SPICE LAB TOKYO — Restaurant in Tokyo

Where do i start? My background is Indian & I come from a city with some of the best indian food in north america. It’s my favorite food & I know my stuff when it comes to my culinary culture. While visiting Tokyo, I was CRAVING Indian food so decided to come here after a poor experience with fellow Indian restaurant “Downtown B’s” (don’t go there either despite reviews). We came here for a birthday dinner and we’re extremely excited to try “indian fine dining” for the first time ever. I was nervous going in and for good reason because what occurred was exactly my worst fears. Overpriced, lack of diverse flavor & poor menu choices made this restaurant a 1/5 for me. Too much saffron used in every dish and with so many indian spices, you would think they would make each dish significantly unique from the next but they all tasted the same. Bitter, bland & no fun - I would say 90% of the food tasted the exact same. Super super disappointed as a fellow indian. I would stay far away from here. I really appreciate what they are trying to achieve but the execution was so poor. I don’t know if I came on the wrong day but this food was just not it. My ancestors were screaming from above and i felt super disappointed leaving the restaurant. Definitely wouldn’t recommend till they pivot into a better direction. Nothing was even remotely spicy and the same spices were used over and over. They had some wannabe naan they call kulcha that tasted like microwaved pizza on a plane....

Atmosphere and service were wonderful. The food was good quality but really lacking in any flavor. Subtle isn't even the right word, just bland in many cases.

I had expected it to be fusion, not truly authentic Indian food of course. But certainly didn't expect it to shy away from exploring different flavor combinations. It's called spice lab, but it feels like the lab is more about trying to understand how little spice they can use.

For example, the biryani was maybe the most boring I've ever had. I took it home so that I could at least salvage it with a bit of additional spice at home. There was, from a flavor perspective, nothing interesting or innovative at all. They had hard-boiled quail eggs in it. That's it. The quail eggs weren't even tasty, they're just eggs. Not even spiced or marinated as is often typical with eggs in India. So it was just very subpar regular biryani.

Their puri was also awful. Crunchy and flavorless. Good puri should have a light crispiness to it but still have a bit of fluffy and chewiness to it. This was just tasted like bad cooking oil.

There were a couple dishes which were ok, or not bad. Eg there was a fish which they put a bit of broth on, that was nice. But really not worth mentioning.

Quite disappointed.

Price would be reasonable if the food was good.

Not posting photos because everything LOOKS nice -- but the flavor doesn't match the...

We visited around 8 PM and chose the chef’s special meal. Although the food looked appealing, the overall experience was quite disappointing—especially considering it’s a fine dining spot charging premium prices.

Service was frankly poor. My friend was delayed, and while waiting, at least three different staff members repeatedly asked me when my friend would arrive. I get they have to manage last orders, but their constant questioning felt intrusive and uncomfortable.

Worse still, they completely forgot about my drink order, and it never arrived throughout the meal. To add insult to injury, at just 9:40 PM—despite a listed closing time of 10:30 PM—the staff started aggressively clearing tables and packing up cutlery, making it clear they wanted guests out.

As for the food itself, it was passable but honestly nothing special. For the prices they’re charging, you’d expect memorable flavors, but everything tasted average at best. Overall, it was a frustrating experience—not worth the...