What people do in their private lives behind closed doors is their own business but the purpose of restaurants is surely indulgence . . . a short-lived escape from your normal life of moderation and denial and washing-up.

It is indicative of a lack of imagination but when I had to think of a restaurant to review for a health issue, I struggled. And then the word that came into my head was 'vegetarian'.

Govinda's is a Hare Krishna restaurant. They have branches all around the world and there are two in Dublin. In keeping with their religion, their diet is vegetarian but with some mildly interesting extra rules. They allow no mushrooms, no onions, no garlic. This is Vedic-pure vegetarianism and it's followed by a couple of different religious groups in India, primarily Jains.

There are various reasons for these exclusions. Spicy food makes you spicy, is the thinking in shorthand.

Agitates the blood.

Increases anger. Ups the sex drive. Sits badly in your stomach. All of this interferes with good spiritual practice and the clear mind necessary for meditation.

They do allow dairy products though and Govinda's make cheese and yoghurt with milk from their own cows.

I will be honest. The thought of having lunch in a vegetarian Hare Krishna restaurant without the fun, using the term very loosely, of even onion or garlic filled me with a certain gloom.

My mood lifted a bit when we arrived. It's a relaxed place. Kind of oldschool canteen-style set up with painted wood furniture and nice paintings on the walls of Hare Krishna folk like fauns doing their floaty thing in a wood.

The clientele seemed to be mostly students and a few solitary diners. The guy with a shaved head on the next table was wearing a Pulp Fiction tee-shirt, which didn't seem to square with the surroundings or the antiviolence quotations from Gandhi on the menu.

You go up and see what they have available on the counter and point at what you want. They do samosas and spring rolls, goodlooking soup and a couple of daily specials which you can get on a mixed plate with rice and dhal.

There are homemade juices and lassis and then a few cakes and sweet things.

We both had the mixed plate. There was a spinach, tomato and potato curry with sour cream which was great, smoky and rich with a comforting slickness.

Paneer, an Indian cottage cheese, was served with peas in a mildly spiced tomato sauce while green beans came with cauliflower and mustard seed. All pretty good, low on seasoning I thought but fresh and nicely cooked.

Think mild Indian side orders.

These came with basmati rice and a lentil soup which, depending on the amount of onion in your blood, was either very authentic or thin and flavourless. A side order of homemade white yeast bread was excellent.

My companion drank an orange and ginger juice with chopped mint, beautifully fresh with an underlying glow from the ginger. I had a lassi . . .

mango pureed with yoghurt . . . that smelt worthy and depressing but tasted good. We forgot about the health thing and had filter coffee with a homemade chocolate fudge biscuit thing, not at all worthy and very enjoyable.

And the cliches? Were we hungry when we left? Did we walk out and cross the road to the hamburger restaurant to get properly fed after? Not a chance.

Neither of us ate again that day. What we had at Govinda's added up to a plate of nutritious straightforward food.

There was enough of it to get you up a mountain.

We ordered the small plate and if we'd gone for the big one we'd still be eating. Some of it was very good, some was slightly bland but for cheap healthy food this is a decent option.

The staff were quiet, I thought a little sad, but almost serene. Almost.

Maybe I was projecting.