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Spice

David Sutton

Spice 2/F 1 Knutsford Terrace Tsim Sha Tsui Tel 2191 9880

Grub: Indian, Thai and Malaysian cuisine

Vibe: This is a fairly ordinary kind of place. The decor is plain but functional. It's not unpleasant but not exactly memorable either. It doesn't seem to get too busy at lunchtimes, which is a good thing.

Who to bring: Everyone in your class, especially if they enjoy spicy food. There is plenty to choose from, even for vegetarians.

What's hot: With summer holidays just around the corner this would be a great place to hang out for a long lunch. The 'mega lunch buffet' sounds bigger than it really is. But it comes at a great price, and a decent sized group should easily be able to spin it out for three hours. Lunch starts at noon. While there wasn't an advertised time for finishing, it is unlikely to go on much beyond 3pm.

Of the three cuisine styles, Indian is by far the most conspicuous. There are a few Thai options but the Malay option appears to be little more than generic fried vegetables, although as it's a buffet, the dishes probably vary from day to day.

I decided to start at the Thai end of the table, where I found the only real disappointment. The tom yum soup, often labelled tom yum gung, didn't contain any gung - or prawns. To be fair, it wasn't labelled so I didn't feel I could complain. The soup was medium-spicy, tangy and tasty.

Other Thai dishes were a yellow curry with tofu, fried chicken with basil leaves and a papaya salad. The spiciness of the papaya salad had been toned down somewhat, rather ruining the effect.

There is much wider variety of Indian dishes, including everyone's favourite - chicken tikka. There was also a mild chicken curry and a very good mutton rogan josh. For vegetarians there was a palak paneer, which is spinach with cottage cheese, a yellow lentil dal and aloo gobi, which consists of spiced potatoes and cauliflower.

For dessert there were slices of watermelon and the Indian sweet, gulab jamun.

What's not: Although it claims to be Indian, Thai and Malay, there was little that is specifically Malay. Satay might have been a nice touch.

Cost: The lunch buffet costs HK$78. This includes a drink and a garlic or plain nan. There is also a full a la carte menu, but these are regular restaurant prices with dishes starting at around HK$40.

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