Ivy & Bean

Amidst the Shopping area of the Safdarjung DDA market is the mid budget restaurant of Qahwa. It serves great bread and sandwiches for breakfast and cool sizzlers for supper. Their chicken and corn brioche is a large loaf of salted bread stuffed with diced chicken, corn and cheese. Their classic ham and cheese sandwich is a four pieces of triangle shaped chicken stuffed portions. Their fresh soup and gur lemon soda are classic. The restaurant is simple and sleek in design. The counter up front is a modest in display. The owner has exhibited her medals in sports in one corner of the place. Their furniture boasts of wood and jute. The lighting fixtures are formed from baskets of thatch like material. The large restaurant can seat about 80 people at a time indoors as well as in the balcony. But he café does not encourage people to sit for hours working on laptops and writing journals. Such customers are strictly instructed to keep munching or sipping on something, or pay Rs 250 per hour for occupying a table. Instruction stickers are glued onto every table for explicit directions to all those who think of the café as a freebie workplace. The café opens prompt morning at 7am for all the early bird breakfast munchers.

Good ambience, tasty food, a little wallet unfriendly. I had the pesto pasta (chicken) which was good, and the humming bird pizza which was great. The indoor seating arrangements are very scenic and good for photo ops (:p) but the outdoor seating is in stark contrast. Another thing, their selection of restaurant music is occasionally excellent.

My regular go to place for coffee. Now, turned into a diner, it has a spacious area with a small balcony for smokers. there is a variety of coffee and other beverages served here, the specials being the most common such as cappuccino, cafe latte and a few other experiments of their own which are quite interesting. The food is also pretty good. they have some really nice options in the breakfast menu and the regular diner menu. Must try is the pasta, waffles, different egg preparations and sandwiches.

This is a quaint little place in front of the IIT in the SDA market. We ordered a few things in breakfast and they came out nice. I've had better breakfasts but still nothing to complain. Moreover it opens super early so we reached around 7:30 and it felt so nice to be only one of the few people in the restaurant. The ambience is very simple and you have to pay nominal table charges if you just need to go work there and don't want to order which is a nice concept. Overall liked the place.

Great cardamom cappuccino I can vouch for, good music, good entree appetizers. A perfect place to spend hours lazing around with a book in hand or a laptop to give you company. The staff is extremely courteous and accommodating. They will not hover around glaring at you, even if you were to spend 6 hours straight sipping just 2 cups of coffee. One of the best cafes around the city to work and fill your stomach from! The best part is that they open at 8 am and close down at 11pm. Spend the entire day here if you want to.