I’ll be traveling in a small group for ~1 month later this summer. We’ll be hitting up Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe for the duration of the trip.
Of our group of 4, I’m the only one with a dietary restriction (vegetarian). I’m aware that it’s tough to be vegetarian in Japan, and I’m not trying to make my friends miss out on good food, so for the duration of the trip I’ve decided to go Pescatarian.
I have 4 main questions:
1) In the event my friends want a meat-focused restaurant (beef/chicken/pork) without vegetarian/pescatarian options, what are some fast food/common restaurant chains I’d be able to find in Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe where I could fill up on (preferably vegetarian, but also pescatarian) options before going to their restaurant? Is it considered rude if I come with them to a restaurant, but don’t order food/only order drinks/sides?
2) Any particularly good convenience store food that’s veggie friendly?
3) Are there any “must eat at” restaurants in those cities that offer vegetarian options? I’m not interested in a vegetarian-only restaurant, but popular places that have options in addition to meat for my friends. Could be small+cheap or expensive restaurants.
4) Any gotchas I should look out for? Like common food where even if it seems to be vegetarian/fish based, there is still chicken/beef/etc stock or other ingredients?
Thanks for the help in advance!
6 comments
Have you checked the Happy Cow App?
>Is it considered rude if I come with them to a restaurant, but don’t order food/only order drinks/sides?
Most places do not allow this. Restaurants naturally don’t want anyone just taking up the space.
Otherwise, try Happy Cow app to find vegetarian restaurants.
You will be fine! Japan has had quite the surge of veggie food places. If you search for the city you are going to be in (or type of food) + vegan on YouTube you will find some good options. Especially since you can eat fish it will make things a lot easier (since you are fine eating Dashi)
Curry – Coco ichibanya has veggie curry which is great. A lot of meat options for others.
Ramen – might be a challenge but a lot of places have a vegetarian option. Ippudo, which is one of the popular chain that has a vegan option. Afuri and Soranorio also have options. There are quite a few fully vegan places as well.
okonomiyaki – you *should* be able to get a vegetarian one pretty easily, especially if it’s one of the ones you make yourself. In Osaka there is a great place called Oko which has options for everyone.
In general, you can probably get things like Udon, Soba and stuff like that which just have dashi.
A lot of burger places will have options too.
oh man, there are soo many options for you for being a full vegetarian, and even more if you don’t mind dashi in some things! all the convenience stores have minimum sandwich, ramen, buns, baked goods, rice, edamame, and onigiri options. There’s a really great tiny okonomiyaki place in Osaka called Okonomiyaki Chitose that has a vegetarian (seitan) option (alongside meat and fish options for your friends). There’s also a bunch of veggie friendly ramen places, I suggest looking up a few YouTube videos of some vegan/vegetarian vloggers to find the names, but I found a ton of ramen restaurants (and restaurants in general) for my upcoming trip in May by doing this. I would also suggest looking into a buddhist ryokan for lunch for a traditional buddhist vegetarian lunch one day. Surprisingly, most of the Japanese fast food places have a veggie burger option, and there’s a Superiority Burger in Shimokitazawa!
Both Chabuzen and Afuri have a vegan ramen option, Shin Udon has this mind blowing egg/black pepper/butter hand pulled udon dish, Savoy is supposed to be one of the best Neapolitan style pizza places in the world, and you can find inari ekiben at the train stations 🙂
For restaurant chains with options, Coco Curry has a vegetarian option. You can also find a fish/shrimp burger at mooost fast food chains like McDonalds or Mos Burger.
I have been to restaurants in a group situation where we order to share and it wasn’t a problem that I wasn’t eating everything. But I don’t know how it might play out if you order individually. I have also sometimes asked that the meat be left out for my dish but that’s easier for western dishes like pasta and salads.
Japan has plentiful seafood! Just try to do your research and look up places. I was able to have a kaiseki experience because I informed beforehand that I was pescatarian
I’m pescatarian and had a fairly easy time eating in Japan. Udon and soba restaurants are always going to have something you can eat. There is dashi in the normal soup, but as long as you don’t order something with obvious meat in it or something with a nonstandard soup it should be pescatarian safe. My default choice is kitsune udon but I like the one with grated mountain yam too. Tempura restaurants are also always going to have options as long as you aren’t worried about what else they fried in the oil.
All convenience stores have vegetarian and pescatarian onigiri choices. In Tokyo look for Natural Lawson, they seemed to have a better selection of non onigiri vegetarian stuff.
In Tokyo, Kyushu Jangara Ramen is a normal pork based ramen shop that has vegan ramen that is really good. You can order toppings a la carte so I got it with a hard boiled egg. It’s a small chain, I went to the one in Harajuku. The harajuku branch also has a whole vegan restaurant upstairs but I didn’t try it. Soranoiro in Tokyo station also has a good veggie option.
In Kyoto, Engine Ramen is super touristy but I liked the ramen anyway, and they do meat and vegan versions