Five Spice Indian Cuisine

Definitely do not judge a book by its cover (this place is in the back corner of a convenience store) - amazing food. Loved the strong cardamom flavour in the butter chicken. Would totally just buy the special 5 spice naan on its own as a treat/snack.

We used to get takeaway from here quite regularly. Very nice website, it was very nice food. Now Sooke has a local Indian restaurant we love so we don’t go here anymore in the last year.
Five Spice is a little takeaway spot inside a convenience store in Happy Valley and it was such a gem of a find when we moved to Sooke from up island.
We were in the neighborhood last Saturday night and decided to call in an order. We get there, the guy at the counter told me that it’ll be 2 minutes. Finally we get our order 15 minutes later after multiple people come to pick theirs up, very busy night.
We ordered the Palak Paneer, Butter Chicken, lamb biryani with a couple of naans and sides of plain rice as well as coconut rice.
The paneer dish was great, spice level spot on. The other dishes that were our usual picks were unfortunately not great. The butter chicken lacked its depth of flavour and the biryani was a tad dry, flavours were there but it was as if the volume was turned way down. Lamb itself was decent but biryani is usually a bit more moist and comes with a side of raita but tonight it didn’t.
The coconut rice was interesting, not sure if that’s their own version but it had fried bits of the coconut cream which lent a toasty flavour but left the rice quite oily. And then the naans. Oh dear, it was nothing like we’ve had before when the naan is sort of light and bubbly almost. It was the opposite. The naan were like flat bread. Thick and heavy.

I’m thinking since it was very close to closing time on a Saturday they were just super busy and were pumping out so much food that the quality suffered a bit.

This is as good as it gets. We had the Chicken Tikka Masala & Navaratan Korma and both dishes were unbelievably rich, layered, and tasty. High quality ingredients. Above average portion sizes and at a good price too! Highly recommended, the best Indian food on the island, hands down!

As good as it gets. One of the best Indian meals we have had in many years. Not to be missed. Thank you to the new owners, your warm hospitality and outstanding dishes, each and every one of them, made for one of the most memorable meals for a very long time. Congratulations. We'll be back :-)