Food Review: OVEN FRESH @ SHIVAJI PARK

Breadsticks & White Butter served with the Soups

I have been to this restaurant many times but got an opportunity to write about it just now. The food here is excellent most of the time while they come up with ‘shockers’ sometimes. They serve only vegetarian.

Sweet Corn Veg Soup

This trip was on the eve of Diwali and it was Vini’s treat. The four of us had to wait for about 25 minutes before we got a table. By the way, you cannot book a table at Oven Fresh. You have to go there and wait for one. The wait is a minimum of 20 minutes on any given day whether it is lunch or dinner. That goes a long way in proclaiming the restaurant’s popularity.

Pesto Minestrone Soup

Plus point 1: We all ordered different soups – Sweet Corn Veg Soup for me, Smoked Pepper Soup for Venkat, Cream of Broccoli for Vini and Pesto Minestrone Soup for Viggy. We all relished the soups. They turned out with perfect taste at just the right temperature.

Smoked Pepper Soup

Plus point 2: The half plate of cheese garlic bread and another half of just garlic bread were just yum.

Cream of Broccoli Soup & Garlic Bread

Plus point 3: Venkat asked for a Veg Sizzler with Pepper Sauce - it looked colourful and tasted delicious as all of us had a bite from it.

Veg Sizzler with Pepper Sauce

Plus point 4: Vinitha asked for Corn & Cheese Enchilada. This is a hot favourite and was as good as it always tastes.

Corn & Cheese Enchilada

Plus point 5: Vignesh ordered a pasta dish – Ravioli in Sundried Tomato Sauce – rounds of stuffed pasta in sundried tomato sauce. He just loved it.

Ravioli in Sundried Tomato Sauce

Plus point 6: I did not want anything too heavy and ordered Nachos with Beans. We all had a go at the perfectly turned out dish.

Nachos & Beans

Plus point 7: I could not resist asking for a slice of Black Forest Pastry and relished it all by myself.

Black Forest Pastry with Strawberries

Plus point 8: Viggy’s Lemon Iced Tea was great, he said.

Flop show 1: The service at this restaurant can be way better than it actually is. The waiters are slow and have a don’t-give-a-damn attitude. They wear it on their sleeves quite proudly, in fact. There are times when we place four main course orders for four of us and the food turns up at different times. They don’t understand that the food needs to be served for everyone at the same time.

But we keep going there because the food is superb.

Note: They don’t accept credit cards but do take food vouchers such as Sodexo.