Spice End

2004 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA ‎19103
(267) 639-9405
Website

Remember JoJo Place? Neither do I. That doesn't matter though, because it's no longer a Chinese food restaurant - it's now housing an Indian street-food establishment that serves up kati rolls.

Spice End is trying for a Bollywood glamour feel, but at the end of the day, it's just a fast food joint.

The menu is basic, with a few standard Indian dishes served in roll form. With an offer of $1 off any 2 rolls, I couldn't possibly try just one. Not to mention the fact that the prices are already very affordable.

Here's a little history lesson: kati rolls originated in Calcutta - the original form was a a kati kabab enclosed in a paratha (whatever that means), but today pretty much any filling rolled in Indian flat bread is known as a kati roll. Thank you Wikipedia.

They come with some sort of bland, tangy yogurt sauce, as well as your standard red chili, Sriracha-style hot sauce. Obviously you're supposed to blend them together for maximum dippability.

The rolls themselves are pretty sizable, one would definitely do the trick if you're in the market for a light-ish lunch. The flatbread was charred nicely, as one expects of a quality naan.

This is the aloo (potato) paneer (cheese) application.

It was said to come with 'spicy potatoes' but there wasn't much flavor in here at all. Sure, there was a mild curry tinge, but it was really only there in appearance - aka color.

The stand out was definitely the red onion. They may have had a light pickle, but I couldn't really tell. This thing was D-R-Y. I would have needed 1.5 of the bland yogurt sauce containers in order to cover just this one, but I had to ration this one container, considering I had a whole other roll to go.

Next up was the achari chicken roll, "marinated chicken with a hint of pickle." Now, when they say "hint" they really mean it to the smallest degree. There wasn't any pickle flavor here, save for those same red onions again. I don't know what the green stuff was doing, it added the tiniest bit of moisture and maybe a hint of mild cilantro?

This was another flavorless, dry roll. The flatbread was good, but all in all, the fillings fell very short.

Unfortunately for them, the Spice must have End-ed before they arrived on the scene.