A Hearty Meal @ The Spice Lab

I discovered Spice Lab through an acquaintance some time last year. It’s a small restaurant in an upcoming market with simple interiors and outdoor seating. It has since become one of my regular delivery restaurants.The delivery time is about 45mins to 1hr for Golf Course Road, but it’s worth the wait!

The packaging is clean and efficient and the quantities are generous to say the least. However, what I like most is the quality of food served. Their mutton is always fresh and even though I don’t prefer red meat, I tend to order it from here quite often (Its just that good!)

I have tried a huge range of their menu and haven’t come across anything thats bad. However, some dishes are exceptional like Gosht Rara and Murg Handi whereas, others are a little mediocre and uninspired like Malai Tikka and Tandoori Murg. Their gravies are predominantly better than the appetisers and definitely make for a more wholesome meal.

Food Review :

Murg Malai Tikka – Good quality chicken cooked just right and loaded with cream; it makes for a hearty starter.

Mutton Biryani – The rice is well cooked and the mutton just falls apart from the bones. It isn’t too oily and the flavours are well balanced with a little spice and lots of aroma! The idea of adding caramelised onions on top proves the concept of garnishes enhancing the dish.

Murg Handi – A thick tomato based creamy gravy with a melody of strong spices. The chilli hit is strong but not overpowering. The chicken is of good quality and cooked well. An option of boneless chicken is available.

Gosht Rara – Scrumptious, perfectly cooked, alarming dish which is so flavourful it feels like a party in the mouth! The mutton is just beautiful! A definite must-try.

They excel in simple, flavourful food done well with quality, quantity and consistency! Nothing fancy but no fuss North Indian food.

A Perfect Summer Meal – Amici,Saket

Summers are just around the corner and after a shopping spree you crave something light and refreshing than sinful and heavy. This time we ended up at Amici, an Italian Open Cafe. The ambience is wooden, rustic with a bit of charm and elegance. Its simple and clean. Since, it was a hot day and the A/C wasn’t as cool as we would have liked, we found a small corner which was pleasant and cooler than rest of the tables.

The service is quick and efficient. The staff is courteous and well informed. After every dish served, the staff came to our table to ask about what we think of it. Some people might think of it as too much intrusion, but I felt its just a way to ensure that all customers get what they want, which goes to show how much the restaurant cares about their customers!

Food Review : 

The Felix – A beautiful refreshing salad with rocket leaves, goats cheese, orange, pine-nuts and agrodolce dressing. The bitterness of the rocket leaves balanced beautifully with the saltiness of goats cheese and the sweetness of orange. The pine-nuts are a great addition to the salad bringing a crunch factor, elevating the dish to another level. The Agrodolce dressing is a traditional sweet and sour sauce in Italian cuisine, it is typically made by reducing vinegar and sugar together. However, the dressing had more vinegar than sugar which I would say goes better for the salad, if it wasn’t over-salted. Overall, it was a great salad and ideal for a summer day. It would have been perfect if they added just a pinch less salt in the dressing, allowing the freshness and quality of the ingredients to shine.

Calzone Verde – Calzone is a folded pizza, stuffed inside with cheese, sauce, vegetables and meat of choice. At Amici, Calzone verde is stuffed with marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, ricotta, artichokes, olives, sweet corn and mushrooms. A beautiful thin crust calzone with just the right amount of stuffing. The marinara sauce was one of the best I have ever had! All the flavours combined so well, that I instantly fell in love with it! The sweetness of corn, tartness of olives, meatiness of mushrooms and the robust flavour of artichokes sang together on the palate.

To go with our meal we opted for Spremuta, a lemon mint soda and Lemon Mint Iced Tea. Spremuta translates to freshly squeezed juice, to which they added their own twist of mixing with soda. Both drinks were thoroughly enjoyed.

Amici Cafe is perfect for a hot sunny day! Our meal during this visit was completely vegetarian so, I can’t speak for the quality of their meat but honestly, I didn’t even feel the need for it!

An Artistic Buffet@ Latest Recipe

As you enter the restaurant the first thing that captures the eye, is a beautiful sculpture called ‘The Flying Man’ by Arjit Sen. The restaurant is filled with such intriguing artwork, that accentuate the clean, simplistic and refined interiors. The servers are courteous and quick. I saw one of the chefs from the live counters helping someone select dishes as his hand was injured. Such gestures mark the difference between good and exorbitant service.

Food Review : Weekday Dinner Buffet

We began the meal with a platter of cheese and crackers. Sadly, their were only four varieties and even though I’m no cheese expert, I could tell Camembert and Red Cheddar were of top-notch quality.

Moving on to Entree, we had Fish Tikka, Mutton Seekh, Panner Tikka and Beetroot Tikki. The fish tikka was covered with raw spices on the outside which hadn’t been caramelised, however the fish was soft and flaky on the inside. The mutton seekh was melting in the mouth and the quality of mutton was beyond good! The only drawback was the amount of salt, it disrupted the harmony of spices and dominated the delicate flavours. Paneer Tikka was nice, caramelised on the outside and soft. Beetroot tikki was actually my favourite; crispy on the outside, soft inside, beautiful sweet beetroot flavour balanced with salt. It was perfect!

To accompany these Indian delicacies, they have fun, quirky sherbets. The Rose sherbet was beautifully refreshing and not overpoweringly sweet. Aam Panna had a very faint flavour but I still enjoyed it. They had more varieties like Buttermilk and Jaljeera, which I didn’t quiet like as much.

For Main Course, the buffet has a wide range of selections; Continental, Chinese, Sushi, Pizza, Pasta and of course Indian. We began with a chicken sausage and pork pepperoni pizza. The ratio’s of the pizza were not right, even though the pizza was thin crust, it had too little sauce to enjoy it. The chicken sausage was of exceptional quality and I actually ended up eating more sausage than pizza. The pepperoni wasn’t that great, overly salty.

We then moved on to two of the most soulful dishes in the buffet, Pan-fried chicken with mushroom stroganoff and Hungarian Goulash. Goulash is a soup or stew of meats and vegetables seasoned with paprika and other spices, there are several varieties of goulash and different interpretations of it all around the world. So, I had high expectations for the dish, however the flavours lacked depth, the lamb was undercooked and chewy, the potato was tough and it was really just a let down. The pan-fried chicken on the other hand was perfectly cooked and just falling from the bone. The mushroom stroganoff had layers of mushroom flavour, which was once again overpowered by salt! A huge disappointment, because it would have been perfect if it wasn’t overloaded with salt.

The Indian Main Course wasn’t great either, Biryani lacked the beautiful, enticing aroma and rice were mushy. The Lal Maas was undercooked. Ghiya Chana which is one of the most authentic punjabi dishes was once again cooked perfectly, had the right flavours only to be let down by the amount of salt! They had a variety of curds as an accompaniment but it couldn’t lift the meal.

For dessert we had Chocolate Espresso mousse, Tiramisu and Gajjar Halwa. The Mousse was silky smooth, right amount of espresso and not bitterly sweet. I quiet enjoyed it. Tiramisu was perfect, I liked the balance of coffee and sweetness. Gajjar Halwa is a whole another story. Let’s just say, I left it after a single bite.

Overall, I loved the  wide variety in the buffet but it’s majorly for main course, so, entree and desserts are a little underwhelming. Salt was a huge issue for the entire meal, I hate over-salted food! Quiet a lot of dishes were undercooked which again was just disappointing. Having said that, one of the things I really loved was, the temperature of all the dishes was maintained perfectly! I didn’t have to eat cold food; A huge issue in most buffets!

I would definitely return to Latest Recipe because, despite the issues with undercooking and salt, the flavours and quality was there. I would probably just go for À la carte next time.