In a nutshell:

A great place to have YUMM & close to authentic Goan food in Delhi.

Address & other details: Viva O’ Viva

Meal for 2: Rs. 600 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

When I reviewed Goan Restaurant Bernardo’s in Gurgaon recently, one of my facebook friends suggested me to try out Goa Niwas in Chankyapuri. Situated in a beautiful Goa Niwas Building, the restaurant is run by a private catering company called Viva O’ Viva.

The dining hall is quite big. The interiors are not made in the way professional interior decorators design restaurants these days. It was nicely done, by people with a good taste. There were many Dolls in all corners of the room, some huge ‘parts of boat’ hung from the wall, Christmas trees, a small Golf putting area & a fussball game for guests to play.

The dining hall had lightweight furniture & I must mention the interesting look plastic chairs.

Each table mat had different paintings of Mario Miranda. Loved them all. For the uninitiated, Padma Vibhushan Mario was an Indian cartoonist and painter based in Loutolim, Goa. Miranda had been a regular with The Times of India and other newspapers in Mumbai, including The Economic Times, though he got his popularity with his works published in The Illustrated Weekly of India.

Local Goan music was playing on a stereo set kept on the counter. Quite Peppy & enjoyable in general – at times was slow as well.

The Serving staff were good & humble. They also had good product knowledge. Some of them were wearing bright Hawaian style shirts with images of palm trees all over.

There was no menu card. The menu for the day was hand written on white board.

Food was very enjoyable in general.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

Prawn peri peri was pretty much sweetish, a bit low on salt, intense spicy dry gravy, a bit sour as well. The overall balance of the not correct. I started sweating on the forehead after having this. The prawns were themselves very good. They were soft & nice. I give this dish a 3/5 just due to the lack of balance. I guess it might just be good on another day coz the direction was right.

The Chilli Crab curry was slightly sweet. The spices were too strong so that the crab taste was quite lost. Only someone who knows the taste of crab well, can actually make out from the texture and the taste (somewhat). I loved the curry as it is. Slightly sweetish. Intense robust has a twist and I loved it 4.5/5.

Yellow Fish curry was coconut based, slightly sour with a flavor due to addition of a fruit called ambada. The fish pieces were awesome. They were slightly crisp fried from outside & within they were flaky, super soft & juicy as well!!! Grated coconut added texture. I wud surely give this a 4.75/5.

King fish masala fry was very nice again. It had a Strong spicy flavor & taste, a bit sour, and salty, very good to taste. It had an almost crisp outer layer. I give this a 4.5/5.

Pork Vindaloo was very good but nowhere near what we had at Bernardo’s. The intensity was not comparable & neither the taste. Sans the comparison it was pretty good. Masalas were pretty well sorted & were good. The pork pieces were soft & good to taste. I give this a 4/5.

For dessert we had jaggery & coconut milk based dish called dolol. It is maixed with egg & baked. Loved it. Intense, sweet, but not too sweet, flavor of jiggery & very different from any other dessert I have recently had. I give this a 4.5/5

We also had coconut pancake. This was similar to patishapta of Bengal. It was essentially a maida roll with jaggery & coconut filling inside & honey poured from the top. The maida roti was super sft but it was almost tasteless. No sugar / salt was added to it. The filling was very good but it was insufficient to sweeten the full bite – maida + filing. Result – The taste was pretty bland & directionless but texture was great. I give this a 3/5.

Overall rating of food at Viva O Viva averages out to:4/5

I wud surely keep going here to try out more & more new dishes. Wud look forward to ur comments after eating out here.

Went back here on Christmas Day 2013. The place was alive with Christmas related music, decor etc. We repeated a lot of what is mentioned above.

For dessert we ordered Christmas  pudding with custard. The pudding had a strong rum flavor & was intense to taste.  Loved it just as it is & of course with the custard. They also gave all guests a complimentary Christmas cake that was quite good.