Obon Shokudo — Restaurant in Portland

I was really excited to try this place, but me and my bf were poorly disappointed. I'm gonna give an honest review bc I'm a Houstonian and we keep it 💯. This is definately a pretentious vegan spot where their intentions are good but they just don't deliver, literally. This is a vegan joint where I feel like they charge outrageous prices just for being vegan. The bowl of udon was tiny and they overcharge you. Me and bf were wondering where the rest of the food was. $17 for what? These better be magic handmade organic noodles with rainbow unicorns in them or noodles with special weed in them? This place would shut down in Houston or Vegas, bc it's a scam. I also saw no Asian people there and that should have been my cue to turn back around. I am a devout vegan of 7 years and I wouldn't reccomend this place at all, unless you like to pretend to eat and be hungry after eating. Their food is "okay" and at least they try to make things "healthier." But come on there's nothing wrong with white rice. Just use it if you're cooking Japanese food. The taste of the udon soup wasn't too bad, but it's just enough to feed a mouse. Same goes for their $7 onion tofu dish, Alright but better if you gave decent portions. Onigiri was only thing I thought was kind of worth it. I'm only giving 3 stars bc there this really nice brunette guy with long hair that works there. He is very nice, but I'm not here to eat his niceness. We left there hungry and wishing we had gone to a better "Asian" style restaurant :(. Just go get some authentic Vietnamese food down the street, you will thank me later. We felt bad for the people eating here, bc they seem oblivious to what real Japanese/Asain cuisine is. Please people of Portland, travel to Houston or at least California to get a real sense of what Asian and Mexican food should taste like. We were sorely disgusted as foodies.

*Edit 2 days after. Read owners post and instead of taking honest criticism into consideration to make things improve or satisfy a customer, They decided to take the salty and rude route. Yes I believe it is fair to give people enough food after paying twice as much for a bowl of udon soup that you would actually pay in Japan. Also if you just do a simple Google search, the best type of rice to use in onigiri in Japan by Japanese people is sticky white rice. Makes me think twice about authenticity and this place is not authentic. Just had Authentic Japanese Ramen from a restaurant in Portland yesterday morning called Kizuki Ramen and Izaka in Portland. Ironically the owner is from Seattle, but great authentic Japanese noodles, I really thought I was in Japan when eating my ramen. Go there instead, they just opened and have amazing authentic Japanese dishes. I had the vegan version. Much better food, service and price than here. Fair pricing and the portions were "authentically" twice as large. Yeah and I am Asian and have ate Asian food my whole life. So when you don't see Asian people in an Asian restaurant serving Asian food, stay clear bc there's something wrong with the food, whether it be portions, authenticity, or just service. Honesty will be honesty and I can't hide the truth. Sorry to burst your "Portland nice." But sometimes truth hurts. My bf who also loves all types of Asian food called the food here "trash." Me being vegan I was trying to be nicer and more considerate in my wording, but still honest. Bc of owners' rudeness, and lack of listening to customers honest opinions, I will not come again, and have already told my friends to steer clear...

A Vegan Japanese Restaurant in PDX?... I was curious and had to go. So I grabbed a friend and off we went on another foodie adventure.

The restaurant is located on the east side of the river downtown. Parking wasn't too bad at lunchtime, but I have been in that area during peak times where it could be a problem. I found a spot right in front of the place but left that for my friend. I parked right around the block in a nice 2-hour zoned spot.

My friend was a shop teacher and he loved the decor. He was commenting on the materials the tables and seats were made of and how to make them. He loved the design, and I had to agree. It was pretty cool.

We were quickly seated and shown the menu on the QR code. All the food ordering and payment are done on the online app. Once you put everything in, the food is rung up based on your table QR # and brought over.

Being a vegan restaurant, we had to try the Karaage and katsu. Instead of chicken, they used tofu. The Karaage was tasty and had a similar texture to pressed chicken nuggets. The curry was tasty, too, and the katsu was again more of the pressed tofu chicken substitute. In the future, I would skip the katsu dish and order just the curry and another order of the Karaage. Their food is more izakaya comfort, so I'll definitely have to go back to try their udon... being a vegan udon, I'm curious to how they can mimic the flavors of the traditional dish.

Anyway, if you are vegan/vegetarian and want something other than japanese sushi type food, I would recommend checking out...

If you're a Japanese Buddist monk (vegetarian) then you’ll enjoy the food. Japanese feel good comfort food is white rice, fish, ramen, pork, nabe, and other hot soups with meat. When eating Japanese comfort food, your main concern is not about being “healthy”, it's about the flavour and nostalgia. The food served here is meant for buddhist monks living in temples in the countryside of Japan, which is not a bad thing...but it isn’t the typical Japan comfort food we were hoping for. It’s healthy food that's only meant to sustain you and nothing more. Also, the customer service was lacking. The waitress really seemed annoyed that we were there. If you’re going to have a Japanese style restaurant, shouldn’t you aim for Japanese style customer service? The ordering process can be confusing for some (if you don’t have a smartphone or if you’re not a person who uses technology that much) and wasn’t explained to us when we came in.

Edit: You’re right, I didn’t get the memo that your restaurant is vegetarian. Your website, twitter, and instagram doesn’t say that you are. Either I missed it, or maybe you should advertise more clearly that you are strictly vegetarian, which there is nothing wrong with that, it just should be better advertised. I do have ADHD, so I tend to miss a lot of things that other people don’t. If my single review ruins your business then maybe focus on your business and not my...