Grab Your Friends & Head To This Happening Market Where You Sit & Gossip For Hours

What are the characteristics for a marketplace to qualify as a cool hangout? Good and affordable eateries? Cool, young crowd? Clean environs? Easy accessibility? Well, the SDA market probably meets all of these criterias. It is not a very big market but it is one of the best places to spend an idle evening in South Delhi. Let us see why.
Eat till you Drop

SDA market has a collection of eclectic eateries. They are not just generic restaurants but there are some with very unique characteristics. For instance, there is What a Comic Show, where you can browse through your favourite comic books while enjoying your coffee and desserts. If you get the timing right, you may also witness some stand up gigs here. 

If you are more adventurous, you can try out Azote, the nitrogen ice cream parlour.  

There is Café Qahwa for your dose of Kashmiri teas and other exotica and of course there is Spice Aangan with their mouth-watering kababs, biryanis and shawarma rolls for the budget conscious street eaters. 
You can visit the Beer Café or the cleverly named BeerYani which claims to serve Biryani and Beer with equal aplomb. 

You can also “experiment with tea” at Chaayos or simply grab some roadside snacks and sit on the culverts.

Apart from these, there are several other shops and restaurants to meet the needs of all kind of taste buds as well as all types of budgets. Usual branded coffee shops and pizza places are also present as expected. 
The Youthful Ambience

The place generally remains crowded with young crowds from IIT which lies just opposite to the market and JNU which lies nearby too. 

Many other educational institutes in the Qutub Area patronize this market. Keeping them in mind, it is maintained well and kept clean. There is also a bit of open space in the middle with benches to sit on. It has been maintained like a small lawn which is a nice touch and adds to its appeal as a hangout.
What More

If it lacks anything, it is their shopping opportunities. As a matter of fact it was never much of a shopping destination and nor does it have a multiplex but that is probably better for the rest of the shops. There are many shops but mostly generic ones and none with any distinctive quality like its restaurants. 

But in terms of ambience and eating, it remains as good as the nearby Hauz Khas Village but far less expensive than that, thus making it ideal for students.
Finding the Market

Although called SDA (Safdarjung Development Area Market), the easiest way to locate it is from the Hauz Khas Metro. You just have to cross the flyover off Aurobindo Road and reach it along the Gamal Abdel Nasser Marg exactly on the other side of the Gate of IIT Delhi.