The Cinnamon Club

Beautiful, exquisite, refined, polished…and that's just the decor!

Having not visited The Cinnamon Club for many years, I decided to re-visit with my wife recently. It was a pleasant surprise to find that very little has changed. The service was attentive, without being in your face and unhurried and the food was delicious. Perfectly sized portions with just the right amount of spice. Add a bottle of Indian Sula wine – to complete experience! A great restaurant either for a business lunch, large family dinner or a romantic meal for two.

The atmosphere is outstanding as you will never have the opportunity of eating gourmet Indian food in a library, service was good and the food is outstanding, I will be back any time

We got a lovely smiling hostess who suggested having a drink in the bar prior to the meal, which we did. Barman was nice and accommodated a cocktail to my taste. In the end , although we had gone in for the squaremeal offer, we did go for the tasting menu. Food was excellent, although the only thing that annoyed me in the slightest was that when the suggested wines appeared on our table, the waiter was quick to disappear without an explanation, and that also happened when the food arrived. I had to claim a bit of their attention in order to ask what I was being served. All in all, great food, will go again.

Service and value seem to be the general issues with the Cinnamon Club. Personally both were fine for me.

I went for lunch with 2 friends and the set lunch option at £19 for 2 courses was fine value; even allowing for wine, water, service and side dishes our bill came to under £40 per head; it's not quite as good value as Roux, but still reasonable. Service was also very good – in and out in an hour and a quarter, no long waits, the right food and drinks (which were topped up in a non-intrusive manner), the bill arriving quickly when asked for and payments being taken, staff being polite and friendly – basically everything you could want.

Food was average – main course of Thai chicken curry, fine but not special and no better than a number of alternative venues, followed by chocolate and cherry pudding, again OK but certainly not one of those wow moments that you sometimes get served up.

Atmosphere is quiet but pleasant and business like for lunch – the old library seems to have the effect of making people very quiet, almost as if you expect to get told off for talking too loudly. Tables are spacious and reasonably spaced, seating comfortable, everything clean and tidy, the room looks exactly like the pictures, but its not stand out in the same way as you get with other venues e.g. there is no view and the room doesn't make you feel as special as, say, La Chappelle.

It’s a nice option if you are around the Westminster area – personally I'd rather go to Roux – but I'm sure I'll return here.

A group of 4 of us ate here on Friday. The food was excellent but the service left a lot to be desired. Although staff were friendly and helpful on the dishes, we did not expect our dining experience to be rushed by having our plates taken away whilst still eating off them. We were also asked to vacate our table and move to the bar the minute we finished our meal as other people were waiting to use it. With a bill of £300 I do not expect to be treated in such a cavalier way and consequently will not be using this restaurant again.

I am urged to write this review as Cinnamon Club has always been my favourite and will be. 10 years of service does deman a lot of dedication and excellence. While gourmandising their signature dish deer my boyfriend proposed me in this restaurant yesterday . I know it's a little unusual for me to say but something i will always cherish for my life. This moment will also me be memorable because of the team's eye for details to bring a glass of bubbly when they got to know of the proposal…Moment of truth for both of us to celebrate the occassion!
Food- Excellent
Ambience——surprisingly pleasent…a room to read & eat should i say?
Service – Excellent, unobtrusive and each member has an eye for detail from greeting, explaining the dishes, maininting the smile on their face and yet very relaxed. ( I seriosly don't know what other reviewers thought or expected when they visited the restaurant). Like any other restaurant, it is also run by humans and errors are bound to happen but for me and for all my friends and family it has always been a great experience.
I go their to let my hair loose and not be overly fussy if i should be treated like a Diva!

Well done folks!! what an incredible institution. Do keep me posted on your 10 year anniversary celebration as i would like to be part of your money can't buy dinner as well.

The previous reviews on the Cinnamon Club are spot on. The food was good but not outstanding, but totally overshadowed by the service of lack of it. 5 of us sat to eat with a final bill of £500 including service which we refused to pay. Ths service was slow, extremely blatant up selling of the wine. When refilling the wine glasses on the table I don't expect the waiter to clearly overfill one glass as an attempt to push a second then third bottle to be purchased. Also when you ask for a bottle of which and the maitre'd tells you they nolonger have it available, you then have to select a more expensive bottle, I don't expect the maitre'd to say openly that your new choice is far better than your original. The final sign to me of poor customer service came when we refused to pay service, we said that the food was good but felt the service was poor with no explanation. Not once did they apologise for our dining experience or ask us for specific things that they could improve. Very disappointted and have relayed our experience to a number of friends already. It's a real shame.

Disappointed by the average food. Indian Zing is more impressive. Nice big formal room with high ceiling and great bar with contemporary design downstairs.

Proximity to my office as well as a love affair with this high spec, often changing Indian cuisine means I dine here fairly regularly. It’s never not been full when I’ve been, and for me the service has always been exemplary. Sure, as you’d expect there are waiters with varying degrees of experience, but they’re nothing if not courteous, always keen to please and some have been there for years. I’ve always found them well drilled and efficient, too. Generally I choose wines by the glass so haven’t encountered the issue with a wine bottle being parked out of reach (one of those restaurant habits that can of course be irksome). This is not a cheap restaurant, but for me the overall package is first rate, and I’m happy to count myself a loyal regular because it consistently delivers in spades.

After hearning so many good things about this place I took a bunch of business partners ther for dinner last night and had one of the worst dining experiences ever. Don't get me wrong, the food is pretty good – not exactly the Nobu of Indian food as I was led to expect but pretty interesting slightly leftfield Indian fare. What was bad, nay appalling was the service. We waited about 30 minutes for menus. 45 minutes to get a drink. An hour to order. Arrived at 7:30 and left at nearly 11:00pm. The waiter was absolutely clueless, brought wine to the table, I tasted, said OK – filled my glass then walked away with the bottle putting it in an ice bucket 5 yards away without offering anyone else a glass. We asked for bread / nans etc 5 times until we eventually got some. Sat looking at our finished plates for a good half an hour. The Manager span me the old line of ‘oh we are really busy tonight’ – like I care! – at £90 a head I was spending you should employ more staff. Rotten experience, avoid it like the plague – go to Sartaj in 7 Dials in Covent Garden, save yourself a bucket and wrap yourself in one of their Duvet sized Nan breads whislt guzzling lashings of ice cold Cobra. Saving that just get a take-away or go to your local – at least you know what you are getting!

I'm not writing this reveiw to win anything. I just want to ensure that visitors to The Cinnamon Club have their expectations managed. Having scoured review sites for the last 30 mins I have concluded that my experience was not an isolated incident, here are my thoughts:
A really disappointing experience. I'd been looking forward to sampling The Cinnamon Club delights for some time. Sadly, despite some good food and an amazing Cinnamon Bellini, I left feeling somewhat let down. The critical piece of the experience that let it down was the service. From coat check, through pre-dinner drinks at the bar, onto a three course meal in the beautiful restaurant and back to coat check the service was genuinely appalling. Table service at the bar was slow and delayed (think we were forgotten), service at the table was very slow (we waited ages for our meals to arrive) and well below par (at one point I watched as a waiter reached over one of our guests to pour wine in the glass of another forcing our first guest to lean backwards, plates were cleared mid meal, our enthusiasm for the meal and desire to engage fully with the menu by asking questions about certain dishes was met with apathy, still water was poured into a glass of sparkling water…) nothing that sounds huge but the sum of the parts meant that we felt that neither the food nor the service warranted the sizable bill at the end. At over £100 a head with main courses topping out at £37 a plate poor service is simply unacceptable.

Our first visit for a couple of years, and we were quickly reminded why we hadn’t rushed back. On arriving, the front desk had lost our reservation, and weren’t exactly over apologetic; ie it was clearly our fault. However, it was relatively quickly resolved by someone with a little more experience and tact, and a table found.

The Cinnamon Club attracts a mixed but slightly odd London crowd of Eurotrash, “special night outers”, politicos and associated PR / hangers on. Despite this, the atmosphere was quite pleasant, and certainly very buzzy, which we liked. They clearly do a roaring trade.

Some clearly don’t like it, but we thought that the ex-library décor and furnishing was very warm and pleasant, and a bit clubby but in a very nice way. However, we weren’t so keen on the modern bar downstairs. We really liked the upstairs bar, although service could have been better.

The food is PR’d and priced as very sophisticated, refined high end Indian. We felt that most of our dishes were quite mediocre, and lacked either real quality or excitement. The baby squid starter was fine, although a bit cold when delivered, and the Rabbit was simply uninteresting (@£12 pp). The mixed meat main course of 3 meats was perfectly fine, but really nothing special in either taste or quality of the meats. The squab was probably the best of the 3, but overall really not worth £37 pp.

We’ve always found front of house and service to be very mixed: At best professional, but I would never use the words charming and attentive. On previous visits, although not this time, service has been very slow. None of this matches the pricing.

The wine list is quite extensive, but with a bias to the more expensive end. You’ll probably need to spend at least £40-£50. Many wines are much more, presumably targeting our friendly MP and lobbyist expense accounts.

We spent £110 for 2 for 2 courses, ex drinks, ex service. Expensive and not worth it. Each to their own, but overall I really don’t understand the praise it receives from some, and we won’t be rushing back.

I write for a blog on Food and Health and enjoyed the pleasure of dining at The Cinnamon Club for an article. A truly incredible dining experience and one of the best takes on Indian Cuisine in London. For a calorie count of what we ate and the full blog review you can visit Foodhealthblog.com A Crab salad starter with cubes of the most perfect cured salmon was a real winner. The Old Westminster Library a great venue to house a restaurant in!

Whilst the food was fantastic, the room is so big that it's incredibly noisy and cold. The service was painfully slow starting with a five minute wait in the bar turining into forty minutes! At the bar it was also nearly impossible to be served. It's a shame that such delicately flavoured and precicely presented food is spoilt by such bad service and atmosphere.

The Cinnamon Club is as excellent as i've heard – i went here for a birthday lunch on a Saturday and it was near empty. The decor is as you may expect from an old library! Very quiet, very old and probably in need of a bit of music – but the food…!

I started with mutton kebabs – perfectly seasoned and mouthwateringly so. My main was part of the set menu and was simply Old Delhi Chicken Thigh Curry and rice – we ordered sides of raitha and nan (nothing amazing). My sister started with crab risotto which she loved and only picked as crab was her favourite – it wasnt very ‘asian’ but she still gobbled in all up – her main was king prawns and rice. We finished with lemon and coriander cake and i had a variation on chocolate mousse and sorbets. The choices dont sound much but it's hard to convey how everything was just so well cooked and seasoned that even the simplest things tasted delicious. I didnt want my meal to end!!! This was GOOD FOOD and not a place where you felt really stuffed to a T – was ‘just right’.

Service was perfect and friendly – we didnt feel at all out of place, just very welcomed.

Overall the bill came to £90+ for three courses each and two cocktails but although it was a lot, it was much better value for money than the likes of Benares – it is excellent – you really leave feeling you have had a great experience. I'd be curious to see what its like when it's more busy and the atmosphere was a bit more heightened but in terms of a luxury lunch – this is the place to go. Recommended for taking family or just wanting to have a fabulous meal in very British surroundings!

Date: Friday 9 August 2008

In the red corner – A new Hyderabadi dish claiming to be the hottest curry in the world. Sparring partners are minced lamb, taramind sauce, kashmiri powder…and a parade of chillies so nails they look like the police lineup after a raid on a vegatable crime family. Trainer: Vivek Singh, chief chef.

In the blue corner – Slightly sweaty 30-something, a Bellini and three flutes of champagne down. Undefeated, but has fought mainly local journeymen, including the Bengal Lancer's Kalapuri chicken. Trainer: Nicole

Build up

The dish was commissioned by Virgin as part of a stunt to acommpany the launch of Virgin's Bollywood TV channel. Singh's brief was to try and enter the Guinness Book of World Records for producing a curry that could be recognised as the hottest in the world.

Curiously, Virgin's involvement seems to have figured little in the ensuing publicity, which has included press reports and an appearance on Jonathan Ross, where the host braved the dish wearing fire-proof goggles.

Let's get ready to rumble

At this stage I had no idea whether the Burner was the hottest collection of foodstuff it's possible to put together on a single plate, or the hottest “real” meal that a restaurant could feasibly serve. Given that the Cinnamon is a venerable old eatery proud of its reputation, the latter seemed more likely. After all, if you just want chilli oblivion, you can neck a handful of raw peppers.

There was also the question of the “disclaimer” diners are asked to sign when ordering the dish. Was that for real, and is it possible for real physical damage to result from consuming too much capsaicin in one sitting?

The Bollywood makes no appearance on the menu: you have to ask for it specially, like some really extreme material in an adult store (I'd imagine). I asked apologetically if it was possible to try a little, wary of seeming like a drunken English guy slapping down the menu in his local curry house and demanding the hottest thing in the kitchen. Our waiter, friendly up to that point, seemed wary, but said he'd ask the chef what he could do.

And my eyes lit up as, sure enough, the mains arrived with a little something extra: what the waiter described as a full portion of the Bollywood. He entreated me to tackle the deer first and try a little of the Burner afterwards – perhaps he was hoping I'd be too full to risk it. At this stage he also presented us with the disclaimers. This is the one element that hurt the classiness of the proceedings: they were faded photocopies plastered with the Virgin logo and an old date. Clearly they were not intended to protect the restaurant from legal action, but were thrown in as part of Branson's publicity stunt.

Round 1

The dish itself was beautifully presented: halved red, green and yellow scotch bonnets topped with minced lamb and sauce. I hardly tasted my main in the rush to finish it and tuck into the Burner. With a pitcher of water at the ready, I hauled the plate sporting the Bollywood in front of me, sliced into a bonnet and, vaguely aware of interested glances from other diners, prepared to be amazed.

With a forkful disposed of, I waited for it to kick in. And it was obvious at once that we were dealing with a lively fella. I could taste ingredients beyond the chillies themselves, but boy could I taste the chillies. Scotch bonnets have this especially sharp kick that jalepenos lack. The difference is not just in the heat: there's something almost pleasantly acrid about a Scotch. It's as well I like that taste, because it was destined to be with me for the next two days.

The Scotch Bonnets, named for their resemblance to a type of headware favoured by old Caledonian ladies, are only the most visible of the many breeds of pepper that contribute to the Burner. The recipe also mentions Deccan chillies and the Dorset Naga, currently rated the hottest in the world. Chillies are measured on the Scoville scale, devised by an American chemist to show the relative capsaican content of different breeds. The scale is strictly relational, so a pepper with twice as many Scoville points as another will necessarily contain twice as much capsaicin and by implication be twice as hot. Tabasco sauce has a rating in the low hundreds, whereas a typical supermarket jalepeno weighs in at up to 8,000.

Round 2

Two minutes after the first sample, I was ready to go again. The chillies had burrowed into my taste buds, but I was pleased to realise that the burning sensation was already subsiding, and what was more, I could taste the quality of the dish. It was a pleasure to eat. This time I pushed more of the lamb and less of the pepper onto my fork. The result was the same: enjoyable flavours with a powerful but not overwhleming kick, and a robust aftertaste.

Round 3

I was feeling more confident, and seeing my state of mind, Nicole was happy to sample the Burner herself.

The portion I'd been presented with was not big: if I'd ordered a madras and been served as much curry, I'd have been sorely disappointed. I realised that after only a couple of forkfuls, I'd disposed of perhaps a tenth of the dish. And at this point I was struck with a remarkable thought: I could finish the Bollywood Burner. I could tell people I'd eaten the whole thing. Anything else I might achieve in life would pale into insignificance: as the man who polished off the world's hottest curry, the name Conners would belong to the ages.

To stand a chance of finishing off the Burner, I had to act fast. Piling what was left onto my plate, I mixed it in with the leftover rice, necked a glass of water and got to work. I was up against the limitations of my appetite at this point – we'd already had starters and a sizeable main. And quickly I began to get dimished returns for my efforts. Half a dozen forkfuls in and the latent heat of the Burner was building up. Each new Scotch bonnet seemed hotter than the last. There was nothing to taste now but unadulterated capsaicin, and the prospect of finishing the Bollywood retreated into the distance.

Unforeseen complications began to set in. Speaking was a challenge. Sweat ran in rivers down my shirt. I didn't want to admit defeat, but I didn't particularly want to die either. Seeing the pain in my eyes and the pleading look on my face, Nicole made the call herself: the Bollywood was taken from me nearly 50% intact. The staff seemed keen to usher us out while I could still make it home in a taxi and not an ambulance.

Judges' Decision: Victory for the Burner by Technical Knock-Out.

I left the Cinnamon with my head held high. But if I thought the worst was over, I was in for a mighty shock. Ahead of me lay a night of livid dreams and broken sleep. At 07:00 I retreated to the bathroom for what I realised would be a lengthy visit. And then something worse: tortuous stomach cramps. A pain so intense I was writhing about and crying in agony. This lasted for about 10 minutes, during which I became convinced my number was up. Visions of tabloid headlines passed in front of my eyes. A permanent place on the Darwin Awards roll of honour was assured. I asked Nicole to call for medical assistance. With a number of doctors to choose from amongst our friends, she hovered over the number for a gastric consultant, before making the bizarre decision that she'd rather watch her fiance die in front of her than wake up a pal at 7 on a Saturday morning. I was about ready to make a silent prayer for divine intervention, when all at once the cramps passed. Grateful to have narrowly survived the experience, I made no complaints about the other, rather more predicatable, physiological effects that kept me occupied for the rest of the day.

Scarcely able to believe the trauma my system had endured, I researched the chillies that feature in the Burner. I knew that Scotch bonnets and Nagas were a an order of magnitude beyond common or garden peppers, but what I discovered amazed me.

The Dorset Naga weighs in at over a million Scoville points. Just below it on the scale is an anti-personnel spray used by South American riot police. Iraq was invaded for possessing materials less hazardous than that.

Reading the Sunday paper nearly 40 hours after the Bollywood experience, I could still taste the Scotch bonnets every time I breathed in.

Verdict: There may be men in the world who can scoff the Bollywood Burner as easily if it were a chicken kebab. I am not one of them. Never, ever contemplate eating it. In any circumstances.

A wonderful feast of excellent food added to by excellent service.

Expensive but worth it for a memorable experience.

The library setting giving a pleasing Westminster feel.

“It's a bit too much like a library in there” is what some say when describing a venue lacking in atmosphere. “It used to be a library in there” could be a fitting way to note the slightly staid formality that hangs in the air of The Cinnamon Club. Remember, this is the MPs' favourite, and it's adorned with a relic of its past – an austere looking old-fashioned bookshelf, which lines the back wall. The ambience is largely a sum of these parts: relics, MPs, old-fashioned, austere. But enough about that, because a restaurant should be judged mainly on its food – and it's here The Cinnamon Club scores highly.
Flavours are subtle, perhaps too subtle for some diners, and well presented. Beef kebab is garnished with beautifully executed coriander paste, offset with star anise flavoured gel and arranged on the plate with a geometric precision. A main of tandoori guinea fowl and dhal was aromatic and demonstrated a deftness of flavouring a world away from posturing curry houses – but perhaps lacked true wow factor. Some believe Indian restaurants aren't a great place for desserts – if this is the case, and I can see the argument for it, it's a real betrayal of Indian cuisine (even simple street fare such as jalebis and other Indian sweets are amazing). Luckily, The Cinnamon Club doesn't fall into the trap of offering mere dessert tokenism (mango sorbet etc). Indeed, finish with the yoghurt and cardamom brule and experience a perfect blend of flavour and texture.
Value for money is a hard one to call: go for the £22 a head set meal and you might consider it a steal; opt for the £180 tasting menu (with some dishes requiring a supplement) and the bill could make for grim reading.

My husband and I went here for dinner on a Saturday night , with its 3 star rating from Square meal our expectations were high. We arrived early to have a drink in the bar and were told someone would come and get us once our table was ready. After asking twice whether anyone was coming, I went upstairs to find out and was told our table was ready and they were waiting for us! Not the end of the world, so we were seated and chose the tasting menu with matching wines, wanting to get the whole experience. The service was slow and gaps between coarses was lengthy and a couple of time were brought the wrong wine. The food was ok, but each coarse very strong and very hot and there was a total of 6, yes 6 savory coarses! By the time the Wagwu beef we chosen arrived we were fairly full but expectations high, the sauce with the beef was quiet unpleasent and neither of us couldn't eat the rest. In choosing the beef we were charged an extra £25 each for the already £115 each tasting menu. Overall the experience was very disappointing and for the price (over £300 inc cocktails) was not worth it.

While the food at Cinnamon Club was of a high standard, the restaurant thought fit to put us in a freezing side room which completely ruined the experience. Initially we were placed in a corner which served as a storage space and was next to a window with a strong draft. When we asked to move we were still placed at a table in the same cold room with a tiny blow heater to warm the corner but the silly blow heater wouldn't work consistently so we still had to wrap up in shawls. It was ridiculous to be struggling with a blow heater at such a posh restaurant and while the service was otherwise good, the staff completely ignored the fact that we were putting multiple sweaters and shawls on and I even wore my coat, plus we were clearly struggling with the heater. It was completely ridiculous and no one offered us a better table. The side room emptied out by 10 as it is a sort of overflow room and though the main room was still filled with people, we were sitting there alone in the freezing side room, which wasn't particularly atmospheric. Plus the vegetarian options are limited for the vegetarian in our party, and the veggie dish she had wasn't up to the standard of the non-veg or special in any way. And we waited 25 minutes for a coffee we ordered, and there was no room on the table for what we had ordered so the waiter kept apologising. The whole experience was a total disappointment because you really can't enjoy food, however good it is, when you are freezing cold and I have had camping trips that were more physically convenient.