Sevenoaks is a place that Bob & Phil had yet to visit on their travels and so it was with a degree of anticipation that the trip commenced. The Spice Club was duly spotted on the outbound journey through the town and was, accordingly, the designated stopping off point come curry o'clock.
Located on Sevenoaks High Street, the Spice Club can easily be spotted as a restaurant but it doesn't look like your typical Indian. So much so that Phil did double check the menu in the window before going in. On entering Bob & Phil were warmly greeted, shown to a table and promptly brought menus.
The Papadums and (bottled) Cobras arrived promptly. The former were nicely warm, the latter nicely cold (but Bob felt could have been a bit colder). Bob was pleased to see his favourite pickles arrive with the Papadums but Phil was disappointed by the distinct lack of a Lime pickle. The Onions were also served in a Tamarind (he thinks) sauce which was interesting to begin with but that interest soon wore off.
The curries arrived in nicely presented dishes. Physically nice and hot and in hot dishes.but....Bob was rather disappointed with the overpowering smokiness of his Butter Chicken. He felt that the way that the chicken had been cut (into small strips) had also led to it being overcooked and a little tough. Phil thought that his Dhansak sauce was very good but the meat was disappointing. Like Bob his was overcooked in places but also he could taste a paraffin flavour on some of the meat. It looked and felt like the chicken had been seared/barbecued and allowed to burn.
The vegetables were a bit of a mixed bag. The rice was very nice and also nicely presented (both Bob & Phil enjoyed playing with their rice castles!) and the Malai Sag was very good indeed (probably the highlight of the meal) but the Pindi Chole was extremely garlic laden to the point where it blocked out all other flavours.
The service started well but became indifferent. Bob had to ask for the table to be cleared. It was also disappointing to be offered cold wipes.
Area
|
Phil
|
Bob
|
Beer
|
8
|
7
|
Papadum
|
7
|
7
|
Curry
|
5
|
4
|
Rice & Vegetables
|
7
|
7
|
Service & Ambiance
|
6
|
6
|
In total a rather mediocre 64 and notably only the third time that the two curries have failed to produce a double figure score between them.
The Spice Club look great from the outside and is nicely presented inside too but as the saying goes you cannot judge a book by its cover and the contents sadly just didn't live up to the presentation.
