Review The Spice Rack Indian Kitchen - Albany

Simply the best authentic Indian restaurant experience in North Shore Albany! Great atmosphere their cuisine was exotic & full of flavours to die for ! Highly recommended everything was amazing. Impressive place do come visit here will be back again. Recommend to friends & family 100% value for money.

I cannot recommend this place enough. The food is consistently amazing, the curries look and taste insane, you can tell the chef puts effort in. The atmosphere is lovely too, the tables and chairs are so pretty and unique, and there’s always calming music playing. The staff are always super friendly and kind. I can’t wait to go back!

We had our dine in today and it is so far the best Indian cuisine we have ever tried. Friendly customer service, curry is not that salty and can taste the spices with the chicken also super tender. Great And unique experience for the taste of Indian culture.

Was recommended to come here by locals on the “Lazy Susan” page on Facebook and was not disappointed! Authentic food, all tasty and the service was great. Hosts explained the dishes and assisted us to chose the perfect dishes. Recommend the goat curry and the lamb sagwala..the mango dessert was such a palate cleanser and all handmade! We will be back!

The taste that's very close to our local food in India. So far we tried thier chicken pan fried rice, Indo Chinese chilly chicken and paneer Tikka. So good that it made us go back to our old days of tasty authentic Indian food. It's a very decently busy place and there is a good number of regular customers and heaps of take away orders. If you like Indian hot, ask for hot dishes. You will never regret. Now it's one of our go to places in Albany for dinner. It's best to book in for tables if it's during weekend and also let them know if you don't want to wait for food. They will give you amble time to talk and then serve food as that's the kiwi culture. Try it and enjoy it. thanks

Our go-to curry. Perfectly cooked chicken every time. Highly recommend the Korma, Madras and Tikka Masala. Also recommend going to the restaurant itself, great service!

Excellent curry especially the dal. We are vegan and English and there is a great choice, of Indian food in Bradford, Birmingham, Leicester and London, but this ranks amongst the best.

One of the best Indian restaurants around - food is amazing. The staff are friendly and efficient. Price vs quality is great being moderately priced - just great value overall.

We were so impressed by the food we had in The Spice Rack Indian Kitchen! Also nice atmosphere and hospitality

We went there for a buffet breakfast. It was all South Indian vegetarian foods. We enjoyed having it.

One of the best Indian restaurants in North Shore. Love the food and near to Westfield mall.

Been here on a number of occasions over the years and it has always been better than average with nice food and.good service. Went earlier this week and it was FANTASTIC... the Chicken Mirchiwala was the best chicken curry I have had for years!! Super tender, super flavourful. Nan was perfect too as was the Aloo mutter. I love my curries and it is rare in NZ to get anything other than kiiwified versions but this was really special. Not sure if new owners or new chef but this was next level lovely.

We continue to choose The Spice Rack as our preferred Indian restaurant on the Shore. The food is always of the highest quality with authentic flavours & just the right element of spiciness. The service is prompt & efficient & our takeaways are always delivered on time & with a genuine, friendly manner. Highly recommended!

Amazing food - Chicken Briyani! Very friendly staff!

Best curry in a long, long time. I had the Mirchiwala Chicken with a garlic and cheese naan. It was amazing! Medium was the perfect amount of spicy.

What a delightful surprise finding this tucked in a corner restaurant. The food is 5star, the right amount of 'gravy' in proportion the the meat. The flavors took me by surprise in how original they are. The service is so friendly and polite. My husband traditionally doesn't like indian but he too loved the food as they made it mild for him. I've been 3 times now and can't wait to go back again to try new things. Not to mention the gorgeous dining room and comfy chairs. You won't be disappointed trying this one. :) PS.. the 15.00 lunch is quite substantial and with fresh made Naan, Yummo.

Always extremely happy with the service here. Love to eat at the restaurant and our go to for takeaway. Love the Dal Makhani!

Had a very unfortunate experience using their own delivery service from the spice rack website, we decided to use it so the restaurant can receive all the profits (during this hard covid time) The text we got once order was placed was a 40 minute estimated delivery time. After more than 1 hour passed, I called the restaurant, and was given a very unfriendly response of “the driver has collected your food now and will be 20 minutes” (we live less than 5 minutes drive away). No explanation of why the food was running so late or an apology. When the food had finally arrived, the driver left at our front door and did not knock so we didn’t know it was there! I only discovered this as I was periodically checking the front door! Once we received the food, we had requested medium heat, and the food was much spicer than medium, and they had ignored out special request we made of asking for two separate rices! As a long time customer of spice rack of more than 4 years. I couldn’t be more disappointed. When a customer politely calls to enquire on there food order that is already 25 minutes late, don’t be rude, offer an apology and explanation. - just a side note, I checked Uber eats and expected delivery time from the same place was 15 - 25 minutes. Not an hour and a half. Moral of the story, should have picked the food up myself or used Ubereats

Best curry in Auckland! Mirchiwalla is amazing!!<br/>

Great local Indian Takeaways. After moving into the area we were disappointed by another Indian restaurant. Sometimes a long wait at Spice Rack (although at peak times that what you would expect).

Food was pretty good but the lady at the counter ( owner ) was quiet rude.. all my team members felt the same way..she was bit frustrated due to split of bill and was quiet rude to her staff as well..I will never visit the place again for sure..

I live an hour north of Albany. I got given the wrong order(more than what i ordered and obviously not the same). Only realized this when i got home. Obviously i was not going to maje a 2 hour round trip back to exchange it. Person phoning me insinuated that it was somehow my fault it seems, clearly not happy with me. She suggested i start checking my orders when i pick up. Here's a suggestion for you. Your curry business is not my business. How bout you check you give me the right order. Lucky for you you will never see me in your restaurant again.

Never fails to hit the spot. Consistently good food! Really wish they would deliver to where I am but totally worth the drive.

Wonder staff and amazing food! Order chicken vindaloo hot and it was delicious! Will be back! Beautiful place!

Lovely ambiance friendly staff. Just feels like home. Kids love the food too. Sorted 😀

After a long day of work we headed over to Spice Rack to grab a butter chicken. We usually just get one main and two garlic and cheese naans and share the main. However, the main was a bit small so we had to order a second main after the first had come out. This was a bit smaller than we were expecting for the price. However, the naan was delicious and the curry was good! The atmosphere was prestine and the restuarant was clean.

Nice place to have Indian food. Great location near the mall. Tandoori Sizzler @TheSpiceRack This was a very yummy tandoori sizzler at Spice Rack. The tandoori chicken had an amazing flavour of spices 👌🏻with mint chutney on the side to go with it and sizzling salad.

Mediocre experience, service was ok but not much more. Have had better curry elsewhere. Prices slightly more for same at other similar venues.

We used it for a takeaway and it is a best butter chicken in the area. Staff was friendly and takeaway was ready as promised in 15 minutes:)

Lovely, cozy atmosphere. Beautiful food and friendly service. I've eaten my fair share of curries, but their chicken was cooked to perfection; full of flavour and deliciously tender. We had a very enjoyable meal and will be visiting again!

My (indian) partner and I love this food! Best Indian restaurant around! LOVE the veg curries, and as everyone is saying, naan is 100% top quality. Staff are very friendly. Service is great. Recommended for your Indian-go-to! Have been disappointed by other restaurants..

Unprofessional staff ( including senior staff - duty manager), querrling among themselves at loud voice without considering guest may understand their language and doesn't find comfortable.<br/><br/>Moreover even taste of vegetarian food was also not great.

Their curries were done really well and so was their tandoori chicken. Service was fast but the servers weren't very pleasant or looking happy. It's good that this place is in Albany and so location wise, it's good to know these guys are close by to fill your occasional curry craving.

We searched on the internet and this place came back with the highest rating for the area we stayed it. It’s good!<br/><br/>We love the curries, we absolutely love the naan. BEST NAAN! Love the weekly specials, value for money. Lamb Rogen Josh is excellent as well as butter chicken. <br/><br/>Also love it that it’s BYO, so we enjoy our curry with our favourite wine, oh and don’t forget the delicious naan!!

Nice place to visit the theme of the restaurant is amazing at has a real Indian feel to the place with all the decor around the place the food is also very nice have a very authentic taste to them would recommend to go.

Other than lamb roganjosh nothing great to talk about. But still better than most of the indian takeaways in Albany. Its a good place for cheap lunches.

Top quality Indian food. Got a platter to share as well as butter chicken, lamb vindaloo and naan. The platter is quite a small portion but the food was very tasty, personal favourites were the samosa which was ultra crispy and well seasoned as well as the onion Bahji which I couldn’t get enough of. <br/>The curried were full of flavour and I really loved their take on the butter chicken. <br/><br/>The real winner was the naan. BEST NAAN I HAVE EVER HAD. Soft, crispy, fresh, doughy. It was the perfect naan. I would probably go back just for the naan, so much better than food court naan that is soggy and hard. Definitely try it if you love naan. It paired perfectly with the butter chicken sauce. <br/><br/>What I didn’t like was the service, the waiter never came back to take our drink order and another waiter took quite a while to get us napkins. The napkin was also quite cheap looking, like those serviettes for parties. Waiter also did not initiate much conversation and was fairly monotoned and seemed bored.<br/><br/>Love their food, just not a big fan of the service and decor. <br/>

Excellent service, very quick and always delicious. Very good restaurant for both large and small groups. My favourite dish is the chicken tika masala.

My partner and I have been going here regularly for the past 4 months. Definitely an A+ for customer service, food and price. Would highly recommend all of the dishes here!

Got takeaway on Wednesday for the first time. Food was delicious. However the minimum order for delivery is $40 which you need to order quite a lot compared to other Indian restaurants in albany.

Loved to see lots of vegetarian friendly options, would be good to see a bit of work on the vegan menu though. Average atmosphere, average food. A little disappointed you charged extra for takeaway/ a doggy bag.

Came here for a work dinner. Sat a group of 12. First impression was really cosy warm and inviting. The tables are really nice!!! Perfect lighting for selfies also which we took a million of.<br/>For food I had the Lamb Korma mild which was nice but should have got medium as I tried my friends one and there was only the slightest difference was not spices at all. I would consider her medium, mild. Tried the Tikka Masala which was also really nice. Ordered the garlic Naan which was mediocre not too bad but not amazing. Also got the sizzling platter which was early nice also.

The food was delicious and the service excellent.  I was a bit surprised however that they chose not to honour the Entertainment Guide 25% off coupon. The resaon given was that the meal was already discounted as it was a weekday night.

I wasn't a big fan of their butter chicken sauce as it seemed too nutty. However, I did try the mango chicken and lamb korma which were both really nice!! I asked for a red label vodka and orange juice ( and I know, only red label!) but it tasted much worse than a normal red label - tasted more like Kristov...not good!!! Apart from that was really fast and friendly service, felt very welcoming, will be back!!

I have loved the food here and have been a regular. However, the last time my interaction with the owners was not great. They promised unlimited curries but kept complaining. They both did not agree to the catering order amongst themselves and made me the wrong one. Never going back. I can cook good food and indian food in auckland has evolved.

My wife had work lunch with few colleagues at Albany.The food was  flavoursome and service good, but she got cheated on paying the bill and realized this just when she got back .It was just by a dollar, as the lunch menu  was 11.99 and I was charged 13.00. Please double check your bill on your way out!

i just came on saturday with my family.I was really impressed with your service. Moreover , they helped me out to select the dishes for us.So ,I really like it. Keep it up guys 👌👌👌👌👌

We are not being rude or disrespectful but it was a mistake walking into the restaurant. First thing we didn't had warm welcome from the girl who worked on Tuesday evening 23rd of February second thing we chose the worst seat which was near the washroom and it stinks very bad. We waited for 15 minutes for the girl to come and take our order but she was busy with the other customers taking their photographs including herself with selfies which was nothing close to professionalism. Finally when she came she didn't ask what would you like she said in a rude way are you ready to order which we didn't think was very polite full. Finally we ordered some food our first meal was chicken platter in which the chicken pakoda felt like it was made in the morning the batter was really not crisp and fresh, the chicken Tikka was tasteless and chicken tandoori was made by using too much of food colour after that we had to call her for our main course,we ordered Punjabi chole medium spicy but when we tried it it was too hot and spicy we couldn't eat it again we had to call her because during this whole time she didn't even came once and asked us about the food so we had to explain it to her that it was too hot and we wanted it to change and she changed it but it was too funny for us that under no circumstances she realised that it was a mistake and should have courtesy to say sorry. After changing the food the curry was alright but we felt so weird that we didn't even finished our food and left it and while paying for the food she didn't even ask once about the food about the atmosphere of the restaurant about the experience nothing at all. It was really disheartening. We as customers come to a restaurant to have a good time to have good food and before coming to this restaurant we specifically checked the review in zomato and after reading some reviews we thought we should give it a try which was the biggest mistake of that day. Don't be deceived by the look of the restaurant try their food and their service and judge it yourself although would never ever recommend this restaurant to anybody and would never come back again. Sorry if we hurt any bodies feeling but that is the truth. We rate this restaurant 1.2 out of 5.

Our new local Indian! Nice atmosphere, very friendly staff and a good number of choices on the menu for a cheap price. Both our curries had flavoursome spice and a decent kick, will definitely be back for more.

Awesome Service and Awesome food :) Would defiantly recommend this to everyone for the lovely staff and very nice food at a good price. A+++

Very nice traditional Indian food. The food tasted home made and had obviously been slow cooked. I had Chicken Jalfrezi which had plenty of fresh veggies and the sauce didn't taste like it was full of cream and sugar which can often be the way at Indian restaurants. Staff were super friendly and polite. <br/>Definitely will be coming back for more.

Indian and Thai are our favourite food. We have dined at many different Indian restaurants around New Zealand and also Australia. The spice rack remains our preferred place for dining. We have never been able to fault any item selected from the menu                                     The staff are friendly and eager to make our dining experience as enjoyable as possible. Whether this means helping us decide on a new dish from the menu or catering  to our some times fussy needs :)  They make a point of including the children in ordering our meals which the kids think is great. The décor is great and the ambience is wonderful.                  The meal sizes are perfect.     We appreciate the small things too like heating the plates, (even providing paper and pens for the younger ones to draw if they finish before the adults)              We do have another great Indian restaurant  in Palmy but The spice rack even beats that. We dine here regularly. With or without the family.

40 minute wait for two mains - and repeated "2 more minutes" when it actually amounted to 20 minutes. Only two staff to look after drinks, orders, serving, and cleaning.

Amazingly friendly staff complimented by a great menu rounded off by fantastic food. Great place totally impressed. Ordered a platter to share and got 5 incredible dishes complimented by perfect naans and rice. Would totally recommend. If not for the great range of restaurants on the shore this place could become a regular....!

Food ordered: <br/>Chicken Korma w/ Rice, Naan, Kachumber Salad & Papad<br/><br/>Bill: $11.99<br/>We went to The Spice Rack today for another work lunch. I'm a fan of Indian cuisine, but I tend to be put off by the small portions served up most places. In fact, when I heard we were having Indian today, I even went and bought a filled roll beforehand. Big mistake. One of my colleagues asked the waiter how big their portions are, to which he replied "BIG"... and he wasn't kidding. For a lunch special, I was amazed at just how much food was put in front of me. A large dish of chicken korma, two big pieces of naan, a decent bowl of rice and a small salad to top it off. Each element of the dish was cooked perfectly and rich with flavor, complimenting each other perfectly. The service was great as well, with the waiter advising us all on the spiciness of each dish and recommending dishes accordingly. I had one scary moment when the waiter spilled some chicken korma while placing it on the table and here I was wearing a white business shirt, but other than that I enjoyed my experience at TSR. If you're looking for quality Indian food and value for money, this place is not one to be missed.

Decent Indian restaurant to go for lunch, as it is close to many offices. The taste and ambience have been improved a lot over the past year, since the change of management. If you've tried this in 2014, and got disappointed, its worth giving it a chance again.

Always frequented this place back when it was still known as Kashmir, I'm assuming that it changed ownership lately.<br/><br/>Fortunately their great food and service has remained the same.<br/>Interior of the restaurant is lovely with vivid reds and paintings on the walls.<br/><br/>Service is friendly with the waitress never forgetting to ask how your meal has been. Food is authentic Indian with a wide range of flavours on the menu that can fill a niche for every individual. Only complaint with this place is that the accompanying bowl of rice is shared between two, whereas if you were dining alone you would get it to yourself.<br/><br/>Would definitely recommend though, and will probably be revisiting in the future.

One of the best Indian Restaurants I've been to. The service was excellent, with friendly staff. Restaurant was clean. Will definitely be going back to The Spice Rack.<br/>

New owners and new name for this restaurant which has been in Albany for many years! The food on the menu is the usual Indian restaurant options, but much tastier than what was previously served under the previous owners. We came for dinner on a Saturday night and it was packed! Food was hot and flavoursome, staff were helpful and friendly. Will definitely return :)

Very tasty food with excellent service....comfortable place <br/>Try special dishes like chicken mirchiwala, beef dopiaza, lamb achari , etc<br/>Entree are mouthwatering and juicy. ...

There are a number of very good Indian restaurants on the North Shore and last night we tried out the Spice Rack in Albany. The restaurant is very comfortable and attractively decorated. We were seated, and offered water and complimentary poppadoms shortly afterwards which was a lovely touch. We ordered the Vegetarian Banquet ($30 per person) and were pleasantly surprised at the size of the feast which, unusually for us, we didn't manage to finish. The entree platter (3 dishes) was substantial and very tasty. Special mention for the garlic naan bread which was superb, and the Vege Butter Masala and the Punjabi Chole were both delicious. Surprisingly for a place called the Spice Rack, both the Palak Paneer and the Dhal Makhani were somewhat bland. Overall very good value.

We have now been here twice and both times we have loved the food. We have tried the chicken vindaloo, mango chicken, butter chicken, korma and sagwaala. All the dishes were very tasty and the service and friendliness of the staff made you feel very welcome. We will definitely be back!

Was nervous as I have an allergy to cashews and they said they normally make it with them but would take them out for me and due to previous experiences elsewhere. The butter chicken was delicious! And so was the cheese naan. And even better no allergic reaction, will definitely be returning!<br/>

I've tried so many Indian restaurants since moving to NZ in 2010, and this one is such a breath of fresh air. I had almost given up, but I loved it. Friendly and great service, really great food. A superb experience all round, you won't be disappointed.

Amazing place where get lovely staff to serve you at their best n authentic indian curries i have taste so far out of india... <br/>Wonderfull experience.

Authentic indian food , the specialty menu they have its like unique MUST TRY ...with gr8 ambiance n lovely staff :) very neat n clean place ....will b bk. Keep up the good work.

My experience in this newly opened place is not good at all. I have been to almost all Indian restaurants in Auckland, but seriously for these people i can't say a good word. We went for dinner last month & first of all that girl on the reception was so rude & had a lot of attitude, common if a customer is asking u something with a smile, you cant be that rude, as if she was our customer...GRRRR..then there were only 2 tables booked at the time, still they didn't come to take our order for 15 mins, when we asked that reception girl why they r taking so long...guess what she said- I dont know what r they doing in the kitchen..i mean what??? instead of saying sorry or telling please wait she said this...  once ordered they took exactly half an hour to process our order...soo annoying and moreover after waiting so long for food, starving, we got everything which was already cold. We asked them to change the Naan breads, and then we had naan which was not properly cooked. Veggies were so watery..yukkkk..This was the worst of all i can say...Hope they will read this and try to improve..all the best..

We enjoyed an awesome ambience, extremely friendly staff, delicious food at affordable prices. sure to visit again. prime location and quick service.

Good Food....Generous Parking.....Mega Menu with great seasonal speciality...Spacious and royal ambiance for an Indian Restautant in albany. Must try the Baltimain & juicy chicken tikka