Shiva's Kitchen — Restaurant in Newton

I’ve eaten here twice— once eat-in and once take-out.

The food is pretty good. I remember really liking the food the first time we ate there. They have some unusual and interesting menu items and many vegetarian options.

I can’t eat cilantro. Most restaurants will leave it off if you ask. When we ate in, this went fine. With the take-out, there was cilantro all over and in everything even though we asked for “no cilantro” on each dish. This completely ruined the food for me unfortunately.

The service and attention to detail is sub par. When we ate in there was only one other table occupied in the restaurant and it was extremely hard to get the waiter’s attention throughout the meal. We decided take-out would be a better option, but they forgot to put the rice in and I had to drive back to the restaurant to pick it up.

There are not a lot of Indian Restaurants in Newton and the food at this one has a lot of potential, but the overall experience is disappointing. I don’t think I will eat here again. If you get take out, would check that everything is there before you leave...

The food was excellent.

Unfortunately (this was on a Saturday night in early November of '24), they seem to be short-staffed, because it took quite a while to get service. Looking around, many other people seemed to be waiting too. I hope they can find a way to improve.

Be Aware: If you are going with three or more people, they add a 20% tip to your bill automatically, and it is calculated on your food+drinks total. I didn't notice that policy, which was stated on the back of the menu.

Be Doubly Aware: That 20% tip is included in the total of your bill, but is not shown separately on your credit card receipt, which will come with another space to add another tip, with suggestions of amounts totalling 18, 20 or 25% added to your total bill ... Which already includes the automatic 20% tip plus the tax! I hope this is a result of carelessly setting up their system, and not an underhanded way to take advantage of people who don't look carefully.

Next time, I will...

I wanted to like this place and while the food is pretty good, the service is horrendous. Both times it has taken almost 45 minutes to receive our food. Additionally, last time we were there, they charged us twice for our meal. They claimed that the credit card payment did not go through and demanded we pay cash for our bill. This whole process took over 30 minutes and we had a screaming 1 year old with us. After we saw the payment charge on our credit card, we called the restaurant to reverse the charge and they claimed it wasn’t possible. They offered us a restaurant credit (great, now I have to go back and endure this bad service again). I don’t want a credit, I want my $60 back! It was just poor customer service all around and unfortunate because we tend to be very forgiving of these kinds issues if the restaurant makes it right. Take your money to the restaurants in Waltham and avoid this place!! You’ll get better prices, food and service. This place is...