Love for All — Restaurant in Kanazawa

tl;dr; They cater to all diets, but the portions are absurdly small and the food is merely so-so at very high prices. However, I think a lot of Japanese fine(?) dining is based on high quality ingredients and subtle flavors. It's not for me, but it could be attractive to someone else. A single slice of potato with light seasoning can taste really good, but it can never be "great" no matter how local, organic, and perfect it is.

More like "Love for None". My girlfriend came here and brought an allergy card detailing what she was severely allergic to (cashews, walnuts, pistachios). She showed it before ordering, and things went fine until dessert.

Since she already showed her allergy card (written in Japanese), and the dessert menu item she ordered had "no almonds or coconuts", so she assumed the matcha tart cake would be fine. Turns out it was made entirely of cashews-- she ate one bite, then after a brief period of feeling strange, she got extremely ill. She had to use an epipen (one of the two she brought on this vacation), and rush into the bathroom to vomit. The waiter was really nice and apologetic; he brought water and apologized.. But in this restaurant where there was only my gf and I, none of the other staff even turned to look or to offer help.

Anyhow, I'm rating it mainly 1 stars because of this incident where my girlfriend suffered a lot. Why would you put "no almonds or coconuts", but have it include cashews, a tree nut? Peanuts, tree nuts, and fish are the big 3 severe life threatening allergy foods.

If this incident didn't happen, I'd say the restaurant is about 2.5-3 stars? The customer service was fairly good (the waiter was very nice and spoke English) and the food is decent. But the portion sizes are absurdly small; my anorexic vegan gf was still hungry after a dinner set with the crispy tuna chestnut add-on (over 6000 yen in cost, not including the drinks and table charge of 550 yen/person). It's absurdly expensive for what you're getting, the majority of the cost probably comes what I'm assuming is local organic produce or something?

Like what an earlier reviewer stated, "you can get better vegan food for 1/3rd the price elsewhere in Japan".

For example in the dinner set we got, it went something like this:

Appetizers: 4 crunchy leaves with sauce, crunchy tofu ball, two more various single slices of local produce Soup: Small bowl of tofu/mushroom soup Entree: My gf got the vegetable mushroom tempura, I got the scallops. I got 4 pieces of scallops (pretty damn good) and the rest was bean sprouts. Both of our dishes came with a bowl of rice and exactly 4 slices of local vegetables. Dessert: One purple grape, one green grape, a slice of a fig, slice of orange

It felt low effort and meagre compared to other meals we've paid 7000+ yen per person for. I don't know what their obsession with 4 is either? I only realized when writing this review that everything came in 4's with absurdly tiny portions. It felt really pretentious and and I can't believe I paid this much for tiny slices of various "local Kanazawa produce".

Oh yeah, since my girlfriend was dying in the bathroom, I got to finish the matcha tart cake-- it was pretty good. I think this is the only restaurant I went to in Japan that I felt legitimately disappointed and scammed by. The meal set was just so absurd and it's comical looking back on it.

EDIT: I made this review while mad, but changed it to 3 stars later for fairness sake since most people won't get nut allergy'd...

Good points:

The staff are incredibly friendly and the restaurant fosters an intimate family run atmosphere. They are clearly targetting the tourist market and cater to that with warm Japanese hospitality.

The restaurant caters for dietary needs that are uncommon in Japan (my wife cannot eat gluten, they also offer for vegan options)

They have tasty local beers on draught (despite targetting the gluten free market!) which was much appreciated by me!

Neutral points:

The food is primarily either vegan or pescatarian (two menus, with both being gluten free). Not a bad thing, but something to be aware of.

The food was quite middle of the road in terms of quality. It can be hard to cook tasty vegan food (we're not fish lovers) and I'm not sure this restaurant fully managed it.

There are two fixed sittings per night (6pm and 8pm at the time of writing). Reservations are taken over Instagram. Be aware before turning up at a random time!

Bad points:

The cost is very expensive for the type of restaurant. It was over 6,000 JPY per person for us, when we were ordering conservatively. Comparable local restaurants would be appropriately half that.

The portions are small, especially for the money (by Japanese standards, not western standards). E.g. a vegan ice cream dessert consists of one very small scoop. The standard pour of wine is 100ml (1,000 JPY+).

An itemised receipt is not given (as is customary for Japan) and you are asked to pay immediately when the waitress brings the tablet over to your table. This makes it hard to assess what you are being charged for (the tablet is also all in Japanese - not a problem if given time to look at it with Google translate, but impossible to assess in a pressured situation). This might be done to hide the table charge that others mention.

A tip is asked for on the tablet, with the waitress present for your decision, which is not customary in Japan.

Summary: This review is difficult to write, mostly because the restaurant is run by wholesome people trying to make a living. This is exactly the kind of business I try to support, and I would love to write a glowing review.

They are also catering for foreigners with dietary needs not often found in Japan which is very thoughtful.

Their business model seems to be having approximately 3 tables for two sittings per night, which naturally means that costs are high. This seems to be what gets passed on to the customer, which is understandable but not fair or sustainable. I think the restaurant could be great, but some change is needed.

As it is, I recommend Love for All if you have dietary needs and don't mind about cost, but unfortunately...

Am I allowed to review if I didn't manage to actually eat here? Because I did not feel the Love for all :( Anyway I have given 2 stars instead of one for that reason itself. Hours on Google maps are not entirely accurate so I'm uploading the hours listed outside the place today.

I arrived at 2.45pm looking for a late lunch after arriving in town and staff kindly pointed out they were only doing drinks between 3 and 5pm which most places in japan do during this time. So I decided to return for dinner, as this hungry herbivore needs vegetarian food. I came in around 5.50pm and awkwardly stood around while the 2 female staff told me to wait while following orders from the man behind the counter who made no eye contact with me but spoke directly to his staff. Meanwhile I'm waiting and one lady asked if I had read the sign stating 550 yen seat charge which I had read and stated I was happy to pay. There were 2 other couples dining in there. Several empty seats. It looked like she was ready to seat me as she grabbed a menu and started to walk to a table, until again the man said something in japanese which I couldn't understand. She then used Google translate and politely told me "we are currently fully booked out , please return in an hour". I found this strange with only 2 couples in there but thought maybe their kitchen is already busy. I thanked them and left but the same lady followed me out of the restaurant apologizing and said I could return at 6.30. She asked for my name and seemed sweet enough.

I could've gone back, but I'd already tried twice today. And I did not feel welcome both times. So I spent the next 30 minutes checking out the mall next door, and reading other reviews for this place to see if my experience was unique. Eventually I cut my losses and went elsewhere as I was absolutely starving by this point.

Lack of my ability to speak Japanese probably played a role here. However I know when I'm welcomed somewhere as a customer and this was the least welcome I have ever felt in a place. Speaking the same language is absolutely not required to welcome a customer in. I'm not sure what the rationale could've been, maybe the owner/manager man speaking to the staff was having a bad day or I wasn't dressed right. Safe to say I'd warn people going here about the strange dynamics with staff before they choose to eat. Maybe the food is so delicious it makes up for this?! For me the grapes are sour! Oh and no other place I've traveled to in Japan has charged a seat charge ... so not sure what that is...