Contributed by Amit Uppal
[Rating:2.5/5]
There are some restaurants that sweep you off your feet with their impeccable service and great food, and then there are others where you go once, and never want to even walk past the place again! Spice Circle in the Spice Mall in NOIDA certainly belongs to the latter category.
Spice Mall is a medium-sized mall, not in the same class as The Great India Place or Select Citywalk, but it’s a nice place where you may like to spend some time. I’ve been there fairly frequently and never noticed they have a restaurant called Spice Circle. One would assume, and most people do, that it is the name of a premium lounge at their cinema (they have a good multiplex with 8 screens). I happened to visit the place with Sucheta, a long-time friend – just to explore.
The ambience is what one might call more than satisfactory, with tables evenly spread all over the area… and that happened to be the only plus point in the whole experience. They have a bar, with nothing much on display, just a few bottles of liquor, perhaps to let the guest know there is a bar. We were surprised to find that the restaurant had just one table occupied, despite it being the dinner hour. We were given the menus. I have this habit of reading the entire menu, word by word, before placing the order, and then tweaking my selection a bit. The menu is, by the way, just a two-page affair, one for the Chinese and one for Indian. And there weren’t any specialties there, just the normal fare that anyone would find in almost all of the so-called Chinese restaurants. The server came to take the orders, and I thought of adding my own bit to the Garlic chicken that they have on the menu. I told him to add some black mushrooms and broccoli to the chicken, along with vegetarian noodles. Now, it took me at least 10 minutes to explain this to the guy, and finally I had to ask him to get the chef, assuming that he would definitely understand what I wanted. The chef looked like no more than a rookie, who’d been pushed into the kitchen with a knife to his throat, and ordered to cook!! He didn’t seem interested in the order and appeared to be waiting to run back to the kitchen at the first opportunity.
Anyway, the food came, and they did it again! The chicken didn’t have the broccoli or mushroom I had asked for, and it was pieces of boneless chicken floating in a watery gravy. After pointing this out, the dish was taken back and the mushroom and broccoli were added, but then they were totally without flavor, as if I were eating them raw.
We asked for the check at the end of our meal, and we had to wait for at least 20 minutes. It hadn’t taken that long for even the food to arrive! And then the manager, who apparently was hiding somewhere, came up, and I told him about our experience. After a lot of apologies and ‘please come back agains’, we finally left, and I had one of the worst times explaining Sucheta the point of bringing her to such a place.
You want value for money and an experience, better go to one of those Chinese vans parked in virtually every corner of NOIDA, you’ll find better food there.
- Amit
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this happens when a food van junkie comes to a refined dining restaurant. Spice Circle is one of the best in its class anyways good things take time to happen. Spice has a 15 page menu for food/ thematic lighting/ excusite music and a class which boasts with a sleek cozy lounge and conference hall with projector. Enough to get swayed with excellent multi-cuisine and world’s best alcohol….hope Amit visits again with a prejudice
@Saqlain: Thank you for your feedback. I’m sure Spice Circle intends to offer nothing but the best food, service and ambiance to it’s customers. It is possible Amit’s experience may be one that doesn’t happen too often. Would you suggest we revisit?
What Saqlain needs to answer is how many chefs he has and from what backgrounds? This multi-cuisine thing is a non-sense, unless you have 4-5 very competent chefs to pull-off respective cuisines else if someone tells me that a person can be good at Indian and Chinese (not to mention huge variations within Chinese that no decent restaurant across the world does more than one or two regions), then I would show you a entrepreneur peddling his/her wares!
And I havent come across a projector that ever made my food taste good!
@Siddhu_75: True. Perhaps another visit is warranted.
Hi Sid
I am new in Noida. May you please suggest some good vegetarian restaurants for indian food and also some good chinese restaurant, where you can get really good food ie worth the money spent. Hoping for an early reply.
@ruvin: Thank you for dropping by!
Pure Vegetarian – Sagar Ratna [sector 18] (sorry, don’t know many pure veg places)
Other: Chor Bizarre (buffet)
Chinese: Bercos Garden (value for money, average food), Mandarin Trail (GIP Mall)
Hope that helps!
@Ruvin: You could perhaps try Bamboo Shoots in Sector-18 market for Chinese (above average); for Indian, you might try Dhaba Eat-Inn, located opposite the entrance to Centerstage Mall in Sector-18(good food, reasonable prices); Lahori in Sector-50 market (only take away & delivery)
What do you folks think of Rajdhani in GIP for a vegetarian meal? Having spent some 20 days in Noida over last 8 years, I dont claim to have any insights but I visited Rajdhani on a trip to India last month and found it was decent fare. Not great enough that I would travel 10 kms and reserve a table a day ahead, but if I am around Sec. 18, then not a bad meal either.
And about Sid’s reco of Chor Bizzare, I would rather have the tarami than the buffet. I know there is nothing like a veg. wazwan, but I had a veggie colleague with me who tried the veg version and with rajmah, chaman qaliya, haak, mooli-akhrot ki chutney etc. , it seemed to be a better choice than the buffet!
@Siddhu_75: I’m not so great on Rajdhani and find the food well cooked, but kind of boring. having said that, i do agree, it is quite a convenient option for a quick lunch and wouldn’t mind dropping in anytime. Chor Bizarre: I don’t like the service there much and find it rather lackadaisical. The best way to avoid the service IMO is the buffet.
I’ll try your suggest the next time I’m there.
@Amit: If you ever do to go to Spice Mall again to dine your best bet is More Than Parathas (located in the food court). They have a wide menu and extremely good, value-for-money fare. Must try their non-veg stuffed parathas, and their masala chhachh is better than what I’ve tasted at most Punjabi Dhabas.
@Kanika: Thanks for writing in!!
Well, I did try them once, but then, I happen to be a Punjabi, and paranthas are a staple food whenever I’m home. Though More Than Paranthas are good, their price hurts a bit. But I haven’t tried their non-veg paranthas. Next on my list when I go to Spice Mall!!
@ruvin:… the khaaja chowk buffet in sector 18 is good value for money too.
I dont agree to Mr Amit .
Food and beverage at spice is above average (if not excellent)..My client sfrom abroad were more than happy with the indian food.I have been there with family often and It is a value for money and service .Perhaps one should visit again
@Deepak: Thank you for your feedback. Definitely we would be paying another visit to Spice Circle soon, and the review would be published one more time, as an add-on to this one.
hey…its riduculous. It got ambience n space that no other restaurant in noida have and food is quite good. Moreover, chilly honey potato is awesome. No other bar give you 1 plus 1 offer except this…
I have been there and liked everything about them as my first experience.
I was little sceptic because havent heard much about this place.
The portions were quite large and chilly crispy vegetables was awesome.
one of my friend had WowDining Card (visit http://www.wowdining.com ) so we got 50% discount as well.
Good time we had,
-Priya