The Cinnamon Kitchen & Bar Srilankan and Indian

This was a new venue for the MKCC and, as I'll explain below, a new experience. Only five of us were in attendance and we assembled at the nearby Rose & Crown for a couple of pre-prandial drinks. Then a short walk to the High Street and the Cinnamon Kitchen. The place is reasonably large with modern decor and bright lighting, with South Asian ambient music piped in. We all noticed that it was a little cold. The place was not busy - as well as ourselves, there was a table of four and a table of two. There were many empty tables which was sad to see on a Friday night. The waitress greeted us and she had a very pleasant manner. However, her first task was to inform us that they had no record of our booking. Just as well the place wasn't heaving! Ordering a drink proved to be a challenge. Once ordered, having the beers served was an even bigger challenge! It was a full 30 minutes from our arrival at the restaurant to the first beers being served. Over the course of a full meal, with poppadums, starters and mains, we only managed to get served two rounds; this was pretty disappointing. At least they were a reasonable price - £5 per pint, which is pretty good for a restaurant. Poppadums also took time to arrive. I don't know what the cause of the delays was, the single waitress or an issue in the kitchen but, as stated, it wasn't due to being full. The pops have to be ordered in twos so we couldn't just have five, we had to order four or six (obvs we ordered six!). However, although a good size, everyone commentated about how greasy they were and how small the accompanying dips were; two tiny pots with each of the three orders, one of a mint yoghurt dip and one a sweet chutney. This was also disappointing. Now for the main event. We have been curry lovers for a very long time and our knowledge and experience is primarily of the typical 'old-school' anglicised Bangladeshi and Indian menus. So we were looking forward to something new, as the menu is primarily Sri Lankan but we were a little clueless about what to order and I'd suggest we won't be the only customers to be in that situation, so perhaps the menu could be enhanced to help to explain things a little more? Food was duly ordered, with most of us sticking with Sri Lankan dishes but one member wanted to try the butter chicken. With most of the menu choices, you get to choose the level of heat (from memory: mild, medium, hot, very hot). We found that there was some inconsistency in the level delivered; for example, my 'medium' chicken devil starter was much hotter than my 'hot' mutton kothu. You will find specific comments about some of the dishes below but, in general, we found them to be generous in portion size and very tasty and it was great to try something different. Overall, a fun evening (as usual) with some excellent, reasonably priced food (with a couple of exceptions) but let down by a few things. See the comments section to augment what I've already outlined. However, none of these issues would take much to fix and, if done, this place could easily ascend the ranking table. We wish them well.