Spices, Repulse Bay, Hong Kong

I am back here with my wife at the Repulse Bay Hotel building, this time lunching at another restaurant, Spices, which is also run by the Peninsula Hotel.

Given its name, this place serves food from the Indochina region, as testimony to the trade that occurred in the area. Indeed, as part of the table set up, there was a small pot of star anise on our table shown in the picture below, giving of an aroma reminiscent of liquorice sweets.

Star Anise on the table

Drinks were ordered first and shown below. I went for the Lemongrass Peach Tea and my wife went for the Honey Melon, a seasonal special on offer. Both were refreshing but a little too sweet, though.

Our Drinks Order

For food we ordered Tom Yum Gong soup and Lamb Massala curry, which arrived at the same time. Both looked appealing, with the curry in a steel pan on a heater. The lamb was well cooked tender. The curry sauce was not runny, and had good flavour and heat from spice. The soup did look small, which reflected its price as one of the cheaper items on the menu. It had very nice spicy and zesty flavour and contained good sized prawns and quite a lot of mushrooms. 

Steamed white rice was included in the price of the curry and the portion the waitress gave us was fairly generous in comparison to the soup.

TomYum Soup & Lamb Massala

The Morning Glory vegetable, pictured below, came soon after, which was stir fried with garlic and chilli. This was probably the spiciest (there is a bit of a trend here) dish we ate, although we asked for less chilli.

Morning Glory

We decided to go for a dessert after the mains and went for the 'Khao Niaow Ma Muang', or the Thai mango sticky rice pudding. This was the best course of the day. The rice was white and black as a variant, which was sweet and sticky; the mango was fresh and there was a coconut based sauce draped all over it for added sweet flavour, which cooled our palates from the hot main dishes.

Mango Sticky Rice Pudding

The decor has a colonial feel but not opulent and one can feel relaxed in this venue. It is fairly expensive but that does not seem to detract customers as the place was popular with the indoor and outdoor seats pretty much taken. The quality of the food is pretty good, considering the geographic range it covers. Service was good as well, although not as attentive as the Verandah, which was expected. If you are planning a day out in Repulse Bay then a visit to Spices will do no wrong.

Scores:

Food: 4/5

Presentation: 4/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 4/5

Overall: 15/20

Total Bill: 658HKD, about £20 a head. 

We ate: All of the above.

We drank: Lemongrass Peach Tea, Honey Melon.

I wore: 'Thai' purchased Fred Perry shorts.