Bangalore restaurant review: Spice it

Restaurant: Spice it
Rating: ***

Under normal circumstances, one wouldn’t really travel more than five or six kilometres (at the most) to eat dinner at a restaurant unless it’s one of the most eat-here-before-you-die kind of places.

But our circumstances were not normal. After a bitter beginning at a so called French or Euro restaurant on Outer Ring Road that even serves kebab (beat that!), we drove up to ibis, attached to the new Novotel not so far away from the disaster area.

Spice It, ibis’ restaurant may not be open beyond 11.30pm, but it can sure play the last minute saviour.

There’s nothing unique about the restaurant — it had a happy feel to it, was extremely spacious with lot of leg room and different kinds of seating arrangements.

The menu is like most hotel restaurants that need to cater to different kinds of consumers, but what I found interesting was a strong presence of South Indian flavours — a few direct presentations and a few relying on interesting twists.

The restaurant has a pretty reasonable buffet, but we decided to go a la carte, pointing towards the Kanchivaram Idli Salad and the Beer Batter Fish.

The Kanchivaram Idli Salad was a rather interesting rendition of using idlis in a not-so-authentic way. Idlis are first quartered and then deep fried and tossed with greens in a rather tangy vinaigrette sauce. I loved the whole play of different favours even though I did think the idlis were a tad too crunchy for my taste.

The Beer Batter Fish, very predictably was made with basa. Now, this fish is everywhere! Not that I am complaining, but after a point, when kitchens realise how easy it is to cook this one, it gets boring. The basa isn’t my favourite choice for this specific dish, but perhaps I was being too ambitious expecting bekti.

And the large chunks of fish, fried perfectly to create a nice golden effect, served with tartar sauce was good enough to eat, but didn’t quite create the magic I was hoping for.

However, what absolutely sealed the deal and made the trip totally worthwhile was the Lancashire Hot Pot. While it wasn’t the exact same thing you’d find in Lancashire, this version was good enough for us. Nice chunks of soft lamb, chopped vegetables and peas served more like a stew in a tomato-based gravy; the hot pot is best eaten with bread rolls. Ideally, the dish is baked with sliced potatoes on top but we’re all sort of used to having that Indian touch in most international cuisines anyway.

I don’t see Spice It becoming a popular haunt for the real foodie, but it does come as a relief for those who live in and around the area. The cheerful ambience makes for a good family dinner or even to entertain a client or two. What deserves special mention is the service — even as they reached closing time, the attendants were helpful with the menu and didn’t look like they were desperate to go home; that always gets an extra brownie point from me.