Hi everyone!
Lots of people ask me about being vegetarian in Tokyo
And it was something I was worried about before I first went
So I thought I'd make a video
To share my experiences
And I've dressed for the occasion
In my Say No to Knife Crime t-shirt
Which you can get from my website cakeswithfaces.co.uk
So, being vegetarian in Tokyo is difficult but it's not impossible.
I don't eat meat or fish
Just because I don't like them
And I've been to Tokyo several times and survived
In the UK it's standard for restaurants to offer a vegetarian option
Even if it's something really boring
You know there'll be something
However in Japan, that's not the case
And the word vegetarian isn't always understood
If you eat meat and just want to avoid fish
Or if you eat fish and just want to avoid meat
You'll be ok
It's if you're avoiding both that it's a little bit more difficult
The main problem is dashi
Which is fish stock
And it's a major ingredient in Japanese cooking
My main advice is to avoid meals with soup
Like bowls of noodles in soup
Because they'll almost definitely contain dashi
It can also be in sauces and salad dressings
So try a little bit before pouring it all over your meal
Try not to worry about it too much
I know it's really hard
But if you're always thinking: Is there dashi in this?
What am I eating?
You're just not going to enjoy your food
So I try and go with the rule:
If I like it, I'll eat it
I've also heard lots of bad things about katsuoboshi being on everything
Katsuoboshi are fish flakes
They take a dried tuna that looks like a bit of wood
And take shavings off it
And sprinkle them on the top of meals
But I really didn't see them that much
They had them at an okonomiyaki restaurant I went to
But you could choose whether to put them on or not
And I also saw them on takoyaki
But that's octopus, so you're not going to be eating that anyway
Plastic food models
The good news, if you don't speak much Japanese
Is that most restaurants display their meals outside or in the window
As plastic food models
So you can see what the options are before going in
And lots of places have picture menus too
So you can point to order and say, "kore o kudasai"
Which means "this please"
Lots of places have english menus
Especially in touristy areas
I didn't eat anywhere that didn't
In the backstreets, smaller places are less likely to have them
But you can always ask:
Is there an English menu
Japanese food is the most difficult
If you go to restaurants serving other types of food
They'll more often have something you can eat
A good tip is to go to department stores
Which often have one or two floors of restaurants at the top
They tend to have English menus
And it's a good place to look
There's lots of Italian restaurants
That usually have margherita pizza or spaghetti with tomato sauce
Indian restaurants often have vegetarian curry options
That's not the case with Japanese katsu curry places
Which are almost always meat
American style burger restaurants
Sometimes have a veggie burger
And then there's fast food
Freshness Burger have a veggie burger
Which is pretty good.
Mos Burger have a veggie burger too
And I've not tried it, but I've heard you can replace the meat burger with a soy burger
So that's something to try
McDonalds don't currently have a veggie burger
But you can have fries, milkshake and the sides
If you get stuck
Japanese food
If you've traveled all the way around the world, of course you want to try some authentic Japanese food
Unlike in the UK, where Japanese restaurants tend to serve a bit of everything,
In Tokyo I noticed they tend to specialise in just one style of food.
Sushi
Some places have options but don't expect a lot of variation
I had one meal where I just ate kappamaki cucumber rolls
You'll also see tamago (egg)
Daikon (radish)
And natto (fermented soy beans)
Avocado in sushi's less common. That's more of a western thing
There are a couple of places recommended for vegetarians
Like Genki Sushi
Which I went to, and you can see it in my video
It's such a fun place
Ramen
The soup will almost definitely contain meat stock or dashi
So you need to go somewhere that serves vegetarian ramen
Like Chabuton, which I made a video about as well
Katsu
I haven't seen any katsu restaurants with vegetarian options
It's always pork and shrimp
Which is a shame because I'd love to try an authentic Japanese katsu curry
At chains like Coco Curry and Gogo Curry
The sauce contains meat
So you have to go to a vegetarian restaurant
Like T's TanTan in Tokyo Station
I've not been, but it's on my list for next time!
Just after I filmed this
Coco Curry announced they're now serving vegetarian curry
In selected branches
Including several in Tokyo
So I'm really looking forward to trying it
Okonomiyaki
At restaurants where you make your own at the table
You can choose what you want to put in
And you can easily ask for a vegetarian option if it's not on the menu
If you're not sure, always ask before sitting down to avoid embarrassment
Not everwhere will be able to provide a vegetarian option
And sometimes they'll think something's vegetarian, even if it isn't
Convenience Stores
Unlike in the UK, in Japan convenience store food is really good, and cheap
I go there pretty much every day
For breakfast and sometimes for lunch as well
And they're everywhere.
Look for 7 Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson
You can enjoy all the bakery treats
Melon pan, dorayaki, mochi bread
They've got fruit and salad
And packs of edamame
Which is really good if you feel like you're not getting enough fruit and vegetables
Or you're not being that healthy
Onigiri rice balls are the equivalent of sandwiches
And there's a couple of vegetarian options
There's wakame, which is seaweed
Now I did read somewhere that this one contains fish
But if it did, I couldn't tell at all
And I wouldn't have eaten it if it tasted of fish
There's plain onigiri
Which is just rice and salt
Sounds really boring, but it's actually pretty good
And plum
You can sometimes find vegetarian sushi as well
Like inari nigiri or natto rolls
Onigiri are a bit of a challenge
Because all the labels are in Japanese
If you can read hiragana and katakana
You can understand them at a basic level
Enough to pick out the vegetarian ones
Which is what I did
If you don't read Japanese
Do some research
Print out the labels and match them up
How to ask if there's a vegetarian option
I'm vegetarian
I can't eat meat or fish
Is there something
It might not be the most polite or eloquent way of asking
But it's got me by
Of course you might not understand the answer
So another option is to print out some cards
You can find them online
Print them out and point to the phrases
Which is a good option if you don't speak any Japanese
Ask them to take the meat out
Or modify something that's already on the menu
For example, if you see a yakisoba fried noodles dish
You can point to it and say:
Would vegetable fried noodles be ok?
Again, I've heard stories about chefs refusing to do this
Not everywhere will be able to do it
But it's worked for me
Some places that don't have a vegetarian main meal
Will have vegetarian sides
Once I went to an izakaya, that's like a pub
And I had chips, edamame and pickled cucumbers
Curry restaurants will often have rice and salad as sides
It's not a great meal, but it works if you need it
Especially if you're travelling with friends who do eat meat,
It's a way for you to all eat together
Keep an eye out during the day, look at all the menus
And find somewhere you like so you can go back when you're ready to eat
If I don't have a plan
Often I end up walking around for ages
Just tired and hungry
And I just want somewhere to eat
So I'd really recommend, before you go,
Doing a bit of research
And planning out a couple of places as a back-up
So if you're hungry and you just want somewhere to eat
You can go there
Remember that places can be difficult to find
So print out a map
Or pin them on your maps app
So you can find them
All this is based on my experiences in Tokyo
If you're going to a rural area it might be a bit more difficult
So do some research before you go
I know a lot of this probably sounds like a lot of effort
But it totally is possible to survive as a vegetarian in Tokyo
I know vegans that go there as well
So don't let it put you off
If you've got any questions, just put them in the comments
And if you know any good vegetarian restaurants,
Put them in the comments too
So we can all try them
Have a look on my channel for more videos about Japan
And I'll see you next time. Bye bye!