Randomest Indian Food

Decor at Cafe Om

The typical Indians we are, Amar and I decided that our first evening in Bocas Town, we were going to try out the oh-so popular Indian restaurant in town, Cafe Om. We read about it in our guide book, and after a relaxing afternoon wandering around Bocas Town, we returned to our hotel, showered and got dressed to head to dinner.

The walk over to Cafe Om was short, and most of the restaurants we passed were still somewhat deserted. As we approached Om, we saw it was completely packed. We climbed the stairs and were told by the hostess that we'd have to wait about 15 to 30 minutes to be seated. So we waited. The kitchen is open, and almost anyone can look in. It seems as though there is only one chef for the entire cafe, and the place can sit maybe 30 people, tops. Started by a Canadian Punjabi, the eclectic feel of Cafe Om must be one of the main reasons that so many tourists in Bocas flock to it.

Taj Mahtini

We are finally seated. We order drinks, that take forever to arrive. My "tajmahiti" was incredibly strong, and tasted surprisingly like cough medicine. The actual menu was extremely limited. We finally settled on mattar-aloo-paneer, and paneer makhani. Everything came with rice, naan, and daal. One taste of the daal, and we knew we could do without. It was terrible -- tasted like lentils directly out of the pressure cooker, no spices, and extremely watery. One bite and Amar and I just pushed it aside. None of the other food was particularly good either. The naan was somewhat of a disappointment, as it wasn't really naan, but seemed more like guyanese flatbread. The place is definitely lacking a tandoor. Everything was drastically under spiced. I guess that's what we get for trying Indian food in such a random location. Although, we later found out that Panamanians don't really like spicy food... much of their food is very lightly spiced, if at all, so the owner may have consciously decided to tone down everything to suit the Panamanian taste buds.

Our dinner

Half - eaten dinner

There was an interesting highlight, however. We ordered "chaat" as an appetizer, and it came as a bunch of toppings including mint chutney, tamarind chutney, dark, softened lentils, onions and sour cream with nacho chips! What a clever idea... and definitely something to try now that I'm back home.

Chaat w/ Chips