This restaurant has been on my husband’s bucket list for a very long time and so when we found ourselves in London for a day, we decided that it was time to visit The Cinnamon Club.
The Cinnamon Club
Set in the historic Grade II listed former Westminster Library, The Cinnamon Club is an institution in the world of Indian fine dining. The original modern Indian restaurant in London, The Cinnamon Club has a long history of serving innovative and creative Indian cuisine in a magnificently majestic setting.
Chef Vivek Singh and his team of chefs have developed a stunning new menu that combines The Cinnamon Club’s signatures with new dishes and celebratory platters.
The Cinnamon Club website
Cinnamon Club
On arrival we were both impressed by the décor and the attentiveness of the staff. We chose to have the set menu which was £38 and it offered a good range of different ingredients.
We decided to have distilled water as we had to drive back home afterwards and didn’t want to have any alcohol.
I chose the Tandoori free range chicken chops with peri-peri- spices and passion fruit raita and hubby chose smoked venison and prune kebab, date chutney with chana masala hummus.
Before we were served the Starters, we were presented with an appetizer which was very tasty. (Sorry, I can’t remember the exact ingredients!)
Appetizer
Tandoori ChickenSmoked Venison
For our mains, I had Keema Methi Gosht – lamb and mince curry with fresh fenugreek and pilau rice. Hubby had Red spiced roast haddock, dried shrimp chutney, Bengali lentil and coconut dal.
We also ordered an extra side of stir-fried greens with garlic and chilli, for an extra charge of £7.00. My curry was very spicy, but I reasoned that you wouldn’t want to go to a high class restaurant and eat bland food. The meat was tender and just fell apart and the pilau rice was light and tasted flavourful and as you can see, I cleared my plate. Hubby cleared his too, even though his nose ran a little bit due to the spiciness, once he got used to it, he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Dessert was an experience to remember: our local Indian isn’t known for its desserts, but at The Cinnamon Club, it was another story….
Tasting plate of assorted desserts
We paid a supplement of £5 per person and boy, was it worth it. My hubby loves his desserts, I’m not such a big fan, but the chocolate mousse with the bird nest on top was amazing! There wasn’t one that we didn’t like and we polished them off between us.
An Americano coffee to finish and we received the bill which was £101, very reasonable for a restaurant in the heart of London which included an appetizer, starters, main course and dessert!
Thoughts
We had a wonderful time and even when the restaurant was busy, the waiting staff still came and filled up our glasses with water, they were all very friendly and polite.
The food was deliciously spiced with layers of texture and flavouring.
The experience met with hubby’s expectations and it is definitely somewhere we will be visiting again.
The tables for two are pretty close together and a couple sat on the table next to us while we were waiting for our dessert, we instantly started talking to each other and it was great to have a chat and find out about each other. We discovered that both myself and the lady both had had bowel cancer, so it was nice to share that experience with her.
For the past few years, our friends have gathered at our house for a celebration meal of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. In the past my husband and I have gone to Burns Night Suppers and enjoyed the ceremony of it: the reading of Address to a Haggis and the bagpipes playing and we were amazed when some of our friends said that they had never tasted haggis before, so we decided to remedy that!
Suffice to say they all loved it and so it’s now fast becoming a tradition to have haggis at our house. But why do we celebrate Burns Night? Who is Robert Burns and why do we eat Haggis?
Suff
Haggis, neeps and tatties (aka turnips and potatoes)
Who is Robert Burns?
Burns was born in Alloway, South Ayrshire in 1759, the eldest of seven children. His parents were William Burns and Agnes Broun and they were a poor farming family. Burns worked in the fields from the age of 15 and during this time he started to write poetry, mainly for the pursuit of women.
As he got older, his interest in farming waned and was taken over by writing poetry, women and drinking. He had many affairs during his life, one of which was with a servant girl who gave birth to an illegitimate child. Jean Armour, who was a constant in his life also became pregnant the following year, but Jean’s father refused to allow Burns to marry her.
He then planned to go to Jamaica with another woman named Mary Campbell, but she unfortunately died before they could leave. She is known as Highland Mary.
Whilst Burns was still trying to get enough money to travel to Jamaica, he published his first collection of poems entitled, “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect” also known as the Kilmarnock edition. They made him known across Scotland.
These poems brought him fame, money and he was invited to posh social gatherings.
In 1788 Burns moved to Dumfries where he leased a farm and he married Jean Armour. While working as a farmer, he wrote poems and songs with people who were considered socially superior.
He died in 1796 after his health declined rapidly. On the day of his funeral Jean Armour gave birth to his final son, Maxwell. He left behind five surviving children out of the 12 born.
Robert Burn’s birthplace
Why Do We Celebrate Burns Night?
It is said that Burns’ friends hosted an informal supper on the 5th anniversary of his death. They read out his poems and ate haggis, the Scottish national dish, but the following year they changed it to his birthday, although they got the date wrong by four days!
This get-together soon became a tradition which gathered pace and is now celebrated across much of Scotland and around the world.
Traditionally, you cannot tuck in until the host has recited the famous poem – Address to a Haggis and when the line –
‘His knife see rustic Labour dicht, An’ cut you up wi’ ready slicht’,
Robbie Burns
is read out, they will dramatically stab the haggis, dragging the knife through the meat and then the neeps and tatties are served with the haggis.
Lasting Legacy
Burns’ work inspired many romantic poets: Williams Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his musical compositions are found within traditions around the world.
Auld Lang Syne is probably his most famous, sung at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve or Hogmanay in Scotland.
Some people believe haggis to be an actual animal!
From the moment we walked into the restaurant, to when we left, we were made to feel very special – nothing was too much trouble for any of the staff (not that we made any demands, but there was a particularly testing table that arrived as we were about to leave.) I loved the décor, it was just to my taste and we were sat at the window!
We did wonder who St. Petroc was, so we went to good old Google and found this: “St. Petroc, also known as Petrock, was a British prince and Christian saint. He was renowned for his goodness to both men and animals and he founded monasteries at Padstow and Bodmin. Although he had been brought up as a prince and trained to rule over people, he had a call to lead a holy life.”
We chose to have the Set Lunch at a cost of £26 each, with additional sides of Savoy Cabbage with bacon and chives and Tenderstem Broccoli with salsa verde.
We both decided on the same courses, Tomato Soup with Basil for starters, 4oz Steak Frites with thin cut chips and rocket salad for Mains and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Cornish clotted cream for dessert. I forgot to take a picture of the starter, but it was just soup!
The whole meal was absolutely delicious, hubby particularly loved the Tenderstem Broccoli and we ate everything, nothing was left to waste. The soup was very tasty, the steak just melted in your mouth, the chips were crispy with a light potato filling and the dessert was heavenly, not too rich, not too heavy and topped off perfectly with the clotted cream.
And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, a special Happy Birthday plate was presented to the table!
The whole meal, including drinks, cost us £90 . I always say that I don’t mind paying that extra if the meal is worth it and boy was this meal worth it!
I am off work at the moment as I am recovering from bowel cancer and my husband booked two weeks off as our son was getting married and he wanted some time off around that. I received an email from Parkdean Resorts saying we could book a four day holiday for £89. I was a bit sceptical but it was true, so we booked to go from Monday to Thursday at St. Minver Holiday Park, Wadebridge, Cornwall, PL27 6RR.
Day One
The journey from Southampton to Wadebridge is roughly four hours, so we booked to stop off at The Jamaica Inn for lunch. This was a bit of a bucket list item for both of us, as every time we drove to Cornwall we threatened to go there, but never actually got there, but because it was my birthday, we decided to go for it.
Picture from Jamaica Inn website
We stopped off at The Jamaican Inn, luckily we had booked as it was very busy.
Our onward journey took us another 45 minutes where we found St. Minver Holiday Park quite easily and after booking in at Reception we found our caravan.
We booked a four berth caravan and when we entered we were pleasantly surprised by it. Sure, it wasn’t the biggest caravan we’d stayed in but it was only for the two of us and we wouldn’t be spending that much time in there, we were more concerned with the facilities the park had to offer and the location of it.
Living roomKitchen area
On looking at the map of the site and the entertainment programme it looked like there was a lot going on. We saw that there was an entertainment hub which housed the pub, showbar, restaurant, arcade and soft play area and the list of activities for the children was quite extensive, including an indoor heated swimming pool, plus bingo, karaoke and even a tribute band for the adults. I was quite impressed that you could order food from your table via their App and even have food delivered to your accommodation.
After unpacking, we decided to visit a beach called Polzeath Beach which is popular with surfers and we could see why when we arrived, the waves were awesome! We took a walk around the town centre, purchased an ice cream and took a wander down on the beach. There were lots of surfing classes and we spent a while watching the surfers ride the waves and some quite spectacular wipe-outs.
As it had been a long day, we drove back to the caravan and as we were both still full from the lunch at Jamaica Inn, we had a cup of tea and went to sleep….
Day Two
Today we had decided to go and visit Padstow which is one of my favourite places in Cornwall, my very favourite being St. Ives. But, instead of driving to Padstow we were going to park at Rock, which was only a couple of miles away and then catch the ferry across the bay to Padstow. This was a good decision as the car park in Padstow is way up on a hill and whilst this is fine in the morning walking down, it’s very tiring after a long day and having to walk up this steep hill, plus after chemotherapy and bowel surgery, I’m still not up to full strength so I’m not sure I would have even made it!
We arrived and parked up and went for a walk along the sea front to take a little look at the place where the celebrities live, people like Gordon Ramsay and Dawn French. We spotted Paul Ainsworth’s restaurant, The Mariners on the sea front and it did look fabulous, somewhere we’d love to go for a special occasion.
We walked back as we could see the ferry was approaching Rock Beach. The ferry only took card payments and it cost £3.00 – Adult Single, £1.50 – Child Single and £3.00 – Bike.
The ferry dropped us off at the harbour and after checking what time the last ferry back to Rock was, we went off to explore.
Padstow is a fishing port and is situated on the west bank of the River Camel. There is a lot of shops to visit, we particularly like the glass art that you can get from Cornwall, plenty of tea rooms, restaurants and of course, pasties. After a cup of coffee and a piece of cake, we took a stroll round and sat on a bench on the harbour just people watching and enjoying the view.
After a delicious meal at Rick Stein’s, we had another wander and stumbled across a craft fayre and never one to walk past one of this, we went in. There were lots of stalls to have a look around and I bought a ceramic heart necklace which was very pretty.
We then caught the ferry back to Rock, thankful that we didn’t have to go up that steep hill back to the carpark and drove back to the caravan site.
We were going to go to the Entertainment Hub but we were very tired and so we just chilled in front of the television watching The Great British Bake Off, munched on a few pork pies that we had brought with us and then departed to the bedroom and I haven’t slept that well for a very long time…
Day Three
On our journey down to St. Minver Caravan Park, we saw a sign for Pencarrow House, it wasn’t a National Trust house but privately owned, so we made a mental note to visit it if we had time over the next couple of days. Well, day three afforded us this chance and so we headed over to it early morning to book a house tour.
Pencarrow HouseLanhydrock House
It’s a standing joke between us that wherever we go somebody always knows hubby and today was no exception. As we walked into the shop a voice said, “Hello Phil, what are you doing here?” The lady who worked behind the counter used to work in one of the buildings he runs as the Catering Manager!
A walk around the gardens and a guided tour of the house and we were on our way to Lanhydrock house, but not before have a bite to eat at a pub we passed along the way.
We had downloaded a free National Trust pass so we used this to gain entry to Lanhydrock House, which was just as well as it was quite expensive at £20 each.
After a look around the House, we would have loved to had spent more time there but we had a meal booked at Bodmin Jail before we went on our ghost walk, we had to move on.
The rain was coming down which added to the eerie feeling about the jail. We arrived fully expecting a meal but was told that even though we booked it online for a time of 16:45, they weren’t open at that time for meals but did open at 17:00 for a set menu. On looking at this menu it was £50 per head, so we decided against it and found a lovely little pub down the road and had a bowl of tomato soup each!
Back to the jail for 18:30 and we booked in for our ghost walk.
The walk around the jail was very interesting, we were told about the different ghosts that haunted the jail, facts about some of the inmates and we got to look inside the jails, which was a bit creepy.
The person who led the tour was very knowledgeable and we were surprised to find out it was his first tour he had ever done, so well done to that man!
It was at Bodmin Jail where the episode of Most Haunted was filmed and Derek Ocorah (a medium) was set up by Ciaran O’Keefe (sceptic) to expose him as a fraud….
After the tour we headed back to the caravan site where we went to the entertainment centre and feasted on a £12.49 pizza and a couple of drinks.
We took a picture of the different menus:
After feeling full after eating the pizza we did a quick tour of the amusement arcade where we won a couple of small teddies and then we headed back to the caravan for our final night before we packed to go home.
Amusement Arcade
Day Four
Phil got up early to go to a bakery we had seen at Rock the day before to buy some pasties and scones for when we got home. Phil is very partial to a cream tea and we hadn’t had time to fit one in this trip, so we bought one to take home with us.
We didn’t stop on the journey home, mainly because we sailed past the services we were going to stop at, so it was nice to have a ready-made tea when we did get back.
My view
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at St. Minver Holiday Park, so much so that we’ve booked five days next year this time staying in a lodge so that our families can come and stay if they want to.
Our lodge for next year
We found the park to be central for where we wanted to visit and there was plenty to do, from playing bingo, karaoke, swimming to walking through the woods.
The first thing we noticed was that it was decorated with Halloween decorations, they had a backdrop of a haunted house where you could have a picture taken.
We sat down at our reserved table (I would recommend booking ahead as it was very busy) and I ordered the Chef’s Steak & Jamaica Inn Pie which was served with creamy mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and gravy: Price £16.95
Hubby ordered the Jamaican Inn Burger with 6oz beef burger topped with Monterey Jack cheese, bacon, tomato, gherkin and salad in a toasted brioche bun served with skin-on fries: Price £15.95
Both meals tasted delicious, just what we needed, a hearty meal after three hours of sitting in a car in traffic! As I said before, it was busy, but the meals didn’t take very long to reach our table and we were far too full to order dessert.
We then headed towards the museum which focused on the author, Daphne Du Maurier and of course, pirates, smuggling and ghosts.
The cost to enter the museum was £3.95 for adults and £2.95 for children and OAPs.
Daphne Du Maurier
Well known for her novel, The Jamaica Inn which was a tale about Mary, an orphan, who lives with her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn, who was the Landlord of the Jamaica Inn and her uncle’s involvement in smuggling along the Cornish coast. One of her other well known novels is Rebecca which was a very successful film. There is a room created at Jamaica Inn which is full of memorabilia including her writing desk on top of which is a packed of the Du Maurier cigarettes named after her father.
Smuggling Museum
The Museum purports to house one of the finest collections of smuggling artefacts in the country. Custom taxes were first introduced in the 13th century but there was little enforcement of this until the 18th century when taxes were raised to fund foreign wars. Goods could be purchased much cheaper abroad and so smuggling became rife. Tea was six times more expensive in England than Europe. Other goods such as silks, tobacco and branding were also smuggled into Cornwall.
Paranormal Activity
The presence of paranormal activity here is one of the reasons we wanted to visit, we do like a good ghost story and if there’s any chance of an investigation we’re there. But unfortunately we didn’t have time to attend an investigation this trip, but it’s something we would like to do in the future! You can book a stay in one of their haunted rooms which includes a two course dinner and is £85 per person.
Most Haunted did an investigation here and said it was one of the spookiest they have ever recorded. Below is the programme they recorded….
After a look around the gift shop, I wanted to buy a Jamaican Inn t-shirt but unfortunately they had run out of stock, we then went to the farm shop and then we left the Jamaica Inn.
A journey through the meaning of life and anything else that grabs my attention!
Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am and Our Neck Of The Woods.
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