We loved our stay in Kyoto so much. It was a lovely place to visit, and I’m already dreaming of a return trip – we were so tired that we didn’t have time to see all the temples we’d wanted to, so we could comfortably go back and hit all different places. Osaka was kind of the opposite…it turned out that there wasn’t actually that much that we wanted to do there, and we’d planned too many days there. On the plus side, though, the vegan food situation was great!

Paprika was a fun place – all vegan, with a Japanese/western menu, and extremely busy! The only remaining seats when we arrived were out on the veranda, which turned out to be a pleasant place to sit and listen to the rain while eating.

Dr HH took a leaf out of my book and ordered the karaage donburi. Karaage is the juicy, tender deep fried chicken that I was already hooked on. Donburi apparently means that it comes with rice and salad (not pictured, you know what rice looks like). He was very pleased with it.

I was also very pleased with my dishes: deep fried oysters and French fries. Let’s first of all acknowledge that these are in no way French fries. That was a good thing though – in general we found the chips in Japan quite pale, and the wedges much better. These were no exception, and they were really beautifully seasoned with lots of herbs.

The deep fried oysters were in fact mushrooms in crispy batter, and they were insanely good. I’ve never had oysters so I cannot comment on how oyster-like they were, but as deep-fried mushrooms go, they were top notch! A good taste of the sea was created with the dill as well (though a little dill goes a long way, as far as I’m concerned).

With food this good, how could we resist dessert?! Dr HH ordered the baked cheesecake, and found it delightfully creamy but with an almost non-existent base. How devastating! Still, he said it was worth ordering because vegan baked cheesecake is quite the rarity in our experience.

I played it safe (again! Will I never learn?!) with the brownie. It was supremely chocolatey, but really not a brownie. You can see in the picture that it looks dry rather than gooey. At least it tasted great, and overall we had a real feast and a lovely experience.

As a downside, I must point out that they proudly announce on their menu that their food contains “no chemicals”…which is quite the claim. As a scientist, Dr HH is constantly infuriated by nonsense like this. I thought he was going to have a heart attack once when we saw lemon listed as alkaline in some hippy, wellness establishment. He held it together a bit better this time, thankfully.

Does bad science put you off eateries, or can you let it go?