Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea Review: Modern Indian Dining Comes to Battersea Power Station

I’ve said it time and time again but Indian food is one of my favourite cuisines. Traditional aromatic flavours, colourful plated dishes and a casualness of eating all focused around sharing with others. Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea is the newest opening from acclaimed chef Vivek Singh and offers relaxed all-day dining, complimented by a menu of modern-Indian cuisine with British influences and innovative cooking techniques. The restaurant is open every day for lunch and dinner as well as cocktails, light bites and with the Summer starting to arrive I’m hoping the restaurant also extends with some outdoor seating.

Space wise I really love it. Very industrial, lots of cages, copper tones and dark wood. The perfect backdrop to enjoy the large open kitchen while sipping on a cocktail (or three). The cocktails here have been designed by one of the world‘s most influential mixologists, Tony Conigliaro. We started by enjoying a Sherried Sandalwood which was made up of sandalwood sherry, washed with cloves, dried rose, anise and frankincense.

Some of my favourite dishes here were actually some of the very first which arrived to the table. Spiced crusted lamb fillet with tomato salsa and smoked paprika raita was an exceptionally well-cooked dish and packed with flavour. The single wild African prawn, smothered in coriander & garlic crust was again absolutely lovely, but price wise it was a little shall we say high – though I’m sure they’ll fix that.

Best dish of our entire evening was the banana leaf wrapped sea bass with chilli, tomato and kokum crust. This was an absolute bargain (priced at just £9!) and the fish couldn’t have been better cooked if the kitchen had tried. All of the spices and heat were just right and the crust really smothered the pallet in everything delicious. A must order when dining here.

I should probably apologies now for my rather subdued photos, but it was rather dark inside the restaurant. Another dish we really enjoyed was the king prawns in a Bengali turmeric curry with ghee rice and spinach poriyal. It’s the first time I’ve really had a curry dish as one whole plate of food in a restaurant and I’m not sure I really enjoy it that way. There’s something fun about lots of little dishes, making far too much mess across the table and sharing with others. Price wise it again needed rethinking, but the cooking and the flavours of this dish meant we quickly forgot all about that after our fist bite. The prawns were lovely and that thick, rich sauce was incredibly satisfying – especially when mopped up with the bread.

One thing you must remember when dining at any Cinnamon Kitchen restaurant is this is modern Indian cooking, with lots of British influences. One dish which really spells that out is the 35 day dry aged Hereford beef rump steak with a Tellicherry pepper sauce and side of masala chips. The meat was of good quality, the flavours were punchy and you got a nice touch of smokiness from the grill it was all cooked on. The masala chips were actually wedges, but they were nice and the pepper sauce was perfect for dunking them into. The selection trio of daal were again nice, but each was a little too similar to one another and so I’d probably order just one kind on its own next time.

One flaming dessert later which we couldn’t help snapping mid-flame at the table next to us – we tucked into our own modern and somewhat familiar creations. Best of the two was the hot dark chocolate mousse with a scoop of fragrant cinnamon ice cream. Chocolatey, decadent and full of calories – my favourite kind of dessert. A plate of sticky ginger toffee pudding also gave us little to complain about and the garam masala ice cream was even better that the cinnamon scoop, offering just that little bit more flavour and spice.

It’s still early days here at Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea and there are some kinks which need to be ironed out, but it’s all very promising and a much welcomed addition to the new Battersea Power Station development. Chef Vivek Singh is known for creating some of the UK’s best-loved Indian restaurants and so it will be interesting to follow his latest opening and see how this kitchen & its food develop while making its mark in an area set to become the new foodie mecca of South-West London.

NB: Our meal was complimentary. All views are as always, my own. My views are not influenced by anyone other than my own palate and slightly poor eyesight.