CHOICE — Restaurant in Kyoto

Having to go to Kyoto to see my friend performing her yosakoi at Heianjingu, I was looking for a vegetarian place near Sanjo. To my delight, I found a new vegan place and it was on my way to the event site. Being bold, vegetarian and sexy, I decided to try it out.

First, just know that the restaurant is bright and clean, staff very nice and polite (but that's almost always the case in Japan) and the food good but a bit pricey. I think the cost is due the fact that the raw material is gluten free which is rare in Japan and which I don't care about not being gluten intolerant. I would be, life would have been he for me since I'm French ;) oh, and they have English menu and english speaking staff. Don't know for other languages. I've got a first part but missing a second one. So, let me talk about being vegetarian in Japan. It's pretty hard! But very good for small talk. Always got the same question even with my old japanese friends whom, each time we eat put together, ask me if I don't miss meat taste, how I can have a so nice and shredded body without it animals (I told you before I was sexy, but only of you like hairy and shredded body ;)). Anyway, kind of enjoying the annoyance of Japanese disbelief when faced with vegetarism or worse veganism which I'm not. As a conclusion, if you're vegetarian, I would recommend this place and if you're not just try, it'd probably be a nice and...

I am gluten and dairy intolerant so this place was perfect.

There is no meat served but the vegan options for vegan cheese is fantastic.

Pizza was delicious (the gluten free base was the best I have ever tasted) Pasta was delicious (would be nice if they gave you a salt and pepper shaker with this to season a little bit more for your own taste) vegan cheese platter was delicious and the salad was too also delicious.

The dessert we had at the end with the vegan and gluten free ice cream on corn flakes was delicious. We also had a probiotic yoghurt for dessert this came out with a small maple syrup sauce and the two accompanied each other very very well.

Overall would highly recommend this place for anyone gluten and dairy intolerant, can not comment on whether this would be good for celiacs but their menu says they don’t use dairy or gluten in any of there dishes so might be worth a giving it a go.

Price wise, paid what you would expect to pay for a vegan and gf meal. This still represents good value when you consider how much less you pay for food in Japan compared to...

Overall 4/5

Food 4/5 Service 4/5 Price 3/5

For starters, the location was ok and easily reached by public transportation, pretty close to the hotspots of Kyoto. Restaurant has a decent amount of vegan, plant based menu items, and some even gluten-free. Top!

I opted for the lighter and nutritious lunch, so ordered the salad with vegan cheese (came with soup and brown rice) and I definitely wanted to try a raw cake. The salad was fresh (great), tasted great, the smoky cheese was delicious and flavourful but I did expect more cheese and dressing. This was definitely lacking for the asking price. The delicate chilled hibiscus tea was all natural without sugar/sweetener, which I absolute love, but adding ice in this case dilutes the flavour even more. The strawberry cacao cake was absolutely fabulous!

The price point was a bit off in my opinion (not for the cake!). Taking into account the initiative and effort the restaurant goes to to promote healthy plant-based, vegan, gluten-free, producing its own cheeses and keeping things natural, 4stars is...