Shanika's

This Friday's work lunch was at Shanika's. John had suggested we go eat Italian, so we racked our brains trying to think of someplace close to our work that was good. Steve suggested a place in Mount Waverley. We didn't know the exact location so just drove there and we saw Shanika's, which we assume is the place Steve was talking about.

Shanika's looked very fancy but we saw a menu outside which showed $9.50 lunches so went inside. Only then did we find out that those were the take away prices. They had some "light lunch" meals, which were around the $15 mark. Most people ended up ordering from the light lunch menu.

Shanika's looked very nice in terms of decor. They had all these paintings on the wall. I forget what they're called but its those 3-D type murals that trick your brain. Below is a scene supposedly looking out of a window, the people, Jessie and Keiran, are real hahaha.


Here's Tin getting a glass of wine poured for himself.


The trickest painting of all was the one of another small window. We all thought that it was unfinished and that the painter had stuck up a poster of how the finished work should look. Keiran kept saying, "Its finished, go and bring that poster to me." We all got tricked because the masking tape holding the "poster" looked so real. Finally Emmanuel walked over for a closer inspection. It turns out the poster part of the painting is really painted on a poster, which is then stuck onto the wall. The shadows around the poster are painted on.


Despite the lovely murals, the service was very slow. We were the only group in the restaurant when we were first seated. The one waitress took our orders and with 3 of us ordering the same thing, that effectively cut down the meals to only 5 different dishes. After about 30 minutes, the meals arrived. The serving sizes weren't that generous either. I ordered the Siciliana, which was pasta with sausages, salami and olives. It was ok but quite spicy, which I didn't mind but John and Emmanuel found hot. Jessie was extremely disappointed with her ravioli which didn't contain any meat inside. Trung liked his Fettucini while Jeffrey liked his Risotto. Tin, despite hating fish, ordered the special, which was a whole baby snapper. He said he misheard the special and thought it was something else. It was also very expensive at $30 for a lunch meal in the outer suburbs. He didn't like it.


I got the Chocolate Pudding for dessert, which was nice. The chocolate sauce and berries went well with it.


Despite the nice murals, I don't think we will be going back here for lunch. It's quite expensive and service was very slow. The meals were ok but we can get similar for cheaper and faster.

Overall Rating: 10/20, Food was ok but too expensive and slow for a lunch meal.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.