Saido — Restaurant in Tokyo

The #1 vegan restaurant in the world holds up to its reputation... simply wow.

While Tokyo still has a lot to catch up to become a better vegan-friendly destination, restaurants like Saido give me so much hope and promise. I made reservations online for lunch here and after nearly missing it, am so glad that I got to experience my now favorite vegan restaurant in Japan.

This cafe started in 2018 by Chef Katsumi Kusumoto and should be on everyone's must-try list, especially if they are curious or wanting to experience veganized Japanese cuisine. It's tucked away on a not-so busy street so it really feels like you're being swept away for a wonderful experience.

Lunch sets set us back ¥2970, which included soup, salad, main entree, dessert, and two drinks (including wine and beer). The journey began right away with soup and salad, where its presentation matched that of fine dining restaurants. For our mains, I tried the Unaju (braised eel rice bowl) and my partner's Katsuju (fried cutlet)...

H O L Y. P L A N T.

This was the BEST vegan unagi-don I have had yet in Japan! The texture, taste, and composition resembled eel like I had remembered it in my past life. Smoky, teriyaki flavors infused the eel and it was exactly what I hoped it would be. The katsu was also incredibly crispy, juicy, and tender. This is no simple soy-meat that's been deep fried, it was on another level.

The experience concluded with another glass of wine with our sweet dessert - the blueberry cheesecake that's tucked away in a small pot that you eat with a mini shovel, and their seasonal sorbet which was creamy and refreshing.

Without a doubt, they have made their mark on the vegan food scene and we are not 'missing out' on anything when food is simply this good and good for you.

Reservations are HIGHLY recommended. I made a reservation through tabe-log as well as messaged the business on Facebook. The manager Hitomi-san was super friendly and fun to chat with about the business, and it left a wonderful impression on me to return in the future.

I cannot stop raving about my experience at Saido. Thank you Chef Kusumoto, Hitomi-san, and your entire team for this amazing lunch. I will do my best to come back every time I plan a...

One of the very few delicious 100% Vegan restaurants in town. We ended up taking some vegetarian friends from India to this shop when they came to Tokyo Tech (within walking distance) for a conference in 2020 (Before COVID, of course). Because of the ubiquity of seafood and meat-based products in lots of other restaurants, eating at purely vegan and vegetarian restaurants is the safest best when vegetarian visitors come from out of town.

This shop is located down a side street near Jiyugaoka, with a nice garden-like entrance. Upon entry, the interior decor is minimal, but fitting.

In fact, this place has a very nice lunch course menu for a very reasonable price. Each of the choices basically resembles the taste and appearance of a meat- or fish- based dish. However, there are absolutely no meat or fish products! Amazing! The taste is very close to the original, and the flavor is almost identical. Often, shops who try to make vegetarian food appeal to meat-eaters go wrong because it’s not necessary to make vegetarian food look or taste like meat to be delicious. However, this place does indeed do it justice. Just, as expected, the texture is not completely identical (but pretty close). The desserts are also delicious and fun as well, sometimes coming in a smoke-filled vessel, and other times resembling a pot filled with soil and flowers.

This place takes reservations for large groups as well, and also has adequate English language support. Highly recommended! Come if you can, even if you’re not...

Excellent vegan food. In a country, where it's almost impossible to find vegetarian food, it's amazing that a vegan restaurant even exists. This place really lives up to the hype. I had to book it one month in advance to secure a spot for lunch.

The lunch course consists of 4 dishes and 2 drinks. It started off with mushroom soup which was a good start to the course. Then, they served the signature smoked salad. This was really interesting to me and you could really tasted the smokiness when eating the salad. It was a kind of salad I've never had before in my life. For the main, you can choose from many dishes. I chose the Unajyu and it tasted really good. They use seaweed to try to mimic the umami of the unagi. While it is not as good as an actual Unajyu, it is really impressive for vegan food. To end the course, I had the orange sorbet parfait. The dessert was average but it's really hard to make good desserts with vegan ingredients.

Overall, I really enjoyed the restaurant and I think 2900 yen is great value for...