Red Spice Road QV

We spent a lot of time convincing each other that our meal here was ‘good I guess’ when we left, which is what you do when you spend a chunk of change for a meal that doesn’t quite deliver. Truth is we were pretty underwhelmed for what we paid, but I take some of that responsibility for perhaps not ordering to their strengths. I’d been years ago with work and got a banquet which I thought was brilliant. This time, when only trying a few dishes it didn’t have the same effect. It was just good, I guess… but not great.

Red spice has been a long time favourite, although it may have let me down previously. This time there were about 60 of us for a xmas lunch.
As soon as we are ready, the food just kept coming out! We had their banquet and was pleasantly impressed!
— Pork with crackers (This was quite nice and mild)
— Lamb ribs (OMG love this, but only better if you have the chilli jam with it)
— Kung Pao chicken (This is ok)
— Pork belly (Need I say more)
— Beef Rendang (The beef was tasty, the sauce was tasty, but it didn’t blwo my mind)
— Hot and sour noodle salad (I could live without)
— Fish, watermelon salad (never had before and was very happy with this)
The wait staff was polite and attentive enough, they came and introduce themselves.
I truly enjoyed lunch this time around.
If you go, make sure you try the lamb ribs and pork belly!

The thing i love most here is that they have a function room on offer if there are any work functions this place can cater for you. I main dishes i love here are the salads and braised pork. So fresh, colorful and flavoursome. Awesome place for a weekend dinner with some girlfriends or partner

Great spot for trendy fusion food. Started with an awesome kafir cooler, a coconut sambal for appetizer and a well put together prawn salad. Ambience was great, good service. Prices were on the high side for a tourist, but good experience overall.

This was the local for a work team lunch for 5. It was rather deserted but that may have been due to the current arctic temperatures and the rain. Staff were attentive and accommodated our need for wheelchair access without blinking.
I chose a very nice Shiraz from a wine list which was just the right length. Although there were enough ‘by the glass’ options, there were way more ‘by the bottle’ options.
We quickly agreed on the banquet option and were served quick quickly. Starter was Chicken wings, the three mains we chose were the pork belly, barramundi salad and eggplant. It came with rice.
I was blown away by everything. I love coriander which added a freshness to everything.
There was more than enough food for all. The banquet option did come with a glass of house wine but some of us chose other options.
This was my first time here but it won’t be my last.

The good thing about Red Spice is how reliably delicious it is. The pork belly is always spectacular, but so are the range of other dishes. It is also excellent value for lunch with an express menu to keep within a typical lunch hour.

The food is good, but the seating is a little odd.
It is basically communal tables, which doesn’t lend itself that well to groups.
I suspect the original location is better in this regard.
The Good:
Steamed bun filled with spicy pork, pickled cucumber and Kimchi mayo — excellent, IMHO their best starter
Sweet corn fritter on a lettuce leaf — excellent, love the sauce glaze

OK despite pork belly falling out of favour on the foodie trend of late, a good pork belly is still very relevant I say… Apparently everyone raves about the pb here, but I must have come on a bad night.
The sauce was a bit too sweet and the pb was twice fried for a bit too long. I got pork bark with deep fried skin. A redeeming feature is that everything around the pb was good, but I didn’t come and pay for side dishes…

Very tasty stuff, but some dishes are better than others.
The food… any place that serves pork belly is a winner in my book. The place does a good pork belly, but I think the top layer of fat is overcooked a bit. The crispiness of it has a nice texture, but it forces you to eat the top layer of fat all together. My preference would be for it to be a bit less crispy, that way you can cut down through the pork belly to have a mix of the skin and meat. I also tried the curry which was decent, but not the best curry I’ve had. Some of the seafood dishes sounded very appetizing as well, but I did not get any seafood.
The venue/​staff… classy enough, modern style. The art that hangs in the back of the restaurant is not quite «family friendly». I really appreciate how flexible and how accomodating the staff was. I’m in Melbourne for business and enjoy a variety of dishes. The hostess and waitress was kind of enough to give me some options for trying multiple dishes as a table of one.
Overall… I would try it again, but I may test out some different dishes.

Yes yes yes!!! We were here for cocktails, and got more than we bargained for. Awesome drinks, and a great bar tender with personality too. If you are in the area, GO GO GO! TOP NOTCH

I love Red Spice Road! The food is just simply amazing, the staff members are incredibly professional and the restaurant setting is comfortable. It is quite a busy restaurant but they still manage to get all done perfectly. The caramelised pork belly is the must try and speciality of this restaurant, so you must try it out! It’s so crispy, tender, and full of flavour! I can’t wait to try another location and see the two difference.

WOW! What an amazing place, great set up, very attentive staff & the food is to die for. Went here on Friday night with my partner & we got the $ 79 banquet, 10 courses of pure food heaven. The food was perfectly spaced out so you did not feel rushed, they explained each and every dish & plates were cleared up as soon as you were done.
The pork belly is something you simply must try and the pork belly oysters were scrumptious.

Pork Belly!!! Pork Belly!!! Pork Belly!!!
Lunch Banquet has been mentioned in previous comments. It’s now $ 28 for 3 dishes with rice and entrée. You get to choose 3 out of set menu of 5. While the starter and 5 dishes change on regular basis, Pork Belly is always there. And it’s always good. I’ve taken colleagues there, friends, family. And everyone has gone back for another visit.
Desserts are pretty good too. Usually featuring rosewater, lychee, coconut, jelly, you will find something that suits your palate.
And even with banquet menu, they are happy to accommodate your allergy issues.
It’s a big place. So feel free to book for dinner with 20 people (we did) and let the staff take care of you and your friends.

Loved the food!!! Did not mind eating at the communal table. Make a booking for a private seat.

We had the express banquet lunch here today. It’s $ 25 per person for an appetizer and three mains with a bowl of jasmine rice.
Betel Leaf with Smoked Chicken
Beef dish
Fried Snapper dish
Shredded Chicken salad dish
The food was plenty for the two of us and we both quite enjoyed it.
Service was very polite and quick. Under 10mins wait time from ordering. There were about 10 other tables seated while we were there. So not too busy. We sat down at about 1pm on a Saturday.
Would return to sample other items on the menu.

Not quite the same charm as the original (but that may have been because the place is ENORMOUS and it appeared nearly empty as a result). Same menu with some great dishes. It can be a bit on the exy side if you’re not dining early, but the portions are large and delicious. Would be a great choice for a date dinner before a movie if you were going to Hoyts and didn’t want to be too close to the food court.

I’ve previously eaten at Red Spice Road in McKillop Street (once for lunch and once for dinner) and had great experiences both times. So I was quite happy to be invited to lunch with colleagues at Artemis Lane which is convenient to our workplace.
We chose the banquet which means for $ 25 per head we could select 3 dishes to share, plus rice, and each received an entrée (no choice). The food was tasty (and there was WAY too much food, even for those of us who were really hungry). We had one vegetarian dining with us and she was given 3 different dishes so we didn’t need to pick non-​meat dishes. Her portions were also huge.
It was a fairly ordinary lunch though. We waited to be served even though we had booked in advance and we were told that the food would come out ‘really quickly’ and it didn’t. If we hadn’t been told that we many not have thought the delay was so lengthy. The food was tasty but not «that is so good I want to lick the plate» delicious which was what I was expecting based on my previous experience.
It was nice, but it wasn’t amazing.

I love this restaurant and have been lcuky enough to walk in a few times without a booking — but it is busy on weekend nights for dinner. A predominantly Asian-​fusion menu that is delectable. The bar is awesome and staff are lovely. The Thai Chicken Salad and Vietnamese curry are memorable dishes, drawing me back when I have a craving. Still looking forward to trying out more of the intriguing entrees — however with large main meal sizes, never seem to fit them in,

Red Spice Road came highly recommended (and with a Xmas gift voucher). So it was with quite a bit of excitement that we headed down.
To be honest it wasn’t a great start, with a less than cordial welcome and dirty plates at our table. From that point onwards, we were very happy with the experience. The waitress was nice and very helpful to our questions and the overall experience.
We had corn fritters, prawn stir-​fry, and vegetable green curry, with a mint & apple mule mocktail. All together the shared dished made for a lovely sensual experiences, although I wouldn’t call them the most flavorful dishes.
It is a nice mid-​range thai restaurant and (although I didn’t experience it) I believe that it would be better with a larger group and the banquet.

My partner has been waiting to take me to Red Spice Road (RSR) on McKillop St. for a while now. We were on our way to Section 8 in the CBD, and past through the QV, and much to our surprise we found that RSR just opened a new space on Artemis Lane!
After a lovely mojito in the sun, we ventured into the nice, clean (almost clinically so) establishment. It was fairly quiet and we were seated promptly. Looking over the menu, my lovely and I decided to sample what RSR offered with the Express Banquet: one appetizer and 3 mains to share for $ 25 each. It was a hot day, so we also got a «jugtail» of red sangria. The waitress was very pleasant and came back three times smiling as we made up our minds about our drink for the arvo.
First the positive:
1. The Portions! I’m usually a hungry bloke (I blame my years of swimming, and the appetite to match), and they did not disappoint. The express banquet was extremely filling for the two of us, and with extra jasmine rice, you could roll out of RSR and tan in the fake QV lawn.
2. Betel Leaf with Chicken, Crab, Coconut, Chill and Kaffir Lime was superb! The flavour was unlike anything I’ve ever tried before and was like a light refreshing version of a curry.
3. The Barramundi with Watermelon, Cucumber, Chilli, Mint and Coriander was also superb. The fish was fried, and it made the watermelon even more refreshing… and it was a hot day outside, so anything refreshing was hittin’ the spot.
4. Pork Belly with Chilli Caramel, Black Vinegar and Apple Slaw. The pork belly was also fried (prefer grilled), but the smoothness of the belly went so well with the crunch of the slaw. The sticky sauce was plentiful (too much in all honesty), but soaking it up with the rice was worth licking the bowl.
Now… the not-​so-​positive
1. The Sangria. OMG it was horrible. None of the flavours melded together, and it seemed like a layered drink, with the bottom all rum, then wine, fruit, and ice. We had to be super careful to pour the drink out without spilling ice across the table… which we did, pour about 25% of our drink onto the table… the about $ 8 worth we didn’t drink.
Once in our glass, it was combination of cheap red wine and rum. The drink was freshly prepared, so the fruit didn’t mix at all. We actually poured our glasses back into the jug and finished our meal hoping it would taste better. It didn’t; the ice melted a bit so it just became more diluted. In retrospect we should’ve asked the waitress to take it back, but we were embarrassed to speak up.
2. Som Tam — Spicy Green Papaya Salad with Peanuts and Dried Shrimp… the spiciness came from the fresh red chilis, but the slices seem concentrated and we needed to stir it around the bit.
3. The atmosphere. Like I said, it was new. We went on a Sunday, six days after its soft opening. The website was update on the Wednesday before. My partner commented that the place was very «sterile.» She liked the ambiance of the original location.
Overall… worth checking out! I highly recommend the Express Banquet and something else other than the Sangria to drink. I really want to give this place 3.5 stars, but I’ll give them the benefit of being just opened.