Really awesome vegan food at OPS!

Cart and I finally went to OPS! last Friday. We were supposed to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary there a couple of weeks earlier, but as you know I fell sick then. But better late than never.

OPS! is a restaurant off central Rome that serves organic and vegan Mediterranean food. Cart, who is a vegetarian, first discovered this place while watching a program on TV showcasing vegetarian restaurants in Rome.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t mind going veg sometimes as there are so many delicious options out there, moreover you’d have to be careful in what you consume when you eat out, as a lot of food establishments may use lard (which I don’t consume) or other animal products while preparing their food.

When you reach the restaurant, you are to take a round card at the entrance, as a sort of table reservation, also giving you a mental idea of how many empty table there are judging from the cards outside, and then you sit at the table that you like.

OPS! Is a simplistic beauty and modern looking restaurant, with it’s minimalistic black furniture and white walls.

There were a number of people already there when we arrived, but it didn’t feel crowded. Glancing around, there were various types of people there from couples, group of friends, and small families, many of them looking like yuppies. I basked in the hipster vibe.

Where Cart and I were sitting, there was a screen showing various inspirational pictures, which interestingly enough was much more fascinating to me than watching certain TV programs.

As this restaurant is self service, once you’ve settled down, you could head to the buffet table and choose from the wide variety of food and then have it weighed at the counter.

Unlike other buffets where you pay a fixed price, here you are charged 2.80 euro each 100 grams of food, excluding the weight of the plate. In a way, this is good as it makes you aware of how much you are consuming, while in a regular buffet, one tends to have the unhealthy mentality of stuffing oneself as much as possible to have value for money.

Nevertheless, for buffets, I like to try each of everything so I put a little bit of each on my plate and before you know it, my plate was crowded!  I know my plate doesn’t look pretty, but trust me when I say that everything that I tasted was absolutely divine.

Some of the memorable ones are :

• Black rice with pomegranate and apple
• Sauteed seitan with herbs
• Cauliflower with linen seeds
• Beans in coconut milk

How was the chef able to make vegan food taste so good? Everything was so flavourful, and delicious that I felt compelled to take another plate, just to get that euphoric feeling again. But believe it or not, I was already full after one plate.

My one critique though is that certain foods needed easing in on the salt, like the tempeh slices.

As full as I was, there is always room for desserts. Cart had a ‘light’ tiramisu made of coconut milk, while I had a dessert called ‘Natale’ which has a mix of red berries. And between us, we shared a chocolate and carrot cake.

I have to add that while we were there, there was a couple with their two young children sitting beside us and I heartened seeing how the kids were so readily open to eating their vegetables. And at the table in front of us, was a couple who brought in a dog so large, I thought it was a grey wolf instead.

All in all, I really enjoyed my experience here and am looking forward to visiting this place again. While it’s not that cheap to eat here, with the quality of food served here, I think it’s worth it.

OPS! Cucina Mediterranea Vegetariana a Roma
Via Bergamo 56, Roma 00198