Spice Oven

Excellent service, top notch interior design and atmosphere!
Money is well spent here with this buffet restaurant, a vast selection of unlimited main courses, starters and desserts are on offer. Well worth the travel, however found chicken in Tika Missala not best quality wise.

Whilst I can see the appeal of this place, and it does have some good points, it didn’t live up to the hype for me personally. We visited after reading a positive review in the local paper. Prior to that, I had presumed that as with any restaurant that attempts such a variety of cuisines, it would be a jack of all trades and master of none. It seems my initial thoughts were correct.
The restaurant itself is quite nice, and seems very bright and clean. It’s best suited to larger tables/​groups/​parties. I would probably visit again as part of a large group. However, for meals out where food is the focus, I wouldn’t go again.
We ordered draft beers and unfortunately, every one we had was flat. At £4 a pint, that’s just not on! Perhaps the bar staff member on the night needs a bit of training on how to pour a beer.
There is a broad selection of food, we tried the Indian and chinese dishes. The highlights are the starters, the crispy duck and pancakes, and the chinese chicken in black bean sauce. However, they were no better than from a good chinese restaurant and I wouldn’t pay the prices charged in this place just to eat those items though. Also, they ought to bottle the hot chilli sauce next to the starter table — that really was delicious!
As curry lovers, we were quite disappointed with the Indian food and if we wanted a curry, we’d go to a curry house where the food is much better.
Overall I think it’s a nice idea and it would be great if it was a bit cheaper but for the price of the food and drinks, it’s just not that good.

Four stars because I’ve only visited once on 29/​01/​2011.
The Spice Oven is over twice the size of the average restaurant it’s big! When you walk towards the main part of the seating area, you pass a sweets counter on your right then over a bridge with Koi carp in the pool below. Straight ahead is the buffet counter.
You have the choice of the main menu or sampling samosas etc from the buffet. My girlfriend, a friend & I choose to go with the main menu. The first thing I noticed was some unfamiliar names such as Labab, Rari, Kozhambu & Xacuti a well as the more familiar ones such as Haandi, Achari & Jalfrezi.
My friend had Vegetable Paneer Labab, we had Chicken Rara & Chicken Tikka Achaari. An Aubergine Spinach, one Pulao Rice & a Peshawari nan completed the food to share.
My first sample was the Chicken Rara that had a thick diced onion sauce & tasted quite spectacular & not too hot. The sag dish wasn’t overcocked & had the texture of lightly cooked spinach & was very tasty. The rest was also good, although I liked the Chicken Tikka Achaari the last probably because it tasted too much like lime pickle which it is supposed to taste of! Both vegetarians & Vegans are well catered for.
Edited June 2013
Went Dec 2012 now buffet only & rather poor. This once great Indian curry house has gone down market where quantity has priority over quality. The choice of curries is good but they are all rather overcooked & not exactly fresh!
Not only curries but Chinese, Thai so a good selection if you are starving. Service is good the containers get refilled regularly enough. They also do puddings lots & lots of puddings! Drops from 4 to 2 stars. Not in any hurry to return.