Le Spice — Restaurant in East Cambridgeshire

2nd time visitor to this "restaurant" and will not be returning

1st visit a number of years ago: food was superb and service was good and I felt it offered good value for money. Unfortunately this "restaurant" has gone down hill compared to my previous visit!

We called ahead and pre-booked a table at 7:30pm (on a Saturday evening). We arrived at the restaurant at 7:30pm to be told our table was not ready and to come back at 8pm!

We went for a walk then returned to the restaurant at 8pm and our table was still not ready. After a few mins we was shown to a small table which was designed for 4 dinners (even though our group consisted of 5 dinners), so restaurant staff placed a spare chair at the end of our table (so 5 dinners shared the table designed for 4 dinners!)

A pleasant young waiter took our drinks orders, then another olde waiter took our drinks orders again (no drinks menu on our table & a drinks menu was not offered to us by either waiter) - eventually after a delay most of our drinks arrived except for mine, I had to chase my drink order (so two people took our drinks order's yet only 1 round of drinks was requested / delivered and they even forgot my drink!)

We ordered poperdoms as a starter & had to request plates!

No napkins where provided throughout the meal!!

We then waited approx 1 hour for our mains to arrive, before we complained to a waiter about the lengthy delay. Yes the restaurant was busy, but tables who ordered after us recieved their food before we did.

Eventually our food arrived - I had hoped the cooking would make up for the shocking poor service 🤞 we had recieved....

Unfortunately my food was Luke warm (in terms of temperature, and clearly had not been cooked recently), texture was ok but taste was uninspiring (I think a supermarket microwave meal would have more taste) and I felt it did not offer value for money!

After our main meals were served no member of staff asked us if the food was ok? (I found this really odd)

We asked for the bill, however the bill was unreadable - it was not in English. (It looked like short hand of some description was used). How can you challenge a bill if you can not clearly read it?

We noticed two figures where exactly the same, on the bill? So we spoke to a waiter to ask what was on the bill and we discovered we had been charged twice for drinks, but we only ordered one round of drinks!!

I also used the facilities to discover only one toilet for ladies, the toilet flush did not work and their was water (I hope) on the floor. I did not mention these issues as a./ toilets should be regularly checked by staff and b./ their was no staff about to report the issue too

To sum up: Customer service overall is non existent at this "restaurant", also over priced and no longer good value for money

Positives: Location A single friendly / pleasant young waiter

Negatives: Toilet need's maintenance Reservation system needs replacing why take bookings for a table, which was clearly not available! Drinks ordering process need improving Vast majority of staff require customer service training Food quality needs improving Bill should be written in clear English

Would I recommend this "restaurant" NO.

Would I return to this...

Went here with a friend recently and we were pretty disappointed.

Put simply, the food is bland.

If it was just not very spicy, we'd say "eh, it's in a small British town, fits the local clientele" and just ask for spicier next time. However, it was just lacking taste altogether, and we could say that of all the dishes we ordered (we ordered 3 each). Both me and my friend agreed on this.

The lassi's were large, which is good, but they were a little too sweet. You could actually feel the sugar grains crunching in your mouth as you drank it.

Pricing was a little on the expensive side but not too bad all things considered. Budget around £25 per adult.

Service and atmosphere were pretty standard, nothing to write home about but to me that's not super important.

Haven't tried the other Indian places around Ely yet, might update this review if I find better.

UPDATE:

Came back here and asked for spicy, which resulted in a better meal, but not significantly better. It at least bumped it up from 2 to 3 stars.

I've now also tried another Indian restaurant in Ely and it wasn't any better. You're actually probably better off...

Le Spice in Ely is a fantastic local Indian restaurant with a warm, community feel. The waiters were polite, jovial, and made the evening feel welcoming and relaxed. The atmosphere was lovely, with a thoughtful touch in the beautifully folded napkins on the table.

The menu offers a great balance between familiar British Indian favourites like korma and jalfrezi, and more traditional Indian dishes that add real depth to the choices available.

We started with popadoms for the table. The plain ones were just as expected, but the spicy popadoms really stood out—light sesame notes and a gentle kick made them something special. These came with the classic popadom sauces, which paired nicely.

For my main, I had the lamb shank, which was absolutely divine. The lamb was tender and fell elegantly off the bone, served in a rich, spiced tomato sauce that complemented the meat beautifully.

The peshwari naan was also a highlight—plump, soft, and just the right amount of sweet.

Highly recommended if you’re after great food in a friendly,...