Le Spice - Indian, Thai and International Cuisine

Chiang Mai isn't one of those places renowned for Indian cuisine. There are only a handful of Indian restaurants here, and if you ask locals or expats, Le Spice is possibly the restaurant that people will think of.

The restaurant is located in the Night Bazaar, making it very accessible to tourists, so would be a good choice if you're travelling in Chiang Mai and looking for something different.

I've been to Le Spice several times, and I find the food and service here fairly consistent. The restaurant has a lovely ambience with a warm and welcoming decor, good food, and friendly staff.

The food at Le Spice, seems to me to be on the mild side, which is kind of ironic, considering the name...but that's not a bad thing because I found that subtle flavours of the milder dishes quite enjoyable and easier on the stomach!

Dips / sauces are served at the start of the meal. My favourite here is the mint sauce - very cooling and refreshing and at the same time, slightly spicy. The other sauces were very nice too. We ordered some papadams which were crispy, slightly salty and warm, which went very nicely with the sauces.

Here are some other dishes my little party had:

Tandori Mixed Grill - grilled chicken, mutton, fish and prawns served with onion ring. The meats came sizzing hot not the hot plate (which, incidentally, we expected it to be a little larger!). Anyway, I really enjoyed the fish and prawns which were well spiced, and nice and juicy. The mutton "rolls" were pretty good too. The chicken, I thought, was well seasoned, but a bit dry, but went down well with the mint sauce. 300 baht.

Malai Theenga Curry - "delicately cooked fresh prawns in creamy sauce". I don't know much about Indian food, and so won't go into much details here except that this was my favourite dish for the night. The curry is very mild and delicate. Eat it slowly to enjoy the complexity of flavours. A really lovely dish! 150 baht 

Samosas - fried pastry with potato and peas filling. The filling is lovely with a great curry flavour and was steaming hot when the samosas were broken open. 30 baht

 

After all the mild dishes, we thought we would like to try something spicy! The waitress advised us to get vindaloo curry, which was definitely fiery. I found the curry to be a little disappointing though, as the flavours did not seem to be as "developed" (I don't know if that's the correct term for it!!), and I could only feel the heat of the curry. May be it would have tasted better the next day!

Overall though, it was an enjoyable and satisfying meal, and a nice change from the usual (but very good) offerings of Thai, Italian, Japanese and Korean food. The setting was lovely too, and the service pretty good.

Don't forget to check out their set meals at the back of the menu - very good selection and great value too!

Le Spice
31 Charoen Prathet Rd Soi 6
Night Bazaar Area (in the soi just after Kalare building)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeSpice.ChiangMai
Tel: 053 234 983
Opens daily
11am-11pm