OMNOM Islington — Restaurant in London

DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIES, particularly if you are coeliac. Their allergen labelling is WRONG but they will argue with you about it and tell you “it just contains a little bit...”. So, even though they appear to be very good at allergy labelling on their menu, I would not trust it. See below for details :

I didn’t eat at OMNOM but I went into the restaurant to ask if they used the spice called ‘asafoetida’ in their food. Depending on the brand used, this spice is often mixed with wheat flour. I am coeliac, meaning I can’t eat any gluten (including wheat), so I have to check whether this spice is used before I eat at Indian restaurants as it is quite commonly used. The manager told me that they do use asafoetida, but that they get different brands all the time so sometimes the asafoetida they use contains wheat and sometimes it doesn’t. In fact he said that over 70% of the time they use a brand that contains wheat.

ALL of the dishes that I asked about contained asafoetida but were clearly marked as gluten free on their menu. I told him that these items should not be marked as gluten free if they sometimes contain wheat flour. He then started lecturing me about “do you know how this spice is manufactured” “it’s only a small amount flour”???! It doesn’t matter if it’s only a small amount of flour! A small amount of flour can make a coeliac seriously unwell and cause internal damage. Plus, IF YOU ARE KNOWINGLY PUTTING SOMETHING IN THE FOOD THAT CONTAINS GLUTEN THEN YOU CANNOT MARK IT AS GLUTEN FREE ON YOUR MENU. The asafoetida he said he put in the dishes “over 70% of the time” literally CONTAINS WHEAT. It’s not a “may contain wheat”, it is quite literally mixed with wheat flour. Also, this is besides the point really, but asafoetida is often mixed with quite a lot of flour, some say it’s about half of the mixture so it’s not “just a bit”.

The manager argued to death with me and kept changing his story about how often they use the wheat-containing asafoetida and kept trying to wrongfully lecture me about what I can and can’t eat despite me being diagnosed with coeliac disease for over 10 years. I ended up getting frustrated and walked out after about 10 minutes of this back and forth.

This was now quite a few months ago and I’ve only just remembered to write this review, so if they’ve now removed the incorrect gluten free labels from their menu or they’ve decided to commit to only using the asafoetida that doesn’t contain wheat, then I am happy to amend my review. But as for now, a word of warning if you have any allergies, because they clearly have no idea about them but will insist they’re not in the wrong. I will also be reporting to food standards agency if they don’t make the relevant changes.

Also, as a side note despite the restaurant being virtually empty, and there being a surplus of staff, it took at least 10 minutes for the manager to speak with us when we came in because he was having a causal chat with one of the waiters. So, as others have mentioned in their reviews, I wouldn’t expect fast service from them. I don’t get the impression they care about their customers (at least not the manager I spoke to).

It’s such a shame because the restaurant looked nice enough, as did the food. But this is ultimately a matter of poor health and...

I’ve been a few times and have been very grateful for the events they hold. The food has always been pretty mild in flavour but never bothered to leave a review as I just avoid eating anything other than a salad. A deconstructed burger is most I can get as they don’t serve salads. I am fussy as I am PT low carb, high protein which is almost impossible for vegan spaces. This review is more so about awareness. There are a lot of private events and recently my partner and I came in as the space was busy and the sign was on the side not on the door but on the window off to the side. It read closed. We thought it was a mistake as it wasn’t clear at all. It was very confusing. We went in and before we could even ask a question, we were cut off and told they were closed for a private event. It was such a patronising and humiliating manner and my partner and I were taken aback. My partner received a dirty look and we weren’t sure if it was because we are POC other than Asian (I am black and my partner is mixed Portuguese) because we were evidently queer or both. It wasn’t just one, there was a few looking over and no one seemed phased by the reception we got. It seemed futile to argue, especially since the accent of the person who rushed us out was very thick and we thought perhaps it was just a cultural difference. Maybe it was because we were in the moment and it seemed rude But upon reflection making excuses is not good. How many other people have come and been in the same position and said nothing? In future the way such instances are handled should be more mindful and...

Reveiwed March 5th 2022, the menu has since changed.

Gentrification is a weird thing, while it is definitely a good idea to fix up neighbourhoods and to make areas nice to be in and have trees and all that, too much of that push to sanitise somewhere does something to the very fabric of what gave the area its feel, its culture, its own unique voice.

Omnom is what happens when you've gone beyond the tipping point. Everything about seems good, plant based food, a book library, drinks that give you a perk up and all wrapped up in a spiritual "food for the soul" vibe, namaste.

I had a cheese burger, fries and slaw, portion size is odd... Thimble sized amount of coleslaw but lots of fries, fries are OK a bit thin and over fried but OK. The one mouthful of slaw was nice. The cheese burger could have been a bit meh but someone chargrilled the bun and the patty and that lifted it to something quite nice. I also had a dark chocolate shake which tasted exactly like nesquick powder and oat milk with little to no thickness to it.

The location gives you views of a courtyard area with a number of security staff eagerly shooing away anyone loitering, again highlighting the downside of an over gentrified area. I'm sure if you did a gap year backpacking on daddies credit card and now you want somewhere to sip a "happiness" smoothie (six quid) while you charge your Mac book after a yoga class this is probably quite the positive feng shui place.

Staff...