Description: The Spice Lounge,
10 Friargate
Derby
DE1 1BU
Tel: 01332 346 145
It was my husband’s birthday last Monday and I took him and my step son out to this relatively new restaurant in Derby. I had recently been out with friends and they had been saying how nice it was so we thought we would give this a try. The restaurant was a winner in the 2010 Derby Food and drink awards and also has been awarded 5 stars by Derby City Council for Health and Hygiene which I felt was a good thing to know.
This restaurant is in a part of Derby where there are several different restaurants bit it is well away from the main curry area so they are not in direct competition with other curry restaurants but they are in competition with Zizzis, Bistro Pierre, a Tapas restaurant, a quality English restaurant and a few others all along the same part of Friargate so they have to be on their toes.
They pride themselves on the fact that all their fresh ingredients are sourced locally and tgen they use these with a combination of authentic and exotic spices from around the world. The décor is very modern and we were welcomed with a friendly smile even though we hadn’t booked as we thought we would be pretty safe eating early on a Monday night. The chairs are high backed and very comfortable. The table settings were laid with modern heavy cutlery and proper linen napkins. It isn’t a huge restaurant and at full capacity they can seat eighty people.
The staff were very well spoken, extremely helpful and explained all the ins and outs of the various menus options. Our drinks were brought very quickly and the chutneys and poppadoms came swiftly after that. The waiter then came to take our order for the main course and was happy to answer any questions we had about the dishes. Our main courses were brought in good time but not so quickly that it gave the impression that it was just heated up out in the kitchen. It was well presented and looked and tasted freshly prepared.
The restaurant is open every evening from 5.30PM - 11PM and there is an early bird special which we took advantage of. This menu cost £12.50 per person and for this you get to choose either a glass of house wine (which incidentally was a very nice chardonnay) or a small bottle of beer or a soft drink. You are then brought a small tray of chutneys with plenty of poppadoms and you could choose any of the main courses (with the exception of the seafood ones) and a rice or naan to go with it.
The people who run the restaurant have had other restaurants in Derbyshire but not any that we have been to. The chefs, according to the website, ‘learnt their skills in their native Bangladesh and have since worked in some of the UK's leading Bangladeshi restaurants.’
The Spice Lounge is slightly unusual as curry places go in Derby as its food is a range of Bangladeshi and Southern Asian dishes rather than Punjabi or Pakistani food which the majority of our restaurants are. This meant that there were quite a number of dishes which we had previously not heard of and so we were quite excited about trying these.
We decided that this would suit us and we chose two pilau rice and a peshwari naan and three different curries which we shared. The three curries we chose were quite different but did have chicken as the main meat as I am not mad on lamb in curry.
The first was Chicken Tikka Badami which is on the main menu for £11.95 and was chosen by me as I love the creamy nutty sauces. And it was a mild chicken Tikka cooked with cashew nuts, pistachio nuts and almonds in a really tasty fresh cream sauce. Although it was a mild curry it was very tasty with lots of spices and a hint of chilli.
The second dish we chose was selected by my husband as he loves coriander and was called Coriander Ceyloni which we could choose to have with either chicken or lamb and we chose the chicken and this dish was also £11.95 on the main menu. The sauce was described on the menu as ‘cooked with a special blend of fresh coriander and our Chef’s special relish sauce together with a slight infusion of garlic and ginger. ‘It was absolutely delicious and slightly hotter than the first dish but certainly not ‘blow your head off’ hot.
Our final dish was chosen by my step son and was Tenga Chicken which was another £11.95 choice off the main menu and consisted of chicken seasoned and fried on an Indian Tava. It was then cooked with onions and peppers in a special Tamarind chutney sauce. This was another extremely tasty dish of a medium hotness chilli wise.
The three dishes were all very different and tasty and despite the fact that we had two very bid eaters in my husband and step son we still didn’t manage to finish the meal and we all felt extremely full.
We had a lovely meal and when we asked for the bill it came to a grand total of 44.00 for the three of us and my husband had a large beer on top of his bottle. I think that is excellent value for good quality freshly prepared food in a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere. The staff were helpful, polite and friendly without being a nuisance. They were there if you needed them but not fussing around us all the time.
When the bill came we got three After Eight mints on the saucer. There was no adding on service charges or fussing over using a card to pay so we were very happy with the food and the service. If you would like to see some photos then please look at this link as I was very lazy and took no photos as we were too busy eating.
http://www.spicelounge-friargate.co.uk/gallery.html
I apologise but I didn’t make use of the toilet facilities so cannot comment on what they were like. My dining companions did not want to sit around and as I was nominated driver I had not drunk enough to need these facilities.
So would I recommend? A resounding yes, we will certainly take advantage of the early bird menu again as it was excellent freshly cooked food at a very decent price.
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