Spice Market at the W Hotel – London, UK: The Spice Market restaurant in London is located in the W Hotel in Leicester Square. This is the sister restaurant of the Spice Market restaurant in New York's Meatpacking District (which we had rated Bombastic earlier). Headed by Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, this restaurant serves Pan - Asian cuisine.

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The Spice Market London combines the old world feel of Spice Market New York and the contemporary architecture of the W Hotel to offer a breathtaking space for diners. The center piece of this restaurant is a 24 meter long, two storied spice cabinet. As this restaurant is made of glass on three sides, the spice cabinet is visible from the street. Parquet flooring, custom made wok-shaded lighting, gold mesh sliding screens, a brass spiral staircase and booths with scatter cushions add to the restaurants eclectic design. A private dining room is also available.

We were at the Spice Market London for lunch. The lunch menu had a nice selection of starters, salads, soups, sandwiches, noodles, rice, seafood, meat and vegetarian dishes. Some of the starters that sounded interesting were the Vietnamese Spring Roll, Spiced Chicken Samosas with Coriander Yogurt and Lobster Summer Roll with Sriracha Emulsion.

The Grilled Yellowfin Tuna Burger with Shiso and Citrus Pickles in the Sandwiches section and the Cornish Crab and Egg Scramble with Sesame, Lime and Chilli; Crispy Salt and Pepper Sole with Thai Basil and Lime and Cod with Malaysian Chilli Sauce and Thai Basil in the seafood section also caught our attention.

The options for meat were Red Curried Duck, Vietnamese Chicken Curry and Onion and Chilli Crusted Beef Short Ribs with Egg Noodles and Pea Shoots.

Lobster Pad Thai, Ginger Fried Rice, Coconut Sticky Rice steamed in Banana Leaf and Baby Corn and Broccoli with Lemongrass and Chilli seemed to be popular among the vegetables, noodles and rice section.

A number of tasting menus were also available. The concept of the restaurant is the trendy “small plates” concept; you order a variety of small dishes for everyone at the table to share.

To start with, we had the Butternut Squash soup with ginger cream and Thai basil. This soup was excellent and gave us an indication of the quality we could expect here. For the main course, we ordered the grilled chicken sandwich with Asian pear and chilli mayonnaise and onion and chilli crusted beef short ribs with egg noodles and pea shoots. The sandwich was delicious and the chilli mayonnaise had the right amount of spiciness to it. The beef short ribs was unimaginably tender, easily one of the best dishes that we've had in a very long time. Throughout lunch, the dishes were placed in the center of the table for both of us to share.

Service was perfect and attentive. Our Thai waitress helped to make our lunch a special experience. Overall, the London Spice Market is smaller and lacks the over-the-top gorgeous design of the original New York restaurant. However, this restaurant still gets a Bombastic rating from us.

What I liked: The bombastic food

What I didn’t like: Nothing much

Rating: Bombastic

Address and Telephone Number:
Spice Market
W Hotel,
10 Wardour Street,
Leicester Square,
London
Telephone: 020 7758 1088

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