Spice Of India — Restaurant in England

We came to Spice of India yesterday for my husband’s birthday, it had been recommended to us by a few neighbours and we are new to the area so thought we’d give it a try! Called, booked for a 7pm sitting with 5 kids, and some family. The popadoms and sauces I must say were very very nice, good portion sizes too. We ordered starters, and mains, the starters were pretty average, quite small portions, my mushroom starter didn’t taste very fresh, and my son complained (which he never does) about his chicken tikka, he said it was hard and flavourless like it had been frozen. Moving on we were excited to get our mains, the pilau rice was good, they made x 2 main dishes of chilli paneer costing £12.50 each (the portion size & flavours didn’t warrant the price) the Tarka dhal was overly salty, and unfortunately my son’s main which was chicken again recommended by the waiter was worse then the starter, my son ate a few mouthfuls then said he couldn’t do it - again he was pretty sure it was either recooked or frozen as it was hard and uneatable. We also had the aloo Gobi which was fine and probably the nicest dish which was the vegetable korma. The nans were very nice - probably the best thing about the main meal itself. The kids begged for ice cream which we said yes to, consisting of the egg man, x 2 hazel nut/chocolate ice cream and one pistachio kulfi, each cream was barely touched as my kids - who love ice cream said they tasted old and absolutely frozen through like they had been in the freezer for months and months. Very disappointed by the evening, I really didnt want to complain as it was my husband’s 50th birthday and didn’t want to ruin the evening. The bill came and £252.00 later I reluctantly paid! I’ve left this review as it’s important to me the restaurant understands the food quality did not in any way reflect the price paid, I moved from London to the area recently and have been to so many Indian restaurants, I can honestly say this was by far the worse, my 12 year old daughter said how disappointed she was and she’s a child. I hope the owner reads this - sorry to leave you such a poor review, but I must be honest, I reluctantly paid the bill when really I wanted to say I will not pay for the plates uneaten and those mainly were the chicken dishes. I am genuinely disappointed and I can honestly say, in future any restaurant recommendations by neighbours & friends will be thoroughly looked into before...

I had a take away vegan vegetable biryani from here and it was amazing, so I decided to eat in for a special occasion with friends.

I ordered the same, they then told me I had to have a different curry as I was vegan, I thought this was the one I had last time maybe. But no they brought out a dish that had no taste at all, it was like yellow water. And the biryani rice dish had cold tasteless salad items in it. I always have Biriani but I hated this, and just ate some food because I was hungry.

I can only guess that food is pre prepared as otherwise why couldn't you make a vegan curry.

Also the waiter poured wine from the bottle into half full glasses without asking everyone, so if you are driving he has just poured wine from the bottle you have purchased into your glass and you cannot drink it. And neither can the person who it was intended for.

They came over to ask if all was okay, I politely fed back that my curry was really bland and the guy just walked off.

I politely asked why I could not have the two vegetable curries I had had with my takeaway last time. And was told they are not vegan, never have been vegan because they have cream in them, so the person who gave them to me made a mistake.

I had actually emailed them to thank them for these lovely vegan curries and they said thank you.

So if you are vegan, beware of this place.

It is a lovely looking restaurant and has a nice atmosphere and everything is clean. Hoping they might sort out these issues in the future.

I hate to leave such a bad review, but don't want a fellow vegan to have...

After some debate we ended up coming here, and glad we did as upon arrival we noticed it was Banquet night (Tuesday!). We hadn’t booked, which seemed to cause a bit of a stir but they appeared to be able to fit us in. (It was fairly empty but got a lot busier during our dinner). Our food was nice, definitely a good experience and recommendable. My Jalfrezi was tasty along with some nice heat from the chilli. We decided to try Chicken Pakoras for starters, never had these in an Indian restaurant before so I was a little surprised by their appearance & texture, but tasted nice all the same.

Service was good throughout despite a bit of a language/accent barrier which I guess makes it more authentic really. My lager 🍺 glass was empty for some time during the meal, would have been nice if I’d of been asked if I wanted another. I had to raise my hand to order a new drink in the end.

We felt the bill of £55 was perfectly fine for the food and service, especially as wait times for our courses were relatively short considering some large groups came in during our meal.

Toilet was clean and presented well. There is a car park to the rear which is handy, although it does get a little...