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Spice Temple

Spice Temple, a place embroidered in mystery.
Spice Temple, a place embroidered in mystery.Supplied

Good Food hatGood Food hat16/20

Chinese$$$

Floating fabrics are projected at the entrance, and dark incense-perfumed steps lead you in to Spice Temple, a place embroidered in mystery. You may even forget what your companion looks like, so dramatically low is the lighting. Food is the real focus, however, with strategic lamps giving each regional Chinese-influenced dish the megawatt star treatment. It’s a relief the blaze is directed at plates only - it gives you enough darkness to recover privately when undone by the unsparing chilli levels in certain items. Yunnan-style hotpot is a demonic (but great) brew for daredevils only; like the aptly named ‘hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork’, it gets a red (chilli) alert on the menu. Degrees of chilli-conquering difficulty vary throughout, but each dish is uniformly brilliant, whether milder eggplant or lamb and cumin pancakes through to a cooling lychee granita with praline.

And ... Try the express lunch banquet for a quick spice hit.

THE LOW-DOWN
Vibe
Sophisticated designer Asian with menu to match.
Best bit Atmosphere, service and food soar. 
Worst bit Finding the best choices in menu yin and yang.

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