Cinnamon Tree — Restaurant in Stockport

Cinnamon Tree - Heald Green

2 x poppadoms Chutneys Lamb vindaloo Pilau rice Plain Naam

Another week another curry, lovely evening so headed to a little curry house in Heald Green that i found by searching for nearby curry house. 5 minutes from the airport, with a drive right under the flight path which was excellent as I saw an A380 come into land which is one of my favourite planes. Anyway I digress.

I found the curry house no problem, which is a plus one compared to last week, the only thing that deterred me was some youths outside the Subway next door which put me on edge, i remember thinking they must be up to no good and i hope my car is ok, anyway i digress. Quickly seated at a table for 4 I had plenty of room for all of my accessories to sit on the table. Drink immediately ordered and I initially prepared for the worst when a room temperature coke was served out of a 2 liter bottle. This was not what I had expected from a restaurant rated 4.5 stars on Google reviews from 164 reviews but let me tell you, it took a positive turn from here.

I ordered my standard order and was quickly greeted by 2 delightful looking poppadoms and a set of chutneys.

I am always a bit wary of ordering the chutneys as generally they are revolting and I only like the chopped onions and cucumber and mint and even that gives me heartburn and i sometimes partake in a taste of lime pickle to remind myself how disgusting it is, anyway i digress. This tray had the usual mango chutney, raita, onions and then a green pasty dish resembling cat sick. It is quite the ridiculous that in my mind that could literally be cat sick and still be preferable to lime pickle. Whatever the sick looking chutney was, let me tell you it was incredible, mint, coriander, apple, easily the best chutney I have ever had. Delightful. I am told it is made in house by the waiter who revealed the above 3 ingredients but wouldnt tell me the other 9. Pink onions were as expected, as was mango chutney. I don't really like raita but I kept hold of it in lieue of the impeding vindaloo as thought it might cool things off a little. I let the waiter know I was impressed at the dish that looked like cat sick and he seemed pleased.

A short interlude whilst somebody (not me) complained about the room temperature coke and I was greeted with my main course. The rice was rice, a nice size portion I would say though. The naan looked good, a good mix of soft and crispy bits and this was the first thing I tried - mamma mia oo la la, it was superb. Exactly how a naan should be. Alongside this was a dish of molten curry, that looked hot to the point I remember thinking, crumbs that is going to burn at both ends. Well time to dig in, and let me tell you, dig in I did. The lamb was cooked to perfection, it fell apart. The sauce had a huge amount of heat to it, but a heat that built nicely and wasn't overwhelming whereas some places just seem to think more chillis is the solution, this was perfect. Every now and again I dipped the naan in the chutney that looked like cat sick to cool off which did the job. I then tried the raita and this is where I have knocked half a point off, whilst the aftertaste was nice, the initial taste was too sour. I didn't like this and it reminded me further why i share so much trepadation when it comes to chutney trays. I ordered another coke and this time I got it served with ice, so I was grateful to the other customer for complaining as this was much preferable.

Curry polished off, I mopped up the sauce with my naan, mopped my brow with a napkin and then paid my bill. I left a little rice I will be honest. No mints, but a nice rhubarb and custard lolly came with the bill which let me tell you was a strange but appreciated touch.

Luckily the youths had not attacked my car, so a short drive back to the hotel, where let me tell you, my tummy quickly recognised I had had a spicy curry and there was absolutely not time available to do any further plane spotting.

Probably the best curry I have had and I...

This is an open and honest review from dining there tonight on 16/03/2024. After arriving at 5pm for opening, the restaurant was not open until 17:15pm. Once inside we were pointed to a table near the window and given the menu. To note the restaurant was freezing the whole time we were there. After 10 minutes we were asked would we like drinks. We ordered two cokes which were served warm and nearly flat. Despite having previously ordered takeaways from here over the years and never had a problem, I purposely chose to dine inside to celebrate my birthday; although this was a huge mistake after tonight’s poor service from the moment we arrived to leaving.

After we got the drinks it took a further 15minutes before we were asked to order our food (more waiting around) finally we placed our order and when the starters came out, I had ordered meat samosas and my partner ordered onion bhaji’s. I took one bite into the meat samosa which was stone cold and freezing, which was served to me not cooked throughout. I told the waitress who apologised and took them away. After another 5 minutes they gave me fresh samosas which were pipping hot. In addition portion size is lacking and for the price isn’t worth it for both samosas & onion bhaji’s. Equally, two customers waiting for takeaways were served their food before we had been given are main dishes although, we had been there since opening.

Once we finished our starters we waited over 1 hour for our food to come out. Therefore we were just about to leave the restaurant due to the lack of service. The atmosphere was dreadful and they don’t approach your table to ask if you would like drinks or anything, or to address the fact you’ve been in there for over an hour and yet still waiting for food. To add to this terrible experience they then took mine and my partners unfinished drinks of the table, which we had to ask for our drinks back. Which in any other restaurant they would have apologised and given new ones back, not ones which were taken away out of sight.

No discounts given for a spoilt birthday meal and all which add to this poor dining experience. I will never order from here again. Especially once the main dishes were served the children korma did not look cooked properly. I will report back if I get food poisoning. If you want to waste money on small portion sizes, no decent atmosphere, terrible service, terrible cold food and have to wait a ridiculous amount of time for your drinks and food, I would think again. This is not the 5 star dining experience expected and doesn’t justify the service I received tonight. Waste of money and shouldn’t have paid. If I could give it NO stars...

We ate here on New Year’s Eve. The service is poor, the food is cheap and a reflection of the price. The staff are disorganised.

The table was not set when we arrived, they had two staff members bringing cutlery and small plates separately. They kept missing one person out every time so we had to keep asking for them.

We had to ask them to take our order. The restaurant was not really busy but the two members of staff were serving all tables and without any structure just here there and everywhere.

The food was poor, small portion sizes, flavourless and be careful, some of the chicken chewy - two of us were worried we would have food poisoning afterward. We gave feedback to the staff member taking orders as two of us didn’t eat our mains because of the chewy chicken and one of us left part of our food due to lamb being fatty and flavourless. The staff member said “we have not had any complaints before”.

The atmosphere in this place is dull. Everything is cheap and we had to go to Tesco express for our soft drinks.

I wouldn’t waste your money here -...