Wild Spice Indian Restaurant, Gorey

Wild Spice is a very good Indian restaurant situated in Esmonde Street in Gorey. Their food is top notch and they do take away as well.

It’s funny how things happen. Several years ago, possibly a decade now, a friend and her husband opened a restaurant in Gorey. The food was great, and the prices were fair, but it just never did the business for them and it unfortunately shut. Two years ago we listed two Gorey restaurants and now I think it is six, with Wild Spice being the latest to be recommended by Taste of Ireland.

Wild Spice is a contemporary restaurant at the bottom of Esmonde Street occupying a corner site. Inside the walls are an ochre colour and the floors are solid wood, with some interesting carvings dotted around and a nice frieze carving dividing the service area from the dining room. The tables are nicely spaced and there is some good linen.

We went along after a day at Brittas Bay, arriving around seven on a Saturday, we were lucky to get a table. Our gang of four comprised myself and daughter Abigail, while with us were our English cousins, Jake and Ruby O’Shea.

The menu is shorter than some of the more traditional Indian restaurants, but still offers most of the favourites, along with some signature dishes from the south of India, which is where chef/proprietor comes from. Most Indian chefs in Ireland are from the north, so you will find some dishes in Wild Spice that perhaps you haven’t come across before.

We started with a selection of starters, tandoori prawns for me, while the others all had a mixture of chicken pakoras and onion bhaji for the others. The prawns were big and juicy, the bhaji were nicely spiced and the pakoras were moist with a nicely flavoured coating.

The main courses included a chicken korma for Ruby, prawn chilli masala for Jack, while myself and Abigail ordered from the Chefs recommendations – Lamb Achari for me, and a southern Indian speciality, Chetnadu Colombo for Abigail. These were served with pilau rice, lemon rice to go with the Chetnadu and we got some Naan breads – a Garlic, onion and coriander combination on one, and another I haven’t come across before, Afghani naan, which is filled with onions, peppers and cheese.

All of these dishes were excellent, but Abigail’s Chetnadu Colombo was a revelation. This hot curry combines mustard seed, curry leaf, fresh coriander and lamb and was the star of the show, while the lamb Achari – a pot roast in tomato and onion, flavoured with hot pickles and coriander – was a close second. The lemon rice from the south was a winner as well.

Maybe it was the sea air, but amazingly we managed three desserts – rich chocolate cake, sticky toffee pudding and three types of ice cream – which were all delicious and home made, something that isn’t always the case in Indian restaurants.

Wild Spice is very good indeed, and if you like Indian food you won’t be disappointed. Another good addition to Gorey.