Spice World — Restaurant in Sydney

Spice World. The name says it all. If you ask for spice, you’ll get it in spades. But don’t fret, plenty of things don’t have spice at all.

Spice World Haymarket is certainly an experience. Make your name known to a staff member on the ground floor if you’ve booked - which we recommend you do since the restaurant is super popular. We dine in early and had a booking which we are grateful for, because the lines were insane. If you’re dining around 7:30 or later, we’d say it’s about a 30 minute wait. Apparently you can book via We Chat as well. Head up the escalators and you’re led to your table. Expect also to be greeted by a robotic who hands out mints at the door as you make your way to Spice World.

Once you enter in the restaurant you’ll see the place is huge - it has arcade games, massage chairs and cool wallpaper and art to decorate the space.

Spice world is all about the hot pot. Select a soup base - Tom Yum, mushroom, tomato or their traditional spicy soup broth of pork, beef and chicken bones seasoned with spices. You can get two flavours if you prefer. If you want a puppy or Hello Kitty shaped stock cubes which will dissolve as the hot water is poured in, you need to order the large pot / perfect for sharing. Be warned this is spicy!

You then order whatever you’d live to put in the hot pot. There’s plenty of cuts of meat, an array of seafoods, veggies, soy bean varieties and noodles. If you’re unsure, there’s plenty of combos and also a picture menu to highlight the menu items. You then tick the items you want on the menu to be collected and ordered by staff.

We order a vegetable plate, scallops, prawns and basa fish - the absolute must order, for it was incredible.

Meat wise, they have plenty from wagyu, to oyster bland and tongue to name a few. We order two types of beef and it cooks super fast, gaining a nice flavour from the soup.

We also like the fried bean curd, fresh tofu and sweet potato noodles.

There’s also a sauce bar to make up your own sauces, salads and fruit bar. They have beer, wines and Chinese spirits as well as soft drinks to accompany your meal.

Some gimmicks too - your refresher towelette looks like a condom packet. You also get a bib/apron to protect your clothes, featuring some funny phrases.

Staff here were amazing, constantly watching us and monitoring the heat of our hot pot, filling our water and taking empty plates. They were extremely helpful...

I saw Spice World advertised online as a must do whilst in Sydney. I must admit we have not tried many types of foreign cuisine past your usual Chinese, Indian, Korean etc so we didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for and I think this is what put a dampener on the whole experience. We visited at 5pm on a Saturday and there was only ourselves and a table of 8 in yet it still took the staff 15 minutes to greet us at the door. The menu was one that you had to use a Q code for and we had no idea what any of it meant. We tried asking our waitress but she didn’t seem to understand much English so we were none the wiser. At one point we were tempted to walk out. Anyway by looking at the other table we realised it was some kind of hot pot we had to make and the silver things on our table were induction hobs. So we ordered two soups/stock and some meat and prawns and a bowl of rice. We still had no idea what to do as there was only chopsticks on the table so does this mean you don’t eat the soup? Maybe we were supposed to drink from the bowl. Anyway we cooked the meat for 30 seconds and the prawns for around a minute in the soup and then placed it in our rice bowls. To be honest I didn’t think much of the food and didn’t think it was worth $120 for basically a bowl of soup which we couldn’t have. I will however give them 10/10 for the experience, you have a robot bringing out food from the kitchen although it doesn’t go to individual tables just to a central point in the restaurant where the staff then bring it to the table. The meat was wrapped around a barbie doll and the rest of the food was very well presented and garnished. I probably wouldn’t do it again but that’s just me and spoilt by the fact we had no idea what we were...

For anyone else considering going there, I recommend making sure that everyone in your party is present so you can be seated directly. Otherwise, you may end up being permanently sidelined.

My experience was terrible. The merchant refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, and I couldn't persuade them to understand my perspective. To put it simply, the merchant treated me unfairly and made things difficult for me, while treating another stylishly dressed lady completely differently under the same circumstances. I was treated differently and even interrupted while eating, which is unacceptable in terms of service.

here is the reply to the merchant's comment: Regarding the store's claim of strict adherence to reservation requirements, I have a different opinion. We eye witnessed the store manager leading another trendy customer to their seat (just next to my table) and personally urging them to have their dining companions arrive as soon as possible. In my opinion, this kind of contrasting attitude is very ironic, but it is not within my jurisdiction. If we were to focus on the reservation system, I had already given a heads up to everyone.

The part that I dislike, as I mentioned, is that my meal was interrupted just to be persuaded to agree that the merchant did nothing wrong. However, the merchant completely ignored their interruptive behavior, which made my dining experience almost zero. Therefore, their response happens to be consistent with my review.

to merchant: I appreciate your effort. Thanks...