Five places to eat hot food in cold weather
A slick City sister to the Cinnamon Club, with a menu overseen by head chef Vivek Singh. From the starters list you can have fat chillies stuffed with cheese or mince. Not red-hot but perky.
Savannah Jerk
187 Wardour Street, W1 (020 7437 7770, www.savannahjerk.com)
It is no coincidence that there are two Caribbean restaurants cheek-by-jowl on this stretch of Wardour Street - there were two partners in the original Mr Jerk and when they split they both stayed put. Savannah Jerk is the larger and more sophisticated offspring. Good, spicy, jerk chicken wings; mutton standing in for goat in a gutsy curry.
Chaat
36 Redchurch Street, E2 (020 7739 9595, www.chaatlondon.co.uk)
A small, cheap, friendly Bangladeshi restaurant with a complicated menu layout (you pick a chaat, a main dish, a "mopper", an accompaniment and a homemade dip). Anyone who likes seriously hot food will warm to the homemade Nagar Morich, a chutney made with the Naga - the world's hottest chilli. Incandescent.
Wahaca
66 Chandos Place, WC2 (020 7240 1883, www.wahaca.co.uk)
This place has a cavernous and jolly dining room usually crammed with people tucking into fresh Mexican dishes. Wahaca gives away little booklets of Jalapeno chilli seeds so that lovers of hot food can "grow their own". Try the hot Habaneros sauce from Devon!
Nahm
at the Halkin Hotel, Halkin Street, SW1 (020 7333 1234, www.halkin.como.bz)
Despite being Australian, David Thompson is acknowledged as one of the foremost Thai chefs in the world and at Nahm he presents dishes that are authentically hot. His favourite chilli is a small, pointy Thai one that he calls the "scud". You have been warned, it is awesomely hot.
