Cinnamon Soho | Soho Restaurant
NOTE: Cinnamon Soho has now closed, but you can still find Cinnamon Bazaar in Covent Garden, or try Darjeeling Express for great Indian food in Soho.
Vivek Singh – celebrity chef and poster boy for modern, innovative Indian cuisine – has added a third string to his empire’s bow, with Cinnamon Soho.
Metaphorically-speaking, this is Singh turning up the music and loosening his tie.
But without then tying it around his own head and dancing on the tables.
It’s an informal and accessibly laid-back all-day dining sister restaurant to the famous Cinnamon Club and its city sibling Cinnamon Kitchen, which takes the colourful and inventive cooking that Singh’s renowned for and “Soho-izes” it.
But not excessively.
Though Singh has dignifiedly stopped short of serving meals on paper plates, not taking bookings, hiring heavily tattooed staff and illuminating his restaurant’s exposed brickwork with industrial-style, exposed-filament lightbulbs, the menu at Cinnamon Soho does embrace the current trend for all-day, tapas-style sharing plates.
Most excitingly, Singh’s balls have been given their own section on the Cinnamon Soho menu.
Highlights include a North Indian Beef Shammi Kebab (ball-shaped, deep-fried ground beef cooked with yellow lentils and spices) and the Bangla Scotch egg (a traditional “Bengali-style” vegetable cutlet coated around a gooey poached egg, and served with mustard and ketchup).
With a “pop in” feel on the ground floor; more formal dining in the basement; sharing plates; prix-fixe lunch menus; an all-day breakfast; and pre / post-theatre dining options, there’s something here for everyone.
Unless you’re an edgy, tattooed waiter looking for a job.
NOTE: Cinnamon Soho is now closed.
Cinnamon Soho | 5 Kingly Street, Soho, London W1B 5PF
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