Spices of India

Twice now I’ve gone for Spices of India and they have been closed, unscheduled. Bummer.

I’m not one to write a review for good or bad experiences but after going to Spice of India I felt it was my obligation to prevent others from getting as sick as we both were for 2 days. We were the only clients there so I don’t believe the food had high turn around all of which was sitting in a steam table. After ordering a chicken and beef dish we waited while the owner microwaved the food. I love a casual place but warming that is a little extreme.

i’m going to have to strongly disagree with the 2 5-​star reviews here.
a friend and i came here since it’s new digs in our work hood. lunch spesh: $ 6.99 for one item, includes rice or naan and a drink. $ 9.99 for a two-​item. i had like, an almond and a sip of coffee for breakfast, so i was starved. we were greeted kindly by one of the workers in a chef’s hat and coat. he asked us if we were newcomers, and then nicely introduced us to it all. all of the food seemed to be sitting in warming trays, presumably. really, he was a nice dude, so i feel sort of bad writing this review.
i chose the butter chicken with naan. he scooped it up in a small dish and then, like, you know how restaurants normally do, POPPED IT IN THE MICROWAVE for a minute. it wasn’t hot enough, duh.
my friend and i looked at each other in horror. «it’s 12:30,» he whispered, «shouldn’t this stuff be hot anyway?» this is the kinda shit you see on restaurant impossible, you know, when chef irvine britishly yells at them for doing things like this.
the same was done to my friend’s two-​item. except, one of the dishes was presumably «hot enough» so that one didn’t get nuked.
we sit down. the décor is grim and empty. we’re the only ones there. ALL our food is cold to luke warm. there is no steam coming up from any of it. the butter chicken is tough, white meat, and is missing a flavor profile (SALT). i think it sucks when indian food is not flavorful, since you know, curry is pretty damn chocked full of flavor already. the samosa is soggy. needless to say, i didn’t finish any of my food.
i understand this is new. but you can’t open up a joint like this in chicago. there’s too much competition here — we are spoiled. this place won’t survive, unfortunately.
the reason we came here in the first place was my friend had picked up food to-​go the first week it opened. he said everything was pipping hot that it almost burned his mouth. he said the butter chicken was bone-​in dark meat, so it was tender. and then he said the samosa was actually too crispy! what’s the deal? what happened? is it opposite day and no one told me???

Amazing! Food is fresh and the flavors are awesome. Owner is super friendly and lets you taste the food before you order. Highly recommend!