Popular Porridges
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Restaurant Review: Grød [Guest Post]
TOA: The following review was written by reader Renee. Grød can be found in Copenhagen, Denmark. If you have a special oatmeal eatery in your stomping grounds, we’d love to hear about your experience!
I have been a faithful follower of The Oatmeal Artist for several years now and eat oatmeal every day for breakfast, come what may. Eating in an oatmeal restaurant has long been on my bucket list, but as I only knew of the one in New York City, I wasn’t sure when I would get the chance. However, I have been working in Paris for a semester and recently took a trip to Copenhagen. Before my trip, I learned that there is an oatmeal restaurant there called Grød. Visiting Grød was on top of my list of things to do there, and I convinced three friends to come along on Sunday morning. Grød has three locations in Copenhagen, and we chose the location in an indoor specialty food market that was near our hostel.
The menu was Danish, but they had an English translation available. There were several sweet and savory options, with additional grains other than just oatmeal. However, the savory options were not available until after 11 am. There were also several options for people with food allergies: gluten-free oatmeal or quinoa, and a choice between soymilk, ricemilk, or water. The oatmeal came in two sizes: regular or large. (more…)
Restaurant Review: Porridge Cafe [Guest Post]
TOA: The following review was written by reader Brianna. The Porridge Cafe can be found in London, England. If you have a special oatmeal eatery in your stomping grounds, we’d love to hear about your experience!
I am an avid porridge experimenter and heavily dependent on my morning bowl of porridge for that warm-belly-happy-heart feeling. So, I was perhaps a bit inappropriately excited when I saw the news that during March there would be a pop-up cafe dedicated especially to the world’s most versatile and wholesome breakfast foodstuff in Central London.
Their menu changes daily and offers a selection of sweet and savoury porridges with a range of bases, milk and toppings. The setting is trendy: a small cafe with wooden benches topped with potted flowers, bright and airy lighting, upbeat weekend music and colourful prints adorning the walls. The easy, relaxed atmosphere was completed by the staff who were warm and easy-going.
Restaurant Review: OatMeals
Greenwich Village is my favorite neighborhood in Manhattan. I love walking along Bleecker and Sullivan and MacDougal and fawning over the rows upon rows of sidewalk cafes, jazz clubs, coffee shops, and artisan food shops. It’s everything I adore about New York, squeezed into one beautiful neighborhood underneath Washington Square Park. Le sigh.
One day (on one of my many walks to Peanut Butter and Co. on Sullivan Street), I passed by a tiny eatery called “OatMeals.” Honestly, I did not get nearly as excited as you might expect. It sounded too good to be true, you know? How could they have an entire restaurant dedicated to oatmeal? Clearly, it was all a trick.
Wrong. OatMeals is indeed a restaurant dedicated entirely to the humble and beloved oat; it calls itself “the world’s first oatmeal bar.” When I walked in one Sunday morning (around 10 a.m.), the most warm and wonderful scent of cinnamon and sugar enchanted me. I was smitten.
The restaurant is teensy tiny, with about half a dozen seats. I saw many customers (often NYU students) taking their oatmeal to go.
As the Oatmeal Artist, trust me when I say that the menu here is delightful. The average customer visiting frequently expressed how creative it was (although not quite as creative as yours truly, if I do say so myself). One customer asked the server, “Wait, peanut butter and banana oatmeal? Is that good?” I was like, “n00b, please.”
The menu was split into three sections: sweet, savory, and dessert. The sweet menu contained classic ideas like peanut butter and banana, Indian-spiced, and apple; the savory section featured cool combos like fig and gorgonzola or pumpkin and bacon; the dessert section had rockstar selections like Banana Cream Pie and S’mores Oatmeal.
I selected the Indian-spiced oatmeal because it was the most unique compared to any of my own recipes. I got to choose from oats cooked in water or milk (both steel-cut). I selected the water-based ones, but it did not disappoint me. It was still flavorful. They added some dried fruits, almonds, cardamom, ginger, brown sugar, and coconut milk.
Because this place is an “oatmeal bar,” it functions quite like a FroYo bar. In other words, the fruits and nuts and other goodies are all added as toppings. There were several signs up apologizing that they could/would not mix in ingredients, but if you wanted to be able to mix them in yourself, you could get a special bowl that makes it easier to stir the toppings in. Personally, I wasn’t bothered by the concept.
I really loved this oatmeal, and I love the idea of introducing creative oatmeal ideas to the general public, but I must admit that I probably would not come here again for breakfast. I love my own recipes and can definitely rival their creations. However, I’m eager to return here again to try their savory and dessert recipes. How fun would it be to stop here for dessert after a light meal elsewhere?
(Know any other eateries in the NYC area with slammin’ oatmeal? Let me know!)
**You can also find hundreds of other oatmeal recipes (as well as tons of other meatless recipes) on my Pinterest account! You can also like The Oatmeal Artist on Facebook. Thanks!
(Know any other eateries in the NYC area with slammin’ oatmeal? Let me know!)
**You can also find hundreds of other oatmeal recipes (as well as tons of other meatless recipes) on my Pinterest account! You can also like The Oatmeal Artist on Facebook. Thanks!
