Another interesting meal at Urban in Kaiserslautern

I met a friend for dinner at Urban in KL tonight. I believe that Urban is now my favorite restaurant in Kaiserslautern; I've visited before and wrote a review about the food, which is flavorful and the service, which is surprisingly pleasant.

It had been a hot day but sitting outside at Urban was very pleasant because of the humongous umbrella covering their dining area. It was quite cosy and the breeze slipped under the canopy so the heat didn't bother us too much.


At tonight's meal, my friend commented how their specials are often very odd yet interesting and usually tasty. The restaurant tries to offer international dishes. We thought that the concept was good, the methodology a bit strange, and thankfully, the food was tasty but not close to the cuisine it was trying to mimic.

Tonight's special was quite reasonably priced: it was a main course, a drink, and an appetizer or a dessert for 10 euros. One could choose between Mexican or Italian dishes.

I chose the Mexican nachos. They were made with the tortilla chips that are similar to Doritos because they have some sort of cheese powder on them. They aren't to my liking, but at least they tasted better than the nachos I had at Sam Kulman's. They also were covered by a faux meat made of soy, which was flavorful and tasty.

For the main meal, I was very dubious about the vegetarian Mexican choice: it was soy "meat" served in a crepe with sour cream on the side. How a crepe is considered Mexican is beyond me. I asked if it might be possible to get the filling in the meal served in a tortilla since another dish had tortillas. It wasn't an option so I decided to live on the wild side and order the Mexican crepe.

It was not a mistake to order this dish; it was actually quite tasty, with the same flavorful, spiced soy "meat" filling as was used on the nachos. The crepe was savory and went well with the soy. It was served with a small side salad of lettuce, shredded carrots, and the ubiquitous (in Germany, at least) corn.

As is typical with Urban's ethnic dishes, this meal was not authentic for the cuisine it was emulating, but it was tasty nonetheless. I decided that this Mexican meal served on a French crepe reminded me more, taste-wise, of Ethiopian food. The crepe tasted slightly like Ethiopian injera (spongy bread) without the vinegary taste, and the soy filling reminded me of the vegetables one eats with the injera.

My Mexican-French-Ethiopian meal was good and I'd go back. After all, what will Urban come up with next?