Recently, for my brother’s graduation lunch, we went to Mango Shiva on Stephen Avenue. The walk from the parking at Banker’s Hall to the restaurant was not that long, especially in good weather.
The restaurant itself had a warm ambiance with many lights, mirrors, and warm tones. It is semi-formal to casual and great for lunch when there aren’t too many people. It tends to be busier in the evenings. The seating arrangements were a bit of a problem because we all sat on a sofa that stretched through the length of the room, and we were a bit too close to other people.
My family and I agreed the food was absolutely fantastic! For appetizers, we ordered the organic arugula and goat cheese salad. Although it had a bit too much arugula, the fresh grapefruits and oranges made up for it by providing a citric kick. We also ordered the mango lassi, which I definitely would order again and again.
I would highly recommend getting the tandoori paneer flat bread, which is a nice alternative for pizza lovers like me. The mango chutney paired well with the savory toppings.
For dessert, we ordered the chocolate chai lava cake. The vanilla bean gelato paired with it was the best part of the dish. It wasn’t overly sweet because they added dark chocolate.
The part that fell short for all of us was the not-so-great service. Our waitress was talking to one of the customers for over 15 minutes while we waited for the dessert menu. We also had to wait a very long time to get our food, so I would suggest going for the buffet, which has a wide variety of dishes and dessert.
Overall, I would give this restaurant 4/5 for the ambiance, 5/5 for the food, and 2.5/5 for the service.