Shubham Valley Restaurant

Address: 8, Vikas Surya Arcade, Unit 101, Sector 11, Near Aashirwad Chowk, Dwarka, New Delhi

Shubham Valley is one of the good vegetarian restaurants in South West Delhi. It is not the classy type where you need to dress up and go. When you feel lazy and do not want to get ready to go to a hi-fi restaurant, Shubham Valley is the best place. It has a good variety of North Indian food as well as Chinese and South Indian.

Though I find it a little clumsy and more of an average family restaurant, many people love dining there. May be they like it because of its complete vegetarian status. You will usually find families here and a lot of noise accompanying them. As I said, this is not a very hi-fi restaurant, so expect the crowd to be the same. That doesn’t mean everyone who comes here doesn’t have a status, but everyone expects to just chill out, disregard of other people sitting around.

I was told that the Malai Kofta here is awesome. Well I didn’t enjoy it as it was too sweet. I can make a better malai kofta and my recipe is very simple. Please do not go by my verdict. You must judge only after you have tried their malai kofta.

However the Chinese food is not very tasty. My tip to you is that whenever you want to have Chinese food, go to an authentic Chinese restaurant and not to a multi-cuisine restaurant. The wide variety attracts families where kids want to have Chinese while elders want to have Indian food, but you never get that authentic taste in Chinese food.

I have been to Shubham Valley just once and somehow me and my neighbour have the same view about it. She got the same treatment that I got when I reached a little late. The service was bad, the staff was not too kind and served us all cold dinner. The warmth in their behaviour was missing.

Well all I can say is that this place does deserve one visit and you must try it because it’s not all that bad. Just remember to reach a little early and not when they are about to close down. Weekends may make the services slow but that’s bearable considering they are humans too. Home delivery is available on a minimum order of Rs 250-300. Have Happy Dining there.

3.2 stars out of five from me to Shubham Valley Restaurant.

Evergreen

Address: Pinnacle Mall, Sector-10, Dwarka

Well for the pure vegetarians who want to do some grocery shopping or buy footwear, digital items, Pinnacle Mall is a great spot. Though the mall has just 4-5 shops, it is a great shopping destination for people who want to stay away from the crowd and shop with some peace. There is Savemax for grocery shopping, Reliance Footprint for footwear shopping, Reliance Digital for electronics and even United Colors of Benetton. The parking space is good and is free because not many people go to this mall as it is not a proper shopping destination.

Once you are done with shopping, head straight to Evergreen Sweet House.

Evergreen is not just a vegetarian eating joint but also a sweet shop. It has a variety of snacks and sweets with nice packing. So if you want to gift someone something exclusive, go to Evergreen.

The place is neat and spacious. During lunch hours, a lot of corporate crowd can be seen. Pinnacle Mall is behind Lebua which is a five star hotel, and thus you may even get to see some foreigners inside the mall.

Now let’s come to the food. Evergreen offers Continental, Chinese, North Indian and South Indian food. Honestly speaking, I have had lunch there just once and somehow I feel that if you really want to enjoy there, forget about the ratio of prices charged and the quantity offered. The Chinese food is best at proper Chinese restaurants and Evergreen proved that. It was my mistake that I ordered a Chinese combo. I wouldn’t say it was bad in taste but the overall appearance was of the food offered at any normal low quality restaurant. But when you are hungry, you can have anything and I did the same.

We also ordered Idli-Sambhar and it was good. The sambhar was good to taste and idlis were soft. I feel they can have better crockery as the ones they use are white plastic ones we get in food courts. Considering the fact that they can even have foreign visitors, they must have some standard.

One section of the eating joint was reserved for kitty parties or corporate lunch and dinners. It was closed. So ladies, if you want to have a kitty there, please go ahead. With good and neat space, your party can be a lot of fun.

And yes, don’t forget to buy some sweets from the sweets section after you have your meals, after all this is what it is famous for. They also offer snacks like Dhokla, Pyaaz Kachori etc. It offers free home delivery service but on a minimum order of Rs 300.

Overall, I feel Evergreen Dwarka is not bad. Though I would not go there especially but when I am there in the mall for some shopping and I have the urge to eat something, I would definitely consider Evergreen. I would give it 2.5 out of 5.

The Black Olive

Address: Manish Metro Plaza, 3rd Floor, Pocket No. 5, Plot No. 1, Sector 12, KM Chowk, Dwarka

I have been to The Black Oilve in Dwarka twice. When I went for the first time, it was a family gathering and the restaurant had just started. There was a promotional offer that pulled me towards it.

The lift, exclusively for this restaurant, prevents you from going through the filthy stairs. Both Berco's and The Black Olive are in the same building. When there is a long queue in Berco's on weekends, most people don't mind going to The Black Olive which is on the third floor.

My first impression when I entered TBO was Wow! The ambience was good and the restaurant looked neat and clean. The dim lights were perfect for a romantic dinner or a cozy and comfortable dining.

The menu looked great with good variety of Indian and Chinese food. For non vegetarians, the variety was too good, ranging from chicken to sea food and even lamb.

Well in my first visit, we ordered veg salt and pepper which was really nice and everyone liked it. The other Indian foods also tasted good but the service was bad, which could be ignored because it had just opened and we thought they will take some time to settle down. The confusion was apparent and the time taken to deliver food was pretty long. We did not complain because it was a family gathering and everyone was busy gossiping.

My second visit was almost after a year. And I was sure about the improved services but not much had changed. The ambience was as great as ever, the menu looked good again, and the services, they were the same too - slow and bad.

We had ordered three drinks - Long Island Iced Tea, 100 pipers whisky and a fresh lime. LIIT, which is a very common drink, was unavailable there, so I ordered a Mojhito. The whisky came first and the waiter did not even ask if soda was required. He brought two drinks and a soda bottle. He had no clue how many drinks we had ordered. So we took one and returned the soda bottle. Before he could move from our table, someone from the management came and took our whisky away. What the F***!! We were surprised at the service. Have you ever seen someone take away something from your table without apologizing or citing any reason?

Anyways, we took it as a mistake on waiter’s part and carried on with our chit-chat. Next came the fresh lime and then the whisky again. This time thankfully no one took it away from us. The veg salt and pepper was served but my drink was still pending. This time the veg salt and pepper was very spicy with loads of pepper and wasn’t as good as the one I had in my last visit. We almost finished our snacks and my drink had not arrived. The manager, with his gestures hinted that the drink is on its way. Finally we finished the snacks and then came my drink. Mojhito tasted good and so I decided to drop my complaint against the management.

The main course was also good but the fried rice was a bit disappointing as it looked like a pulao. And the bill had no mention of the rice but some other dish. For a second we were confused and rushed to clear the doubt. But the waiter cleared that there is no extra item mentioned in the bill and the wrong item is actually the rice. WTF! Is this what you call service? You quote wrong items in the bill and don’t even apologize! My god!!

Thankfully prices are not too high and are reasonable. For three people, our bill was Rs.1200+ (3 drinks, 1 appetizer and 3 main course items). Actually the bill was Rs 900+ but the taxes actually make your bill shoot the roof, which I think is the case everywhere. So with taxes, our bill crossed the 1200 mark.

Even though Black Olive is a good restaurant with a very nice ambience, good and polite waiters, the service needs to be improved. I am sure this restaurant is liked by many youngsters who want to spend some time with their beloveds in a nice ambience, but if you are taking some guests for lunch or dinner, pls think again. I would give 2.5 stars out of 5 to Black Olive, Dwarka.