City Spice

Walking along Brick Lane we ended up in City Spice as we were offered a free bottle of wine by the guy outside and we were celebrating my friends birthday.
As a curry connoisseur I was really excited to try somewhere on this stretch. Unfortunately once we were inside the service was pretty poor. It was difficult to get the attention of staff and we were waiting around 45 minutes for our food. We weren’t given any recommendations on food and the waiter didn’t appear to know the menu very well.
That said I ordered a peshwari nan and chef speciality jalfrezi and the food was pretty tasty! The curry had lovely flavours and was quite spicy which I love. It was a decent portion size and the price was reasonable given the free alcohol. Can’t compare it to other curry houses on this stretch but the food was decent… just a shame about the service as it would make me reluctant to go back!

Unlike other reviews, we found the food to be very tasty. The cheese /​garlic naan was a let down, being what appeared to be a garlic naan with greasy cheddar melted on top (i poured the oil off of the bread).
The staff’s knowledge of their menu’s ingredients makes it easier to dine for those with dietary requirements other than mine (beer, meat, spice!)… As others comment, the staff mostly felt cold and wanted us out asap, on a pretty empty Wednesday eve.
Food was good though.

Let’s face it, I went in there as we were being offered a free bottle of house wine and 20% discount on our bill. It was 3 of us and we paid £41 and we had a lot of food!
For this price in a restaurant, you don’t expect gourmet cuisine. The food was OK. It was a bit on the bland side — I did expect a spicier Madras — but overall it was pleasant enough apart from the cheese nan which seemed to be a nan with melted cheese on top.
Our waiter was nice enough, not over friendly and not pushing us to hurry up.

This is most likely the worst Indian in the entire London, rushed into the place and hastily seated then not left alone to read the menu card. The waiter blindsided us with chatter to which majority was mumbled and not understood. After asking to give some time alone to read the card he continued to hover the table making a feeling of rush and uneasiness. After making a decision we waited 30 minutes for food. One of our tables meals was burnt to a point there was no meat remaining. The other meal was swimming in oil. We then called the waiter over and informed him butter chicken is not yellow and it is swimming in oil he then informed us that’s because it’s butter and when butter melts it forms oil. To this waiter butter chicken is made on a tomato base therefore should not swim in oil nor be yellow. The korma and butter chicken tasted the same and looked the same. The tiki masala was burnt as mentioned before. When informing the waiter that it was burnt he told us that’s because it comes from a clay oven and he did not want to remake the meal after forcing him to remake it it not only came out a different colour and style of curry but meat was then red in the middle and underdone. Overall extreme was filled woth bad service and attitude when questioned about the poor standard of food and to top it off speaking in Indian to the other service members about how the table is full of «idiots» I would not return and would strongly not recommend this restaurant. Remember not to insult your clients when they can hear you.

Here is a very overdue and more recent review about this restaurant for any considering this restaurant: please read!
I was too late in looking at these reviews before my colleague and I ordered and understood what we got ourselves into. Don’t waste your money and taste buds here. The food is bland and service took super long before we got our food. We were disappointed even in the naan! Our food must have been sitting in the kitchen for a while because there was a film on the food when they brought it out. We ordered butter chicken, lamb biriyani, cauliflower pakora (no taste and super oily), and Bangladesh thali and some dal. None of it will remind you of any authentic Bangladeshi or Indian restaurant you’ve ever been to.
Seriously, don’t be convinced by the street hagglers telling you to come in or be fooled with the banner outside saying they won a master chef award. There’s no way they could have won. And the warmth of the staff is lacking — you will realize all they want is your money in the end, just like we did.

Curries are fairly ordinary, not much flavour or heat. Even worse: there is NO WINE LIST, just a choice between house red or house white, both of which are heavily watered down. Skip this place.

Average to slightly below average. My lady and I were coerced into this restaurant by the offer of a free bottle of wine and 20% off the bill. Ambience is nice enough and the waiters are fine. Some of the dipping sauces that came with the appetizer were just rancid. Not spoiled or anything, mind you. I can appreciate how there’s no accounting for taste; that said, the spicy, pickled sauce made me want to boot.
The entrees were so so. Nothing special, not too flavorful or even spicy. The free wine was also so so, a bit dull and perhaps watery. (The bottle was open when the waiter brought it to our table and I really hope they didn’t dilute it.) Average serving sizes, a factor that is important to those people who equate serving size with value. I’m not one of those people, per se, but when food quality is lacking I do think the restaurant should make up for it in quantity.
When we got our bill the 20% had NOT been taken out; I informed the server of his oversight and he quickly corrected it. I don’t have any real problems with City Spice, but I’ll be trying out a new place the next time I go to Brick Lane.

There are so many curry houses on Brick Lane that it can be hard to choose with one to plump for. On a Saturday in early August I was part of a group of intrepid Unilocalers who took over a sizeable portion of the restaurant.
The BYOB policy meant that we had a table overflowing with wine, beer and food. I had my usual chicken tikka masala order which was slightly bland compared with other curry houses in London. Overall City Spice ranks just below Eastern Eye in (my personal) league table of Brick Lane.

Lovely Brick Lane food. This place is Bangladeshi, but also serves all the traditional dishes. I went native & had Shatkora (it’s a fruit) chicken. Fantastic flavors. My lovely companion had the Vegetable Thali, which was fine, but it’s probably worth getting a separate order of Naan bread, as the portions included were seemingly a bit stale/​dry. Overall, still quite a treat!

My Vegetable Thali was okay, at best. It came with naan which had seen better days (perhaps the day before?). The raita tasted like straight-​up yogurt. It came with saag, a dal, and a few others. Tasted fine, but not as good as I’ve had elsewhere. I think the lesson learned is to not order a thali, since the small portions might warrant less fresh servings. Neighboring tables had beautiful looking naan. There was a gentleman out front soliciting customers just like the other restaurants on Brick Lane. Admittedlyl he was wearing a jacket that was both sharp and stylish.

My food was fine if a little bland. The daal, and sag paneer were both really flavourless which is unusual for both dishes. On the evening I thought the service was fine, friendly and to the point.
Though having realised on the way home I had foolishly left my umbrella behind and too late to call I set a reminder to do so the next day. On calling I was told there was no umbrella. Though I realise I left it behind and that they have no obligation to look after my discarded goods. This said it seems odd as it was definitely there and I can’t have seen a random stranger taking it, from the back of the restaurant behind a door where the staff suggested I put it.
For this reason alone I can only give it 2 stars. Otherwise it would have got a 3 or 4.

Im not sure about this restaurant. The food was nice enough but im no curry conissiour. While they are all haggling out front for customers then turned me away when i was early and told me the table was booked for 7 not 6.30pm i was not impressed and after getting soaked from the rain went back by 6.30pm was told my friends are here and I could come in. is this the only area in London without a pub nearby? The service was friendly enough inside and waiters added chairs as needed and water on the tables. i thought the food was expensive considering there is so much competition on Brick Lane and we brought our own wine. We started with popodums with all the condiments but the sweet sauces were too sweet and the salty sauces were too salty. like they had no recipe and were just thrown together. i had a chicken chilli madras that was a bit dry, it cost £8.95 and then you need to buy rice for 1 which is £2.95. also had a couple of side dishes. over all I enjoyed my meal but I had high expectations and again im no curry expert. I was full and content when i left though. This includes having a bottle of wine and good company as well.

Not Closed. We chose this place specifically because it was the only restaurant on Brick Lane that did not have aggressive, annoying touts outside trying to lure people in. Yet it was busy and the prices were the same and we had a nice, white tablecloth, non hassle experience. The food was very good, despite the urban myth that, like Chinatown in NYC there is just one underground kitchen for all the restaurants.

Pretty sure this place is not closed, I went there a week ago, when I was visiting London.
After walking down brick lane and trying to pick an Indian restaurant to eat at, we were overwhelmed and frankly annoyed. Brick lane is a street with pretty much only Indian restaurants and in front of each one is a hawker trying to get you to eat there. «Come in, free drinks, 20% your entire bill» «free bottle of wine 25% off, come in!», ahhhhhh, pretty much my worst nightmare. We walked to the end of the street to regroup and saw some people walking by and decided to ask them if they had a recommendation on a restaurant. They said they had just come from City Spice and said that it was really good, so we decided to go.
The place was packed, so we figured we had made a good choice. We were seated in the basement where there were a lot of people, we decided to order Samosa, Chicken Tikka Kabob, Chicken Tikka Masala, Naan, a lentil dish & Some spicy chili chicken, we figured it would be enough food for all of us.
The service was super slow and this one server kept dropping glasses and screwing up, he also was the one that took our order and spoke horrible English.
We waited forever for our food and finally when it came, there wasn’t much of it. Everything was greasy, they brought us the wrong dish for the somosa and overall we were disappointed. The only thing that was good was the Naan (it was really good and came out hot), which we ended up ordering 3 more orders of.
Overall, not cheap, not good and bad service, I would not recommend!

Is this place really closed? I had dinner here on Monday and the menus still said City Spice. We were offered a free round of drinks (beer or wine) and 20 percent off our bill.
I thought their food was pretty good, but I wasn’t a fan of how they reuse the little bowls with the sauces. We had a shrimp and a lamb dish along with a side of naan and rice.

Not bad, food ok, was a bit cold on arrival waiters could have been a bit more friendly but on the whole not bad

City Spice — or Shampan II — not sure if it just changed the name or the owner.
What a shame — the food was good, but the service was unacceptable. We went there with a group of seven people. We ordered drinks, and asked for some tab water as well. They refused to bring it and pointed to the mineral water bottles on the table — which are of course not free of charge. After a while we asked again, but they didn’t react. And again. Finally they brought us a jug with WARM water. Many thanks for that.
When we got the plates, I’ve got a dirty one. I’ve refused to take it, so the waiter just used a towel to wipe it «clean». I’ve refused again, he went away, and brought exactly the same plate again. Many thanks for that.
The waiter was very rude in general.
The food was good.

Nooooooooooo This place is no longer the well loved City Spice and is now called Shampan II. Really?! Did you need to do that? Really!
I loved City spice when it was open, it was voted by Time Out as one of the top curry houses in the area. They had a BYO policy when it came to booze which mean that no matter how few pennies you had in your student bank account you could always get something hot and spicy goodness to fill your tummy. They had a brilliant veggie selection and some fantastic specials.
Actually one of the funniest things ever was when I took Helen W here, and she’s not a curry fan. She ordered the special and half way through eating I ask her what she was doing. «I’m only eating the green beans in this as it’s just too spicy» At this point I can’t breathe, let alone talk for all the laughter, she was just eating the long green chillis and her face was getting redder and redder.
Best night out ever!

Ummm, newp.
Even at the Drunky McStumbles stage of our evening, six discerning Unilocal customers were unimpressed with the small portions and dud-​tastic flavours of City Spice.
It’s a good thing we bartered for a round of free drinks because at £15 per head, we needed that extra booze to numb the thought that we were essentially paying for some nan and three bites of curry.
(Although I will say — hats of to the nan chef! There’s nothing I like more than some piping hot naaaaaannnnn coming to the table at rapid fire speeds. 5-​stars for you.)

Bricklane. every restaurant bartering with you to eat at theirs. but how do you know which one to choose?! I have lived in the area for over four years so it is fair to say I have sampled quite a few! There are a list of four that are delicious. City Spice is one of them! As you walk in the curry house doors you are always hit with that aromatic mouth-​watering smell. Sitting either upstairs if there is two to six of you; situated on a corner you have good views of the street and all the activity. However if you are a larger group they have wonderful large round tables downstairs — perfect for a party! Bring Your own Wine (BYO) is an option making it a very inexpensive night out with a group of fiends!
The exciting part… the food! The Thali is my absolute favourite! You can select it in either meat, seafood or vegetarian. It is a dish with three small pots of three different curries; Nan bread and one other side e.g. spring roll or a piece of chicken. It is perfect — you feel like you are having the best of all worlds as three different flavours but in smaller portions! Just delicious. Remember to always order pompadoms — so much fun breaking them up and dipping them into the selection of dips! Enjoy.

In Brick Lane, this is for me one of the best Indian restaurants.
It’s not expensive at all, you can go with a lot of friends celebrating a birthday as they’ll prepare big tables downstairs.
The staff is really really nice and they will replace your food without problem if it doesn’t look like you thought.
With the note, they always give you chocolate with an orange flavour but very light that it’s just delicious and it’s like a dessert after the spicy meal.
I really like sag paneer because it’s not spicy like the rest and also they’ve got peshwary nans which are fantastic thanks to the mix of almond and coconut.