Vegan Soba Tokyo Ayler

Vegan Soba Tokyo Ayler is a fully plant-based soba bar in Shimokitazawa — kombu-and-shiitake dashi, no katsuobushi — still open as of July 2026.

The soba: genuinely vegan, not gluten-free

Opened December 1, 2024, Ayler builds its broth on kombu and shiitake instead of the katsuobushi (bonito flakes) that flavors almost every soba shop in Japan — so the core promise holds: the tsuyu is animal-free and you can drink it to the last drop. The noodles are traditional nihachi — 80% buckwheat, 20% wheat flour — which means they are not gluten-free, and no 100%-buckwheat option has been confirmed; treat this as a vegan stop, not a celiac-safe one. The signature bowl is vegan kakiage soba, a crisp vegetable fritter over hot or cold noodles. Expect roughly ¥1,000–1,500 for a main bowl (kakiage soba ¥1,200 as of December 2024; recent listings and reviews suggest a similar range). Vegan sweets, espresso and oat-milk lattes cover the cafe side. One caveat for strict Buddhist-vegetarian (shojin) eaters: unlike temple cuisine, Ayler freely uses negi, onion and garlic.

Before you go

The space is tiny — a 105 cm-tall standing counter plus a couple of table seats — with a roughly 100-year-old gramophone spinning shellac records between espresso pulls. It sits at Kitazawa 4-24-15; Sasazuka is actually the nearest station (about 7 minutes), with Shimokitazawa a 13–15 minute walk and Higashi-Kitazawa similarly close. It is closed on Sundays — and Mondays according to several listings — and daytime hours vary wildly across sources, so check Instagram @__ayler__ before the walk. Twice a month, on full-moon and new-moon nights, the shop turns into an evening bar.

More in the area: Shimokitazawa food guide