Spice Temple

I went to this restaurant some 4 years ago with my daughter. I came back with a friend. It is still outstanding and my friend from Brisbane loved it. Keep up the good work. I will be back early in 2024 with my husband so he too can share the experience, great food, good service and superb location.

Staff were excellent. Seating was perfect. Ordered Kung Po Chicken. It was inedible. Our lips were tingling and mouth was numb from it. Terrible. We all felt the same. Spoiled the other food as it took 10 mins to regain our senses from the spices. Avoid it.

Went dinner on Monday night.very good service but foods really bad.
We had the mud crab and pipies.both seafood dishes not fresh at all

You get to make your own dipping sauce! We are always treated so kindly. The soup is tasty and food always amazing.

Amazing food and atmosphere. Martin and Hugh were excellent waiters and made the experience so pleasant. Would return in a heartbeat!

I visited because I wanted to have a special dinner with friends, and I had a great time! Even though my friend is a bit sensitive to spices, since it was fusion Chinese food, he really enjoyed it without any hesitation. It was my first time trying the sauce and soft meat, and it was a new taste experience. It was so delicious.

The Ambiance was very nice and staffs were friendly, we went there without a booking and was accommodated by the staff professionally.
They also pack our leftover food for us and gladly took a picture when asked.

Food was amazing and portions were generous so I highly recommended not to follow the set meals and enjoy sharing a little bit of every dish with friends and family.

I’ve been attempting to call this place all day as I’ve had a family emergency. Their phone line doesn’t even work! They even charged me $100 no show fee. My booking isn’t until 7pm! How are your customers supposed to call and contact you if your phone is down? Absolute disgusting! Will never eat here!

Atmosphere is very schick and indeed intimate as they promise. Don’t be put off if they lead you downstairs for seating, it’s very nice down there.

We had the cucumbers, numbing beef and tartare for starters. The tartare was EXCELLENT but unfortunately way too salty; after the third bite or so the range of flavours and textures was simply overpowered by saltiness.

For mains we had the duck and the eye fillet beef which were both excellent, just be warned that the duck is presented like beijing duck but just…isn’t quite the same or as good.

Also note that all food portions are LARGE. A party of two will struggle with the number of dishes the staff recommends.

The overall price was a bit too much for the quality of the food and the “service fee” was not appreciated (if that becomes the norm it will be a slippery slope to wait staff being stuck in the US low wage/tipping system).

Overall it was a lovely experience and I’m glad we did it, but given we don’t live in Melbs, and it was a bit expensive for what it is, and there’s a billion fancy places to eat in Melbourne, we probably won’t return.

We have eaten at spice temple quite a few times pre covid and unfortunately today's visit will be the last.

Food was still nice but we got a nice little surprise once receiving the bill with a hidden service fee of $15.80 at the end of a premium banquet for two with a few wines with a bill that already came to $315 which is what we were well aware of. This isn't good business and quite deceptive on the companies behalf. After speaking to the condescending manager to try and understand why we were being charged a service fee, we still don't have a sufficient answer.

Based on principle and managers snobby attitude when questioning the service fee, we will not be back at spice temple which is very disappointing as it was one of our favourite places to dine pre covid, but it looks like greed has gotten the best of this company.

The food was exquisite - no doubt about it. Usually, fine dining restaurants, you get very small serves, but the serving size here was great! Flavours were amazing for every dish, except the fried rice which was flavourless. Yellow Fin Tuna had an amazing base sauce and the lamb dumplings were sensational. Even the side dark chilli sauce was so good!

Some cocktails had so much ice, you couldn't even drink it, so had to ask to reduce ice.

Bit hard to get someone's attention sometimes, but the waiters indicated to each other when needed.

One thing I was most perplexed by was that we had a booking at 6pm, but they wouldn't even physically let us in before 6pm.

Music was great and quite "international. " Loved it!

Also, no biggie, but I would expect fancier chopsticks! ;)

This place has a special spot in our lives. My partner and I have moved to QLD and every time we come to Melbourne; Spice Temple is our first visit.
Flora, your hospitality is next level, thank you for made us feel special and welcome. Chef Maggie your food is absolutely delicious and you are keeping the flag flying high. Chef Jasmine I will come back million times just to have the pleasure of having dumplings. Lots of love.

Overall average food for what you are paying for. Charging 9.50 for sparkling water is distasteful. Lighting was terrible, by the end of the night we could hardly see anything! Very Overpriced! Service fee and waiting about 45mins for our food was very dissapointing. We expected better!

Service staff had very little knowledge of their beverage offering. Floor manager was pretty disinterested in what’s going on. Disjointed and un-smooth service in general. “Crispy chicken” dish was not crispy. Food lacklustre for the price… would not come back, don’t recommend. Money would be better spent pretty much anywhere else.

- edit, forgot to mention they did not read our booking notes.

Mid-week dinner for our anniversary. Not our first visit. Staff are excellent and food is amazing. If you like spicy food then this is a restaurant you must try. Plenty of options for those who don’t like the heat.
I can definitely recommend and will be going back for more.

Dined here impromptu on a friday night with friends, had medium to high expectations based on name and reputation, was sorely let down by the service and to a lesser extent the food. Staff had little to no knowledge of their offering. Food quality was average. Not at all what you’d expect for the price. It seemed like all the staff didnt really care much.

5 stars for ambience and hospitality. 5 stars for care shown by staff towards our dietary requests. 5 star for the staff taking the criticism towards one dish healthily and waving off the price for that dish since we didn't like it (the Chinese broccoli veg). 5 stars for the starters which were a flavour feast for the palette (we had silken tofu and eggplant). 3 stars for the fried rice which was average, and 4.5 stars for the mushroom glass noodles. Now the dessert - we had mango mousse with Chantilly cream. This dessert deserves an award! It was mesmerising and one of the best I've ever had.

Food is bad, nothing spicy or remotely close to what is described in the menu. Perhaps replace the sugar with actual spice.sugar is used to mask poor food quality and you get it in spades here.

Online menu pricing completely different to bill!? Best to go elsewhere as it is way overpriced for what you get.

To Manuel and team,

This evening we were welcomed in by a nice young lady and shown to our table. All was fine and we were looking forward to the meal.

1) Then came disappointment after disappointment, the wait staff assigned to our table was a complete grump. She was very dismissive and just not interested. 50 Minutes after placing our order (Restaurant was not even half occupied at this time) we politely asked if our food would take much longer.no response just walked off and came back 5minutes later with cold food! Then before we could even finish with our food she began taking dishes off our table without even a simple question if we were done or if we needed more time!

BTW, telling us we had 90 minutes and then taking nearly an hour to deliver food to our table is a bit rich don't you think?

2) I would also highly suggest getting your "cook" if even that to actually get out and try Chinese food! If your dishes are a fusion or some self made recipe then don't call it a mainstream name! Your Kung Pao Chicken was soy marinated deep fried pieces of chicken soaked in a sweet sauce and then as an afterthought had some dried chillies stirred in. The chicken was terribly sweet, had absolutely no hint of spice or chilli. You would have been better off buying a Kung Pao Sauce packet from the supermarket and it would have tasted better! $51 for this despite the inflation and location is a rip off any day of the week.

The Chinese broccoli was dry and looked pathetic (perhaps from sitting around too long) and again the sauce was unbelievably sweet with a few drops of oyster sauce on top!

The other dishes notably the prawns, eggplant and fish were all just mediocre with too much sugar and not much else. Seriously mate, this is not how these dishes are made. Perhaps use a different name and description in your menus if this is your standard.

To add insult to injury, there was an $8 service fee.which begs the question. WHAT SERVICE? We had the worst experience of our lives here today.

We understand staff are hard to find but training is essential esp.at this level, youre better off having a few great team members and investing in them then having so many who are not interested in working and instead leave customers reeling from such a bad experience. Customers being treated badly from the onset for no real reason is really just not acceptable and when you add horrible food to the equation, it becomes a truly sour experience.

Hopefully this is remediated for other customers!

Poor quality food, no taste and papadam are soggy. Any other Indian in the area is better.
Food was cold when it arrived and parts of the order was missing.
Restaurant delivered reminder 42 min later.