Mandala Cafe Agonda — Restaurant in Goa

My partner and I went to Mandala excited about the possibility of finding another nice place to get vegan food in Agonda but we left a little disappointed.

We're staying in Agonda for two months so have plenty of experience of other restaurants and cafes around and Mandala had only just re-opened for the tourist season about two weeks ago so we waited until now to visit.

The first thing I noticed when we went in was that there didn't seem to be anywhere to get water to drink, or none bought to the table after ordering to refresh yourself with while waiting for food to arrive. There was a table with complimentary hot chai outside the entrance, but no water which is a little strange.

The atmosphere was nice and the interior design clearly aimed at western, young and trendy customers, which the restaurant was quite full of when we visited at about 1:30pm on a Sunday.

A waiter bought us two menus but we found them a bit confusing because not all the items have prices, and there's no clear labelling of which dishes are vegan or vegetarian at all.

We read the menus but didn't feel like eating anything so chose a couple of vegan (we could only tell that from the description of the ingredients as none were labelled vegan or given prices) shakes. I had the Peanut Butter Cup and my partner had the Smooth Love shake.

When they arrived, they didn't look anything special, and sadly they didn't taste very special either. In fact the Smooth Love shake was quite bitter and tasted mostly of banana, not strawberries or other fruit like we hoped. I didn't take any pictures of the shakes because I was a little embarrassed to do that as they didn't look anything special.

When I went to pay, I felt the waiter expected to receive the change as a tip but because of the service and experience we'd had so far, I didn't feel I needed to leave a tip.

The prices that we could see where okay, but a little high for the quality we experienced, and there is a restaurant who's name rhymes with 'Best' just down the road that I would recommend instead if you want very high quality western-style vegan and vegetarian food with great...

Atmosphere is great and so lovely inside. Super bohemian new age hippy vibe. Service is good and the owners are really friendly. After reading some reviews I thought the food would be a little bit more flavorful. The avocado toast was ok but I think my expectations were high. My partner had something that wasn’t on the menu but will l be on their new menu and that was delicious (Some bean wrap thing). I ordered a cappuccino and it tasted watery but my partner had the chai and it was good. My partner seemed to have ordered better than I did. We went back to have the chai another day and it didn’t taste as good. My partner had the veg biryani and it was meh 🫤. Primarily, it lacked spice and flavor. Biryani for me needs to have layers of flavor and to have some kick to it. This did not deliver for me. Too much ghee was used as well. The hummus plate was good and I had the soba noodles which I felt was bland and needed more umami flavors. It lacked the umami nutty, cilantro and garlic flavors I was hoping for in an Asian fusion dish. We did share the banana bread and that was good. Everything is beautiful presented and...

Mandala Cafe feels like my 2nd home. The food on offer is just so delicious, from all the traditional Indian dishes, to their own spin of dishes inspired from around the world.

All the dishes are made fresh and full of flavour and love. If you are looking for a fresh juice, a healthy breakfast with fruit or eggs/tofu, a delicious chocolately vegan cake, a traditional Indian curry or with a twist, or maybe just even a good old tasty masala chai... they've got you!

There are 4 beautiful dogs that free roam in the area who have also called Mandala Cafe home, along with a mumma cat and her 3 kittens, and the white male cow (who we still haven't officially named) who visits a few times a day for leftover food.

The cafe is decorated in beautiful plants, lights and hanging ornaments, and they have beautiful incense burning, with a great playlist playing in the background. If you're there in the morning or after sunset you will see the owners do the daily fire Puja to bless the space, which is beautiful.

Basically if you're in Agonda and you haven't visited Mandala Cafe yet, you're missing out!

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