Location:
Special Spices is situated on Newtown Rd, Great Barr, just 5 mins from the M6 junction 7. It is 10mins away from the Hawthorns, 20mins from Villa Park and St Andrews. The real beauty is the ease of access from the m6.
Appearance:
Special Spices, we have had lot of people request this place so we thought it was only right we carry out our public duty and eat meat for you.
Special Spices has its own car park, it may not be the biggest car park, but it has one, and the close proximity to the building gives it that safe feel. On walking in we notice we have two rooms, a bar room and a dining area, it is busy in the bar and the dining room has a few in too, yes we forgot, the WBA were at home. The atmosphere is loud but pleasant.
The drinks are priced at the same prices as all the other places around here, the draught is ok and all the drinks you would expect to see are here.
It Begins:
We take a seat in the dining area, having ordered our food we are informed it will be approx 30 mins and no longer as they are busy. I like that, other places need to be as honest with customers, don’t leave us hanging, we are not going anywhere else lol.
20 minutes later our food arrives, we did not expect that, and I rush to the bar to get a second round of drinks. The tactic some places use is, that if your food is a minimum 30mins you will drink more, this is just a myth.
We went for the large mixed grill, and the size is impressive, and it looks good, all the elements are there, sizzling onions, not burnt, just getting covered in juice, and I think it’s time to go in.
Sizzler:
The fish pakora sit on top, I’m not a fan of fish on a grill so I leave mine to my fellow Grill squad to eat, and they are giving them a lot of love, not greasy and very well spiced and cooked.
The chicken wings and tikka, are very good, the taste is impressive, not spiced enough for our liking, cooked well and marinated well, these apart from the spice are very tasty.
You know what though, the tandoori flavoured lamb chops are the best thing about this grill, they looked at me as if to say “have you tried better than me?” and you know what, I don’t think I have had tandoori lamb chops as good as this, these bad boys are special. The quality of the meat is impressive and the tandoori marinade they have used has fully infused itself into the lamb making these an absolute gem.
Now the Curries:
The Lamb Curry was something I was looking forward to after the lamb chops, but it was not as good, it was good, very tasty but the spice was again an issue, this time it was too much, the sauce was great though, once the burn had gone.
The Chicken curry is cooked well, the sauce is creamy and plenty of meat on offer a great size portion, mans are happy!
Conclusion:
The speed of service is impressive, we get why people having been asking us to try this place the food to get to us as quick as it did when the place is busy was impressive, all others were served with the same speed, and for the food to all taste fresh, highlighted an organised kitchen.
The separate dining room, gives us the impression it is a place you could come with the family, but we can’t say that for a fact, as it’s full of footie fans today, but even now it does not seem a laddish place.
The place is clean and the hygiene standards are good.
The food is good, the mixed grill is impressive and if it is a pit stop you are after this place with its speed of service is well worth a pop in, the lamb chops, damn where do we start, they were the stand out meats on sizzler that was impressive, love lamb, come here. The staff were as helpful as we could have expected dishes collected on time, food on time and spoke with a smile. You know what this place has surprised us!
For the above reasons we give Special Spices a very good 7.9/10!
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