Places in Lagos| Spice Route

Spice Route is an Asian restaurant located at Adeola Odeku Street, Victoria Island in Lagos. It shares the same building with Debonairs and has been around for the longest time, probably eight years or more. There was a time it was the best place to go to for pre-game before a club night. It doubles as a lounge and restaurant, so if you want to eat, have drinks and chill or party, you’re welcome. I stopped by Spice Route with my friend A, and here’s what we thought of the space.

AMBIENCE
We went in the evening, and the lighting was dim, but I still took photos. Though the restaurant starts on the first floor of the building, it occupies two floors. There’s a lot of space for all kinds of occasions and private dining areas with beaded curtains for date nights and parties. The first floor has two sitting areas; the open space and the outdoor, while the second floor also has two sitting areas; open space and enclosed sitting. In essence, you can bring your whole block for dinner and sitting won’t be a problem. I was impressed to see that the restaurant has been properly maintained over the years.

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We all know that Indians worship many gods, but it was interesting to see these statues and pieces all around the restaurant showing that they are true to their culture and heritage. If you’ve watched The White Tiger, you should remember Balram schooling us about this.

MENU
The menu is far from simple. It’s lengthy and divided into two sections; Indian and Chinese. There are many options to choose from, and we spent some time deliberating over what to eat. I only took photos of the Indian portion of the menu. See it below;

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WHAT WE ORDERED
For drinks, we ordered a big bottle of water and Sangria. We ordered three types of naan (butter, garlic, cheese) and Kadai Chicken, a chicken, chili, tomato-onion masala, and coriander seed sauce, to share.

Our drinks came first obviously then the food came not too long after. The naan looked so good, and I couldn’t wait to have a bite. As expected, it was delicious, but out of the three types of naan, the garlic naan was the winner. The sauce was okay, but I felt it could have been nicer with a little more salt, which I eventually added.

SERVICE DELIVERY & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
We were welcomed as we walked in and were shown to our seats. Our waiter was polite and friendly and was also helpful when we didn’t know what to order. I remember us thinking what we ordered were just starters instead of encouraging us to order more food, he asked us to wait to see what we ordered before asking for more. He was right! All waiters wore masks and gloves, and there was a bottle of hand sanitizer on every occupied table. However, their menu is on a tab, and I was not too fond of the idea of scrolling through the tab much. I almost forgot about the Sangria; it was a hit. We initially ordered one each, but we ordered a third glass and shared it.

DAMAGE
Water ~ N1000
Sangria x3 ~ N10,500
Garlic Naan ~ N700
Butter Naan ~ N700
Cheese Naan ~ N1,500
The restaurant adds a 17.5% charge to all bills for VAT, consumption tax and service charge and it’s boldly stated on their menu

Spice Route is the perfect place to go if you’re craving Indian food. You genuinely feel transported to India while you’re in the space. The restaurant is suitable for date nights, birthday dinners, and themed celebrations. I believe it will still be around for another ten years to come.

Out of 10, I rate Spice Route 7.5.

Mariam Shittu

P.S. this is not a sponsored post. All opinions expressed were not influenced.