We also have black dhal, B’s favourite.
Service is still slow and erratic, with no appreciation of the totality of the experience.  We do go for desserts – a mango brulee, chocolate golis (three elegantly flavoured pieces) and ice cream/espresso.  

The bill looks very reasonable, partly because it doesn’t include service. I would normally credit them for that approach, but unfortunately for them, because of the experience, I tip less than 10%.
Later when I look at the bill I’m a bit confused. Yes, they did charge us for two pilau rice when we’d only ordered one, but we had eaten them; and they charged us for two cauliflowers and no aubergine, but I imagine there would be little difference in that.  I seem to think we must have had a fourth main course that isn’t on the bill, but neither of us can remember what that might have been. And the mutton curry and the ice cream are listed at £0.00 – there may have been a set-price limit operating, but again it’s not clear from the website. No wonder the bill seemed reasonable.


So all in all?  Glad to have gone.  Food excellent.  Room and ambience fine.  Service all over the place, and insensitive.  Web presence (own website menus and link to Bookatable – which is still offering the 9 dish special offer) poor.

 

 

Desert Island Dishes at Cinnamon Kitchen

As part of London Restaurant Month, Vivek Singh is doing his “Desert Island Dishes” at the Cinnamon Kitchen, sister restaurant to the prestigious Cinnamon Club, over in Devonshire Square, off Bishopsgate.  We’ve been once before and not been too impressed, but thought this special Sunday lunch might be worth a go.  The basic idea is to feature his favourite dishes, mainly originating in Bengali wedding feasts.

We’re booked in for 1.30pm, and shown to a table fairly near the door, out of range of the open-plan kitchen.  From an extensive, but fairly reasonable wine list we order the Pays D’Oc Vermentino at £25 – instead of the wine flight option at £45 a head.  It takes a while to arrive, and it becomes clear that the waiter forgot to place the order, so we have to prompt them again. The same happens with the fizzy water – not a great start.

The place is nearly full, which must mean it was worth doing the offer. The staff, although friendly, have the air and build of Russian mafia, so are a bit intimidating at first.  But we settle in and the set meal (non-vegetarian option) starts to arrive.  The man himself, VS, is wandering around and glad-handing, having selfies taken, and we have a nice little chat.

First up is the “appetiser” – a Bengali-style crab and beetroot cake. This is much more substantial than we expected – two large croquettes in effect.  The overall taste is of zingy fresh spices, nothing of the beetroot, with just a couple of pieces of identifiable crab, and a couple of little sauces.

“Starter” is bream in banana leaf with mango chutney. B finds it too fishy (!) but I think it is a good balance of flavours.

The main course consists of three meat dishes, plus pilau rice, raita and breads. The Laal Maas is a very spicy, lamb curry with strips of ginger, and very tasty.  The Bengali style shrimp curry is also good, but the chicken butter masala rather less interesting.  VS is wandering around again and brings us – “as a gift from him” – two of the dishes off the vegetarian menu (presumably not selling well!),  spinach, and an absolutely delicious cauliflower with vinegar.  Feeling quite full now!

We’ve got through the second bottle by now, so order more drinks to go with dessert. B just has another glass, but I choose to go for the sweet wine that was the selected accompaniment from the wine flight – a Sauternes.

The menu suggests there’s a choice of two desserts, but they just bring us both.  There’s an apple and blackberry crumble, rather de-contsructed, which tastes much like a posh muesli bar.  And gulab jamun  a splendid creamy dish with flavoured sweet rice balls.  Both excellent.  And as my glass of Sauternes is running low, the now-chatty Mafioso comes over and tops it up for free!

VS is on hand to sign any of his cookbooks you might want to buy, but B just gets him to sign our menu.

A splendid lunch – not cheap of course. And I don’t know whether it will represent what they might do on a normal day, but it has made us re-evaluate our previous view, and be prepared to try it again.