When I shifted to Navi Mumbai a couple of months ago, my search for a decent watering hole began. Since I live in Nerul, Ice and Spice popped up on google search as the closest possible alternative.
A couple of reviews were/are available on MS & BP, they neither fawn on or denigerate the place. So it was left to our party of four to check out the place for ourselves.
Ice N Spice is located quite conveniently, just opposite the Seawoods railway station. Plently of parking space is available on the road & you can find autos plying from the station as late as 1 AM.
The facade isn’t impressive, they’ve converted a house into a commercial establishment, a children’s garden below reminds you of the family resturant just above the lounge bar. The entry charge is Rs 1000/couple and we were charged Rs 2000 for our group of four. We went in hoping we’d find a good spot, being a saturday night and all.
To our surprise, we had the place all to ourselves. Well, almost. The lounge itself is nice and spacious with seating for around 80 people, but it was hauntingly empty. Perhaps 5-6 other people were there. The dance floor was empty and waiters lounged around feeling bored.
The ambience is not too bad though, silver uphostery on black furniture with blue lighting gives the place a distictly sci-fi look. The dance floor dominates the space with a big bar right in front of it.
Service was pleasent enough, the drinks menu reasonably priced(Black Dog 12 y.o was Rs 320/60 ml and Bacardi White Rum Rs 250/60 ml). The starters covered a full range of continental, indian and chinese items and were priced between Rs 99 & 199. The portions were quite generous and went delightfully with our drinks.
The DJ was a let down though, hardly took any requests and wasn’t able to cut from one song to another seamlessly. The crowd(or lack of it) was the other killer. It’s hard to enjoy the dance floor when you are the only one on it.
To my surprise, families showed up around 11 PM or so, so by 12 AM there were kids running around the place and aunties gyrating to the beat of Punjabi songs on the dance floor:D.
We spent 3600 for two rounds of starters, three rounds of drinks(including some cocktails & one round of tequila shots. So, a very reasonably priced place.
If I had to rate it, I’d say.
Ambience: 4/5
Food: 5/5
Liquor(Range): 4/5
Liquor(VFM): 5/5
Food:(Range): 2/5(Starter’s only)
Food:(VFM): 5/5
Crowd: 1/5(none at all)
Cheerios
CS