Rachael Stirling Online

Cinnamontastic: Rachael Stirling reviews The Cinnamon Club

Posted by Bonnie at 12.00am

Writing five-star reviews is really rather boring, not to mention hard on the poor old critic. It is so un-English to be euphoric, so difficult to sound witty when using too many adjectives. So, if you happen to be English, stop reading now, or forever hold your contempt for this particular reviewer. If, however, you are Scottish, Welsh, Irish or even Yorkshireish (they're much nicer than the English), keep reading.

The Cinnamon Club is a total and utter culinary triumph. I went with Diplomat's very own Editor, and we spent most of the evening moaning with pleasure. The Club is a celebration of both spice and British produce. I started with rabbit tikka and hot garlic chutney. The meat was boneless but not dry, and delicately flavoured with dill and mustard. Do they even have rabbits in India? Well, they should. Because I tell you, those little bunnies make for amazing tikka. My boss had a crab and tamarind salad accompanied by the only disappointment of the whole night; hard little cubes of cured salmon that were salty as the saltiest salt flats this side of Utah and like rubber bullets to chew on. But even they could not dampen our enthusiasm.

For her main Venetia plumped for the most eye-bleedingly fat and juicy prawns you ever did see, served with coconut malai curry. These heavyweight bad boys were cooked to perfection. My char-grilled halibut with crushed peas and potatoes and a yoghurt side was beautifully presented and tasted as good as it looked.

Elsewhere on the menu were offerings such as clove-roasted grouse breast with home-style pumpkin pickle and multigrain keema paratha (flaky bread with a spicy mince filling). That sounds like really clever and inventive cooking to me. In fact, there is a whole menu devoted to game, if that's what floats your onions.

And the staff are truly, and I mean truly, truly charming. Let's face it; the service industry of our green and pleasant land has never been a strong selling point. Certainly not when compared to America, or indeed India, where it is a point of pride that the customer is satisfied, and service is an Industry with a capital I. Here it is simply a by-product of the restaurant trade — a necessary means to take food from kitchen to table. But the waiters and waitresses at The Cinnamon Club were not your average troupe; in fact, so charming and smiley were these guys that Venetia and I were complaining of face-ache by the end of dinner.

After all that praise I feel naked and somewhat soiled. I can only pray the next place she sends me is a real hum-dinger.

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