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| Halal Malaysian and Thai Food In Hong Kong: Spice Restaurant |
Aaahh.. when the craving for other than halal indian dishes starts to hit you and you yearn for some Thai dishes, Spice is one restaurant you should check out. Granted it might be a bit daunting to go through that dark alley leading to Knutsford Terrace and your mind might start to wonder about all the dangerous things that might happen to you.. but fret not.. you will not be alone walking up that dark alley, apparently behind that alley is a building quite popular with the dinner crowd housing a few hip eateries. Yes, the building looks a bit weird and you wonder about its security but hey, it's owned by JLL so, I doubt that the tenants are dubious.
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| Knutsford Terrace: We almost missed the sign! |
We were quite glad that we decided to "brave" the alley and head for Spice Restaurant that evening, we were also very lucky that that evening wasn't the weekend cos wow is this place popular. When the staff asked whether we made any reservations or not, we were crossing our fingers that there will be a table for us. I guess that was just the dinner crowd cos as the evening passed (i.e. from 9pm onwards) there doesn't seem to be new patrons coming in.
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| Knutsford Terrace: The Alley |
The ambience of Spice Restaurant is very relaxing, nice music, dim lights and candles on the table, decor is Indian inspired but in a minimalistic and trendy style. Of course the dim lights means the food photos are bad :p Service is slow as in you have to wait long for your food, but the lady who served us was very nice and accommodating, when I ordered lemon tea and said that it was for the kids so don't make it too lemon-y she immediately offered to split the drink into 2 smaller glasses for my two sons. Another lady also served us but she was very serious looking and curt.
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| Halal Food in Hong Kong @ Spice Restaurant : The table setting |
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| Spice Restaurant : This was how dim it was..so pardon my food pics! |
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| Spice Resataurant: My kid playing walrus with his lemon tea :) |
That night, we decided to order Malaysian Satay, Tom Yum Goong, Curry Crab and plain rice and Phad Thai for the kids. Malaysian Satay came first, well, the meat was very generous but it didn't really tasted like Malaysian Satay, the spices used are milder tasted more like marinated beefs on sticks, it was nice but it was not satay. The peanut sauce is not too bad still a bit lacking of chilies and sugar.
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| Halal Food in Hong Kong: Our Malaysian Satay |
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| Hong Kong Halal Food : Our Tom Yum Goong |
Tom Yum Goong and rice came next, and boy was the tom yum fiery. The first thing that hit your tastebud is its zing, and after you have overcome that then you will come to appreciate its sour and creamy taste. Next came Phad Thai, it was meant for the kids so we asked them to omit the chilies, bean sprouts and what nots. The Phad Thai was tomato-ish and sweet. Although, I think the prawns were a bit too little in numbers. Finally, after a super long wait, came the crabs. It was a big mistake ordering the crabs not because it tasted bad, but because it was such a hassle eating crabs with fork and spoon. Plus, you don't feel comfortable attacking the crabs with your bare hands in such a restaurant :p So, yeah, even though the curry crab was a delicious dish, we didn't enjoy it that much cos of the hassle.
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| Halal Hong Kong: Our Phad Thai |
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| Halal Food Hong Kong: Our Curry Crabs |
I must add though that this restaurant makes a good masala tea, way better than The Great Indian Kebab Factory at Miramar Shopping Centre. The Masala Tea comes in a pot and serves two. We ate at this restaurant only once mainly because of the price (our dinner costed about slightly less than HKD400). Crowd consisted of mainly tourists or professionals entertaining clients -I think-
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| Jalan-jalan Hong Kong: Aaaahhh.. Masala Tea.. my fave :) |
On the way back, while trying to get a cab, we passed by a small fruit shop and stock up on some fruits for our next day breakfast :)
Spice Restaurant is at 2/F, 1 Knutsford Terrace, Tsim Tsa Shui. Map of Spice Restaurant:
salam and good day salmah.i'm sue. planning to visit HK next month. thanked god i just found your review about this restaurant cos it seem that no one review about this spice restaurant.by the way, can i know, what is the exact walking time from the nearest MTR stop from this restaurant?since i'm travelling with my two kids which is so fussy about walking too far..;-)
ReplyDeleteSalam Sue,
DeleteThank you for taking time to leave a comment. Are you familiar with google maps? If you click on "view larger map" in blue, you will be redirected to Google maps, and then you click on "Get Directions" (top left hand corner) and click on the "walking man" icon just below it. You will be able to get estimated time to destination on foot.
I keyed in for you, with Tsim Sha Tsui Station as starting point, it will take you around 10 minutes to walk to Knutsford Terrace. A bit too long for the kids, I think.
I am assuming you have the trustee of Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong's list of halal restaurants in Hong Kong? (It's not really very updated, its just meant to give you some reference but it helped us a lot)
Plus Spice Restaurant price is on the high side, expect to pay around HKD400 and above for ala-carte dinner. Main course starts at HKD98.
Will you be going to Causeway Bay? Cos I didn't get to try indonesian restaurant "Warung Blitar" and "Warung Malang" maybe that is another option for non-indian halal restaurant in Hong Kong?
For easy access to halal food at Nathan Road, Chung King Mansion is the best bet, but its not five star.. sidique block A 6th floor and Gourmet Alladin (paratha and thosai)9th Floor E block seems to get some good comments from this forum:
http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/hong-kongs-best-restaurants/threads/65244/best-indian-restaurant-in-hong-kong?/
All the best for your trip, btw are you planning for the dolphin watch? cos I missed the shuttle and would love to hear from you if you are going for it :)