Om Restaurant
Restaurant, Bar
Hours
Profile
Neighborhood
- Warehouse District
Smoke-free?
- Yes
Reservations?
- Accepted
Wheelchair Accessible?
- Yes
Accepts
The "Amber" cocktail---mango juice, Bombay Sapphire and creme de cassis.
$$$ - expensive
Indian, Eclectic (Fusion)
Upscale contemporary Indian cuisine
This swanky, upscale Indian restaurant offers a new take on Indian cuisine driven by international cookbook author and "culineer" Raghavan Iyer.
Happy Hour in the lounge runs from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily.
On the corner of 1st Ave N. and 4th Street. One block north of the Warehouse District light rail stop.
- Happy Hour
- Large Group-Friendly
- Private Rooms
- Romantic
- Valet Parking
Added by conde.kedar on Sep 7 (updated Oct 21)
Reviews
My boyfriend and I went here last night and had a great experience over all. The staff was incredibly nice, helpful, prompt & friendly. Our server, Paul, was really knowledgeable about what could be done vegan and was just great at his job in general. The man who developed the menu (he has several cookbooks too) even came over & introduced himself, asking if we had any questions, which I thought was nice.
I had the Vegetable Curry Casserole, which is the only vegetarian entree on the menu. It can be made vegan if you eliminate the puff pastry, and it was very tasty even without that. While I would definitely eat this again, it's a little bit of a bummer that there's only ONE entree option for vegetarians/vegans. That's one area where this restaurant can improve - since when is Indian food so meat heavy?? Anyway, there are at least 3 vegan breads - we tried the Fenugreek wheat bread and the Chickpea flour crepes (each order has only 2 breads each). Both were good, but we both preferred the chickpea ones. (FYI, the naan is made using buttermilk).
The best part of the meal, however, was the dal! They have a "legume of the day", and last night it was a yellow dal. SO delicious - we both really enjoyed that. Full of flavor and great with the chickpea crepes.
This is not a "cheap" place to eat - so if you're going expecting it to be your typical Indian restaurant, think again. The atmosphere is upscale (we got a cute booth downstairs), and the servers are very professional, and you pay more for it all. We knew that ahead of time so we were fine with the prices, but just know that going in!
I almost rated this "great" instead of "excellent" only because of the limited entree options, but honestly the whole experience was very positive so they got 5 stars from me.
Om is probably the poshest Indian restaurant I've ever seen and also one of only a few nation-wide that falls into such a chic category. This is not your auntie's curry shop.
That said, the food is far from authentic and it's maybe not even fair to call it "Indian" considering the non-traditional ingredients and heavy use of American-preferred meats, fishes and dairy products.
As such the food is not terribly vegan-friendly. Somehow Om's "fusion Indian" concept has managed to browbeat Indian food into a mild, milk-filled meat fest, rather than a complex, vegetable-based bonanza.
None of the main entrees are vegan or can be made vegan. A couple of their salads can be veganized, and a couple of their side dishes are vegan. Our waiter told us all of the bread dishes contain buttermilk, so make sure to ask questions.
We shared a peanut eggplant side dish ($7) and also a new potatoes and chili side dish ($7). The eggplant was well-prepared and covered in a semi-spicy peanut sauce. I liked the presentation and the flavors though the dish didn't surprise me in any way. The new potatoes were much milder and tasty enough, but way too basic and bare for the trendy, fancy vibe of this joint. The portion sizes were large which made these a pretty decent value at only $7 a piece.
Om does make a great cocktail, though. I had a "Slumdog" ($9) which was basically a subtle lemonade with bits of mint and cilantro; it was unusual and it all came together smoothly. I think it could have used a bit more vodka but it was otherwise an edgy drink. My friend got an "Amber" which was gorgeous to look at and consisted of different layers of ingredients such as mango juice, Bombay sapphire, creme de cassis and lemon juice. It also tasted quite good.
The top floor of Om is good for lounging or watching a game at the bar. The bottom floor has large booths and tables for bigger groups, and is nice enough, if a bit spare.
I'm giving Om three stars for its drinks and relatively cool atmosphere; if they up their game on vegan offerings and get back to more traditional North and South Indian foods, I'd consider coming back more often.