Spice Paradise — Restaurant in Wellington

Spice Paradise was a lovely experience which I nearly didn't have the experience of dining at.

I had thought to save on my spending budget by walking down to the store instead of ordering online, but had expected to get it as a take-out and going back home. However, I am glad to have been settled into the place and by having been let to stay and dine, which made a very pleasant experience for a Thursday night.

I tried out the Chicken Madras (was given the option of choosing temp, and chose between Med-Hot, chef's choice), and got such a lovely heartwarming food palette in return. Added with the Lacha Paranta/Lachaa paratha which added a gentle and almost sweet taste, and (as is my now go-to choice at most Indian Restaurants) a Mango Lassi to help cool the palette if needed.

All of turned out to be such great options in combination, with the gentleness of the Madras sauce, the portions of the chicken making nice gentle bites and fitting combination with the rice given. And the paranta equally nice to consume on it's own and to polish off the remains of the sauce.

And I didn't even need to use the Lassi too much, which allowed me the time to have the drink on it's own which had the nice in-between of a thick milkshake and a nice liquid yoghurt, as one should expect but sometimes difficult to achieve that good balance of the two.

The restaurant itself was quite a large space, but most of the dine-in experience is settled in the corner of the store where the Tory Street & Vivian Street crossed with large windows. And though the late night traffic outside was surely busying about, the restaurant's gentle blue lighting for this night helped me feel calm in the darker winter hours of late 6-7pm, then being upset at typical inner-city views of the cars; and that the noise was drowned out regardless with soft remixes/cover music playing softly on the speakers that was just the right volume and vibe to not be wildly different moods.

All and all, would definitely reccomend; and definitely in the habit of going again instead of scrolling through DoorDash and Uber options.

5 out of...

So this new Indian restaurant opened up just a few weeks ago as I walk past here almost every week, so I had been keeping a tab on this. Upon reading Google reviews raving about how amazing the food was I ordered their chicken tikka masala. They have a variety of prices ranging from $14 to $17 depending on vegetarian, chicken, lamb or seafood curry. I took a video of the inside of the restaurant then the guy, whom I believe is the boss, came up to me and asked me to delete the video, and said I needed to ask them for permission before taking a video of the place, I was quite surprised as I have never been asked that by any restaurants, it is usually welcomed if a customer is helping promote their restaurant, so I wasn't too sure why. I then proceeded to delete the video in front of him as he came back to confirm that I had done so. This place used to be Phu Thai Lanna and I recalled it was extremely hot in here in the summer, that did not change, it was stifling! I would be guessing by body feel it was at least 28c degrees inside. He then came back to explain that he did not want a video of the interior made public because they do not have a liquor license yet, "that was the only reason", although I could not make sense of that reasoning but he then came back two more times to explain to me. I am guessing it was because he felt he could have asked me to delete the video in a nicer manner before? Albeit with this experience, I must say the chicken tikka masala was pretty top notch and one of the best curries I have had Wellington. He then came back to ask me how the curry was, I told him it was nice but the room was very hot, so he immediately brought out the fan and turn it on right next to me, I guess it was also a compensation? All in all, highly recommend their curry if you are interested to try out this...

Read most recent reviews and thought “why not?!” New place..worth a try after multiple positive feedback. Gave them a call to place pick up order and straight away, felt looked after and cared for. Excellent customer service!! Arrived at suggested time, but it wasn’t ready yet and was given a fresh, homemade lemonade for my wait! Fantastic!! Not long after, food came out well packaged and smelling amazing!!! When we finally ripped into it…FAR OUT!!!!! Everything was so fricken delicious!!! Sauce was thick and stewy like it should be. Layered with all kinds of depths of flavour!! A lot of average curries I’ve had before around town has always, been watered down or super oily!! This was EXCEPTIONAL!! The Naan was so fresh and so tasty and the rice perfectly cooked. Hands down the BEST INDIAN FOOD IN WELLINGTON!!! And this is coming from the fussiest ex chef, who believes in getting the best for that coin that we work so hard to get!! I won’t be going anywhere else for my curries again!! Well done Spice Paradise. You deserve...