Spice Market

Very disappointing meal. took clients for dinner. Food was incredibly average given the cost. Sauces were sickly and some of the flavours simply did not go. Service was also average. At one point, I was talking to a client and the waitress was hovering by me to the point that I had to stop by conversation - it any other high end restaurant, the waiters are discreet and come back when you are ready - very rude. Will not be going back. Far superior Asian restaurants in London and indeed in the similar area.

A very disappointing experience. We had starters of samosa's and spring rolls which were really nice but then it went downhill after that. We ordered Chargrilled chicken with kumquat and lemongrass dressing and a chicken curry dish. The curry was very bland indeed - basically a coloured coconut milk and the chargrilled chicken extremely spicy, so much so that any flavour of kumquat or lemongrass was completely obliterated. We also ordered the ginger fried rice, which did not arrive, we mentioned to our waiter about 15mins after all our other main courses had arrived that we were still waiting for our fried rice (we had at this stage nearly eaten everything) and he was quite flippant with us, saying that courses arrived when they were ready in the kitchen and he carried on clearing off the table next to us. We finished our meal and it was only then that the manager appeared at our table apologising for our not getting the fried rice, the waiter then came over and and said "Yeah, sorry about that" and just cleared off our table. We were in a rush for a show and my husband doesn't like to make a scene, but it was a bit galling to see the 12.5% service charge added to our bill for such terrible service. Of all the restaurants on offer in London this is not one that I would recommend, nicer (and cheaper) food can be found elsewhere.

I was really disappointed with Spice Market. I went there for my 30th as a surpise treat by my girlfriend as I had commented that the interior / ambience looked amazing. The interior / ambience IS amazing, however, much to my disappointment the food / staff / service does not compliment this.

Food: 5 / 10
Presentation: 6 / 10
Service: 5 / 10

I would also advise not taking a table near the cash desk, and 3 /4 members of staff tend to stand around it talking which is really distracting.

Also, you should at the start of your meal get a hot towel to wash your hands, something we didn't recieve but the ladies next to us when they sat down did.

It's not like it's a cheap venue, they really need to step up to the mark!

Very disappointed!

We ate there yesterday (07/09/2011) for a late lunch, and had no problem getting a table for four.

Service was not rushed, polite, but a bit distant. We ordered a variety of food from the menu, and there was not one complaint, all the food was excellant, but you would expect so at the prices charged.

Would I go again, yes, would I recommend, yes.

We booked the Spice Market for a Saturday celebratory dinner for some friends who had just gotten married. We were initially a party of 10 so it was difficult getting a reasonable booking time, and had to settle for 9:45pm.
The style of Spice Market is the sharing concept, although based on the size of the plates one could go starter/main and be fine from my viewpoint.
We had a bit of trouble ordering drinks to begin with, as one of the couples wanted to share Prosecco (on menu), but the waitress hadn't been informed that they didn't have any left (bit surprising). This took a bit of time to be achieve.
On the food side, we tried for starters, the Squid, Mango Salad, the Lobster Rolls, the beef skewers, the Mushroom rolls, and the Crab Dumplings. As an overall observation, the food quality in terms of presentation, taste and appeal was average, and given a fairly high price per item, a bit disappointing. The Crab Dumplings and Salad were probably the highlights, with the feature of the starters being one where either the food itself was blander than expected (particularly the Lobster Rolls) or too spiced. The other thing noted is that in the sharing concept, food arrives as prepared so you always get the cold starters first etc. I'm OK with this, but people who aren't sharing and tend to order their own courses, tend to find this approach a bit strange.
After the starters we, as instructed by the waitress shared mains, which I think given their bigger size and presentation is tricky. We went for Lobster, Duck Curry, a Chinese style Haddock, Monkfish, and a Salt/Pepper sole. I tried everything and would say that most of the fish, with the exception of the MonkFish was just slightly overcooked (i.e. a bit too firm). This was particularly the case for the Lobster. As with the starters, there was also, with the exception of the Curry (which was good) and the Monkfish (also good, but perhaps too spicy for some), a sense of blandness in the dishes, i.e. balance was not achieved.
We didn't stay for dessert, with the bill working out with 1 bottle of Rose Champagne, and 1 bottle of white whine coming to Stg65 per person.
One thing to note - when we booked the restaurant, we had been given assurance, on asking that moving from the Restaurant which is adjoined to the W hotel itself so that we could join friends in the lounge and head up to the Wyld Bar, which has a good Saturday night vibe without any problem. Unfortunately this did not prove to be the case at all, and we had a rather heated disagreement with the doorman who was supposed to chaperone us through about this. These types of things tend to happen now and again in the West End when hotels fails to integrate their amenity facilities, but the W tends to better than most in making sure that larger parties (i.e. money spenders) get accommodated properly. This was not the case, and was an added disappointment that further soured the evening.

The £48 tasting menu had few hits and far too many misses.
Starters
An adequate lobster summer roll - Miraculously soggy beef skewers - Decent but lukewarm chicken samosas - Shaved tuna, my favourite

Mains
Halibut with Malaysian chilli sauce - this was good but nothing we couldnt have made at home
Baby corn and broccoli - this was awful, drowned in soy sauce
Chargrilled chicken with kumquat - our lovely waitress declared this to be one of their favourites. It was ok, not a big fan of the chicken breast they used as it was too dry, but the accompanying Ginger rice was absolutely inedible due to over liberal use of sesame oil making it far too greasy...

Desserts
Thai jewels - lovely and really refreshing after that rice
Ovaltine kulfi - great little chocolate hit - but not particularly kulfi-ish

The Timeout review was spot on about the service - very pleasant but over rehearsed, but on that I'm not complaining. The kitchen however needs to get its act together and fast....