Restaurant
Name: | Spice Brick Lane | |
Status: | Closed | |
Area: | Brick Lane | |
Address: | 45 Brick Lane | |
London E1 6PU | ||
Phone: | ||
Website: |
Visits to this restaurant ...
1. 30 Dec 2004 | | | 2. 24 Nov 2005 |
Visit Report
Visit Number: | 68 (visit 2 of 2 for this restaurant) | |
Date of visit: | 24 Nov 2005 | |
Cost per head: | £17.00 (2 beers) |
Serv | Amb | Beer | Start | Nan | Rice | Main | Veg | VFM | Score | Comments | |
Overall | 6.8 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 6.5 | 6.9 | 6.5 | 8.2 | 6.55 | |
Dave | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6.6 | See Dave's comments |
Graeme | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 7.1 | See Graeme's comments |
Jeff | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 7.2 | See Jeff's comments | |
John | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4.2 | See John's comments |
Mark | 8 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 7.2 | See Mark's comments | |
Jon | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6.4 | See Jon's comments |
Richard | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 6.8 | See Richard's comments |
Robin | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6.9 | See Robin's comments |
Tim | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 6.7 | See Tim's comments |
Chris (Guest) | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6.1 | See Chris's comments |
Brian | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6.9 | See Brian's comments |
All Comments
Dave - Lovely curry, lovely company and I now understand the difficulties faced by One Railway in running a train service after being kept waiting on the platform for half an hour on a failed train. Looking forward to the next curry night already, I'm sure it will be lovely.
Graeme - Another fantastic VFM experience at Spice Brick Lane. Good food and cheap prices make a great combination! I felt a bit embarrassed initially when the waiter asked a table of 4 to move to allow all 11 of us (a record?) to sit together, but I soon got over it. S.B.L. is quite a small place and we filled the back section round the corner from the main part of the restaurant. I had Prawn Puree (OK) and Chicken Madras (v. good). Overall, maybe not the best place we've been to in terms of outright food quality but very hard to beat at the price. The 'free half pint, 25% off the bill and no service charge' deal negotiated at the door certainly helped. It was good to have Chris as our guest, it is rare to have someone who supports a team that is below Boro in the football pecking order! Mind you, he did back me up in the Come Dancing debate - it is possible to be a 'bloke' and still admire Colin Jackson's nifty footwork!
Jeff - A quite small and busy place, which did well to get all 11 of us together. A good discount on the door, very friendly service and 2 pints of draft Kingfisher. Food was mainly above average, main course and vegetables were fresh and tasty. And all for £17 a head, even though we slightly over-ordered. Excellent VFM. I would eat here any time. The headline news of the evening was the Legend's emergence from the closet over his love for Ballroom Dancing. The relative merits of Sharon and Kelly Osbourne and even, bizarrely, Moira Stuart made for interesting conversation.
John - Cheap but disappointing. Friendly service but food poor and beer rather flat. I started with prawn purree which was no more than average. The main course of chicken tikka garlic balti was also very average. Good topics of conversation though. Usual sort of stuff: politics, religion, culture and Sharon Osborne.... oh and the Suzy Perry story again.
Mark - A record turn out of 11 caused a bit of upset as they had to move another party of 4 to fit us in. All amicably solved once they realised it was the famous Currymarks Club. Having attended a Michelin starred eaterie at lunch I must say that the service here was better and I enjoyed the food more. Simple Onion Bajhi to start was reasonable followed by chicken sagwala that was both plentiful and had sufficent kick. Draught beer aided the conversation leading to the Griffism "I can't handle strong beers, I get drunk". No emergency call for Daddy Foster but lively debate over X-Factor v Strictly Come Dancing topped by Chris asking a very strange question. I must say I prefer Kate Thornton.
Jon - Decent enough meal personally spoiled by them bringing the wrong starter. Lamb main dash was tasty, veg all OK but nothing special. Further revelations from Graeme this month - contrary to the image he created following his admission that he enjoys the Tramp's Tipple Tennents Super, he has now admitted to watching a recording of Strictly Come Dancing ahead of Match of the Day! Legend no more!
Richard - Spice Brick Lane is a traditional curry house - not a bad thing when so many try too hard to be trendy. My lamb bhuna was tasty and had just the right kick, starter and sides were good (nan a touch greasy). Overall, food, ambience and service were good, but nothing was exceptional except the prices, which reflect traditional value-for-money, and draught beer (hooray). Conversation was "enlivened" by Strictly Come Dancing, Sharon Osbourne, and the Susie story, resulting in complaints from the next table (come on, we never got on to Kylie). What happened to football? I blame Graeme.
Robin - Still extremely cheap hence the high VFM rating. Although the prawn puri starter was again excellent the rest of the meal wasn't quite as good as our last visit, although it was still pretty nice. The chicken jalfrezi was plentiful and quite spicy and the sundries were all quite good except for the paratha bread, which was rather greasy and stodgy. I'd happily go back there in due course - perhaps a main prawn dish next time?
Tim - The restaurant was quite small, and as there were 11 of us some other people had to move table to accomodate us (thanks!). Decor was nothing special. Service was OK. Draught Kingfisher was available. Menu was unexciting. Starter was fine, if unmemorable (I can't remember what it was). Main course of Achari Gosht was good - good quantity of tender lamb, though hotter than expected. Peshwari nan was fine. Overall, no complaints, and because of the negotiated discount, excellent value for money.
Chris - My recollection is that the staff were attentive and the orders were delivered correctly, (I believe that John did have a slight problem). Ambience not helped by the need to put us out of the way at the back of the restaurant. Draught Indian lager - what more could you want? Starter of Chicken Chat was a little too salty for my liking but the Nan was Hot and Light. Main of Chicken Balti was pretty bland but there was a lot of chicken, although this was overcooked. The Chana Mosalla was good and tasty and at total cost of £17.00 per head including two beers is not bad. My overall view was that this was a pretty average restaurant that does little to enhance the reputation of Brick Lane as "THE" place to eat curry. I didn't notice any spicy burn whilst eating the food but the following morning I certainly did experience the burn as Jane Fonda would say. Conversation was great with something for everyone ranging from "would you sh*g Sharon Osborne?" to the merits of a smoking ban in public places. The only one apart from me saying yes to the first question was a woman on an adjoining table.
Brian - One of the better recent visits to Brick Lane, as far as I was concerned. The extreme cold kept most touts at bay, the food was good, and the conversation refreshingly coarse; not sure how the various subject matters sat with Griff's new "BLUE" outlook though (Be Lovely Unto Everyone or some such similar rubbish). Anyway, my main of a lamb tikka jalfrezi had at least the required amount of kick, veg dishes were good, particularly the aubergines. Draft Indian beer always a positive too.