Come dine with me at Omni restaurant in London’s Peckham Rye where you can sample the best plant-based dishes. As a carnivorous, I often toot my nose to ‘plant-based dishes’ purely because as a child my dad often used to joke that he ‘wasn’t a cow’ and he needed ‘some meat’ on the table. For as long as I have lived, I always enjoyed meals where plant-based dishes were the ‘side dishes’ never the main dish so I was excited to be able to sample plant-based dishes at the lovely Omni restaurant.
Omni was founded by two friends whose love of food and feeding others brought them together whilst kneading bread and it blossomed over the kitchen stove. The idea behind the restaurant is the allow everyone to experience the true beauty of plant-based dishes and this came after some experimentation. What I truly loved about their story is that George was not vegan before starting the restaurant but after a 40-day vegan challenge, he realised he didn’t miss meat. And with this brief intro, I invite you to come dine with me at Omni.
Disclosure: I was invited to sample Omni’s plant-based dishes, all opinions shared in this post are my own.
Come Dine with me at Omni
I have always been under the impression that being vegan is super hard and that it deprives you of all the nutrients that you need but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Growing up, I realized we were almost ‘self-actualized’ plant-based eaters because 90% of our dishes were vegetables but thanks to Dad, we always had protein in terms of a meat dish of some sort. Over the years, I have continued on my path of being a carnivore and quite enjoying it but when the invite landed in my inbox to try out ‘plant-based’ dishes especially as I recently made a decision to eat healthier options, I couldn’t accept the invite fast enough.
The Omni restaurant is located in South London’s Peckham Rye and it’s open 5 days a week (closed on Sunday and Monday – at the time of visiting and writing this review). We visited the restaurant on a Saturday evening and our goal was to try out their ‘all-in’ menu priced at £40 (they open a small-in menu for £30 which is 2 dishes less than the all-in). When we arrived, we noticed the restaurant was small in size and could potentially seat 20 ish people, it has an open bar, and in front of the restaurant is a bar stop which is highly convenient for those using public transportation.
When we arrived, we were greeted by two lovely members of staff, we were seated near the open bar/kitchen area which gave us a great view of the entire restaurant. The restaurant was very quiet with only one other couple present but within 30 minutes of our arrival, a group of 7 came, then another couple, and another group of 4 people arrived. Even with approximately 17 people (not including the two staff members), the restaurant didn’t feel crowded but was rather quaint, the ambiance of the restaurant was very nice, and the lighting set a romantic mood which we found to be very cute. Now come dine with me at Omni restaurant as I say my thoughts on the food we ate.
The Food Review
When we arrived at the restaurant and were seated, within a few minutes we were offered a welcome drink which was a very nice wine but we were informed non-alcoholic drinks are offered for those who don’t drink. As it was a cold evening in London during our visit, we also ordered some hot drinks as we waited for our ‘all-in’ dishes to be served. We ordered peppermint (with actual mint leaves) tea and lemon & ginger tea, our first observation was that we liked the size of the cups our teas came with. I have a pet peeve with restaurants and cafes offering tiny mugs for hot drinks but thankfully, I don’t have to add Omni to that list.
For our starters, we were served ‘clear soup’ made from Tomato and elderflower, this dish had a tangy taste but washed down really well. I am a big fan of soups so I quite enjoyed this dish although it wasn’t my favourite of everything we sampled. Our next dish was pickles & smoked olives, this dish surprised us as we could ‘actually taste the smokiness in the olives’. This dish was well seasoned, crunchy, slightly sour (I have a sweet tooth), and savoury. Next was the focaccia which was coated with oil, and was salty, crunchy, and very soft, I enjoyed this bread a lot, and went well with the clear soup.
The mains were some of the highlights of our visit to the Omni restaurant, we started off with ‘salt-baked beetroot’, this dish was my favourite of all, it was sweet, soft, and tasted absolutely divine. Next, we had the courgette baba Ganaish which I loved eating with the focaccia bread, such an incredible dish. The next dish was ‘1000 layer potatoes’ and I must say, they took potato chips to a whole new level, the potatoes were chunky and crispy, and the sauce recommended for this dish was the ‘saffron aioli’.
Other dishes that we sampled were ‘Japanese panko turnips’, and ‘Jerusalem Artichoke, the turnips were a nice blend of flavors (I smelted a hint of curry), it was crunchy but I am not a fan of turnips so this wasn’t my favourite dish. The artichokes were sweet butter dumplings which we absolutely enjoyed and recommend from the menu. When it came to the dessert, we tried the ‘shaved fennel’ which was sweet, I found it crunchy with a nice blend of flavours. By the time we got to desserts we were too full, we underestimated the portion sizes and thought because it was all plant-based that we wouldn’t be full but alas, we learned the hard way.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we had an amazing experience, we enjoyed the food, and the staff members were super friendly and attentive to all guests, this is important to us because the last thing we want is to see special treatment to us but subpar for other guests. The ambiance of the place really sold it for us and we loved the jazz music they played, it just added a razzle-dazzle to the entire establishment. We were however sad to learn they do not service wine per bottle but rather per glass however, on the website/menu, there were prices for the bottle.
Whilst our visit restricted us to just the ‘all-in’ menu, if you wanted to make your own choices of dishes to have, you can view their menu using QR code online and within the restaurant, it’s updated for each month and the menus are seasonal. This is to say that the dishes we sampled may not be available to you on your visit as they may have been replaced by seasonal options. The restaurant does offer takeaway options which are ideal and what I love is that their wines are all natural and purchased from independent small winemakers.
The drinks and food were reasonably priced but as I am not that familiar with the area I can not say if these are fair prices for Peckham Rye or not but compared to Oxford, definitely more affordable. I am glad that we got an opportunity to ‘come dine with me at Omni’, it’s definitely something that was out of our comfort zone as carnivores but it was an enjoyable experience.
Related: Food+Restaurant
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