Cinnamon Kitchen – Vivek Singh Spicing Things Up at Battersea Power Station

Name: Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea

Where: Battersea Power Station, 4 Arches Lane, SW11 8AB, http://www.cinnamon-kitchen.com/battersea/

Cost: A 3-course meal here will cost on average £45pp excluding drinks or service. Starters cost from £6.50 to £17.50, mains are priced from £14 to £29 while desserts from £2 to £8.

About: Readers of The London Foodie will know that we are fans of Vivek Singh’s vibrant Indian cooking – I have written about his restaurants on a number of occasions – his small-eats, casual Cinnamon Bazaar (reviewed here), or the flagship, more upmarket Cinnamon Club (reviewed here), and more recently at Taste of London when I had a most fantastic Chaat at the Cinnamon Kitchen stand (see here).

For the best Indian cooking at @tasteoflondon head to @chefviveksingh of @cinnamonrestaurants - I had a number of Indian dishes that got me scraping my plates: . My top recommendation is his Chamiya’s Chaat, this was heavenly - a mix of sweet, spicy, salt and sour flavours - with cured watermelon, pomegranate seeds, spicy coriander chutney, yoghurt, chickpeas and herbs, among other things - it was fresh and so good, a personal favourite. . Coorgi Double Cooked Pork Belly - was very tender and served with Kokum berries and curried yoghurt. . Kolkata Open Blue Cobia - grilled white Black King fish fillets, was buttery and dense, with a super zingy mustard and coconut curry sauce. . Lamb Galouti Kebab - lamb patty over a fried roti served with pomegranate seeds, yoghurt and spicy coriander chutney. . @chefviveksingh’s cooking was vibrant, fresh and full of flavour - his signature dishes at Taste are some of the best of the festival, but hurry it all ends tomorrow! 😩 . 🇮🇳 🍛🇮🇳🍛🇮🇳🍛🇮🇳🍛🇮🇳🍛🇮🇳🍛🇮🇳🍛

A post shared by Luiz Hara (@thelondonfoodie) on Jun 16, 2018 at 10:14am PDT

Following his 10th anniversary at Cinnamon Kitchen Devonshire Square, I was intrigued to hear of Vivek Singh’s new venture South of the River. Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea is part of the multi-million regeneration project of the Grade-II listed Battersea Power Station (so long overdue).

Situated in Circus Village West, Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea has a minimalist industrial décor with railway arch façade, exposed brick walls and an expansive open-plan kitchen.

It is a large restaurant, modern and sleek, serving Vivek’s contemporary Indian dishes paired with cocktails by mixologist Tony Conigliaro of 69 Colebrooke Row, one of my favourite cocktail bars in London, also reviewed here. And so we headed south to check it out.

What We Ate: The menu is divided into Appetisers, which include a section on Grills, then Mains, Sides, Breads and Desserts. The recommendation is of 2 appetisers/grills plus a main dish and a dessert per person.

Vivek Singh - working through the food orders at Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea

With that in mind, we kicked off with banana leaf wrapped sea bass with chilli, tomato and kokum crust (£9) from the Grill section – not much of a looker, what it lacked in presentation, it more than made up in flavour – spicy, well seasoned and fresh. Served with a mildly curried sour cream and a carrot and chilli cream, this was a good start to the meal.

The Keema Litti rustic lamb dough ball with anchovy chutney (£6.75), also from the Grill section, was intensely flavoursome wrapped around freshly-baked pastry and served with a vibrant mint and anchovy sauce.

Bombay street food (Vada Pao) – was a toasted bun (Pão is bread in Portuguese) with a chickpea burger (Vada) and coriander cream, tapioca cake and chilli paneer - this looked like cubes of prime beef, but slicing into it revealed the creamy white, surprisingly firm flesh of the curd cheese (£8.50).

Wild African prawn (£17.50), came with a coriander and garlic crust, it was butterflied but cleverly served in its own shell – it was wonderfully aromatic and succulent from having been grilled in the shell, and easy to eat without any of hassle factor.

For mains, we went for the clove smoked lamb rump (£24), served with fennel and nutmeg sauce and saffron rice. The lamb was tender and medium rare as requested, the spice level was just right - rich, exotic and warming without blowing your head off, and with some delicious cardamom and clove spices.

King prawns in Bengali turmeric curry (£25), came with a deliciously rich ghee rice and spinach poriyal. We enjoyed this but felt it was a weaker option compared to the lamb or the magnificent African grilled prawn.

Despite being on the Sides section, the biryani was a main course in its own right and we could not resist but order it – Lucknow-Style Chicken Biryani (£15) with a Burhani Raita was one of the highlights of our meal - flavoured with lemon and cumin, the rice was perfectly cooked and the chicken meltingly tender.

With our biryani and mains we ordered a delectable Dal Trio (£7) of - yellow, black lentils and chickpeas.

The Peshwari naan (£5.50) was freshly made, it was rich with sweet sultana, burnt coconut and ghee flavours.

For dessert, the Himalayan Queen (£7.50) was a trio of pistachio kulfi, mango and thandai ice cream covered with spiced meringue and flamed with rum.

Finished off at the table, this was Vivek’s Indian reinterpretation of the 70s classic Baked Alaska.

Lassi panna cotta (£6.50) came with a mango mint salad, fresh mango and mango purée, crisp dehydrated raspberries and edible nasturtium flowers, it was fresh and a light dessert to end a fabulous meal.

What We Drank: All cocktails, created by award-winning mixologist Tony Conigliaro specifically for the Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea, are priced between £9 and £12.50.

Coconut Kir was a refreshing cocktail with champagne, toasted coconut, coconut liqueur, and Wyborowa vodka (£12.50). Equally good, if somewhat stronger, was the Assam Manhattan (£8.50) made with black assam infused buffalo gin, vermouth, maraschino, black cardamom - spicy and delicious.

Entry-level wines, both priced at £22.50 from El Muro, Carinena, Spain, were a Macabeo White and a Tempranillo/Garnacha red. We shared a bottle of Sangiovese 2013 from Fico Grande Romagna DOC £30 that worked well with most of the dishes we tried on the evening, particularly the lamb ones.

Likes: the Lucknow-Style Chicken Biryani, the Wild African Prawn and the Peshwari Naan, as well as the cocktails were the highlight of our visit. The food was well seasoned, vibrant and fresh and I could not fault it.

Dislikes: it is nearly impossible to find a suitable/free parking space anywhere near the restaurant.

Verdict: Vivek Singh’s Indian cooking is full of flavour, zingy and fresh. His latest venture, Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea is a very welcome addition to the regeneration of the Power Plant and elevates Battersea’s restaurant scene as a whole. Highly recommended.

London Restaurant Festival - Giveaway #4 - Food and Drink Safari at Renaissance Pubs in Clapham and Battersea

The London Foodie has teamed up with Renaissance Pubs to offer you the chance to win a pair of tickets to their magnificent Food Safari this Saturday, 15th October 2011 from 12:30pm in conjunction with London RestaurantFestival.

If proper British pub grub is your thing, then head south to Clapham and Battersea and join Renaissance Pubs as they take you on a tour of four of their taverns - The Abbeville, The Stonhouse, The Avalon and TheBolingbroke.

Tickets are normally priced at £49.50 per person and include transport, food and fine wines. You’ll enjoy traditional British fare such as miniature homemade pies, quail Scotch eggs and Welsh rarebit at The Abbeville before moving onto a starter of chicken liver parfait, orange and onion marmalade served with a slice of sourdough at The Stonhouse. The Avalon plays host to the main course of slow roast pork belly served with parsnip purée, spinach, pine nuts and apple sauce whilst a pudding of passion fruit posset at The Bolingbroke ends the evening on a sweet note.

For more information about this London Restaurant Festival event or to purchase tickets please visit The Abbeville website on www.renaissancepubs.co.uk, or contact Hugo on 020 8675 2201, or email info@abbeville.co.uk.

HOW TO ENTER THIS COMPETITION

To enter this competition, simply leave a comment in this post stating your NAME and E-MAIL address as MrBloggs(at)gmail(dot)com by midnight on Thursday, 13th October 2011.

The lucky winner will be randomly selected using random.org and his/her name will be announced via Twitter (follow @thelondonfoodie) at midday on Friday, 14th October 2011.

If you do not use Twitter, I will also be publishing the winner's name here at 15 minutes past midnight on the 15th October 2011.

The winner of this competition, randomly selected by random.org, was entrant number 9  HolyTShirT - Toby Henderson. Congratulations Toby, the Renaissance Pub group will contact you with further details on how to redeem your prize.

London Restaurant Reviews – The Fish Place

**THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED DOWN**

Crossing the channel from Folkestone to Boulogne sur Mer a few years ago, I was struck by the contrast with our much-loved Blighty. Much as I love English seaside towns with their fish and chip shops and amusement arcades, Boulogne sur Mer was for me a painful reminder of how little we celebrate our local fish and seafood. It was thus with bitter-sweet excitement that, disembarking, I saw a large number of vibrant fish markets spread around the seafront, with a variety of fantastic produce on sale, and all just an hour away from English soil.

In light of this experience, I have long felt that restaurants like The Fish Place in London are  eateries that we should be celebrating and supporting in Britain. They popularise the idea of fish as a desirable food choice, which makes perfect sense in an island nation (think Japan!).

The Fish Place opened at the end of 2010 at the Bridges Wharf, a new riverside development located on the south bank of the River Thames in Battersea. On my visit, the black marble tables, matching black leather chairs, bare walls and long glass windows were brand new, making for dare I say a slightly soulless ambience.

The menu is reassuringly short, with most starters priced between £6 (Potato and Leek Soup) and £10.50 (Dorset Crab Raviolo), while mains vary from £14 (vegetarian option) to £27.50. Most fish dishes are priced around £25 including some interesting options such as "Classic Marseillaise Bouillabaisse" @ £26.50 and "Pot au feu of Seafood" @ £24 (a mussel risotto with sea bass, salmon, tiger prawn and chive Beurre blanc).

Dr G and I decided to go for the tasting menu @ £55 for 7 courses (in reality only 5, since I would not count the sorbet or coffee). We started with a delightful amuse bouche of fried scallop served in a mushroom and shallot foam. This was followed by a deliciously rich "Traditional Fish Veloute" with Pernod and parsley cream. The soup was hearty but lighter in style than a crab bisque, and with hints of aniseed from the French liqueur.

Our next course was the "Dorset Crab Raviolo" served with buttered savoy cabbage, shellfish and tarragon. The raviolo had been beautifully seasoned in a rich, creamy seafood sauce, but was not so overpowering as to prevent me from savouring the delicate flavours of the fresh crab. I had never tried tarragon and seafood before (chicken being the more common choice) but felt that the combination of flavours worked surprisingly well.

A salad of "Smoked Duck and Baby Leaves" was next. Served with poached quail eggs, roasted pine nuts and a honey and spice dressing, I felt this was a well made, completely unobjectionable salad, but it was the weakest course of our meal.

Before our main course, a delightful "Gin and Tonic Sorbet" was served as a palate cleanser. This had a lovely tangy and alcoholic burn to it which I really enjoyed.

Main courses were "Pan Seared Wild Sea Bass, Sautéed Potatoes, Pink Prawns and Sea Purslane Fish Sauce". This was a simple but delicious dish - the fish was ultra fresh and had been perfectly cooked. I loved the combination of buttery sauce, sautéed potatoes and spinach,  each flavour complementing the delicate fish.

For pudding, we had an "Assiette of Chef's Desserts" including dainty pieces of chocolate and lemon tart, raspberry ice cream and shortbread with crème patisserie and blackberry, which were all thankfully light and delicious.

I very much enjoyed the food at The Fish Place, but the most impressive aspect of this new restaurant was in my opinion their wine list. The wine menu was cleverly thought out with outstanding bottles being sold at reasonable prices. The 09 Vavasour Pinot Noir from Marlborough (awarded a Decanter Silver Medal ) is one of the wines I normally buy from my local wine shop on Upper Street "The Sampler" at about £11.50 a bottle. It was priced at a very reasonable £19 at The Fish Place.

On our visit, Dr G and I ordered a bottle of 2007 Pouilly Fumé Le Champ des Vignes Domaine Tabordet @ £31, which was nothing short of outstanding - it was a full bodied wine made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape (as are all Pouilly Fume wines from the Loire), it had strong stone fruit flavours (peaches and apricots), and good levels of acidity with a long, citrus finish. This bottle retails online for £16 which implies that The Fish Place's wine mark up is less than double. This is highly commendable, since 3-5 fold multiples are sadly the norm in London restaurants now.

Cost: The London Foodie was a guest of The Fish Place. The tasting menu was priced at £55. Lunch menus are also available at £15 /£18.50 for two or three courses respectively which I believe to be good value (or £37.50/£45 at dinner time). I estimate that a 3-course meal from the à la carte menu would cost around £40 to £45 per person excluding drinks.

Likes: excellent wine list with an attractive mark-up, outstanding cooking and attentive, friendly service.

Dislikes: location is remote from major tubes and trains, and the decor felt somewhat sterile.

Verdict: Splendid fish and seafood dishes, outstandingly well chosen, well price wine list in a new River Thames location. Highly recommended.