Spice Charlotte — Restaurant in Charlotte

Going to leave 5 stars bc as a small business owner I know how reviews can mess with your business. However, the front of house was quite messy. 5-6 different food runners trying to shout over the table to figure out who got what food over loud music. It wasn’t even that busy. There has to be some rhyme or reason in approaching the food running, start at one end and work towards another, or communicate with your server so you know who gets what. Bring things out together so the dinner isn’t getting interrupted every 5 seconds with a new person yelling over the table trying to figure out who’s food they were holding(for about an hour).

Auto adding 22%, yes 22% gratuity, is ridiculous. I’ve been to restaurants all over the world and have never seen that high of a percentage with a party of 10, or any number of guests. 18, sure, 20, maybe… when you start a service saying “ just to let you know it’s going to be 22% automatic gratuity and you can only have a max of 3 checks “ prior to even taking our drink orders it sets a pretty bad mood for the rest of the experience because your guests are immediately more critical of the service since they’re auto-tipping above average.

We were there for a bday, not Restaurant week, however we were offered a restaurant week menu in addition to the normal menu. There was a maximum number of ppl that were allowed to do the restaurant week menu, while others were not, it didn’t really make sense. We were told if doing the RW menu we could not order our main course or entree until the starters came out. The result was that everyone at the table not doing RW received starters, and main courses(that I wasn’t allowed to order), while I was still chomping on ‘summer spring rolls’ that were basically just cold vegetables and a mediocre sauce. I ended up not getting my main course until everyone had already eaten, then didn’t want dessert because at that point we had been there for almost 2 hrs. At one point I ate a piece of someone else’s cauliflower and sushi while waiting and watching everyone eat, both tasted good.

Because of the lack of organization and timing, you could also tell that there was slow turnaround time for tables. When we got there it was busy, and then tables were sitting empty for periods of time. It was obvious that due to clunky service it was hard to predict when tables would be ready.

Lastly I understand it’s tapas and specialty cocktails but it’s 2025 and not everyone drinks. When i asked about NA cocktails I received a solid no and was given water. Maybe consider offering a mocktail? Put some pomegranate juice in a glass with a lemon and call it a day? Also asked for a Diet soda since there was no mocktails and they didn’t have any.

I paid $62 for 2 pieces of lettuce, mangoes, and avocados in a wrap cut into 4s, Followed by about 3oz of a basically flat, lean ribeye, and 4 brussel sprouts with mushy bacon. I ended up getting another meal on the way home. Also, I only had a fork in my silverware, and chopsticks(as did everyone). Why would you serve a ribeye with no knife? It was small enough that I was able to use a fork to break it up, atleast.

All of the servers were lovely, but there is a huge disconnect between the kitchen and FOH, and lots of little common sense things that overall made it a very lackluster experience. If I’m being honest it was like 2 stars. it’d be doing the restaurant a favor to stop doing restaurant week until the flow of service is corrected, and to stop putting wack policies in place to recover the money lost from doing it. Let the food and good service speak for itself and people will be more than happy to pay full price.

“Tapas” are supposed to be a semi-cheap way to try a half portion of something, or a half pint drink, then bounce to the next bar/restaurant and try something else. Paying $100 for “ dinner “ and leaving hungry is not the point of tapas. The customer is supposed to get the best of the restaurant without buying a huge portion, not being robbed...

My boyfriend made a reservation for a party of 7. To celebrate my Mother graduating & obtaining her Masters. When we arrived they sat us in the corner where the cushion seats are. With a small, round, & low table. How are 7 people suppose to eat on this low, small table? I have no idea. The table is more suitable for hookah or something. Then we asked if we could be moved to a higher & bigger table. They said those are reserved, but we can switch to the middle area that has a higher table. We went to the area she suggested & all 7 of us could not fit. 3 of us has to sit on this couch & they had 3 seats surrounding the table. I should’ve took a picture. Anyway, remember there are 7 of us! So me & my boyfriend had to share a chair. Had to push the chair with another persons chair & hope I didn’t fall in the middle. They didn’t even bring an extra seat for us. Then they start bringing the food out. There is noooooo room to fit all the plates on the table. The table was higher than where we were previously seated BUT it was still a small table. The manager comes with one of our plates asking US where should he put it. Like Sir you see there is noooooo room. It was so bad my boyfriend ate his plate of food on his lap! Literally no space on the table! The manager goes back & forth with us. Telling us he wasn’t provided with all of the information by the server. Also, telling us on their end it says a party of 6. Which is a lie, & even if it was a party of 6 the table wasn’t going to accommodate a party of 6 eitherrrrr. He then asked if we would like to move to another area with higher tables, better seating, & also can put the tables together. This is literally what we asked for initially! By the time he asked us this we already had our drinks, starters, & most of us were finishing our entree. Like bffr the dinner is already done. ATP nobody wanted to move, we just wanted to hurry up & leave. If you can’t accommodate large parties then don’t allow us to book it. There was noooooo room, no accommodation. No reason why my boyfriend & I should be sharing a seat, no room for our food, & my boyfriend eating his food on his lap. They acted like there was nothing they could do. Then we got dessert & the server didn’t bring us any utensils to eat it with. ATP wrap it upppppp! So we asked for it to go & had to put in a box with chop sticks due to not having any utensils. Then when paying the server is mad I told one of the people in the party there is no need to tip because of the gratuity. The server literally had a fit. Mind you my boyfriend & I already gave her extra to just round it up, despite the gratuity. Unbelievable! Literally messed up my mother’s graduation dinner but want to have a fit. The drinks, food, music, & ambience is good. I’ll give them that, but the customer service is terrible. Never had an experience like this at a restaurant. They will NEVER see us step foot in...

Came here for a friend’s birthday to celebrate. Originally thought it was a sit down restaurant type of establishment but upon arrival, it gives more of a lounge vibe with “small plates.” Throughout the night we were told by “C” that we were “scaring the white people” and that twerking is not allowed because it’s an upscale dining experience, despite the food being subpar at best. C was not even our server and said nothing to other patrons, who were also dancing because that’s what you want to do based on the given setting. Now we were not being unruly or extra, but when celebrating a BIRTHDAY, a dance or 2 is expected, and the music vibe matched this. They had the waitresses come to our table in a bottle girl style with sparklers and a little dance to say happy birthday with her dessert for the evening and they played birthday song by 2 chains. They play club music and have lounge type furniture to imply it’s more of a club setting but discourage any type of activity other than sitting around on your phone. The lyrics of this 2 chainz song say “all I want for my birthday is a big booty hoe” yet they expect this place to be upscale. Dancing to this song as our friend was presented with her dessert for her birthday was apparently inappropriate and very confusing because the vibe that they wanted to give versus what they were actually giving did not match. Menu was very misleading and we left hungry and a with sour mood due to being singled out multiple times even though other parties were also dancing and basically just trying to have a good time. I would NOT recommend this place other than for the esthetics because that is the only thing they’re offering. Drinks were not good and overpriced. Food was extremely small in portion size (what kind of fine dining establishment only offers small plates???) and we expected better for a celebration. We initially planned to go to a lounge/club after leaving here and decided not to after seeing the set up. Instead the whole vibe was killed. The service was the only semi-decent part of this place but everything else was 0/10. Do not come here unless you just want to sit around and stare at people and eat 1 taco or 1 slider, despite the menu implying multiple would be served. Also, how do you expect to offer a fine dining experience but don’t even have proper tables or silverware to serve? What fine dining experience offers bottle service with sparklers and plays club music so loud you can barely hear the person next to you? What type of fine dining restaurant plays Sexy Redd and other twerking music? I honestly think they’re trying to cater to a certain Caucasian audience but the execution is piss poor. Nothing about the place gives “fine dining.” Please spend your money at a place who at the very least knows who they’re marketing too because our party of 7 was confused about the...