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