Spice Garden

COVID-19 TAKE OUT REVIEWSpice Garden is a take away only Indian kitchen that focuses on Kerala style South Indian cuisine. It didn't have to change much of its operation to adjust to the pandemic. On the end of an old commercial strip near the bottom of Bustleton Avenue just a few blocks before Grant Avenue, it is designed to accept your phone order for pick up 30 - 40 minutes later. That was our plan after grocery shopping at the large Asian supermarket on St. Vincent's Street @ Roosevelt Avenue. We called from the parking lot, arriving about 15 minutes later because of light Memorial Day Weekend traffic.Now, I've had much better curries, masalas and garlic naans than are offered at Spice Garden, but on the other hand there is a trade-off of larger quantities and cheaper prices than available at standard Hindi houses, although the online menu states that recent cost of ingredient increases necessitated higher prices. That's just reality given these harsh times, and we didn't object to absorbing a couple of more bucks. Of course, by the time we reached home the blush was off the rose. Reheating was required to reanimated each dish. We found each was tasty and very well spiced. The two chicken plates led the way, with the Kerala Chicken Curry in a dark thick sauce and the Chicken Pepper Fry bone in and the hottest of the lot. It was a finger food delight. The Channa Masala was lighter cream colored mildly sweet veggie dish that was a good sop for the Garlic Naan. The other diced mixed veggie bowl was a strong counterpoint to the rest of the tongue challenging heat packed into the two plastic take home bags.The only real downside to the experience was the cleanliness of the small anteroom when I waited for the food. There were several insulated containers sitting on the floor, each more schmutzidick than the other. Clearly used for moving cooked food, there was no way they would pass a health department inspection. They left me wondering about the condition of the kitchen on the other side of that swinging door. I'll let you know if I experience any side effects from this meal, which appears to be enough for three dinners.

I enjoy indian food & places I've tried I liked. This place unfortunately was not one of them. I had the tandoori chicken lunch platter. The amount you receive is plenty especially for the price but the flavor lacks big time. My chicken was just dry & bland. I taste nothing but heat. I don't mind a little spicy but where was the actual flavor at. Maybe I just should have ordered something else because others like this place. My experience wasn't that.

I'm taking a star away.First, the language barrier continues to be a pretty big issue. (Fun fact, the owner/proprietor speaks Malayalam, so use that when you call!) We tried this place again, because we DO like their food, but we had a pretty rough go of it. Details: The menu has a "chicken of the day" lunch special. When we call and ask what the chicken of the day is, it turns into a Whos on First skit, so this time, we said "we would like 2 BUTTER CHICKEN LUNCH SPECIALS" (lunch specials come with rice and naan and are SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper....more on that in a minute), and a goat pepper fry. The guy taking the order says, "ok," and we're off. 30 minutes later, we arrive, and when we go to pick up our order, the guy says, "chicken of the day is curry chicken, so we made that. You want?" NOW, they didn't call to tell us this new information, they simply made what THEY wanted to make, and waited until we arrived to pick up, to tell us that tidbit. SO, not wanting curry chicken, we say "no, we would like butter chicken," but NOW we have to wait 20 minutes while they cook that. (The third persons order was already cooked, and getting cold this whole time.)About the price; since our orders were no longer "lunch specials," we also had to pay full price for the new order. AND, they have recently JACKED UP their prices. SO, the lunch special is $5.99 (thats meal, rice, naan and vegetable.) The butter chicken, ALONE, is ELEVEN FUCKING DOLLARS!!!! Garlic naan is another THREE DOLLARS, AND, AND, ANNNNNNNNNND, that doesn't even include RICE, which he threw in "free of charge," because they had already made it for the lunch specials. Almost TWENTY DOLLARS, for the same amount of food that comes in a $6 lunch special, all because asking "what is the chicken dish of the day," is nigh impossible. They took our order, not mentioning that anything was wrong, PURPOSELY made the incorrect order and didn't tell us, made us wait to make the correct order, then charged us almost 4 times the price.And the absolute kicker is that the third person I mentioned earlier decided to add naan onto his order after sitting around for 20 minutes. But, they came out with our butter chicken orders, asked us to pay (so we thought everything was good to go) and let us leave. We get a call 5 minutes later, telling us that we forgot the additional naan we paid for. The irony being that they called us for a $2 naan, but not a $22 chicken order. Ugh.The food here IS really good though, but I'm out from using them, at least until I'm REALLY craving them. I think the price hike is more of a kick in the balls than anything. $11 for a tub of butter chicken, AND NOTHING ELSE, NOT EVEN RICE, is just absurd. (pro tip, it IS a lot of food though, so I'd suggest splitting it with someone.)

Really impressed by this Indian food. Chicken tikka masala is amazing. So is the biryani. Did not love the onion kulcha, I will need to try the naan next time.

I've ordered chicken tikka, garlic naan, beef cutlets, and tandoori chicken from Spice Garden. The tikka was really good, it had a better consistency than most of the tikka I've had in the past. The naan was well seasoned and baked well. The cutlets were well sized and delicious. The tandoori chicken was cooked well and delicious. The service and food from Spice Garden is great and I look forward to making it my go to spot for Indian food in northeast Philly!

Amazing place. The food is deliciously prepared and one portion is enough for me to have two, sometimes, three meals out of it. The leftovers keep well. The staff is friendly and attentive and willing to explain everything.

I love ordering from here. There customer service is great! There poricha kozhi (fried chicken w/ onions and peppers) is amazing.

Recently we had placed an order for 17 people through spice garden. I cannot tell you the disappointment on our faces when we saw the quantity of food that was provided. We received half of a quarter tray quantity of curries, sambar, and moora for 17 people! This is the quantity of food that we normally receive at every other Indian restaurants for just 8 people but by spice gardens standards this was enough to feed double the amount of people. We only had 14 adults and it just barely fed the entire amount of adults present. At $15/ person, this was a disgrace to say the least. Although the food was good, this will be the LAST TIME we order from this place. Total rip off.

First time we tried this place-we ordered Goat Biryani, Samosa and Chicken Chettinad. Their service and food was good. Samosas were good- potato filling and spicy with fresh green Chutney. Having their Samosas will not give you upset stomach! Goat Biryani was loved by my husband, he is a Biryani lover and he seriously loves his Biryanis. Although, just a suggestion, the Goat meat could be cooked more tender. Biryani came with pickle and Raita. Also the portions were big. Chicken Chettinad was good- my baby loved it.My only complain is that when I was deciding on what to order, I asked for Take out Menu and AFTER I placed my when I my food was ready and I was about to PAY that's when the guy at the counter told me the price on the menu had increased!!! Why didn't he say when I took the Menu or when I was ordering?! Please don't do this, I liked your food and service but not every customer might like this- it's kind of cheating- prices should be accepted as advertised to the customer. Secondly, I would like to bring to your attention that on your receipts, the full name of customer is displayed and that is scary in these times when anyone can steal/impersonate someone else. Please only display initial or use first name only. Thank you. Definitely like to visit again.

Worst food! We order from them many times before but yesterday's was the worst.There was no meat other than big big chunks of bones in their biriyani and kappa biriyani. Whatever meat left was not properly cooked and not chewable.