Spice 4u Helmsley — Restaurant in England

Lots to say ... some good ... some just curious and you make your own mind up ... Staying in Helmsley and dinigs options were limited as hD done fish'n'chip thing, and other places were booked up, or serious price, or just 'Don't want to go there' by various family members... so Spice it was ... This place only takes 💸 💰 ... but there remains an ATM 30m up the road... so that's OK ... apparently no card payment is a 'temporary problem' , which local advice indicates is a permanent temporary problem ... Also menus are 'out of date' / show 'take out' and not dine in pricing ... and no priced drinks tariff made evident ... Those are the curiosities and were pre-identified through perusal of TripAdvisor reviews ( which are the usual mix of 'Brilliant!' and 'Avoid at all costs!' ... that's TA for you 🤔)...

The good bits Pitched up at 19:15 and asked for table for 4 with no booking Not a problem Staff were attentive, polite, friendly and prompt with menu and taking drinks order Drinks as ordered, poppadoms provided and fresh from fryer ... crisp and tasty 😋... usual pickle mix ... 4 mains provided, with rice and nan within 15 mins ... All food well cooked and presented, and served to table with minimal fuss ... as ever, table never large enough to accommodate all dishes and drinks ... part of the joy of 'all out for a Balti'.. All food correct, very tasty and all plates cleared 😋 Towards end of meal front of house staff (3) were struggling with volume of in-house and take-out patronage ... .. but remained polite and respectfully apologetic for delay in providing bill ... Ticket was £72 for popps, 4 mains, 2 rice, nan and 4 drinks ... £18 a head which was v reasonable so happy to add 10% and round up to 4score...

Ignore the iffy reviews on TA ...well worth a visit ... if we are ever back this way, ...

Nice Food but Be Aware!

At the time of writing, the restaurant only accepts cash, although I did see someone negotiating to pay by bank transfer. Only accepts cash? How odd!

Also, at the time of writing there is a lamb surcharge. This isn’t shown on menus but pointed out when ordering. Menus not reflecting the actual price? Just as odd as cash only!

Food was nice though, and the portions generous, even for me, as I eat like a JCB apparently.

Nice pickle tray with the Poppadoms, and the Poppadoms themselves weren’t greasy.

Nor were the onion Bhajis, which unlike the other dishes ordered had a nice kick of heat.

The Chana Palak (a Chef’s recommendation, I chose chicken, so no call needed to the IMF) was served together with the rice, adorned with a tomato and was very tasty. The dish was described as being medium hot, however it was on the mild side of medium in case you fancy giving it a go.

Denise decided upon a chicken Balti, again, on the very mild side of medium but yummy, nevertheless.

We shared a side of Aloo Gobi, which didn’t disappoint either.

To sum up: Generous portions of fairly priced appetizing food the heat (chilli heat) of which is dialled down.

The loss of stars is due to the unfathomable business model, cash only in the new contactless world, and the menus not being adjusted to reflect the price of lamb, makes no sense to me at least.

I’d visit again though; I really enjoyed the food...

Overall, it is worth a visit, but there was a few not so good points for us.

We had to wait an hour to actually start eating. Starting from 10 minutes when they forgot to give us a menu.

Ordering food we were said that the recent Putin's business means their suppliers raised prices and lamb is sold at king prawn's values. The place is surrounded with the fields of lamb but ok. My husband used it as opportunity to choose king prawns, but I like the taste of lamb, so chose that. And judging how hard it was, it was born well before Putin. Don't order lamb.

Order more poppadoms, because they are served with a _lot of tasty sauce.

Except of the truly horrible Captain's Choice with lamb, the rest of the food was delicious. See the video I attached with sizzling plates!

The first waiter, who forgot to give us the menu, quietly moved. The other guy was very smiley and served us really well, so got good tip :) Great management.

We came in just before 7pm and got a table without booking. In 20minutes the restaurant was packed. I saw a few people waiting for takeaways, sitting on chairs in main hall among the eaters. They mentioned 15 people pre-booked this rather small place (by the way -mind the wooden beams!). Do book your table early. And, probably, look elsewhere if you are concerned...