Spices Indian Restaurant (Wollaton, Nottingham)

'Spices' in Wollaton opened on November 2003. The adverts in local nottingham papers promise you'll experience the cooking of a well recognised chef, Renu Miah, who'd been the in the business for 20 years. Heralding it as the long awaited addition to Wollaton's range of eateries (it's already to home to the fantastic 'Mr Mans'). An unusual promise made was that of secure parking for customers. This is a good selling point - the thought of what thieves ...
...poppadoms can put you off your main course.

We have always booked over the phone on the day and usually manage to get a table for two at 7 or 8pm on a Saturday which isn't bad. I do wonder though quite what this means - either they tend to hit capacity later on or that they are struggling to get people to travel to Wollaton Vale for their Saturday night curry.

The restaurant is in a 'Rotunda' or round style building ... more

'Spices' in Wollaton opened on November 2003. The adverts in local nottingham papers promise you'll experience the cooking of a well recognised chef, Renu Miah, who'd been the in the business for 20 years. Heralding it as the long awaited addition to Wollaton's range of eateries (it's already to home to the fantastic 'Mr Mans'). An unusual promise made was that of secure parking for customers. This is a good selling point - the thought of what thieves are doing to your car whilst you munch on your poppadoms can put you off your main course.

We have always booked over the phone on the day and usually manage to get a table for two at 7 or 8pm on a Saturday which isn't bad. I do wonder though quite what this means - either they tend to hit capacity later on or that they are struggling to get people to travel to Wollaton Vale for their Saturday night curry.

The restaurant is in a 'Rotunda' or round style building which my friends tell me used to be a pub but never did very well. It's easy to see why as it's not within walking distance of many houses. It is situated at the top of Wollaton Vale next to the five way junction with Bilborough Road. It's easy to spot from either direction as you travel to Wollaton Vale as it is well lit. On arrival you travel up a short driveway to the car park where reassuringly, a security guard is at the gate. The car park is large and well lit. From the car you can see into the huge windows of the restaurant.

The building was obviously newly refurbished on our first visit in January and still smelt of a combination of MDF and lovely curry by the time we visited in late August this year! Inside are the unusual curves of the Rotunda. The bar runs along the length of the restaurant with around 20 tables which are quite close to each other. There were a couple of more intimate tables towards the back. When we visited earlier in the year there was a subtle Indian soundtrack playing in the background that we hardly noticed -on our recent visit the music was much more intrusive. It sounded more like strange european traditional music and squealed in the background as we tried to chat! This probably isn't the place for an intimate conversation or romantic proposal as you will be seated very close to other customers.

The eating area is well air conditioned and the smokers were pretty unnoticable. The high ceilings help to keep the place light and airy. It is quite unusual to be in such a well lit indian restaurant with vast windows rather than the rich coloured dimly lit places you often find yourself sampling.

We were seated after a short wait in the reception area and given our menus. When I first visited there was a menu with a kind of photo gallery in the back of the proprieter with a rash of celebrities. He was pictured with Ruby Wax no less. The menus didn't feature this on our second visit but the cover of the menu is still decorated with the names of celebrity patrons of his other restaurants and included Eddie Izzard. If this was all true I'd be very impressed. Of course the menu also included the range of dishes of offer which were all very reasonably priced. This backed up the advert's claim that "You don't need to be rich and famous to enjoy good taste". There is a wide vegetarian selection and a good choice of portion sizes.

As with many Curry places, this may not fit in precisely with any of the current fad diets any one of us might be on at any one time! On our first visit we had a pickles tray, a lamb balti, a chicken balti, a side order of Saag Aloo, several beers and coke and finished off with an ice cream dessert each. It all came to around £35 for the two of us which was fabulous.

On our second visit we ordered a little more! Shared pickles tray, a shared starter of kebabs, onions bajis and tandoori chicken, to main courses (a prawn bhuna and a chicken jalfezi). with dessert, coffee and drinks for both of us, the bill was around £50 which we were again very impressed with.

The attention to detail was very impressive. I always say you can tell a lot about a curry house by the state of the pickles tray. For example 'Jee Ja Jees' in Derby prepare theirs fresh themselves and have their own unique recipes for each pickle. On the other hand many restaurants seem to go to the cash and carry and buy in the standard takeaway versions which are instantly recognisable. 'Spices' produced a pickle tray to beat even Jee Ja Jees. Rather than the bright red onion pickle often served up we were presented with an obviously fresh onion pickle with fresh coriander which banged out fragrance. The poppadoms were light and crispy. I even enjoyed the other pickles which I usually avoid - the mango chutney and the tangy lime pickle. The peshwari naans were so soft, sweet and obviously fresh.

The curries are served in the usual metal plates and bowls on tealight heaters. The Nan breads are ridiculously huge and fluffy - delicious but very bad for you! You could clearly identify fresh ingredients in the curries rather than a generic mush. They love coriander and there's load of it scattered fresh over each dish.

The dessert range was pretty standard (a menu produced by a specialist dessert caterer for the restauarnt trade). For dessert we ordered a coconut ice-cream served in a real coconut shell (obviously from a branded catering firm but of good quality) and and orange sorbet served in an real orange skin. Neither of us managed to finish the desserts as they were very sweet and filling (Plus we'd pigged out on courses!)

The staff aren't very talkative but are very professional. They don't seem to spend time chatting to diners about the menu which I sometimes appreciate. Particularly on our second visit we had real trouble attracting their attention to order drinks and courses. This ideal if you find some restaurants over fussy but annoying if you enjoy friendly enthusiastic servce.

All in all it was a really pleasant meal with quality ingredients and a relaxing atmosphere. It didn't seem to attract families, more young professional couples (not sure if I want to be classed in that bracket or not!!). It is far enough from town and local rough pub to most likely avoid the midnight lager boys ordering the hottest bloomin' thing on the menu.

The restaurant doesn't seem to have a website so here's the details if you want to book:

Tel: 0115 9855236

They're open daily from 6pm.

 

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