Brick Lane Curries: time to move on to something better i.e. probably don't bother

Having had a previous good and not so good experience, I said to the wife, let's go for a Sunday Buffet in Brick Lane, before we went to the Pompei Exhibition at the British Museum. We had once had a good experience at Cafe Naz in Brick Lane, and having checked other reviews (mainly on TripAdvisor) it seemed like a reasonable idea.
So, I booked on the telephone, specified that I wanted the Sunday buffet (Yes Sir), and left the requisite name and telephone number. When we got there, it was largely under reconstruction, although the upstairs was working. However, not only was our booking denied, but the buffet had been cancelled at the last moment 'due to the London Marathon'. I have still not worked out why the marathon, which was run somewhere else in the morning should have affected the decision to run a buffet. I asked why they had not called the number I had left, but was treated with complete indifference. Despite there being only one other diner in the restaurant, they clearly did not want my custom, and did not care that Northlondoner would clearly relate this tale. If you look at the reviews on TripAdvisor, they are a mixed bunch, and I can only guess that those that give good ratings either have no benchmark to compare (customers on Brick Lane tend to be mainly tourists) or planted by those with reasons to benefit, and those that are negative had similar experience to me.
So we moved on to Cinnamon at 134 Brick Lane. The choice was made because they were not advertising cheap meals outside, and a quick check on Tripadvisor gave consistently positive reviews(despite what I said above). Choosing a restaurant on Brick Lane seems to be a bit of a fools' errand, as they all claim to have won awards, they all have guys outside trying to drag you in with special offers and it becomes quickly clear that for those that do have customers, they are mainly tourists and never ethnics. Have a look at their web site at http://www.cinnamonbricklane.co.uk/
Yes, there was a guy outside, who I told to leave me alone, yes he did give me a discount card, but the menu looked ok, and there were people inside, more than could be said for some of the others. Actually most of the eating appeared to be young people (ie. no one over 25) sat on the pavement with boxes of mainly vege stuff bought from an indoor market opposite. Hundreds of them.
So, I ordered the Kebab Cocktail

This is a piece of Sheek Kebab, some lamb and some chicken tikka for £3.95. It came with some interesting sauces, one of which looked like cranberry sauce, but was a fairly spicy sweet chutney.

I then went on to have One of the Cinnamons's special Murgh Masals which is "whole pieces of breast chicken or leg barbecued in a clay oven then cooked with mince lamb and whole egg with chef's special recipe and herbs very popular in south india" pulau rice and a keema nan

This was the most expensive dish on the Menu at £12.95, but was actually the better side of average. it was sufficienctly hot, scoring about a 7.8 on the CHOF scale. It was exactly as described with pieces of whole tandoori chicken in a thick sauce. I probably did a bit better than my wife who had a chicken dish described as medium but which was a little bland. Overall the better side of average, but not good enough to get me to go back there.

So when it came to paying the bill, I flashed my discount card expecting to be told that it was not valid that day. However the bill came with one free beer (which tasted a bit weak, so it was probably not so free and others have made the same comment) and 25% off. However the bill was constructed in such a way and laid out so that it was not possible to realistically work out if it was right unless you went through every item with the waiter. However, it looked about right, and a good sized two course lunch for two with 2 added vegetable dishes, a naan and 3 beers came to just over £44, which sounded about right.

Our overall experience was 'the better side of average'. For Brick Lane this was sort of ok, but the key message is that I think I have no reason to go back there again and Brick Lane is a spent force for me: an anachronism from when curry was a bit more of a growing novelty. Given that there are places just as good or better locally in North London, and that there are superlative cutting edge Indian/Bangla cuisine establishments in London, Brick Lane no longer has any culinary relevance. For Tourists only. If you want something more realistic go to Tooting where are loads to choose from that are ridiculously cheap. I will not be eating in Brick Lane again, and particularly I suggest you avoid Cafe Naz.