Spice Lounge

I often arrange to meet friends at the pub underneath this restaurant. You can enter from either the outside or the pub. A small restaurant with a strange single toilet which loops round the back of the bar. This is fine indian cuisine. The dishes have good flavour and the service is friendly and fairly efficient. There is nothing distinctive about this place that sets it apart from other indian restaurants. I have eaten here twice and always find it good value.

The Spice Lounge is a traditional High Street-​style Indian Restaurant, located above the Blue Eyed Maid pub in Borough High Street, a few minutes’ walk from London Bridge Underground station (Borough High Street exit).
The main entrance is actually a few yards along Chapel Court, a small lane adjacent to the pub, and the restaurant is up a fairly steep flight of stairs (ie no level access).
The restaurant interior is fairly small, with a dozen or so tables. It’s fairly plainly decorated, with an old-​fashioned fireplace, small bar and slightly fearsome-​looking modern tan-​coloured leather seats. But apart from that, the menu and food is pretty much your typical High Street Indian restaurant: all the familiar favourites are there, from curries (bhuna, madras, rogan josh, vindaloo), to baltis and birianies.
Prices aren’t bad, especially considering the location: starters range from £2.50 to £6, mains from £7 to £10. Sides include a choice of rice and vegetable accompaniments, and breads. It’s perfectly possible to have a beer, starter and main with rice for around £15. Service is not added, so it’s up to you if you tip.
The service on our visit was friendly and swift, without being pushy, although I think we were asked once too many times if everything was OK (it was). They seemed unfazed about having several parties in at once.
The food was pretty decent, though not outstanding, in terms of quality: my balti was (as baltis often are) a little oily for my liking, but tasted fine, and the garlic naan bread was was very good — not greasy or doughy. The curries were probably a better bet. It’s not high class cuisine, but fine for a good value bite if you’re in the area. The house red was a decent French Table Wine at £12 a bottle, but they also have a range of lagers, as well as more pricey wines if you’re more discerning, and they were happy to provide iced tap water, too.
It certainly seemed popular, although a notable feature was that all the other customers were groups of blokes (well behaved, though, despite it being the Christmas season). At least one group did that very traditional Brit thing of ordering chips with their curries, rather than rice. I don’t know if this is a regular feature or not, but it wouldn’t put me off going again.