Lucinda O'Sullivan's Ireland

About The Restaurant

When Kosi Moodley first opened his little Indian gem Bistro Spice in 2002 - it seemed an unlikely location – a tiny former Butcher’s Shop premises which had a preservation order on its shopfront – making it extremely difficult to promote one’s restaurant! However, I always say the French have a knack of opening in the most unlikely places knowing that if their food is good, the customers will come. That can be said of Kosi Moodley’s restaurant for it proved an extremely popular spot with locals and apart from that people come from all over the place for the friendly intimate atmosphere. On top of that you can bring your own wine – if you didn’t know that before arriving – there is a wine shop right next door – and they don’t charge you any corkage! How about that for value. Starters €5.50/€10.50 include Singada which are deep fried crispy pastry parcels filled with mildly spiced vegetables; Bonda which are deep fried potato cakes beautifully flavoured with mustard seeds, coriander, cumin and peants served with a tangy tamarind and coriander chutney. I have had both of these dishes as well as Katti Kebab which are julienne strips of lamb and chicken tossed with spices and stuffed into wheat flour bread with salad. You can also get a combination platter for two people which I always think is a good idea cos you get to taste a few items in one. Here they do a combo of Bonda, Singada, Bhajis and Chicken Tikka at €14 which is basically only €7 each. Mains courses are delicious and I have tried a lot of them over the years. Lamb Malai is a mild dish with the lamb cooked in a creamy almond and cashew nut sauce, garnished with honey and dried apricots, whilst Lamb Rampuri is a hot dish involving hot chilli and tomato sauce flavoured with garlic and cloves. Chicken is available a number of ways – Chicken Masala is mild; Chicken Andhra is medium to hot with a thick sauce flavoured with coconut and peanut. Coriander Chicken Platter is mild to medium and has panfried chicken cubes in a dry tempering of ginger, garlic, lemon, spinach and coriander and this is served with cumin potatoes, savoury rice and salad. They also do a Malabari fish curry using Indian Ocean red snapper cooked in a sauce of coconut, onion and tamarind – you can have that with prawns also. All of these dishes are around the €16/€18 mark. Kosi lived in South Africa so there are a couple of dishes with these influences including Durban Lamb or Chicken Curry. Kosi explains that every Durban household will have their own version of Durban Curry but his is cooked with potatoes and peas, chilli and a touch of peanut and coconut. They also do Jumbo Prawn Balti at €23 or Jumbo Tandoori Prawn Biryani. There is an Early Bird option Tuesday to Friday if you order before 7 p.m. but they naturally require the table back by 8.15 if needed so that is a good option if you want nice food on the way home and not necessarily a long evening out. By the way, they also have a terrific Take Away Menu with mains being generally €11/ €13 apart from Tiger prawns. Bistro Spice is a real jewel – a glittering gem.

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