Yamas, quite yummy really.

There is a new cafe/restaurant in Ulm. Yay! That is in itself exciting. A new place to explore! Yamas, is owned by the son of the same family that used to own Paradies, where you could really find the best Greek food in Ulm. Paradies is still running under different ownership but the son has moved to the city centre to start a cafe/restaurant style eatery with some Greek and American (bagels, doughnuts) influences. What I am most familiar with at Yamas is the tea menu. We were going there quite regularly when we were on our post Christmas diet. They have a whole selection of chai blends and from memory I think there is also a whole page devoted to green tea. All the teas have interesting names, like Tension Tamer, so you can order one that suits your mood. I guess I was feeling like some sort of Vanilla Elephant because that's the one I have been drinking. Yamas has the most extensive tea menu that I am aware of in Ulm and for a tea drinker like me, that is good news.
Yippeeee! Our diets are finally over, so we went to Yamas, our first time in the upstairs restaurant section, to celebrate. We were a party of three: Husband, Foodie Friend and I. We all ordered starters, Husband had the haloumi with oyster mushrooms (yum!), Foodie Friend had the seafood salad and I had the scallops. Nothing to complain about here, everything was delicious and devoured hungrily. Servings were big for starters with Husband and Foodie Friend commenting that they didn't have to have mains at all, not me though!



From the top & moving clockwise: our wine in the sexy glasses, haloumi with oyster mushrooms, baby calamari, seafood salad

For the mains, Husband ordered a beef fillet steak served with broad beans and potatoes. Foodie Friend had the baby calamari served with potatoes and a drizzle of homemade pesto (there was also a herby, yoghurty sauce on the side that Foodie Friend said she didn't really need). While there were quite a few seafood dishes on the menu, I was feeling carnivorous after such a long period of deprivation and decided on the lamb with a thyme and rosemary flavoured sauce. While the meat dishes were not bad, Foodie Friend's baby calamari was great. Tender, fresh and flavoursome. I'll go back for a plate of my very own. Of course, I wasn't going anywhere without dessert, so we decided to share the dessert plate. It came with a few things on it - most notable for me was the honeyed yogurt. It was really nothing to write home about, so I'll stop here. A bit of a shame really, because there were some memorable desserts on the menu at Paradies. After my first visit to Yamas, for a meal that is, I would say that seafood is the way to go. This is a plus for Yamas as it can be difficult to find fresh, well prepared seafood in Ulm. Yamas also features a wall to wall selection of wines (great to look at) which include an interesting selection of Greek bottles. Not all the wines are listed on the wine list, the owner (who recognised us from our Paradies days) accompanied Husband to the wall of wine and talked him through some of them. Very nice touch. We ended up with a nice Greek bottle, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. It was poured into beautiful glasses big enough to sniff and swirl the wine in and decanted at the table. I will go back to try more seafood, for the tea and perhaps for a bagel. They are quite new and with the reputation of Paradies behind them, I think they will only get better with time.