Shivani - Mt Roskill — Restaurant in Puketāpapa

I use to like Shivani’s but they have substantially reduced their portion size.

I use to order a lot of food from here but now it’s like once in a while thing honestly that too because I have that soft spot of being a regular customer of Shivani’s restaurant in past.

Wanting to come back to Shivani’s restaurant I ordered Pani puri dine in. However, portion was very less and still keeps me in awe 🫢.

05 small puri, 1 n half all purpose spoon accompaniment (lentil + potato) mixture that really raised my eyebrows felt as if it was a mistake or something, tamarind water also was in one of those “tiniest”cup the ones that we get with the cough syrup bottles to consume like medicine less than 30ml I guess. Only the pudina water was in proportion.

It was genuinely not worth $10. Guys there are other restaurant if you crave for Pani puri where you can get more quantity. Even pav bhaji take away is like 👎 on quantity compared to other restaurants in Auckland.

Hope this feedback is looked into sincerely and the owner looks to improvise on the portion size by increasing it for the customers to the price charged, so that we can come back to the restaurant and enjoy the food.

[I had no option to reply to the response received from the management so I am responding here : not that I disagree of the on-going inflation on certain veggies example tomato, onions, green peppers.

Certain items are still not so sky rocketing as others that prices have of other dishes also needs to be increased even for those items that have not been a part of inflation and there comes genuine pricing strategy which to me seems a little off on the explanation.

Thanks for your reply but it is still not the right one. No offence but other restaurants do give fresh options with right price, it’s not just Shivani’s who gives fresh food]

Good...

Visit & experience on 28/08/2025 around 3:30 PM

1.Ambience & Hygiene •The carpet gives off a mouldy smell. Please have it cleaned or replaced, as this affects the dining experience.

2.Menu & Food Quality •The menu needs review—some item names and combinations are confusing. For example, South Thali should ideally represent authentic South Indian dishes, but the current items don’t align. My observations from the South Thali served: •Bendi (Ladies Finger) Curry – Tasty, but very oily. •Cabbage Curry – Good, but again oily. •Sambar – Acceptable. •Curd – Acceptable. •Salad – Needs freshness check; colors looked dull. •Pickle – Fine. •Jalebi – Too much food coloring; consider serving natural basic/Rajasthani-style Jalebi instead of use kesar instead food colour. •Lemon Rice – Seemed reheated multiple times. •Papad – Nice. •Puri – Extremely oily; feels like oil could be squeezed out. This needs urgent attention. Key Issue: •A South Indian Thali without plain rice is incomplete. Serving puris with sambar/curd instead of rice is neither authentic nor practical. •I also noticed that the North Indian Thali includes rice, but the South Indian Thali does not—which doesn’t make sense. •When I asked to replace the puri with rice, the staff mentioned it wasn’t possible and that I would need to order rice separately. •This left me with the feeling that I was left with no choice but to eat the extremely oil-soaked puris as part of my late lunch, which was...

Feeling bad for sure to review like this, had a wrong start for sure. Place was quite and washroom was slippery and tripped. I have a feeling they used the mop stick in the kitchen wiping oil stains.

No water and cutlery given neither I could find a self serviced notice. Cutlery was right at the entrance of a busy street and I could see the clear dust and hard stains unwashed and unpolished for sure.

Food was expensive for the portion size and the funny part was they must have added boiled chickpeas to the left over sambar. First time in my life chana batura was tasting like sambar. There were two staff and the girl was receptive atleast but the guy was busy backside. Not the best experience I had and utterly disappointed. It's my first visit to dominion road branch as I had a great experience at South auckland branch. This is no where close to that store I feel.

I have spent almost 50dollars but I regret for taking this decision. I could have gone some where else sadly.

Instead of using too much food color especially on momos and fried rice, I felt they should focus on hygiene, cleanliness and good portionsize. For sure it will encourage more customers. This is purely my opinion no hard intentions to spoil the reputation of business infact this is my first review online of bad experience so far. Being a hospitality person I'm confident to write this from my...