Le Spice is off High Street, just down the hill a bit toward the waterfront. Basmati is on Broad Street, just across from Jubilee Gardens. They both have charming decor and a pleasant atmosphere, though I had longer to look at the gorgeous and colorful art on the walls of Le Spice, since I ate there and didn't do take-away, as I did at Basmati.
I always start with the basics to see which place will be the best, so I ordered lamb korma and chicken tikka masala, plus rice and naan bread.
I'll begin with Le Spice:
The food arrived after only a short wait of maybe 10-15 minutes. My husband says the cheesy naan brea was better here -- I can't eat wheat, as I have a mild allergy, so he was the judge for this part. It looked a bit thinner and had a wider covering of cheese. He doesn't care for bread, so he preferred thinner. The naan looked delicious and made my mouth water just to look at it.
The lamb and chicken were both tender and easily able to cut with just a fork, though I thought the chicken was almost on the dry side. The tikka masala and kormas were thick, bright red and yellow (respectively), and flavorful, but they got cold quickly and didn't taste as great as they did when they first came out.
We ordered the egg fried rice, which was good, but I recall (I should have taken a pic, I know -- I'm learning) it having some sort of peppers or chilies cut up in it, which made it a bit spicy.
I know spice normally isn't an issue at an Indian place, but I don't like spicy food (gasp!). I don't believe my husband noticed, as he loves heat.
This was also my husband's first Indian dining experience, so that would be the other reason for going with the basics! He said it was good and would want to try something with heat in the future.
Le Spice has the best reviews online and the most hype, which is why we tried it first. The service was good and they were very sweet with our two-year-old daughter (offered a high chair and brought her a lolly at the end).
For Basmati, we walked up minute after they opened and I placed a take-away order. They were extremely friendly and the food was ready in under 15 minutes. I received a 15% discount because it was a take-away order (Le Spice only offers 10%), which was nice and I didn't have to ask or point it out, they were quite forthcoming, for which I was thankful.
When the food was ready, they had given us free onion bhajees and popadoms because we were the first customers of the night! That was a pleasant surprise, obviously -- who doesn't like freebies?!
We had a 12 minute walk home and the food was still piping hot when we sat down to eat! The korma and tikka masala were not as thick, but I preferred it, as it didn't seem as paste-like in consistency. The chicken and lamb were tender and moist (or "awesome," as my husband declared). The naan bread was thicker and less cheesy, but still looked and smelled delicious. I ordered a mushroom pilau rice and the hubs got the egg fried rice, since we had agreed at Le Spice that more rice would have been nice. However, I believe the rice portions were larger at Basmati, since there was plenty leftover after we finished our meal.
My mushroom pilau had plenty of flavor and was a perfect complement to the korma and masala. The egg fried rice was more what I would expect of egg fried rice and appeared to have a solid amount of egg in it.
Our free bhajees were crispy on the outside and moist in the middle, while the popadoms were just like any others popadoms I've had anywhere!
Overall, we preferred Basmati. The food had better flavor, texture, and consistency, plus I felt special getting a little freebie! The price is a bit cheaper and the 15% off made it even moreso. Between the two, I will hands-down recommend Basmati to my friends and any strangers who may ever ask.
As I said, I'm learning, so I forgot to take a picture before we ate... So here's what's left of our meal from Basmati. And on a final note, I just took a bite of korma (cold) and it's still delicious!
We have terrible lighting in our dining room, so I had to use the flash 👎.
