The Spice Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Nashua

My family and I were really excited to have a hotpot place in town. We went last night. I heard they were open for two weeks by our server who was really nice. That being said. This is how our visit was:

We sat there for 10 minutes for someone to even notice that we were seated in the dining room which was confusing to us as It was almost empty. We were the 3rd guest there. 1 of those tables already eating and finishing up their food. There were two servers and about like 6 staff there all together. But that didn’t bother me that much I’ve waited that long in a restaurant before.

My drink I chose the mango bubble tea with boba pearls. The mango flavor they use for their bubble tea is tasty but they used WAY too much of it. I did not end up drinking that.

My partner got the meat lovers I ate vegetarian we both had the same experience. For eating completely differently. I’ll let him leave his own experience I’m only talking about mine and my 4year old son’s experience.

The broth base I chose was the mushroom with tomato and sweet corn. That’s their non-spicy veg option. It tasted almost exclusively of water.

The entree combo I chose was the vegetarian delight which was fine for what I ate of it. But the watercress greens that it comes with was very clearly stored improperly or contaminated in some way because Watercress normally has this crisp cruciferous peppery bite to it…this watercress smelled like feet. I was so glad I caught a wiff before I ingested it.

I tried to bring it to the male owners attention and he smiled in an embarrassed way told me it’s supposed to smell like that….as if I had never had it before… He offered me new watercress or a different veggie which was nice but I politely declined.

The sauce options were…not it in my opinion. Soy sauce Bbq Samjang sauce Hoisin Sesame oil

I like that they had scallions and cilantro to add but they didn’t have a rhyme or reason to their sauce choices and they just weren’t tasty in my opinion.

I liked the way they made their Thai tea and the restaurant is really nice inside I liked the ambience.

Our 4 year old son got the strawberry bubble tea no boba. Was once again tasty but way over the top with the amount of flavoring they added but he enjoyed it so I let him have it. He wanted the vegetarian pan fried gyoza. Dumplings are one of his favorite foods ever. He ate them with soy sauce they come with and he left about 3 behind, me not having eaten much was hungry and I had one. It was VEGETABLES please tell me why it tasted like FISH. I put it down and didn’t take another bite. Thinking maybe they just fried it where they fried fish and it got on to the dumplings not thinking much of it..my little guy has been up vomiting the better part of our morning day and he was a happy cheery boy before we started eating. I’ve had gastro cramping all day but nothing like what my son’s experiencing. I was honestly going to leave it alone and just not get the same things next time when we try it but the watercress and my son’s situation showed me it’s possibly a little more than their taste in food and flavor.

My hope is that the owners take this experience and learn how to be safer and better. I want their business to succeed. Hotpot is a great way to bring people together, it can create a sense of community and Nashua nh...

My wife and I are regulars here that know Tamra, used to know Caroline and are starting to know the owners, Jon and Hann.

Unfortunately, they've just been dropping the ball with owning up to mistakes. For instance, one time they gave us an all you can eat menu, so we ordered based on that menu. We were then told we couldn't get the things we ordered for the price on the menu because we were given the wrong one. No big deal -- we ordered our usual.

Today we went for all you can eat. Our second time ever getting this special. This was the only day we didn't finish our food and we ordered the standard portion we always do. We overheard a waitress at another table stating they could take home whatever they didn't finish. Given this information, we made a soup with some of the ingredients and asked for a takeout bowl. To our surprise, we were told we couldn't, but after telling our waitress what we overheard, she said we could take it home just this once.

A couple minutes later Tamra came over. She stated that we are regulars, which we acknowledged, and I mentioned that we didn't come in during all you can eat times. Since we don't come in during the special, we always thought we could take our leftovers home.

Apparently she was overruling our current waitress's statement saying we could take the leftovers home. That's just unacceptable. We had very little left in our pot and we were told we could take it home and all of a sudden we were told we can't?? What are they going to do with the leftovers? It's a silly way to...

If you've ever wondered what it feels like to be the only guests in a restaurant and still somehow invisible, this is the place for you. Despite being the lone table in sight, it took a solid 20 minutes before anyone asked if we wanted a drink - which, after that wait, we definitely did.

When the drinks finally arrived, there was some confusion - as in, none of us knew whose was whose, including our waitress. To her credit, she confessed it was her first day, which suddenly explained a lot (and earned her some sympathy points). Unfortunately, one of the cocktails seemed to have skipped the "alcohol" part of the recipe altogether. Think of it as a mocktail with identity issues.

What surprised us most was that the owner was right there and didn't seem concerned about the delays or the mix-ups. No attempt to smooth things over or even acknowledge the situation - which made the silence louder than the music.

The food was... fine. The crab rangoon, however, looked like it got lost somewhere between the kitchen and the Google photos. Definitely not what we expected.

All that said, the ambience was promising - nice decor, decent vibe - though maybe dim the lights a bit to match the mood of the service. This place could have real potential with better training and management.

We still had a great night, but that's entirely thanks to the company we were with -- not the cocktails or the crab rangoon. If you're going to try this place out, come soon. Not sure how much longer...