CLOSED: Om Namaste

My journey from Scotland today went remarkably smoothly, until I hit the increasingly British German railways. After an eternity on an overcrowded train, which kept getting later, I was starving. And so the buffet seemed to be the very thing.

Om Namaste is accessed via a staircase at the back of a pizza joint.

I arrived about 8.30 to be told the buffet was finished for the day, but then they changed their mind and left me to it. There is, in the middle of the area, an isolated buffet for the meat, eggs and other unpleasantness. The only non-veggie thing in the entire rest of the buffet was a tureen of chicken soup. Apparently on Sunday, they do an all-vegan buffet.

On offer to vegans on this Friday night was a large selection of salady things, some dal, two varieties of rice, pappadams, couscous, and eight different vegan curries. The curries included staples like aubergine, potato, and mushroom, but also more unusual offerings - pumpkin, beetroot, tofu - and two South Indian staples - green beans, and cabbage. I sampled them all. The cabbage was perfection - crisp, but still cooked, with a nice spicy kick. No catering for German tastes on that one!

The others were all pretty good too, surviving their time on the buffet reasonably well. They weren't exciting, nor did they represent the pinnacle of the chef's art. But what I got was solid, filling grub, reasonably tasty and definitely satisfying.

For afters, there were what were described as "Bananaballen". I'd expected, from looking at them, that they'd be some kind of banana pakora, but what I got was substantial lumps of Jewish-style doughnut, pretty much like I make at home. It was a conclusive conclusion, and I was no longer hungry.