A café door opens. A village begins.

Chapter One · Where it began

A kitchen, extended to the city.

In 2010, it was difficult to find honest Indian food on the British high street: cooking built on balance, inspired by Ayurvedic wisdom and refined in family kitchens over generations. Naturally vegetarian and vegan dishes were not a separate category; they were simply part of everyday Indian cooking.

At Lili Coffee Cafe, Urmila simply extended her kitchen to the city. It was not a concept designed for a market, but food made as it had always been made at home: purely vegetarian, Gujarati in spirit, generous with flavour and care. Naturally vegan dishes were there from the beginning — not as a promotional inclusion, but because this was simply how the food was cooked. Norwich came in, came back and brought friends.

A table becomes a village.

Namaste India brought Urmila’s kitchen to Opie Street, close to Norwich Castle and the city’s everyday bustle. Vegetarian, vegan and onion-and-garlic-free dishes were never an afterthought. The latter carried a devotional tradition in which food is prepared with care, simplicity and consideration for the person receiving it.

In 2016, that welcome found a larger home at Namaste Village on Queens Road. The building’s Methodist heritage is connected with Augustus Frederic Scott, an architect known to have been vegetarian. More than a century later, it feels like a fitting place for Indian vegetarian food, kindness and shared hospitality — a room once made for gathering, now filled with the fragrance of a fresh tempering of spices.

A shared table in London.

In London, Namaste Village and OmNom came together as part of one shared journey - an urban oasis of calm, mindfulness and community.

Here, the experience reaches beyond the plate, with mantra meditation, bhakti yoga and moments of reflection sitting alongside nourishing vegetarian food. It is another expression of a simple belief: what we share at the table can gently shape how we feel, live and connect.