Spice Sutra Restaurant & Cafe

This one is a hidden gem surely... they make great north indian food and the Indian chinese food. the ones i had

Chicken Mansurian was awesome

Fish Jhalfrezi was awesome

Panner Tikka was ok, as expected

Gobi manchurian was good.

Kashmiri Naan was a letdown as it was just naan with jam spread over it.

must mention the service in this place is great and the manager Ranjeet takes special care. There is a pretty lady by name of Viva who is smiling and quick to cater to your needs. i have already booked this place for my child's bday soon! 

Its 10 min walking distance from marymount MRT, and could be the only reason why people dont know much about it...

I've been benefitting from reviews for so long and finally decided to get on board. Particularly for this place. The food IS good and it is very good value. However, there were only 2-3 tables occupied today and it was a Sat night!

It was a nicely done up place, unpretentious but very nice. I felt a bit awkward as I was wearing flip flops. But it is still a "neighbourhood" joint.

I felt it is only fair that I give a fair comment here otherwise this place won't last!

The food is good. We had the mixed grill which was very well done. It was grilled "just nice". Still juicy but with the distinct "grilled" taste. The butter curry and that dish with spinach and cottage cheese was spot on.

The naan was good, if only a few pieces were a touch oilier than I like but it was yummy. My dining companions all enjoyed it and they have high standards.

It is good food at good value. I've paid a lot more for lower quality northern Indian.

Came here on a Thursday night for dinner. The restaurant is tucked in a small corner and not very obvious from the road, that's probably why there were no other diners that day.

Service is outstanding, the waiter attended to us immediately and laid napkins on our laps as we got into our seats, he also suggested dishes suitable for us and advised us not to order too much. The interior is quite dark, candlelit tables give the restaurant a romantic feel. We were served a starter of pappadum crackers which came with the mint yoghurt dip and chopped onions. Seeing we had finished our plate, the waiter replaced it with a fresh plate, showing the high quality of the service.

We ordered the mix grill ($15.80) at half the normal size as advised by the waiter, together with vegetables in gravy (Rogani Sabzi, $10.90) to go with the naans (a garlic naan and a kashmiri naan, $3.90 each). The grill was just enough for three, with nicely charred pieces of chicken, mutton, fish and prawns. Some of the meat was a little dry though.

The Rogani Sabzi was surprisingly quite a large dish despite the small bowl it was presented in and the gravy went well with the naans. The garlic naan has just the right amount of garlic, not too overpowerering while the kashmiri naan was nicely sweet with cherries that added a different taste to balance the gravy. The naans came out just nice, crispy on the outside and warm and soft inside but they should be quickly eaten as after a while they become a bit tough to the bite.

We also ordered two desserts, the mango ice cream (Kulfi, $4.90) and carrot dessert (Gajjar Haluwa, 4.90) to end off the meal. The ice cream was quite unique, presented in small cubes with bits of nuts and spices inside. The carrot dessert was not much to my liking but something different from the usual dessert. It was warm cooked carrot chopped and added to some sweet sauce, the taste was a bit out of the ordinary though.

In all, we paid $30 as we were given a voucher that gave us 15% discount as well as free desserts, which was quite a reasonable sum. The waiter also helped us sign up for the VIP card which gives the same privileges. I think the food is really good for the price and its really a pity so few diners patronize the restaurant.

Lured by the one-for-one main course promotion, we headed down to Spice Sutra for dinner. This promo is available only for U card/ Uplus card members and you have to bring along the coupon printed from this site -http://www.ntuc.org.sg/mails/justu_090603/Jul_ecoupon.pdf

Hidden within the row of shop houses at the Thomson Imperial Court, its pallid countenance is completely overshadowed by its neighbours with the absence of glitzy neon lights and eye catching signage. It was so obscured, that my dining partner walked past the restaurant without even realizing it. However, once inside the restaurant, you’ll be charmed by bright elephant motifs encircling the wall, vibrant colours and its cozy ambience.

The menu is comprehensive and categorized into starters, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, mains, rice, naans, soups, desserts and drinks. Each item is painstakingly described in details so you know what goes into the dish. However, we found it too wordy and thought that a smattering of pictures would best describe the chef recommendations at one glance.

Most of us would have tasted the masala dishes at one time or another and so we wanted to try the prawn luziza instead. However, the service staff seemed to discourage this dish, emphasizing that “it’s a sweet dish” which we might not take a shine to. Hence, we followed his advice and ordered the prawn masala ($17.90) instead which he assured that was not a spicy dish. We also ordered another of his recommendation which was the fish curry ($14.90).

Since there were no pictures, we did not know what portion size to expect. It did not help that we were the only customers at the restaurant through out the evening and so there were absolutely no reference point. I was slightly taken aback when both dishes arrived as the portions seem rather small. There were approximately 7 small prawns for the prawn masala aside from just a handful of onions and tomato. The spiciness of the sauce hits you as soon as you take a sip and it was no wonder cos there were black pepper and young green chilli added. Compared to this dish, the fish curry which had a single chilli rating on the menu was milder. The curry was gooey and aromatic but then again, the meagre pieces of fish fillets marred the enjoyment a little.

Both sauces went extremely well with the garlic naan ($3.90) we ordered. Their naan is a must try as its slightly crispy on one side while the insides remain soft and fluffy. Our advice is not to be over zealous in ordering the carbos to leave more stomach space for other dishes. As we were pondering what to order next, the staff informed that we are eligible for another free main as the naans are considered a main itself.

Curiosity got the better of us and we ordered the prawn luziza ($17.90) to try. This was basically prawn suffused with cashew nut gravy and it tasted very much like satay sauce albeit a spicier version. The sweet nutty sauce makes a deceptive entrance on your taste buds before the spices made their presence felt at the back of your tongue. We unanimously agreed that this was the best sauce amongst the 3 we have tried and we wonder why the staff kept discouraging us from ordering it.

Even though we were quite stuffed by then, we did not want to leave without trying their desserts. We decided to be adventurous and ordered the Indian ice cream ($4.90) which turned out to be a great mistake. The texture was very much like “potong ice cream”, except that it tasted both sweet and saltish. It was way too quirky for our liking and we decided to give up after a few spoonfuls. Quite a waste actually, considering it was not cheap at $4.90 per little bowl.

As in other one-for-one promos, only the lower value dishes will be waived and in our case, we were charged for both the higher priced prawn dishes. Throw in the horrible ending dessert, our bill including taxes was $44.75. On hindsight, we would have been more savvy in our choices if we were told right from the start that the vegetarian, the naans and rice dishes are also considered “mains” under the promo. Without the promo, we consider it a tad pricey in terms of the portions. Nevertheless, the lunch sets seemed to be more value for money judging from the other reviews. If you hanker for a quiet evening with whole place to yourself, you might want to try this place on weekdays.

Must try!! So light... First time to eat full meal with Indian food.. Normally I cant take Indian food, bec to spicy... I always burppp after trying a bit of indian food from other place.... i piggy bag some of it... and eat the next day...

Thank goodness some of the reviews said the restaurant was empty so I knew what to expect when I walked in. I have had much more mediocre food & paid just as much if not more at other places in Singapore. So it is rather confusing why there are not more patrons ?

The food is good. I travelled to India enough times to know that this passed muster. I also found something that is not always offered at other restaurants - romali roti or hankerchief bread. Hey if you are on a low carb diet but still die die must have a little with all the curry - this is it. No compliants here.

I also ate lady's fingers! Not my favourite veggie so it really has to be well prepared in order for me to take a few helpings which I did.

The slight disappointment was the battered cauliflower in curry. As my friend said, "hey I couldn't figure out after awhile what was the flour & what was the veg". So I think this needs some work or else that away the thumb sign to indicate this as a recommendation.

Service was fine. The waiter was kind enough to deter us from over-ordering. I think this is very good as other restaurants would not care that much if they wanted to make more $$.

What I hope they will try to figure out is the pricing for their beers. A bit expensive. And what is curry without a beer ? Help

We were too full for dessert so that'll have to wait. But we did have a sweet ending - a pleasant surprise with 15% off our bill (not previously advertised).

Was looking for a quickie lunch after a massage, and since this restaurant was just a few shops away. I thought I'll give it a try.

Mind you, I did not have much expectations for this place (went without consulting HGW) There was this couple sitting there when I went in. considering it was smack in the middle of lunch hour, on a working day, I was ashamed to say that I immediately concluded the food wasn't much to talk about..

There was the ala-carte menu, set lunch (vegetarian and non-vegetarian). well. I like my naan, and palek paneer but that's the limit of my cuisine knowledge. So set lunch it was. chose non-vegetarian. There was a lot of choices... appetizers (chicken or fish kebab); curry (chicken or fish); rice (saffron, plain and something else..); naan (plain, butter, garlic and one more)... ; dessert ( 3 choices, cannot spell or even pronounce it)

suffice to say, i was overwhelmed.

Did not want any rice, so opted for butter naan, chicken kebab, fish curry and one dessert (asked for recommendations, so ended up with an orange shredded warm clump, herein called "orange shreds")

They even served papadom for appetizers.. i had 3 -4 big pieces (to myself). normal food courts gave like 1 piece, and others sell these in a pack costing $1!!

OK... now i'm thinking.. this ain't bad.. (gonna bring hubby here one day, he's a sucker for papadom)

Then the platter descended on me.. It turns out the set lunch includes all items that was listed in the menu. I sorta assumed that I chose 1 appetiser, 1 main and 1 dessert and that's it.. but all in the set lunch menu was included!! 3 x appetisers + 3 x main + 1 dessert

so for appetiser, there was the yoghurt, salad and tandoori chicken (2 pcs), mains were fish curry ; lentil curry (? not sure if this is what it's called) and 4 pcs of naan. dessert was the orange shreds, which didn't look very appetising, so I left it for last. All except the naan was served in small bowls.

The tandoori chicken was juicy, fish curry was good (fish fillet, no bones), naan was delicious (not dry at all), I was stuffed... Couldn't finish the naan, gave up after 2nd piece... After stuffing myself, i decided to try the dessert.. (??!!) it was great! argh, now i regret not saving some more stomach space... ate like half, and gave up.. that's about it

All these was at a value of $13.09 ($11.90++!)

what wasn't good.. hmm.. nothing? maybe ambience was a bit quiet, but i'm not complaining...

I found this restaurant through HGW website – and was pleasantly surprised. We visited on what would have normally been a busy Friday eve, and the place was empty (maybe due to the general state of the economy this Apr 09). Anyway I’d strongly recommend to anyone looking for good & somewhat unusual Indian food do visit and support Spice Sutra.

We had some of the usual fare: Daal (yellow), wonderful paratha and Naan (garlic); but then ventured into Mutton Briyani and the Chicken Curry. The Briyani was refreshingly spicy and was well balanced by the Chicken.

I’d have to honestly say that this was one of the best northern Indian meals we’ve had in Singapore. The service had to be exceptional (we were alone!); both the main room’s waiter and the kitchen staff were most helpful. The atmosphere was as exciting as a strip mall cellblock – but that’s soon forgotten with the good food.

Give a try…

Hi All,

After reading a bit about this restaurant, I made it last week.


Customer service is at its best in this place.Rest follows as other friend's reviews here.

Cheers.

this is my first ever food review on my first ever camera....
i hope i don't offend anyone or anything...
here goes...

1. i think this place is a bit difficult to miss because the shop's display lights are not very bright. but it's the same row as thomson community centre and it's only a few shops away...

2. i think the setting of the restaurant is great! they paid attention to every detail. right after we sat down, the waiter lighted a candle for us. on this elephant candle holder thing. which is really exotic and beautiful. the lights are very warm and romantic. even the songs they play in the background are romantic love songs.
=)

3. the service is the best. i commented on the great service and the manager said that he tells his staffs to never leave an empty glass on the table. my water has never been refilled so many times! i also heard a girl choking on the other table and a waitress instantly went over to offer help. really good

4. food wise - really good. i've tried a lot of north indian restaurant. but i have to say the naan here is the best! and they have a wide variety of different types of naan. i wanted to try everything but was too full. i've yet to come back and try more things and i will comment again. chicken mansuri is also really yummy. i ended up eating more than half of it.

5. i asked the waiter if i could take pictures of the restaurant and he let me!! so nice. sadly, the place is not very populated yet because it's still very new. only 3 months old....

6. anyone can eat at this restaurant. because it's halal. however, they sell alcohol so there's no halal sign...
they also cater to vegetarian. so everyone can eat here.

and that's the end of my review. i hope you guys enjoy eating there as much as i did! i'm definitely going back there next week!
=)