Digest this mini-review in 60 seconds

Venue

A modern Indian restaurant amid the well-to-do thrum of Hale village. Plenty of choice of eateries here, so competition is keen and standards high.

Menu

Immense and comprehensive: typical range of starters, dizzying array of mains including balti, korma, dansak, bhuna, dupiaza, Madras and so on, tandoori dishes, fish specials, and a few English dishes like scampi and steak...but, honestly, why would you?

The chef’s recommendations and ‘contemporary specials’ list seem most interesting. After starters of fish tikka (moist, richly spicy) and a shish kebab (quite fiery, in a good way), we opted for vegetable dupiaza and chicken chilli. The veggie dish was nicely done, but the chicken chilli was the real star - spiced chicken, battered and deep fried in butter with garlic, ginger, tomatoes and slivers of green chilli just waiting to explode on the taste buds of the unwary.

Sadly, no Indian sweets, however. Apparently the Spice Lounge used to offer them but Hale’s diners didn’t ask for them. Shame. What I really needed after the high-fat joy of that chicken chilli was the sugar rush of some gulab jamun.

Decor and ambience

A big, open room with a bar on one side and upholstered bench seats running the length of the restaurant on the other. The central lighting fixture seems to have been borrowed from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise and there are several black and white photos on the wall of pop stars of a certain vintage, including the Bee Gees and The Jam. We liked it.

Service

Efficient and friendly.

Cost

Very reasonable indeed. Starters were mostly under £4, vegetable dupiaza was only £7.50 and the chicken chilli £13.25.

Spice Lounge

112-114 Ashley Road,

Hale, WA14 2UN

www.spiceloungehale.co.uk

0161 929 4444