Spice Paragon

Spice Paragon is another Thai fusion restaurant that had became popular in Christchurch.  It is located in the newly renovated Bush Inn Mall, right next to the new entrance.

It has been highly recommended by my friends.  They loved the variety of dishes with herbs and spices, and the great cocktail list.

I had lunch at Spice Paragon on a Friday while doing some shopping.  I spotted their lunch menu, with very reasonable prices (all dishes were $16 or under).  Definitely beats eating at the food court.  There are a good selection of dishes, all well presented.

After some deliberation, I went with the Pad Thai in free range eggnet with chicken, tamarind sauce, peanuts, and lime ($15 for lunch).  This was beautifully presented, and I was very impressed with how they managed to wrap the eggnet neatly around the Pad Thai!  Unfortunately the Pad Thai itself was not as good as some of the others I've had in Christchurch.  However I liked the herbs and bean sprouts on top, and the generous serving of peanuts on the side.


I went back to Spice Paragon a few weeks later with a group of friends for dinner.  There were 7 of us, and we were able to have a good variety of dishes to share between us.  The girls were particularly impressed with their cocktail list, and had tried several yummy cocktails.  Unfortunately they were too quick for me to take any photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

To start our meal, we had the banana prawn pancakes incased in crispy spring roll wrapper with light plum sauce ($6 for 2 halves).  These were very nice, with meaty prawns in the middle and crispy wrapper on the outside.  I also liked the light plum sauce, which went well with the pancakes.  A good way to start our meal.

After a little wait, our mains had arrived.  These were served with Jasmine rice ($2 each person).  Okay, I know the rice is not that special for photos, but I liked the added touch with the sprinkle of chopped chives.  We were given 2 big bowls of these to share.  The Jasmine rice was hot, fragrant, and cooked just right.  The waitress also offered to top up our bowls when they became empty.

Now comes the real food.  Our first main was Bangkok street grilled whole free range chicken with spice, lemon, and tamarind sauce ($39).  This was a very impressive dish, with a chopped whole chicken.  The chicken was well infused with flavours, and we loved the crispy skin.  I thought the meat was slightly on the dry side, but otherwise a good dish.

Next came the Angus beef eye fillet with chilli, holy basil sauce on seasonal vegetables ($38).  The Angus beef fillet was cooked perfectly at medium rare (see the photo below), and simply melt in the mouth.  Great flavours and lovely with the vegetables.

This was G's favourite - wok fried spicy crispy pork with chilli, green pepper corn, spring bean, and crunchy sweet basil ($26).  It was quite a spicy dish, and not for the faint hearted!  It even came with a green pepper corn, and it would be wise not the eat this, as it would probably burn your mouth off!  I liked the wok fried beans, although the dish was a bit too spicy for me.

Mussamun curry of slow braised lamb shank on Asian sweet potato mash ($33) had been a popular dish among my friends.  I wouldn't usually associate lamb shank with Thai food, but apparently it works quite well.  I only had a small bite of this, but my friends all loved it.

Young coconut tom yum of banana prawn with coconut fresh, fresh kaffir lime juice and lemon grass ($33) was very tasty.  Prawns are one of my favourite food, and the banana prawns here were huge!  Meaty and well infused with flavours.  Most of us haven't tasted young coconut before.  These were cut into slices, and were slight crunchy.  They didn't taste like coconut, and were more like bamboo shoot or mushrooms.  This was another spicy dish, but I didn't mind it as much.

Our last dish was fresh tuna salad with snow pea shoot, orange, fresh coconut, Thai herb, and lemon grass ($32).  I loved the tuna salad from Chinwag Eathai, and was therefore looking forward to this dish.  Fortunately, it did not disappoint.  The tuna was very fresh, and I loved the herbs and spices.  Some of my friends preferred this version over the Chinwag one, as it didn't come with as much coconut.  I think I would be pretty happy with either dish.

We all enjoyed our meal, and were all happily full at the end.  The waitress presented us with the dessert menu, however our stomachs didn't have much room left, and the menu also wasn't particularly inspiring.

There was some confusion earlier in our meal, and the waitress brought us a dish we didn't order.  This was taken away, but somehow it was left on the bill ($33).  I only found out about this when looking at the bill at home to do this post.  Slightly disappointing, but I'm sure the staff would have taken care of it, if it was noted.  So it pays (no pun intended) to check the bill.  The staff were all nice and attentive.  My friends even got to have an impromptu wine tasting session after discussing wine with the staff while we were paying.

Spice Paragon is open 7 days from 11.30am to 2.30pm for lunch, and from 5pm till late for dinner.  A special lunch menu is available at a reasonable price (all dishes $16 or under).  Reservation is recommended, particularly at dinner time.


Spice Paragon
Bush Inn Centre
Cnr Riccarton & Waimairi Roads
Upper Riccarton
Christchurch
(03) 348 8881
spiceparagon.co.nz