Spice Quarter

Spice Quarter might be great for Cardiff, but for a seasoned Londoner, it was a letdown.

Food

The food was very ordinary, and for someone spoilt for great curries, was hard to swallow. They started off by giving us the normal menu, and it was only after we insisted, that they gave us the early-bird menu. Poor form.

We started with poppadoms, which contained only three different condiments, an onion pickle, the jam and the raita. It was nice enough, but I have had much, much better. The Gilafi Seekh Kebab (£4.70) - Minced lamb rolls char-grilled and coated with fresh herbs and coloured peppers were very heavily spiced, but went down quite well with the raita. The Chicken Malai Tikka (£4.70) - Glazed boneless cubes of chicken marinated with cheese, cream, royal cumin and cardamon, delicately grilled on charcoal and served with garlic chilli chutney on the other hand, quite plain, however the chicken was succulent.

For mains, the Shahi Chicken Korma (£8.75) - Chicken pieces seared and slow cooked in a smooth creamy gravy, flavoured with cardamoms. We recommend the Peshawari Naan to enrich the taste sensation was very bland, the flavour was one dimensional. The chicken was really tough as well. The Lamb Pasanda (£9.45) - Lamb braised in an almond and saffron flavoured yoghurt sauce. Great with Kulcha Naan was much better, but the lamb was tough as well, and even though the dish was not supposed to be hot, could do with a lot more flavour. Our accompaniment of Peshawari Naan (£2.65) - Saffron, nuts and sweet cherry naan consisted of not just coconut but some sort of dried up, hard thing…the nuts perhaps? I couldn’t identify it. A shame really because the tandoor work on the naan was quite good. The Lasooni Naan (£2.65) - Garlic naan was a much better choice, with a subtle garlic flavour. The lassi when they came, was nice and creamy, so that was good. Overall, passable but nothing to separate it from the thousands of other Indian with modern looks and big aspirations that don’t deliver.

Rating - 5

Atmosphere

Spice Quarter was nicely done up, in that modern Asian restaurant kind of way. However, I felt that they were trying to play cool, when clearly they weren’t. They certainly weren’t getting the kind of clientele the décor would suggest they were aiming at. Add the fact that they were quite empty on a Saturday night, when next door’s La Tasca was full and lively, suggests that something is not quite right.

Rating - 1.5

Service

The service was ok, but they didn't really seemed please that we were there. A smile would’ve been nice. Seeing that the restaurant was nearly empty, you would think they would be happy for customers. It seemed like after they had advertised in huge boards outside of the special deal, once you come in, they would squeeze everything out of you. We ordered lassis and tap water, of which the lassis were delivered, but I had to ask again for the water, even though I explicated stated twice when I was ordering I wanted water. The fact that they tried to prevent you from getting the special menu also left a sour taste in my mouth.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

Passable, but only just.

Rating - 0.5

Brownie Points - 8.5

Info

Unit 8b, The Old Brewery Quarter
Cardiff
CF10 1FG
Phone +44 (0) 29 2022 0075
Website

Tiffinbites Canary Wharf

I had my doubts about Tiffinbites, as I have my doubts about all franchises and chains, but Tiffinbites surprised me.

Food

The menu was a small but interesting representation of the food from the sub-continent, all grouped under the banner of “Indian” here. There were a few curries, thalis, puris and samosas, but not the variety you are used to seeing. We started off with the obligatory Mango Lassi (£2.50) - Fresh alphonso mangoes from India, blended with yoghurt. Refreshing and delicious, which was actually very nice. Not too sweet and thick enough. They don’t have sweet lassis on their menu though. We tried the Nihari (£13.95) - Slow cooked lamb shank blended with an explosive mix of herbs and spices. Nihari is one of our hidden gems, served with white rice, side salads and fresh naan. Watch out, it's a spicy one., which was rated as 4 chillis in heat rating, but I would say it’s more like two. The lamb was not quite melt off the bone, but the flavour was complex and interesting, the spicing lifting it above your average Indian. Served with nice and some plain but not outstanding naan, and a very sad side “salad”. The King Prawn Masala (£13.95) - Freshwater king prawns cooked in a rich, exciting tomato and coconut sauce. Served with white rice, side salad and fresh naan. was also pleasing, in that sweet British curry kind of way. Four large prawns swam in a pool of tomato based curry. I prefer this over Wagamama, which is right next door, any day.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

Looked very funky and done up, with swirly purple walls, a big bar area, and of course, Bollywood movies showing on plasma screens. They have gone for the modern clean look, which I guess works well when you are trying to attract “Western” clients.

Rating - 2

Service

There was no one dining and a few waiters just standing around, so I was expecting them to do a bit more, which they actually didn’t. We had to chase them to order and to pay. Still, at least the food came quickly and because there were no people, we didn’t have to wait.

Rating - 2

C-factor

Very expensive for an Indian, but at least they delivered good quality food.

Rating - 0.5

Brownie Points - 11

Info

22-23 Jubilee Place
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5NY
Phone +44 (0) 20 7719 0333
Website

The Prince Albert

The Prince Albert definitely exceeded my expectation, from the quality and generosity of the food, the excellent service, the excellent house wine and the price. I envy the Camden locals.

Food

I knew I was onto a good thing when I tasted the Bread with butter that was laid out for us. Soft and fresh, simple really, but surprising how many people get it wrong. We decided to skip entrees in favour of the yummy sounding desserts. So, for mains, I ordered Saltmarsh lamb cutlets, aubergine puree, slow roast tomato, rosemary mash and port wine sauce (£13.95) 3 pieces of tender, still pink and juicy cutlets, accompanied by aubergine puree, a huge slab of creamy mash. The only letdown was probably a huge flavourless tomato, which was actually cooked very well and just let down by the ingredient. Slokky had the Chargrilled 12 oz aged Scotch Rib of beef cutlet with green peppercorn sauce (£22.95) a huge and generous piece of steak that was scotched at just the right places. The accompanying sauce and huge pile of fantastic, very golden chips made it a struggle to finish. The vegetable salad was fresh but didn’t seem to have been dressed.

Desserts were written up on a blackboard, but for some reason, the blackboard was not correct, and we had to look at the menu instead? Anyway, the menu sounded yummy so we didn’t mind. The Hot chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream and caramelised bananas (£3.95) – yum. Rich dark chocolate, lovely vanilla bean ice cream….the bananas weren’t that caramalised but were nice anyway. The Valhona Chocolate brownie with orange crème fraiche (£3.95), though, sounded much better than it was. The crème fraiche was a bit boring and the brownie a bit too sweet.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

I love The Prince Albert. Downstairs is a casual and lively bar, with a fantastic but very crowded beer garden. Upstairs, an open dining room with mismatched wooden chairs and table, chandelier, big windows, gold mirrors. The dining room was full on this Thursday night, and no wonder, with these prices I’ll be surprised if they are not packing them in every night.

Rating - 2.5

Service

It’s a bit more casual than a restaurant, but they delivered where it counted. I was made to feel very comfortable, the food arrived in good time (not too fast and not too slow) and the waiter made sure everything was ok, but only did it once and was genuine about it. They did make a mistake on the bill but that was fixed up very quickly.

Rating - 4

C-factor

Even without the 50% off and the free bottle of house wine (worth £13), I would still say it was good value. Our bill for 3 came to £34.61 including service, which was absolutely fantastic.

Rating - 2

Brownie Points - 16

Info

163 Royal College Street
London
NW1 0SG
Phone +44 (0) 20 7485 0270
Website