Spice Temple

My fiancé and I visited Spice temple for the second time, in a very long time. The restaurant creates an exotic ambiance from the very first moment you enter. The door has a large LED screen onto which is projected an Asian silk, billowing in the breeze.  You enter a flight of stairs that lead you to the darkly lit restaurant, where your eyes need a few moments to adjust. Above each table is a lamp which casts a soft glow onto the food.

The cocktail menu is truly enticing and encapsulates an interesting combination of ingredients that is far from ordinary.  Below are some of the interesting combinations available. I couldn’t go past the lemon grass and rose cocktail-which was both refreshing and paired beautifully with the Chinese flavours to follow.

 



We chose the banquet menu which was more than enough for two. The flavours are punchy and bold.  You begin with the picked cucumber and radish as well as a poached chicken salad.  The pickled vegetables are not at all overpowering but clean the palate well for the dishes to follow.

 

Next is what Neil Perry has deemed to be the “Chinese American” dish which is deep fried noodles laced with mince in a rich sauce.  The dish has great texture arising from the noodles.

Next are the dishes to be eaten with rice.  The first is the Chinese style fish.  The fish fillets are succulent and the sauce absolutely beautiful.  I was scooping the remnants of the sauce onto to my rice because it was so tasty and that dish alone, would have made my satisfied.

 

This is accompanied by the salt and pepper squid.  The taste and visual presentation of the dish is quite different to that which you would see in a normal Chinese restaurant.  However once squeezed with the lemon wedge sitting alongside, the flavours are more strongly brought out. The squid is soft and simply melts in your mouth.



The next mains come out being the greens, the pork belly and the beef brisket. It’s quite amazing the flavours that Neil Perry has captured with what really is quite cheap ingredients. The beef brisket for example is paired with baby eggplants that pop in your mouth.  There are red chillies laced in this dish, so be careful to avoid these if you don’t enjoy it hot! The pork belly is soft and juicy, in a light sauce.

 

The dessert is a lychee granita.  I think a sweet granita is always once of the best ways to finish of Asian flavours.  It’s sweet so it helps sooth the tongue after the spiciness of the dishes.

 

The al a carte dishes look just as enticing, if not more (if you can be discerning enough to choose the dishes from the long menu).  Just watch out for those highlighted in red they are doused with Sichuan peppercorns. And I mean doused! For those that have never eaten these peppercorns it is not the same heat you would have experienced with say, a chilli powder or black pepper. Instead it has an almost numbing sensation on the tongue and lips.  It is however a quintessential Chinese cooking ingredient.

If you haven’t been before and you are looking for an upmarket Chinese restaurant I would definitely give this one a go.  Being one of Neil Perry’s flagship restaurants he has put effort into creating an evolving and creative menu, sure to entice.