Indian cuisine at “Zum Bären”

Created: 01/08/2023, 12:24 p.m

Cooking and serving at "Namaskar": Priyanka Kethavath and Restaurant Chef Diyantha Weewasinghe.

© dr

Priyanka Kethavath only recently opened her Indian restaurant "Namaskar" in Gauting's traditional inn "Zum Bären" - and the restaurant is no longer an insider tip.

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– The restaurant in the listed traditional inn “Zum Bären” on Pippinplatz was empty for three months.

But on October 26, Priyanka Kethavath (28) took over the Gautinger restaurant from her predecessor - and opened the "Namaskar" here at the entrance to the Gautingen villa colony: Namaskar is a welcome greeting with a bow in India, explains restaurant manager Diyantha Weewasinghe, who speaks fluent German .

The hotel manager from India has been living in Munich for four decades and once served as head waiter at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, such as Roger Moore, David Copperfield, Catherine Zeta-Jones, but also the Empress and the Emperor of Japan, as evidenced by framed newspaper clippings that are now hanging in the entrance of the "Namaskar".

"My dream was always to have my own traditional Indian restaurant," says Priyanka Kethavath.

Cooking has been her great passion since childhood.

But her strict father, a police officer in Hyderabad in southern India, demanded that she first complete a promising course of study.

The Indian woman therefore graduated from the state university in South Florida with a master's degree in engineering for transportation.

Priyanka Kethavath also met her husband Swamy Megavath there: The software engineer works at the Apple branch in Munich.

"And it was a dream come true for me," says Kethavath.

In the inn "Zum Bären" she can finally indulge her passion, cooking.

South Indian cuisine like in Hyderabad is on the program at “Namaskar”: Kethavath reports that every dish is freshly prepared according to her own recipes.

She also serves dips such as the dark sauce “made from real tamarind”, a sauce with fresh mint or a spicy yoghurt dip with chili.

"Healthy food in a southern Indian tradition" is what matters to her, emphasizes "Namaskar" boss Kethavath, who works in the kitchen herself.

"Everything is freshly made to the minute," from the Indian chicken masala to the veggies in batter.

For dessert there's homemade mango cream or Indian ice cream.

"The food was excellent," praises Bärbel Ebner from Gautingen, who met her colleague Sylke Wischnevsky there for lunch this week.

And the director of the Otto-von-Taube-Gymnasium then raves about the official Christmas party, which also took place in the "Namaskar".

The young restaurant manager Priyanka Kethavath beams – and presents the welcome picture that the Gauting artist Richard Eckert painted for her.

Because without doing much advertising, the “Namaskar” has already made a name for itself in Gauting by word of mouth.

In the summer, Priyanka Kethavath is also planning a cooking show in the beer garden of the "Namaskar".

Christine Cless-Wesle