A few weeks ago, we navigated the busy Thursday night crowds in Covent Garden, walked down to Maiden Lane and through the bright green patterned door of the casual, vibrant Indian restaurant Cinnamon Bazaar for a delicious dinner.
Celebrated chef Vivek Singh's latest outpost has an eclectic, souk vibe with colourful fabric awnings, atmospheric lanterns, strings of lightbulbs, hanging baskets, hand-stencilled walls and pretty patterned teapots lined up along the bar. The menu offers seasonal Indian street food, fragrant flavours and exotic spices alongside innovative cocktails from award-winning mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan. I had a gin julep with Star of Bombay gin, mint, amchoor green mango and black cardamom, Julien ordered a bazaar old fashioned made with coconut-washed Indian Scotch, coconut sugar and burnt cinnamon, and we pored over the menus.
Celebrated chef Vivek Singh's latest outpost has an eclectic, souk vibe with colourful fabric awnings, atmospheric lanterns, strings of lightbulbs, hanging baskets, hand-stencilled walls and pretty patterned teapots lined up along the bar. The menu offers seasonal Indian street food, fragrant flavours and exotic spices alongside innovative cocktails from award-winning mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan. I had a gin julep with Star of Bombay gin, mint, amchoor green mango and black cardamom, Julien ordered a bazaar old fashioned made with coconut-washed Indian Scotch, coconut sugar and burnt cinnamon, and we pored over the menus.
The menu is pretty large so it's easy to get carried away, but Giorgiana - our friendly waitress - recommended a few sharing plates, starting with spicy Kadhai chillies coated with poppy seed gun powder and Calcutta spiced crab bonda with beetroot in chickpea batter. We ordered the samosa chaat: a Punjabi vegetable samosa served with curried white peas and tangy tamarind chutney, and the aloo tikki chaat: a spiced potato cake with curried white peas and crunchy chickpea sev. For mains, we shared the excellent Tandoori Kentish lamb fillet with mint chilli korma and masala cashew nuts, and the Lahore style kadhai chicken leg with pickled root vegetables. We were stuffed, but as we ordered one last drink for the road - two glasses of the sweet sparkling rosé Moscato from Australia to counter-balance all the spiciness - we were served a complimentary slice of walnut cake with date and ginger gujia, which I never would have ordered but was seriously yummy. As was everything else - we'll definitely be back to work through the rest of the menu...
