Spice Hut

Damn what happened to this locale? I was just thinking about how there was only one decent Indian place in MP and now it’s gone. Luckily there’s one near my work I guess. This locale however was much more upscale than the other ones I’d seen before. Guess their plan to go to take out only didn’t work all that well.

Earlier this year, my co-​workers and I discovered this place for quick convenient dining during work which made our list of places grow to like 4 restaurants out here in Menlo. Then they closed up shop about a month ago and we were quite saddened.
But while it was around, Spice Hut produced some highly affordable Indian food. I was a big fan of their pre-​made combo meals which came with 3 entrees and a rice for less than $ 10. The samosas and biryanis were also quite good too. I am gonna stop writing about it now because it has shut down and each word I type makes me more sad. Spice Hut has left a hole in my dining possibilities that has yet to be replaced.

In India, dosas (vegetable-​stuffed rice crepes) are always cheap, filling and tasty food. This restaurant and its sister in Fremont are two of the only places in the Bay Area that truly deliver on that expectation. Most others have gone the route of gouging customers for what is a really cheap-​to-​prepare food (just rice and potatoes).
Only go here for the dosas though, which are prepared fresh to-​order and excellent. Other items were neither fresh or appealing, especially non-​vegetarian entrees. The buffet would be a bad idea.
The stoic service is unusual, even funny in a wry way. Eat outdoors to save your clothes and hair!

I wish I had known this place existed sooner! Came here for take-​out last night with a friend. With the concept of «fast food Indian» floating around in our heads we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised.
They have a take-​out section with about 8 – 10 choices ready to be scooped into containers and then a full menu you can order from also. 1 item from the to-​go area is 3.99, 2 items 5.99, 3 items 7.79. Most menu items are 7 – 8 dollars. This place is totally reasonable. I got 2 items and a side of rice: Total $ 7.79. After eating a normal sized portion for dinner, I put ²⁄₃ of it back in the fridge. I seriously still have enough for 2 meals. Now that’s a good deal if I ever saw one.
I didn’t recognize the names of most of the choices in that section. I ordered the red chicken curry (not sure what the real indian name is. Chicken M…) and the cauliflower curry. The chicken was tender, the sauce was spiced perfectly, not too rich, just awesome. The cauliflower curry was spicier than I expected, but still good. I preferred the chicken thing. The rice with peas is amazing just by itself too. I’m salivating just thinking about it!
My friend ordered the chicken tikka which was off the menu but came out super quickly. I tried a bite of that too. It was super tasty! Very moist, good spices. It came with 2 sauces which I did not try but judging by the way my friend was eating the sauce after she had finished the chicken, I’m guessing they were good too. lol.
While the guy at the counter was not super friendly, he wasn’t unfriendly either and explained the different curry types while I tried to make up my mind.
There was only 1 other group there so I guess it’s not very well known yet. I’ll definitely be back though!

Thank you Spice Hut for converting to take-​out! We’re just bummed we didn’t find out about the change sooner. Even though we live in Menlo Park, we’d been driving all the way to your Sunnyvale location to get our fill of inexpensive delicious spicy goodness. What a great addition to Menlo Park. One three-​item combo + two orders of fresh hot naan = $ 11 total for two happy tummies.

I hadn’t been to this Spice Hut before its current incarnation, but I had been to the First Street Spice Hut take-​out a number of times when I used to take the light rail to and from work. As a result, the San Jose location set my expectation for this location.
For a casual take-​out place, I think this restaurant is a nice place to have in the neighborhood.
When you walk into the restaurant, you have the option of selecting a pre-​prepared curry they have in the warming table if you’re in a hurry, or you can order a freshly prepared dish from the menu. Either way, you can get a main course dish and a side of rice or naan for about $ 10, which I consider to be a good deal.
I’m a creature of habit, so anytime I got to an Indian restaurant, I generally go for a paneer dish. When I go to Spice Hut, I like to order the paneer makini with a side of naan. The paneer is nice and firm and the sauce is deliciously spicy. The naan is good, but can be a touch chewy sometimes. Considering that this order generally makes two meals for me, I think this place is a great deal, and as long as I’m in the neighborhood and I have a hankering for Indian, I’ll go back to Spice Hut.

I am disappointed.
This used to be a kick-​ass place, serving good food at a good price when it was the Spice Hut «Bistro».
The quality of food went down, while the prices remained about the same. IMHO, the owners made an ooops when they turned it over to a fast-​food type of place. Sorry, but I don’t plan on coming back. I’d rather head to Saffron in San Carlos (excellent Tandoori!!), or even New Saffron (good inexpensive buffet with a good price) near San Antonio Road.

I wish standing on the shoulders of giants was as simple as jumping on fat dudes, but I do know having some yummy Indian food is as simple as walking down the block and shell out a mere $ 8. This place was once a full restaurant — with waiters and so on, so it was more expensive. Now it’s becoming a fast food sort of place, like other Spice Huts in the area. Probably a wise move given the current state of economy.
I was never really a fan of «full» restaurants anyway. I mean seriously, is our sense of entitlement so far stretched we can’t get our lazy ass up to wait in line for our food? And I don’t need someone to come check on the water level in my glass, or ask me how everything is going when I’m obviously just shoving my food down the mouth.
The nun bread goes fabulously well with the eggplant and the chicken makini. Toss a mango lassi into the mix, your stomach is immersed in joy for under $ 10. In my case, walking home readily burns off all the excess calorie intake for such a delicious meal.

I cannot speak as to whether or not this is traditional Indian fare, but for delicious, inexpensive, takeout it is tops. Just remember, it is INEXPENSIVE TAKEOUT… and you’ll be fine. My friend and I had 2 somosas, chicken tikka masala, naan, a mango lassi and a coke, AND a spinach dosa that was the size of a pizza. All of this and accompanying sauces for 12 bucks a piece. There was enough for many serving of leftovers.
Good value, good service, more than decent food. I will go back.

Quick & easy Indian buffet that is perfect for lunch. I like their naan. Their buffet has so many items to choose from that it is hard to narrow down. tandoori chicken? Curry? What to pick??? It is quite fun.
The mango lassies were a little too sweet for my taste but they have a variety of other drinks you can pick from as well.

Had take out from here twice now. Both times it has been delicious. I love the Channa Chat — it is sooo good. And the Chicken Tandoori is really good albeit the portion size could be a bit larger. Love the Aloo Gobi it has great flavor. The nann is good and again, they could throw in another piece or two but that is just me nitpicking.
Prices are great, service is superb when you phone in and everything is always ready.
AND I love the fact they throw in a the mint sauce and the tamarind sauce (not sure what it’s called) for free!

I work in Menlo Park, and co-​workers and I used to drive to Darbar in Palo Alto about twice a month for their lunch buffet.
No longer. For the same price, Spice Hut’s lunch buffet offers more selection (which I’m told is authentic by an Indian friend), they actually replenish the naan, and there are none of those disgusting black flies that drown in your chicken tikka masala at Darbar.
Try the apricot chutney. It’s fantastic.

REVISED Review Jan 2009. The white cloth service described earlier is all gone. New management, new ‘concept’. Order at a steam table. Be seated or take out. But still very good food.

Although the address is Oak Grove, the entrance is on Maloney, which runs between Oak Grove and Santa Cruz Avenue, first connector west of El Camino. Easy parking in the Menlo free lots close by. Note: closed 3 – 5.

We have been twice. Once for dinner, once for lunch buffet. The «manager» (Nandu) is the sweetest guy, very attentive — he should be the baseline for all restaurants. The wait staff is very good as well. Otherwise — the food is fresh, but these recipes don’t suit our palate.
A nice buffet-​touch is that naan is served hot to your table per request — included in the price.
We suggest they stop playing the western music — it doesn’t go with the menu, and detracts from an otherwise relaxing ambience — why not stick with some tried and true ragas that would compliment the freshness of your food?

3.5 stars. Very nice white-​table cloth place serving decent Indian food. Came here for the $ 8.95 lunch buffet and it hit the spot. They have about 10 – 12 different items and many of them didn’t seem like the standard items you see at other Indian buffets.
Wish I could remember the names of the dishes, but they had stuff like white rice, some thin noodle dish with yellow spices that made it look like Singaporean curry noodles, some cabbage dish, a lamb dish, a potato korma dish, some chicken dish with a dark sauce, some yellow lentil dish, an eggplant dish that was overly sour and pickled, a dessert with custard on top of fruit cocktail and a dark red ricey type pudding. All these were okay. The yellow lentil and chicken dish were the tastiest. The rest were avg.
What is nice about this place is that they do bring you some (supposedly) hot items to your table: a basket of naan (ours was lukewarm), two pancake thingee that did come hot (but were a bit too sour), and some pieces of chicken tikka on a sizzling pan. Now you can tell the chicken was precooked and the pan was just for serving it hot, but it was a nice touch.
Very nice atmosphere, only had 2 – 3 tables full during Sat lunch time so we were a bit apprehensive coming in. But service is very nice and attentive.
NOTE: This is Spice Hut BISTRO and NOT to be confused with the Spice Hut Indian fast food chain like they have in Sunnyvale.
Bottom line: For you Indian buffet fans, the highlights of this place are the atmosphere, good service, and hot items they bring to your table. They get an A for effort. However, the food is avg and a few of the dishes just didn’t taste quite right (eggplant and pancake things). Spice Hut Bistro is worth a try but I’m still liking Saffron, Suraj, and Grand Indian Buffet more.

The $ 8.95 lunch buffet, which changes every day, makes a yummy way to sample a lot of the dishes on the expansive menu. Light, crisp naan relative to chewier kinds at other places, and I love to pop in just for the mulligatawny soup and tawa tilapia for a quick bite. The service is pretty impeccable.
Food editors and writers at Sunset magazine love this place, I hear.

Update:
The lunch buffet is so good! I’m a little bit of a princess, so I don’t usually get excited about a buffet, but this was awesome, and more than worth the $ 8.99 they charge for it. There were at least twelve different dishes set out including a few things that I had never tried before, all of which were excellent. The only draw back is that we ate so much I feel like I need a post-​lunch nap!
Apparently if you’re in a hurry you can also do take out from the buffet, I’m going to have to try that one of these days.
Long story shorter: I’m upgrading my review to 5 stars.
Original review:
Wow, quite the mixed bag of reviews I see.
A friend of mine and I had dinner here tonight and I was definitely pleasantly surprised. Due to the horrendous traffic mess that was the peninsula on this particular night we decided that it would be best to stick to some where close to the office, I’m really glad we decided upon this place.
The ambiance: It’s quite, situated between Santa Cruz Ave and Oak Grove it feels just a bit off the beaten path, which is kinda nice. The interior is nice, white table cloths, lavender colored napkins, comfortable, straight-​backed chairs, it’s pleasant, if a little too easy for neighboring tables to eaves drop on your conversation.
The crowd: some of your typical Menlo Park types if you know what I mean, but also some younger single professionals and families as well.
The service: attentive, friendly, accommodating, super nice.
The food: My tummy is quite happy this evening, Kheema samosas, chicken tikka masala, naan, and roti for dinner, rasmalai for dessert and a really nice Russian River gewrztraminer to wash it all down. All of our selections were yummy, we were particularly happy with the chicken and with our dessert.
The price: We made pigs of ourselves this evening, and yet still managed to be out the door for just over $ 50 for two people (tax and tip included), not bad really.
All in all, a pleasant experience, we will be back.

I was intrigued by a restaurant with so few reviews relative to its neighbors with so many fake reviews (no photos, no friends and only one review to their name) combined with some generally positive reviews from some trustworthy Unilocalers.
Décor in new locale around the corner from old place on Oak Grove alone is a big improvement. Not trying to be too-​big-​for-​its britches fancy, but warm and comfortable. Service sufficiently attentive.
Went for the lunch buffet which can always be hit or miss and unfortunately seems to be the standard for Indian restaurants in the Valley. Decent balance among styles and tastes but not especially flavorful or complex as their name would suggest.
IF I happen to be in the neighborhood and IF I had a hankering for Indian food, I would come again.
…That is IF I can get over the bunch of 5 star reviews from fakers. There was one on there from a faker who gave them 1 star! Was that to throw Unilocalers off their scent? What galls me even more is that ALL the Unilocal reviews are plastered in front of their door as a badge of honor. The nawyve of dose guys!

This place actually deserves 3.5 stars. I wouldn’t say I came out of the restaurant thinking «Wow, that was great», but more like «That was pretty good». But I love the fact that it’s convenient. There’s not too many Indian restaurants in the Menlo Park area and this is perhaps the only one. Though the flavors at Spice Hut are not as pronounced as other Indian restaurants (kinda ironic with a name like Spice hut), the food does taste light. I hate coming out of a restaurant (esp. Indian restaurants) and having a major case of food coma. Spice Hut allows me to Indian food on a more regular basis. The food is light, clean and tasty enough. It’s definitely not fantastic, but good enough to get me coming back on a regular basis for my Indian food fix. Because quite honestly, there are not enough «spicy food» restaurants in Menlo Park. Thank you Spice Hut for giving me a place to go to.
OH and btw — this place is SO not Indian fast food. I also love the clean and modern décor of this place.

Yes, I am from the Southern latitudes of India and yes, I am an appam freak. (
). No — I am not getting paid to write this.
This is not the first restaurant that comes to mind when you think of Indian food in the Bay. hmm. now if you begin to add attributes like healthy, south indian, appam, purple napkins, something different and fun — I would say, in all likelihood, google would throw this newbie right at you.
All in all — It’s a wonderful way to get introduced to Indian food without sitting on the throne the next morning re-​reading «Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader».
It gets a thumbs up for catering food to your company lunches and also for quieter surroundings. I like the chairs too.
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*Update: I went in April 2009 and whoa. the whole fine dining concept’s gone. It’s back to its roots of take out/​fast food. Darn — you do get appam here but I hate saying this, goto the sunnyvale outfit for the real thing. They have great specials (considering this is Menlo Park. The service is not bad but will have to lower the stars. Am disappointed with the food. :(