Restaurant
Name: | Spice Garden City | |
Status: | Closed | |
Area: | Shoreditch | |
Address: | 23-24 Shoreditch High Street | |
London E1 6PG | ||
Phone: | ||
Website: |
Visits to this restaurant ...
1. 2 Jan 2003 |
Visit Report
Visit Number: | 34 (visit 1 of 1 for this restaurant) | |
Date of visit: | 2 Jan 2003 (Re-scheduled 26 Dec 2002 outing) | |
Cost per head: | £23.00 (2 beers) |
Serv | Amb | Beer | Start | Nan | Rice | Main | Veg | VFM | Score | Comments | |
Overall | 6.2 | 4.9 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 5.76 | |
Dave | 6 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5.2 | See Dave's comments |
Robin | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7.3 | See Robin's comments |
Graeme | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5.6 | See Graeme's comments |
Mark | 7 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6.8 | See Mark's comments |
Brian | 7 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7.1 | See Brian's comments |
John | 5 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3.3 | See John's comments |
Tim | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6.3 | See Tim's comments |
Jon | 7 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6.5 | See Jon's comments |
Richard | 5 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3.8 | See Richard's comments |
All Comments
Dave - Very Poor - the nan bread was greasy and doughy, the chicken in the main dish was chewy, the vegetable curry was a complete let down and we were the only customers in the whole restaurant (this may have been down to the time of year - but the fact they only have 10 pint glasses in total may indicate otherwise). One to forget!
Robin - Good service and (mainly) great food combine to make this place a little gem. The shami kebab starter was tasty but rather dry, but the fabulous "house" rice (aka "special" - actually a meal in its own right) beautifully complimented the chicken madras, which perfectly balanced aromatic harbs and spices with "bite". The portions were also pretty generous. Vegetables and other sundries were all of a high standard, and the menu also featured several novel dishes (e.g. quail, duck and trout) to tempt us back at some point. I'd be keen to re-visit this one!
Graeme - The President should be congratulated on booking both the Kings Stores and the curry house for our exclusive use! Actually, I don't know whether the staff in these places were pleased or sorry to see us - it depends on whether they wanted an early night or not. I enjoyed my meal at Spice Garden City. Overall, the food was reasonable, although the veg was excellent. The service was attentive but a bit disorganised when bringing up the dishes for the main course. Good to see draft Kingfisher on tap. It was difficult to judge the ambience as the place was empty apart from us but I think it would have been good if it was busier. We made good progress on planning Rats' stag night, although he really needs to set the date to give us more focus.
Mark - Robin's headgear was only topped in the fashion stakes by the waiter's jumper - anything for a free drink! Chicken Kebab starter tasty and well presented while the Lamb Achar would have been helped by more meat. Even the quails seemed to have more meat than my order. Wierd atmosphere as we were the only people in the pub and the curry house due to the date. Ambience was hard to judge although hardly helped by Dollar, Imaginationa or KC & The Sunshine Band or the porno hand job according to Brian & John.
Brian - I was a bit tipsy, so my memories are slightly hazy. The only exceptional thing was the Quail starter - I have never eaten one of these before, and it was very good. Everything else was average, apart from the waiter's jumper, which was very bad, and the conversation, which was scintillating as usual (although not particularly memorable!).
John - Very average curryhouse. Starter (prawn on puree) was ok but the main (Chicken Jalfrezi) was too hot consisting of mainly chillies and a few scraggy bits of chicken-like meat. Chick peas were passable. Enjoyed Robin's story about playing naked carpet snooker. Still its nice to get on well with your neighbours!
Tim - A quiet night in Town, the pre-curry pub was empty when we arrived, as was the restaurant. This didn't make for a very cosy atmosphere, exacerbated by the large windows and high ceiling, although the latter did allow room for some large and interesting light fittings. Staff were friendly and polite. Starter of chicken kebab was fine, main course of chicken paka was very good - big chunks of good quality chicken.
Jon - A pleasant but unremarkable curry. Vindaloo was a bit mild although tasty, shamie kebab was very nice, naan was good, draught Kingfisher was excellent - everything else no better than average. Nice to know that Brian's arse is still a worthy topic of conversation - will that ever die?
Richard - Rather poor overall. Run out of beer glasses with only 10 of us in the whole place- they must have been joking! Starter of tandoori quail was interesting, but the main Jalfrezi had no flavour and soggy chicken (although was pleasantly fiery), nan was a bit stale. Conversation led by Brian who was seeing porn all around (what would Freud say?).