Absolutely loved the food here! The food has a simple, almost home-cooked taste, as is of superb quality. There is attention to detail in the way the entire experience of having a meal here is designed. The staff is friendly and accommodating and the service is par excellence. We also stayed at the hotel and although we admired the large rooms and fascinating decor, the AC wasn't working properly and therefore it was quite hot. Overall it was a good experience because of the food and service

Restaurant - Honestly, this place is very overrated. They served our drinks much after the food arrived. The food - pasta was undercooked. Crepe was tasteless. Most of the seating were very uncomfortable. Best to get a reservation done before arriving here. Thou for us even getting the reservation done was a task. They wouldn't answer the call at all Rooms - The restaurant restrooms were out of order. So they opened up a room nearby to access washroom. Nice of them. But in the name of minimalism, the room extremely bland. No windows. And the worst was the room opened directly onto the restaurant. Zero privacy possible for its occupant. I saw a young lady entering the room next door and felt bad for her. A 10k room tariff for this is sad.

5 star prices. 3 star amenities. 1 star service. In short - overpriced for everything it offers, anywhere in the world. I stayed here and dined here. Not sure what the hype is about. Guess this is what you call a tourist trap. (Special Mention: the hilariously frugal breakfast spread. What kind of “food lover” would love their breakfast spread, I’m yet to understand.)

Everyone suggested Villa Shanti for tasty & authentic French and Italian dishes. I must say that the suggestions were definitely upheld by the restaurant with the quality of the food and their courteous staff. We had the chicken risotto and the Beef tenderloin along with a drink, Beach Blossom. All 3 are recommended when you are planning to try them out.

The ambience is well maintained and the courtyard seating gives you a very soothing romantic dinner setup. Unfortunately when we dined at this place, the waiting staff was not able to manage the load. The service was super slow, follow up by the waiting staff was slow. Fortunately it was a leisure trip, hence it did not matter and it actually helped us eat less since we lost appetite. Probably due to the hype about this place, there were too many expectations. If I have an option to choose to dine again for dinner, this is definitely not the place. Food was fine, nothing out of the world.

The quality of the food was maintained up to the mark but the taste of it wasnt something my husband or I liked. The place is well maintained. The staff are excellent but sometimes forget to get u a water refill. The washrooms are excellent. The ambiance is good. But we didn't like the food there. We tried all the French style of food and the taste didn't impress us. The hotel closes at 3 pm in the afternoon for lunch so try to make it before that if u are going to try it.

Ambience of this place is top notch. Food is tasty and amazing too. Location is one of the prime area in White Town itself. Everything was just close to perfect. Although we were a bit apprehensive due to the pricing of its menu which is slightly costlier but it is worth it cos the taste is just wow and worth your money completely.

Food was really very good. Great for date night. Not VERY expensive either. It’s doable on a good vacation evening with your family. There is no AC in the dining area, but ambience is good. You’ll appreciate the heritage feel. Over all RECOMMENDED 👍👍

It was my first time to dine at this restaurant. The ambience was good. The prices of the food are pretty decent. I was disappointed with the taste(food) as well as the service. Pros: Spacious , modern , good ambience Cons: Taste, Service .

The ambience was great… Bit sultry, May be that’s coz of the climate… standing fan options can be provided…. The food was amazing… they had very few options, as there was kitchen renovations going on… Chicken kebab was awesome… Alfredo pasta was too good… kids loved it…. Fish kebab was slightly spicy… mock tails and cocktails were good….

A very pretty restaurant nestled in one of the quiet streets of Pondicherry. Seeing the reviews and being one of the top rated places to eat , we went in with so much expectations and it proved to be worth the hype. The interiors and ambience was homely with an antique vibe. The Valentine’s Day set up with a romantic candlelight on each table was interesting. We didn’t make a reservation but still they accommodated us and the food was pretty good too. The soup was delicious and the kebabs were super soft. The main course of chicken and cauliflower was super good too. The food was amazing but the service was slightly slow. Overall would definitely recommend this place to any food lovers for the vibe and food !

The food was really good and well prepared. The portion sizes was good too. Along with that I did have cocktails. One of the finest I ever tested. It's a must visit stop when you are in Pondicherry. Not just for the food but also atmosphere and the services. The staff were welcoming and warm. With friendly faces. With such rush they were able to serve on time and were available. The management in short is really good.

Their restaurant is worth visiting than their rooms (considering the tariff). Hotel service is average, though restaurant staffs are very welcoming and friendly. Accommodation is good but not value for money, though they are mostly sold out due to location and good food. Very good for photography.

Best place to eat in Pondicherry. Hands down. Portion size is decent so eat first then order otherwise won't be able to finish. Had the mocktails. Ambience, smoking room etc. Next level. Has 15 rooms also..

This is a heritage home, renovated from a approx 100 year old mansion by a French architect recently. This stay is for people who like to escape excessive mordern technology and appreciate the old architecture. Hospitality is best here. The place is over priced, which is simple rectangle with a lavatory and bathroom. The lavatory is both wet and dry. The bathroom has a hand-shower, wash-basin with hot and cold water. The bathroom has no curtains between the shower area and wash-basin, because of this, the wash area is wet after the bath and slippery. The knob to change the flow of water to shower and hand shower is hidden and hard to operate. The natural light is through the windows that open to the restaurant. The TV is mounted on wall with adjustable mount, but still watching it from the bed is not the best. The window latches are not smooth and they didn't align properly. They have amenities like spa and bicycle rental. When requested spa, they asked us to take an appointment a day before. Also for bicycle rental they don't have bicycles with them, they will link us with some local shop. For a 4 star rated place, there are more room for improvements that can be made to make the place worth the money.

This place ambience is good and the service is very fast. I wanted to try risotto here but due to Christmas they were not serving that. Tigers prawns were over cooker but their lamb chops were amazing. The spice was good and cook on mutton was perfect. We also tried there dessert , Chocolate with cinnamon custard which was the best here.

I liked the authentic continental food though nothing beats Indian flavours. I wanted to try something and went with family. The experience was worth it but I would much prefer the indian food. Great service and obviously pretty expensive. For a fraction of the cost we could have had a blast at an Indian restaurant.

Villa Shanti is a true gem for food lovers. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, and the menu is diverse and packed with flavor. From the start, the service was impeccable and the food was cooked to perfection. The presentation was beautiful and each dish was rich in taste and spices. Highlights include the spicy prawns, juicy lamb chops and flavorful biryani. The desserts were also a delightful end to the meal. Overall, Villa Shanti offers an exceptional dining experience that's not to be missed.

A fine dining place with good relaxing ambience and truly amazing dining experience. We were there for dinner and we tried their french dishes like the Prawns Spaghetti, Grilled Beef and Creme Brulee. You have to do your bookings well in advance if you you wish to done here. Walk-in to get a table is very difficult given the popularity of the place. But an awesome place to dine.

Aesthetic, classy and elegant. Our stay at Villa Shanti has been one of the best experience till date. They live up to their name & it's been such a peaceful stay. The staffs are cordial and they give you amazing service. The restaurant serves delectable food. I am surely coming back here again. Thank you for the wonderful experience.

I have been to this place and it's a very good place to have food and drinks with friends and families. Staffs are friendly. Bookings can be done ahead of arrival. Else they allow walk-ins post 9PM. But overall it's a must visit place and prices are reasonable. Ambiance is great.

Place came highly recommended so we were excited to try it out but did not live up to our expectations. Positives + Food (Frozen Mango Drink, Betel Leaf Salad, King fish with basil Risotto) + Charming ambiance in the courtyard (could be great in the winter but not ideal in the summer) Negatives - Extremely limited AC dining area (The one they currently have does not fit more than a handful of people) - Their service is very slow. We had to wait for a while at 7.40pm (20+minutes wait, just 3 tables occupied in the restaurant and multiple staff lingering by our table) to have someone ask us our order for drinks and appetizers. - Very impersonal wait staff - all except the hostess were very disconnected and took our order down like an Udipi restaurant and went their way. All being said, if you are willing to be seated in a courtyard without AC (during Pondicherry summers), don't mind waiting for your food and have an impersonal evening, it is worth a visit.

I recently had the pleasure of having a superb lunch at Villa Shanti in Pondicherry, and it exceeded all my expectations. The highlight of my dining experience was the Raw Mango & Papaya Fish pickle, an absolute must-try for seafood enthusiasts. The flavors were exquisite, making the lunch truly worth every penny. The hotel's ambiance and attentive service further added to the overall exceptional dining. Highly recommended!

Short back story, I read a review that this place was one of the best place to visit for food. And I agree, with those posts. My views, the place has an open air indoor vibe with wonderful use of colour, plants, lighting and a few other things. The food. We had ordered a pan fried chick stake, I guess. This is something that is simple and very hard to go wrong with. The chef did a good job in carving the chicken and the portion size was good for 1 person too. I loved the sauce, could make the flavour of burnt flour with butter in the form of reux with chicken extract. Also had orderd a Tiger prawn dish. This had come with t large prawns and cream sauce made with pumpkin. Also had a service of a portion of rice and some white sauce. Two things, I would like to suggest for to make it better... 1. I had a fly in my glass of water, something small. An open air place during monsoon, things like this happens. 2. The chair and the table are amazing lounge chairs, having food using them, need a skill set that one beed to adapt to.

The location is an absolute delight. People who are in love with White Town, stay here. The room tariff is pretty steep for a place which does not have a pool, and isn't technically beachfront. They don't have parking either, so that's a major disappointment. The rooms are very romantic. But no views. The food was okay-ish I'd say overall.

I had two dinners at Villa Shanti. Repeating itself says that - I liked it. It is a popular place and hence suggest reserving before visiting or go early. Portion sizes are decent. We tried chicken, fish continental as well as Indian preperations and liked both. Please ask on default spice levels - Malabar fish curry was nicely flavoured but I should have asked for more spice. Staff is friendly but remember it being a busy place the staff is stretched. Happy eating at Villa Shanti.

It's a good aesthetic place, with a nice calm ambience. A little soft music would have added the charm. The food is similar to any other cafe in Pondicherry, it is a little classy restaurant one visit is good but not a must visit You can ignore it and try other places too. Food though served was good, but they are a little slow in service.

If you are going here during the holiday season, be prepared to wait. We visited the restaurant 4-5 times in 2 days and finally got the table after waiting for hours. The wait was worth as the food is amazing there. We ordered all courses and everything was amazing. The desserts are to die for. Must visit if you are in pondicherry and it's advisable to make a first.

Absolutely loved this place! Visited for dinner yesterday.. Malini, the hostess was so lovely! I was travelling alone and had reached before they were open, but she let me inside, made me feel at home, I ordered a drink and waited comfortably till the food was ready for order. Stunning ambience, good vibes and good food! Definitely coming again!

I made a reservation online and when I arrived they said the online reservations are no longer accepted. Only email and phone based reservations are accepted. However they still accommodated us. 4/10 on all aspects of the food. Food looked good tasted just ok. Disappointed as I had high hopes for this place. Service was good.

Went for lunch and our experience was normal but bot like what others mentioned in the reviews. 1. Veg was okay and inda cuisine is not recommend 2. Seafood is above average I feel they treat the customer based their race because their servers are giving less priority to us compared with other tables who is from other nations. Especially they served different item than what I've ordered but they not even apologized. In the same time when new ppl entered they are doing greeting and chair arrangements with more caution.

A very rustic but contemporary setting, good food and spacious sitting. A little on the higher end in terms of costing. But the colonial setup makes it worthy.

We stayed at Villa Shanti for a night and had a meal here as well. On the stay front, the staff is lovely- warm, friendly and helpful. You truly feel welcome. The room was very comfortable with the necessary amenities. On the meal front, the restaurant has a wonderful ambience and even better food! I’m very picky about the fish I eat and this fish tikka was super fresh. The desserts were great- especially the orange and almond cake with chocolate mousse.

Good place to come to for dining. Reservations recommended. We ordered the Mediterranean pasta, Caesar salad and the veg crepe. One of the sauces on the crepes was a bit too overpowering for me. So I enjoyed the other two dishes. The complementary bread basket was a nice touch. Ambience-wise, a good place (if they gave seats to Indian people....seemed to have a bit of a bias for white tourists but I might be reading too much into it). The low table we were seated on had dirty cushions. Servers were good. Portion sizes were good. Overall, a good place.

We stayed at Villa Shanti around New Year's Day for 4 nights. Loved the cute French theme, vibe of the place. We had dinner over here, which was okay okay (more on the bland side, lacking flavours). Wouldn't say out of the world. However, breakfast options were very very limited. They majorly had south Indian options which weren't even great (sambar lacked flavour). The croissant was not crisp. The chef was not flexible to provide anything else apart from the set menu. We don't eat eggs. So for 4 consecutive days we ended up having sub par breakfast. The service at breakfast was super slow - they kept forgetting our order and took a really long time to get it. For dinner the service was good and prompt. Overall it's a really happening villa and people queue up all the time to get in, however as an in-house guest, if they get more man power to cater to our demands, it'll be cherry on top.

Had an amazing experience planning a date night with my wife. Everything was exceptional. Special highlight was their Patiala Chicken Curry with Ajwain Paratha, have never had anything like this before. Drinks were fairly priced and amazing in taste.

We dined at Villa Shanti - the ambience was amazing , food options was good and adequate - can be a bit humid outside - they have air conditioning too ! The food was nice with good selection of beverages . The restaurant has an old world charm but recently furnished ! Overall good experience and not to be missed while in pondicherry Prices are a bit on the expensive side as compared to other restaurants nearby - but worth it for a try

Was an average lunch that too on a Sunday. The service was good and ambience had nothing to complain about. But food left a lot of room for improvement - this includes an assortment of chicken and vegetarian dishes. They didn’t have fresh seafood in Pondicherry.. imagine that.. I wouldn’t go back again for lunch or dinner..

The food is good but it's not something out of the world special as hyped like others. It's normal. If you go there on a date or spend time with friends it's fine... But don't go if you are hungry. To serve a 4 course meal they take 4 hours. Don't step if you are famished. Try the friench meal. Indian meal is nothing special..

The food was great! However, the number of vegetarian options are limited.. I had the fricassee, the french onion soup and the vegetable risotto. All were great. For dessert, the chef's crumble was excellent. Service was also very good. We went for dinner two days in a row. Day one, service was excellent. Day two, it was only ok (probably because it was Saturday night and the restaurant was at capacity). The ambience is really nice.. The catch is that the entire restaurant is outdoors and, thus, not air conditioned. They can do with a few coolers.

The food we had were okay. I did not find anything special about it. The ambience was nice. Sitting in an old French building of colonial era makes one wonder about the people who once occupied this property! The very high ceiling, something unthinkable today as also the very large windows open to the road and the courtyard directly under the open sky were things of wonder! It was nice just to sit there.

Aesthetic, classy and elegant. Our stay at Villa Shanti has been one of the best experience till date. They live up to their name & it's been such a peaceful stay. The staffs are cordial and they give you amazing service. The restaurant serves delectable food. I am surely coming back here again. Thank you for the wonderful experience.

This is a really nice courtyard setting with good service and very clean. But I agree with some other reviews that the food is pricey and way overrated. I had a salad and fish risotto as there were just a few veggie options that looked interesting. The fish was really tough and like rubber, and it was not horribly tasty. Even the salad was just ok. Maybe I should’ve just stuck to an Indian dish which I’m sure they do much better.

The name of the restaurant is not something you associate with French or Continental cuisine, and once you enter your are taken aback by the well laid and placed restaurant in the middle of French Town. We had to wait for around 15 to 20 minutes before we got a seat. The restaurant is upscale and seats are positioned in such a way that there is shade for all. The service was good, though not as friendly as another restaurant we had visited for dinner. We ordered Raw mango and papaya with fish for salad. It was an interesting and good combination. For main course we ordered Beef Parmentier and Chicken Risotto. The former was really good, though I felt the quantity of mashed potatoes could be decreased. The chicken Risotto, it was more like chicken with rice pudding. The taste was not bad by any means, but we felt it could be better. It certainly can be there for all food lovers who want to try out something new, and of course people who want to go with traditional tastes, there is limited Indian food as well.

The name of the restaurant is not something you associate with French or Continental cuisine, and once you enter your are taken aback by the well laid and placed restaurant in the middle of French Town. We had to wait for around 15 to 20 minutes before we got a seat. The restaurant is upscale and seats are positioned in such a way that there is shade for all. The service was good, though not as friendly as another restaurant we had visited for dinner. We ordered Raw mango and papaya with fish for salad. It was an interesting and good combination. For main course we ordered Beef Parmentier and Chicken Risotto. The former was really good, though I felt the quantity of mashed potatoes could be decreased. The chicken Risotto, it was more like chicken with rice pudding. The taste was not bad by any means, but we felt it could be better. It certainly can be there for all food lovers who want to try out something new, and of course people who want to go with traditional tastes, there is limited Indian food as well.

We reached early and there were plenty of empty tables, but they didn't give us the corner table when we requested. They kept saying it is reserved. No idea how our reservation was different from someone else's reservation. The place may be slightly overrated. The food was good, but nothing extraordinary. In fact the fish and chicken were slightly overcooked. The ambience is good. This places gets a bit crowded, so it better to reserve a table in advance. The service is polite, but it gets hectic for them. They missed one of our drinks.