Spices Restaurant

The Arcade, 109 Repulse Bay Road, Repulse Bay.

On a cool winter’s evening some friends and I decided to go for some comfort and spicy food, and Spices immediately came to mind. This is one of my favourite haunts for Indochine cuisine and its worth the hike to Repulse Bay. The environment is spacious, quiet with fresh air blowing in from the bay, somewhat of a change from the cramped, hustle and bustle of most Hong Kong restaurants. Getting there is quite easy, 260, 6, 6x buses all passes by to name a few and of course you can always cab it.

First I got my favourite Tom Yum Goong. I like the way they make this soup from first principles and it was not oily (you always know when they use the tom yum paste as a short cut). The prawns were large and fresh, the heat factor was just right (which can be abit spicy for non-fire eaters!) and you can taste all the fragrant spices in the soup.

Trying to figure out what not to order in the menu, we decided to go for the Vietnamese ox-tail, stir fry baby kai-lan, mince pork with egg plant as the mains. Boy we weren’t disappointed! The ox-tail had a mixture of spices and sweetness to it and cooked till the meat fell off its bone. Surprisingly it was not hot and spicy. The stir-fry baby kai-lan is a regular favourite, whilst well cooked it still retained its green flavour and crunchiness. The mince pork with egg plant was fried fragrant and the sauce was sweet, similar to hoisin sauce but better. All these dishes stimulated the diner’s palette and definitely encouraged us for multi servings of steamed jasmine rice.

Vietnamese Ox-tail curry

Stir fry baby kailan

Fried eggplant with mince pork

Lastly the all time favourite mango and sticky rice for dessert. Spices used a mixture of white and black sticky rice and the fresh mango took away the heaviness of the dessert and mains. Can’t wait for my next visit.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Rating:

Will I go back? Definitely, you must try it out too!

Date: February 2013

Food: Good selection of Indochine cuisine, each dish is very well done.

Service: Polite and efficient

Ambience: Quiet and by the bay, my favourite setting.

Pricing Category: Treat, HK$300+ per head