Malaka Spice

Malaka Spice - Koregaon Park, Pune

This place has been there for a considerable amount of time, but somehow I never visited it until recently. And if anything, it exceeded all expectations I had for it .. and believe me one gets to hear a lot about it over the years. Malaka Spice serves Asian cuisine .. Thai, Vietnamese, Malay, Indonesian .. you get the drift. Its located off North Main Road in Koregaon Park. The seating area is quite limited indoors, but they also have some tables outside in the patio. Going to Malaka Spice for lunch is quite different from going there for dinner .. its like the place complete transforms itself! During the daytime it looks like any ordinary restaurant .. somewhat informal .. where you can wander in, seat yourself and do your stuff. In the evenings .. voila! .. it becomes a well decorated, upscale dining experience .. complete with candle-lit tables. Sort of Clark Kent in the daytime and Superman at night .. kind of thing. Except Superman used to roam around in the daytime too .. so maybe not as much :-P

Malaka Spice features a full menu with a decent wine list. The staff knows their part well and are gracious and helpful with the menu. The cane-skewers are something new and good as is the Malaysian wild herb rice (or something similar). The Thai and Penang curries are also worth a mention. Oh what the heck .. almost everything here is good .. so no particular recommendations as such.

Overall a definite A+ place .. quite a nice experience in the evenings .. nice place for a date with the candle-lit tables (and its dark elsewhere), good food and good wine. Obviously its packed in the evenings so come early, call ahead and reserve or be prepared to wait. I particularly like the day-night transformation as you can just go with friends for a good lunch without all the frills.


Food: ***** Ambiance: **** Price: $$$
Last visited: mid-2007