Cafe Spice, Newcastle

Cafe Spice

111, Chillingham Road, Heaton Newcastle NE6 5XL
(0191) 265 6565    

www.cafespicenewcastle

There is no shortage of food options on the busy Chillingham Road in Newcastle's populous east End, though only a handful are what you'd call proper sit-down restaurants. Cafe Spice, which sits on a prominent corner site at the Byker end of 'Chilly Road', is probably the first restaurant you'll come to.

You'd be excused for thinking it was two separate restaurants side by side. One side was empty on the night we were there, but we discovered that this was an additional dining area connected via an internal door for use on busier nights. Must be busy, then – good sign. Once inside and it is all rather attractive, with subdued lighting, painted wood floors, rich wall coverings, lots of ornate mirrors. The effect is playfully exotic, modern yet traditional.

Unlike Newcastle's West End, there is a much smaller Asian community in the East End, and looking at the menu suggests that the majority of Cafe Spice's customers are probably white and local. There's the usual wide selection of traditional or classic curries, the usual range of starters, but actually when you look closer you'll find a couple of slightly more unusual items in here, too. For example, there's a Chasni dish which is medium spiced, slightly sweet and based on yoghurt, mango chutney and tomato sauce. Or you may fancy a Jay Puri which combines lots of garlic and mushrooms in a bhuna-style sauce, or a Jhal Roshun which is hot and garlicky.

We took the opportunity to sample a range of their starters by choosing a sharing platter for two. This was comprised of a large dish containing two onion bhajias (crispy and light and frankly some of best bhajias I've eaten), two vegetable samosas (flaky, slightly hot, delicious), and four large pieces of vegetable pakora. These weren't the usual tight nuggets of lentil and vegetable you'd find in other restaurants. Instead, these seemed to be made up of large chunks of vegetables bonded together in a lightly spiced batter, a little like Japanese tempura. We enjoyed them, though they did seem a little light on spice and flavour.

For our main courses, we chose channa paneer and vegetable dansak, both with a vegetable pillau. This is where the problems began. Although we made it clear that the channa paneer was to be a main dish and not a side, it was the smaller version that duly arrived. When we pointed out the error our waiter immediately remedied it by instructing the kitchen to prepare a second side dish portion, thus bringing it up to a full size and allowing my fellow diner to tuck in straight away to what had already been delivered. Unfortunately, we received only one pillau rice so we had to re-order that, too.

When the second half of the channa paneer arrived a few minutes later, it wasn't channa paneer at all but peas paneer. But rather than send it back we thought it best to plough on. As it turned out, both dishes were flavoursome though a little light on spice (is there a theme developing here?) but also on paneer, which came in small cubes in relatively small quantities - though perhaps this reflected the fact these were side dishes and not mains.

The mixed vegetable dansak was pretty good, with large chunks of well-cooked vegetables in a light, spicy, sweet and sour sauce. What I found especially interesting was the way the vegetables had been prepared - they were lightly pre-cooked and not rendered down into a soft tasteless mess as they can be in other restaurants, and this brought real flavour and texture to the dish.

The firmness of the vegetables carried over into the pillau, too, with large chunks of firm well- cooked veggies tumbled in the deliciously flavoursome rice, some of them (the potatoes) still with their jackets on. The overall effect, I have to admit, is chunky and far from elegant, but it’s certainly tasty.

I could criticise Cafe Spice on their service but I won't - every restaurant has the occasional off-night in the kitchen so perhaps we were just unlucky. Certainly, what came out of the kitchen was tasty enough, though perhaps tailored to those who preferred their spice a little on the light side. There is enough choice on the menu to keep most vegetarians happy, and the way they pre-cook their veg definitely gets a thumbs up for flavour... if perhaps a thumbs down for style.

Cafe Spice doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a local restaurant and take-away catering for a mostly local customer base. What it offers is simple and honest, but with a smart interior and a couple of flashes of culinary individuality to keep you interested. Though our visit maybe didn't show it off to its best advantage, I know Cafe Spice has a loyal customer base - and despite our ordering difficulties on the night, it's nonetheless easy to see why.