Eating Edmonton: Spice Grill

Indian food is everywhere — in particular, butter chicken is everywhere. You may be wondering which restaurants are good and affordable, and which meals are flavourful. Whyte Ave’s Spice Grill is a small, hidden place that offers sweet Indian food. 

Spice Grill is a rather small restaurant with limited dining space, so I’d recommend ordering to go if you can. However, if you’re unable to order out, you can still sit comfortably. The only downside is that the noise from the kitchen can be heard quite clearly.

Butter chicken has a unique history of its own, with its origins often being debated. However, what the correct taste should be of the dish is somewhat subjective. Some prefer a more sweet version of butter chicken and some prefer more spiciness. I am a person who likes anything that is spicy, hence butter chicken that has some kick is one of my favourites.

The butter chicken here came with a basket of naan and a scoop of rice. The chicken tikka also came with naan, rice and a cup of sauce. The butter chicken was good, but it was more sweet than spicy. It reminded me of Remedy’s butter chicken, but better. I find Remedy’s butter chicken has way too much cream and it hurts my stomach (I’m not lactose intolerant, so I don’t know why it does).

The rice and naan were good too, especially the naan. The rice does contain little pieces of carrots, which doesn’t make much difference to the taste of the dish. The naan was easy to break apart and wasn’t too oily or greasy.

However, the chicken tikka was plain and had huge pieces of uncooked onions, which isn’t a problem in itself, but there was too much onion. The sauce that comes with the chicken tikka tasted very similar to the sauce on the butter chicken, but given the history of butter chicken, this isn’t particularly weird and it could be a way of referring back to its roots. Personally, I would just buy butter chicken in the first place, instead of plain chicken.

Spice Grill doesn’t have the best butter chicken in town, but it’s not the worst. I would come back if I was in the neighbourhood and needed something quick, but I wouldn’t seek it out. Nevertheless, it is a good alternative to Remedy, so definitely check it out if you’re in the mood for Remedy but don’t want to wait too long.