Sea Spice — Restaurant in East Suffolk

Whoever owns/manages this place has extreme delusions of grandeur. The starters were embarrassingly bad; the paneer had less flavour than a grilled piece of halloumi, the Bhajis were dry and greasy, the cauliflower tasted like it came out of a hospital ward and the seekh kebab was anaemic. Its disgraceful to think that these 3 miserly pieces of what appeared to be microwaved or reheated seekh kebab were charged at nine pound a portion. The only glimmer of meal that my meal had were the mains, the chicken curry was tasty, however the portion was far too small and the chicken wasn’t moist, it was rather tough and chewy to the bite. It definitely wasn’t worthy of its sixteen pound price tag. The only part of the meal I can’t fault were the cocktails. They were exceptional and fully justified their price tag. Our booking for the table was booked in advance for ten people, upon arriving at the restaurant we were told to sit in two separate booths. After explaining to the waiter that the booking was made for my grandmothers birthday the servers joined four tables for parties of two together half heartedly and instructed people in my group to sit on the end of the long table they had made for us. The table felt extremely crammed to eat on and wasn’t a comfortable dining experience. Throughout no point in the evening were we asked how our meal was by a server. The manager of the restaurant seriously need to reevaluate their vocation as they quite clearly lack the ability to run a commendable service. No I would not recommend this restaurant. One star is for the food being eddible, another for the taste of the curry, and lastly one for the cocktails. No stars awarded for the quality or value for money and likewise for the attentiveness and consideration of the staff that overbooked the restaurant and didn’t take proper care of us despite the fact our party of ten brought in four hundred pounds for them...

Yikes! This place is baaaad!! I've never written a bad review in my life before but, wow! Sea Spice needs an emergency visit from Gordon Ramsey, ASAP!!!!!

I've lived in South India, in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa and I know the traditional methods of creating flavoursome fish and prawn curries. I live near Birmingham with it's Anglo-Indian balti and curry traditions and these I also know very well. Ordinarily I eat in traditional South Indian establishments specialising in dosa, idli, puri and the like.

I have to say, in my experience, Sea Spice was by miles of the most bizarre so called 'Indian' restaurant I've ever been to. Quite extraordinarily peculiar and downright bad.

I have never encountered such a curious menu which includes dishes like Muntjac Vindaloo. Surely thou jest? Fusion cuisine is fine but what!!? Being alarmed at the basic menu contents, I went with the Prawn Moilee, which claimed to be favoured with South Indian spices.

Reality? Dreadful! Six over cooked prawns in canned coconut milk without any spice I could discern at all. Bodiless and ghastly. Like a korma without the grated coconut. My wife's Lamb Rogan Josh consisted of lamb cubes in something like tinned tomato sauce. Fragrant seasoning? Dear Gods! No spice at all! Worse than amateur.

Another critic warns you about the crispy coated okra. Here's a tip, avoid this weird attempt to turn okra into chips. It's just cold desiccated okra strips vaguely fried and there's definitely no spiced coating.

Looking at the reviews, some are good and others like mine, bad. I've read the chef is superb etc...he's the opposite in my experience. Does this place have good days alternating with simply awful days? Did my visit co-incide with the chef's day off? The staff, however, were excellent. The ambiance is so promising but let down horribly by the cuisine. Value for money? Ha ha ha (ad infinitum)! Well......

We went here last night for a birthday celebration. On arrival we stood there for a good few minutes before anyone acknowledged us and took us over to the table, even though there was a man stood right in front of us at the till - he just completely ignored us! We ordered some okra, mixed bhajis and poppadoms. The okra were so crispy that you couldn't even taste the okra, it was just fried saltiness. The mixed bhajis were cold and stodgy so we sent them back, and the ones that came back were exactly the same! So we just ate them because we didn't want to cause a fuss. They forgot our poppadoms and we had to ask twice before we got them. For the main, I asked if I could have one of the curries with chicken instead of lamb and was told this isn't possible as they are all premade! So I had the chicken tikka massala, which was ok, and a peshwari naan which was really tasteless and not worth the money. Two people had the paneer curry, which they both really enjoyed, and my partner had the lamb chops which he said were ok. The vegetable sides weren't great and we ended up leaving them. Food aside, the service all night was absolutely terrible! It took them 20 minutes to clear our plates away and about 20 minutes to bring over the card machine so we could pay - we almost just walked out! We barely got a thank you or goodbye as we left and they didn't do anything for the birthday celebration, despite me mentioning it on the booking and on arrival. This is the second time I have come away from here feeling disappointed and I will not be coming here again next time I'm in Aldeburgh. Shame, because it has the potential to be really good, but rude staff, terrible service and mediocre food...