{"id":108024,"date":"2025-02-20T16:55:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T07:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=108024"},"modified":"2025-02-20T16:55:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T07:55:49","slug":"tokyo-vegan-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/tokyo-vegan-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo Vegan Guide: Best Eats, Hard Truths, and Hidden Gems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Without the hard-won home-cooking skills required to rustle up, on occasion, a plate of semi-palatable food for myself, it\u2019s doubtful that I\u2019d be the well-rounded (physically, at least) middle-aged man that I am today. Relying on outside sources for sustenance over the course of my ethically-compelled, but nutritionally foolhardy, attempt to live (very) long-term in Tokyo as, first a vegetarian, and then a vegan, would, in all likelihood, have seen me wither away to nothing in my late 20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan, we know, is one of the great culinary nations; dripping in Michelin stars, and blessed with an elegant knack for turning simple ingredients (of top-notch quality) into dishes that are admired and emulated by armies of globetrotting gourmets.<\/strong> Nose-to-tail eaters, and seafood-satiated omnivores of all stripes, especially those with money to spend, will find these islands a palate-pleasing paradise. For those who eschew ingredients of animal derivation, however, life in Japan (while frequently, in my experience, involving alfresco fill-ups on disappointing foodstuffs) is, sadly, no picnic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finned, feathered or four-legged friends (in extracted form) find their way into the small-print ingredients of unexpected comestibles with grim regularity. The well-lit aisles of the supermarkets and konbini<\/em> (convenience stores) are danger-strewn dark alleys for vegans with low-level kanji skills (me), poor eyesight (also me), or the naivety to think that, for example, mackerel so obviously has no place in potato chips labelled as \u2018Black Pepper\u2019 flavor, that it couldn\u2019t be in there (no longer me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It isn\u2019t, of course, that there aren\u2019t good things in the shops to eat (when you can find them), and there are definitely good places to dine out, but pinpointing the vegan needles in Tokyo\u2019s overwhelming restaurant-haystack is (or, at least until recently, was) navigational donkey-work that makes spur-of-the-moment indulgences disappointingly rare.<\/strong> \u2018Joyless lack of spontaneity\u2019, however, is just one of the many middle names that wouldn\u2019t fit onto my zairyu<\/em> Japanese residence card, and so having made my meat-free bed, I will, if not completely contentedly, then (apart from this once) uncomplainingly, lie in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, things have moved on since, as a fresh-faced abstainer straight out of Narita, I was (fairly regularly) offered bacon or chicken as a \u2018vegetarian\u2019 option. Vegetarians and vegans, while not being widely catered to (just as they weren\u2019t in the Britain of my youth), no longer cause wide-spread bafflement and concern<\/strong>, and, encouraged, in all likelihood, by the spending potential of herbivorous visitors from overseas, konbini, and department-store food halls have started to dabble, cautiously for the moment, in plant-based treats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Tokyo vegan dining scene is transformed from the more-or-less dismal days of 20 years ago, and across the city new restaurants, offering a previously unimaginable variety and quality of cruelty-free fare, are popping like sakura<\/em> buds in the early days of spring.<\/strong> The rise of the smartphone over the same period, means that vegans at large in the Tokyo<\/a> of today, can use maps, apps and online reviews, to plot a metropolis-wide gastronomic galavant that would\u2019ve caused my hungry younger self\u2019s jaw to drop \u2014 a perfect opportunity to shovel in anything except my own home-cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If (only) I had more money and more time, the following list would be longer, and, no doubt, include many swanky eateries with amusing concepts and prices to match. As it is, I\u2019m a man of steady habits and limited means, so when I am drawn away from my pots and pans, I prefer to eat something that I know won\u2019t disappoint. Although, a slight disclaimer should be mentioned here. My wife, Yuki, runs newly opened Vegan Izakaya Nowhere in Asakusa which has been covered on Voyapon here<\/a>. The following, however, is a small selection of other places where I enjoy filling my predictable and unsophisticated vegan face.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Without a doubt the greatest meat-free burger in Tokyo, and quite possibly the world. Great Lakes<\/a>\u2019 walloping double-handed burgers come with a variety of delicious toppings (including a bafflingly authentic-seeming melty cheese sauce), and, if you can fit them in, golden fries, shakes and ice cream. Almost everything they serve, including the patties, sauces and ice cream) is painstakingly homemade to their own (presumably top secret) recipes, and the effort pays off in full.<\/strong> As I have already come close to the limits of waistband availability in non-specialist Japanese trouser stores, I don\u2019t eat here too often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Becoming a vegan, for me, meant falling out of love with cakes; a sad end to a lifetime of sweet-toothed afternoon encounters where pleasure was balanced and bolstered by the addition of strong black coffee. The plant-based dainties and confections I (repeatedly) forced myself to try, were, for the most part, pleasant enough, but seemed somehow lacking, until I discovered the delightful Ovgo Baker<\/a> and my passion was reignited. The cakes and cookies here are not only a feast for the eyes, but they also taste, as far as I remember, the way cakes and cookies are supposed to taste; sweet and indulgent, and not the slightest bit like health food.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In an encouraging, but probably poorly-timed, move, well-loved coffee chain Komeda<\/a> launched this completely plant-based kissaten<\/em>-style diner in Tsukiji, back in 2020. Sandwiches, burgers, pancakes and pastries, as well as soft serve ice cream, are all served in a relaxed, slightly retro ambience full of greenery<\/strong>. Despite its Japanese roots, the classic coffee shop menu, in all its cheerfully understated goodness, takes me back to occasional treats in caf\u00e9s as a kid in the UK. Disappointing as it is that further branches have so far failed to appear, it may be for the best; If there was a franchise on every street corner, I\u2019d probably roll between them like a pinball between bumpers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you need to eat and the nearest vegan restaurant is several miles away and about to close, it\u2019s good to know that the ubiquitous Coco Ichibanya<\/a> offers (in many, but apparently not all, stores) a completely plant-based version of their simple and honest Japanese-style curry, that fills a hole in far tastier and more satisfying style than its price and presentation would suggest. <\/strong>An innovative spice level index, that ranges from one (apparently \u201cvery spicy\u201d) to 20 (\u201climited to those who have already eaten an entire serving of level 15\u201d), also allows customers a unique opportunity to test the limits of their internal mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is, of course, various information to be found online regarding vegan food and where to find it in Tokyo and surrounding areas. Check out the Tokyo Vegan Guide on Instagram<\/a>, Happy Cow<\/a>, and Voyapon<\/a>‘s own treasure chest of articles about vegan food and veganism in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Without the hard-won home-cooking skills required to rustle up, on occasion, a plate of semi-palatable food for myself, it\u2019s doubtful…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":108109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1418,21,1408],"tags":[1356,1361,1393],"class_list":{"0":"post-108024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-food","9":"category-kanto","10":"tag-restaurant","11":"tag-vegan","12":"tag-vegetarian"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Bad News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Good News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Some Personal Favorites (That Aren\u2019t My Home)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Great Lakes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ovgo Baker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Komeda is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(Not Actually) The Last Resort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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