Tokyo dining, your way
We hunt down Tokyo’s most worthwhile tables — a hushed ten-seat Edomae sushi counter, a vegan ramen that fools carnivores, charcoal wagyu that melts on the tongue — taste them ourselves, and bring back the verdict: real links to book, an honest word on what you can eat, and the story behind every bowl.
Kuchifuku set — nine seasonal vegan sides with rice and miso soup
A casual, affordable vegan cafeteria run by a Kamakura temple lineage beneath the Akihabara rail arches, where even garlic and onion are forsaken in true shojin style.
Seasonal shojin kaiseki paired with sake and wine, refreshed every three weeks
A refined Roppongi shojin restaurant led by chef Daisuke Nomura, formerly of two-Michelin-starred Daigo, pairing plant-based Zen cuisine with carefully chosen sake and wine.
100% plant-based mapo tofu and vegan gyoza
A dedicated vegan mapo tofu specialist near Tamachi, recreating Sichuan heat and richness with no animal products at all.
Kitsune udon — sweet fried tofu over a delicate kombu-and-fish dashi
Dotonbori Imai Honten serves kitsune udon in a fish-based kombu dashi in Osaka.
Last verified Jul 2026A seven-seafood bowl eaten three ways: hand-rolled in nori, as a rice bowl, then finished as ochazuke with a long-simmered fish-bone dashi
Kaisendon Tonari in Iidabashi serves a seven-seafood bowl eaten three ways.
Multi-course vegan tasting menu
A small, reservation-only vegan restaurant in Asakusa serving a chef's 10–14 course tasting menu. It seats only a handful of guests and opens a limited number of days per week, so reserve ahead.
In season now
The first mountain vegetables, sea bream and bamboo shoots of the year.
In season now
Eel for stamina, shaved ice to cool down, delicate summer pike conger.
In season now
Silvery saury, fragrant mushrooms and the year's new-crop rice.
In season now
The season of the hot pot — oden, sukiyaki and sweet winter crab.
Vegan, vegetarian, halal, gluten-free or pescatarian — tap your diet and see every place we’ve confirmed.
Plant-based & planet-friendly
Eating plant-based in Japan, made joyful: where to eat, what to buy, the festivals to find your people — and a warm look at the good your choices do for the planet.
Explore Vegan JapanPhrasebook
Pick your diet and hold your phone up to the staff. The exact Japanese to say what you can’t eat — plus the hidden traps (dashi, mirin, wheat in the soy) that catch first-timers.
Show this to staff
Editor's ChoiceENSeasonal shojin kaiseki of vegetables, tofu and yuba
A one-Michelin-star Buddhist vegetarian kaiseki house at the foot of Mt. Atago, serving seasonal plant-based courses overlooking a garden since 1950.
Sembikiya special fruit parfait
The dine-in fruit parlour of Japan's oldest luxury fruit purveyor, founded in Nihonbashi in 1834, serving lavish parfaits of world-class fruit in a bright, elegant salon.
Seasonal fresh-fruit shaved ice with house-made syrup
A pioneering kakigori specialist in old-town Yanaka, hand-shaving natural Nikko ice into fluffy mountains drenched in house-made seasonal fruit syrups — summer lines wrap the block.
Anmitsu — agar jelly with azuki paste & brown-sugar syrup
Founded in 1948 in front of Ueno Park, this beloved anmitsu parlour crowns chewy agar jelly with Hokkaido azuki anko and Okinawan brown-sugar syrup.
Beef curry with a secret spice blend & a whole boiled potato
The original champion of the Kanda Curry Grand Prix; this book-town flagship serves a rich, fruit-rounded European-style curry that starts with a whole steaming potato.
Last verified Jul 2026Chanko-nabe in a chicken-and-pork-bone broth, sumo-stable style
Run by former ozeki Kirishima a minute from the sumo arena — wrestler-stable chanko-nabe served the way champions actually eat it.
Last verified Jul 2026Edomae tendon of conger eel, shrimp, squid & soft-fried egg in a secret sauce
The perpetually-queued Nihonbashi flagship whose overflowing Edomae tendon comes glossed in a closely-guarded family sauce for around ¥1,000.
Last verified Jul 2026Area guide
Hiroshima has no third-party certified fully-halal restaurant yet, but four verified, currently-operating spots — halal wagyu ramen, Turkish cooking, Indian curry with a prayer space, and a self-branded "Halal Restaurant" — cluster along the Hiroden tram line downtown. This guide gives exact addresses, hours, prices, and honest caveats, including which venues serve alcohol despite halal branding.
Area guide
Hiroshima has a genuine dedicated gluten-free kitchen on Miyajima island, plus an okonomiyaki shop that will fire up a separate pan for celiac guests if you reserve ahead. Two more spots offer real gluten-free options with real cross-contact caveats. Here's exactly where to go, what to ask, and what to avoid.
Area guide
Hiroshima has one fully vegan restaurant (JoGeSaYu, near Hiroshima City Hall), one shojin-ryori restaurant that's vegetarian but not fully vegan (Saishoku-Kenbi), and one mixed-menu cafe with a genuinely vegan lunch set (Kissa Saeki). All three sit in or near central Hiroshima, making a one-day plan realistic — just confirm dashi and dairy before ordering anywhere outside JoGeSaYu.
Area guide
Nagoya has a small but real halal dining scene: five verified restaurants across Osu, Minato, Showa, and Higashi wards. Only one — Mega Kebab in Osu — carries genuine third-party certification, from the Kyoto Halal Council. The other four are Muslim-owned or Muslim-friendly with self-described halal cooking and no alcohol. Here's exactly where to go, what makes each one halal, and the traps to avoid.
Area guide
Nagoya has a small but real gluten-free scene, anchored by Michinori-tei, a teishoku restaurant built entirely around wheat-free cooking that recreates local specialties like tebasaki and misokatsu in rice-flour form. This guide covers six verified spots — a dedicated gluten-free cafe, a rice-flour bakery, and a cafe-bar with a genuinely gluten-free mazesoba — with exact addresses, hours, prices, and honest cross-contamination caveats.
Area guide
Nagoya's vegan scene is small but real: two macrobiotic cafés with genuinely animal-free menus, one organic café whose "fully vegan" claim is more modest than it sounds, and a century-old miso nikomi udon shop with a dedicated mushroom-dashi vegan menu. This guide gives exact addresses, station walk times, prices, hours, and the caveats worth knowing before you go.
