Vegetarian Cafe Ren Shijō Ōmiya — Restaurant in Kyoto

Highly recommend this awesome cafe. I came to this place twice in two days; on the first day I came alone, on the second day I brought my friend here after he arrived from a vacation stay in Thailand. It is run by two very kind ladies that provided excellent service.

On my first visit here I got the Japanese curry with soy cutlets and extra rice. The portion of food was huge. The soy cutlets were delicious - far better than every “katsu” I’ve had in any restaurant in Hawaii where I’m from. Each cutlet was slightly smaller than standard hamburger patty, but there were three of them. The meal costed me 1850 yen, which was an absolute steal for the portion and quality of the food.

On my second visit I got the lunch set, a curry bun, and a chocolate cake made interestingly with burdock root and almond flour (though I could be misremembering the flour). All of the food was excellent. The dessert was beautifully presented with a variety of fresh fruit. All of the food was made on the spot, so there is a bit of a wait.

My friend bought a ridiculous amount of food. He got the lunch set, a curry bun, a side order of soy cutlets, a slice of cake, and strawberry ice cream. The side order of soy cutlets is actually sufficient to serve as a meal in itself, especially if served with rice, and only costed 700 yen.

The cafe also sells packaged food products, including vegan instant ramen, miso paste, arare, dried mushrooms, etc.

10/10 place to eat. Excellent food and very good value...

Wow! My vegan family of five had some of our favorite food in all of Japan here at Cafe Ren. During our first visit, we made sure to arrive close to opening to secure seats, which worked out well. All of the food we had was delicious, from the daily set meal to the soy meat cutlet bowl to the Chinese dumpling hot pot. Every single one of us walked away from this restaurant raving about how great our meals were.

For me, the soy meat bowl had some of the best soy meat I’ve ever tasted. We also all agreed that the portions were well sized and left us feeling full (especially for the price!). Considering the complexity of some of the dishes, the food came out fairly quickly. The only negative I could think of would be that it got pretty hot in the dining area with all of the hot pots. The staff were all kind, and we had a great experience overall.

Our meal was so good the first time that we ended up getting takeout the next day, which was just as good as our dine-in experience. Everything was extremely well packed, and the portions actually seemed even bigger, which we all appreciated.

Overall, we had such a great experience at Cafe Ren and would go back in a heartbeat if we ever...

This little restaurant is lovely, I went twice in one day for lunch and dinner as I was staying nearby and am vegetarian. They had lots of options of food often found in Japan, but made vegan. The drinks were also really tasty. The two ladies running it were very kind as well. The lunch service was a little slow, but that’s because they were doing everything themselves and making the food from scratch. For drinks I had the apple lemon cider (non-alcoholic), decaf coffee and the 5 grains soy milk drink. The cider had a very good fruit flavour. For food I had the vegan katsu rice bowl, steamed dumplings, then the vegetable and gyoza hot pot and vegan karage. The soy vegan “meat” in particular was amazing. There was also vegan cake, and I had the tofu and nut chocolate gateau cake. It was dense, moist and very good. It had some fruit on the side too. So delicious, and it’s rare to find such vegan dishes in Japan. The decor was also really quaint and nice. It was a medium price range, normal for specialist restaurants in Japan. There were also gluten free options for noodles...