Chilli & Spice Bondi, Sydney

User Reviews of Chilli & Spice, Bondi

Displaying: 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

1.5 Not Recommended

Food 2 Ambience 1 Service 1 Value 2

Do not order delivery from this restaurant! They have the poorest service I have experienced in years! Not once, but twice (after giving them the benefit of the doubt) they had problems with delivering our order. Both times they called us after it was prepared and by the time we received it, our meals were cold. They did apologize but we will not be returning and are very disappointed.

May 26, 2012

usuallypatient
1

7.3 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 5 Service 8 Value 8

From the street you can see garish flashing lights. To get access you walk up a short flight of stairs and through a glass sliding door. We just stumbled upon this place while trawling along Bondi Rd at 7.00pm on a Sat night looking for somewhere to eat and the lights caught our attention.

We were also encouraged to dine here by the 3-course offer for $20, which was even available on a Sat night (normally these kinds of deals are reserved for the graveyard shift between Mon-Thurs nights).

There were a few empty tables which was just as well for us as we hadn’t made a booking and it was about 80% full. By the time we left 1 ½ hours though, later we were the last guests.

It’s a rather non-descript place with a Spartan layout. Plain wooden furniture, wooden floors and bare walls. This just gives new meaning to the expression “no frills”. Best (or worst) are the toilets! There are no signs pointing the way. You walk out a dirty white door down a grotty corridor until you see a door marked “Gents” (or “Ladies” depending on your gender). There I found a single remnant of a bar of soap, no hand towels and the dryer out of action with cord hanging dangerously loose.

Nothing to point the way back to the restaurant. I couldn’t find the door and was about to send out an SOS when luckily another diner walked out into the corridor and I followed his trail back to the restaurant.

So I guess these guys aren’t paying too much attention to these sorts of things. They may think it’s not important but to diners like me it is. No matter how good the food or the service, we won’t come back to a place where toilets lack basic provisions and are hard to find.

The service and food though there were a pleasant surprise. The sole waitress was delightful. Despite being under pressure, she remained calm, pleasant and friendly. And so did the polite gent who brought out the meals even though he struggled a bit with English. Perhaps, this is a family business.

Three of us dined and we ordered two $20 banquets and a dish of Bhindi which are okra pieces sautéed with onion and spice. We kicked off the banquets with serves of vegetable samosas and onion bhaji. Two pieces of each, they were sensational. The samosas had a light crispy coating with a fine texture, lightly fried with a creamy filling. The pieces of onion bhaji were small and delicate with a firm, chewy texture.

For mains we choose the lamb saag and butter chicken. The lamb was well cooked with just enough sauce to give it that perfect flavour but not so much as to drown it. The butter chicken was tender and flavoursome. The Bhindi was a bit of a disappointment as it was too spicy. All that came with a huge plate of rice. We ordered a serve of Bombay potatoes and plain naan to beef it all up.

Everything was fresh and nicely presented in little silver bowls. The banquets included dessert so I chose my fav Gulab Jamun. It was just a small piece but soft and sweet. My friend chose mango kulfi ice cream and even though our third guest didn’t order the banquet, they still brought her an ice cream dessert free of charge which I thought was a nice touch!

All up we paid $90, and that included four soft drinks and two Kingfisher beers. Now that’s good value in these straightened times.

But if these guys want to increase business they better start to improve the overall dining experience by sprucing the place up a bit and putting on at least one extra staff member at busy times.

Apr 07, 2012

artforartssake
174

7.8 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 8 Service 8 Value 7

We visited Chilli & Spice with a voucher. We were delightfully pleased with our visit.

The voucher included: wine, papadum with tomato and onion salad and cucumber raita, chicken tikka, onion bhaji, 2 mains (mango chicken and lamb achari), naan, rice, and 2 desserts (mango and pistachio ice cream). We really enjoyed the flavors in all of the dishes. Everything was fresh and well prepared. The atmosphere was pleasant. The restaurant is spacious.

The service was great. The server kept us well informed and was friendly. The average price of meals appears to be about $15, which seems a bit high for the small servings of the mains. We had the voucher, so the cost was fantastic for us. However, we are willing to visit again and pay the menu price. We think the flavor, freshness, and quality is worth the cost.

Mar 26, 2012

suttonase
50

0 of 1 reader found the following review helpful

1.5 Not Recommended

Food 1 Ambience 2 Service 2 Value 1

Dirty kitchen, no one wore gloves, had only 1 type of beer and nothing else but it was a licenced restaurant. Do not go there you are wasting your time.

Jan 08, 2012