Indian food is something that I hold quite close to my heart. Every time I scroll through Bookatable, there’s always one restaurant that stands out to me as somewhere that should be high up on my list of restaurants to go to. That exact restaurant was The Cinnamon Club.
With an etching of a single gold leaf as it’s branding, it upheld the majestic aurora about it through being situated in a historic Grade II listed building, which used to be the Westminster Library. I have always thought of The Cinammon Club as somewhere to visit to have a fine dining experience through eating Indian dishes, and it was an experience I would much rather forget to be honest.
Now, I’m not gong to sit here and bash The Cinnamon Club because I’ll admit, the food is exquisite. It’s really made to test your taste-buds as each dish is full of flavours that compliment and contrast each other in a way no other chef can really do. Well presented and innovative dishes laid out with such care, the flaws of The Cinnamon Club really don’t do the chef any justice here. It’s a shame that these flaws really do let down a restaurant that I could easily have seen as one of my new favourites.
The restaurant is headed up by Executive Chef Vivek Singh, a London-based chef known as one of the best when it comes to Indian cuisine, and Head Chef Rakesh Ravindran Nair. Together they bring to guests of the restaurant a menu intricately designed menu of ingredients you may well have never thought of bringing together in a dish. Think pressed watermelon and dhokla crumble mixed together as a chaat, which I did try when visiting the restaurant, being pleasantly surprised at the contrast between the two.
The building itself is beautiful! It cannot be faulted. The Westminster Library is somewhere so different from other restaurant locations and it adds to the innovation that the restaurant are looking to bring to their diners.
And this is where the compliments for the restaurant stop. Apart from the food and building, there’s nothing more I can add as a positive to the restaurant, which is a shame and complete discredit to the hard work of the chefs.
Upon arrival to the restaurant you can just tell that there’s a very cold atmosphere in the restaurant. The front of house staff hardly acknowledged our arrival for our booking, and when they eventually did acknowledge us, they seemed disinterested and very unwelcoming. Was it not for the booking being a part of my Birthday celebration I would have walked out of the restaurant there and then.
Immediately after being shown our table we were almost hounded for our drink order, not sure about anyone else but I prefer to be settled for 5-10 minutes rather than being asked for my drink order. Considering this was my first visit to this restaurant, and I hadn’t looked at the menu’s beforehand I wasn’t really impressed that we appeared to be being rushed.
On ordering the starters, we were also questioned as to the number of starters we were ordering – again, this is something that Ankit and I both like doing at Indian restaurants, ordering more than 2 starters as we never know what we want. In my opinion, why would it matter to the staff at The Cinnamon Club as to how many starters we were ordering. We were paying customers, and it shouldn’t have made any difference whatsoever.
Occasionally it also appeared as though waiters and waitresses were looking over our table to check if we had finished or not. As much as I don’t mind, as this can be seen as attentive, it was very frequent and almost felt as though we were being rushed out.
As it was my Birthday Celebration, Ankit had actually contacted the restaurant before-hand to arrange a celebration for my Birthday, which was forgotten about. On asking for the dessert menu, we were actually given our bill instead, which was incorrect…!
All in all it was an experience I would much rather forget, and also a Birthday celebration that I certainly will not want to remember. The food was amazing at The Cinnamon Club, however, it was such a shame that the service did deliver the excellence that matched the food.
