We went to Spice the week before Christmas to celebrate the holidays, What we thought would be a simple restaurant meal turned into a festive banquet. The food and service was so good that we just hung around and ordered more food until we were too stuffed.
We started with Shanghai Lumpia and Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Two completely different approaches to a rolled appetizer. The lumpia were hot, crispy and fun to pop into the mouth. The Vietnamese spring rolls were a unique surprise. Soft and cool, they presented shrimp in a refreshing and tangy rice paper wrapper. These appetizers got us in the mood the what was in store.
We selected an inexpensive bottle of wine from Spice’s small, but varied wine list.
Our main courses started with Thai basil chicken, crab fried rice, what they called Carmelized Line Salmon. These were so good we ordered another entrée, the red curry beef. This was a surprising combination of beef, mild red curry, potatoes and pineapple pieces. Each of these dishes presented flavors that stood out distinctly, yet blended together perfectly on the palate.
We should not have tried so many desserts, but we were on a roll…. First came out an order of turon, a Philippine fried banana fritter, that we all shared. Hmmmm, mmmm, good. Then we split a couple of coconut crème brules. Who’d ever dream up this variation of a classic French dessert with a coconut Asian twist??? Genius! Finally, a classic Philippine dessert, halo halo, was a light sundae type dessert with just about everything but the kitchen sink on top.
The service was attentive, friendly, and fun.
The only negatives about Spice might be the typical downtown parking difficulties and an abience that was on the austere cold side.
All in all this was a great experience that we’ll be doing again.
more