Saido warrants its own post because we had a lot of different dishes there. It’s ranked as one of the best vegan restaurants in the world, and so we were really keen to visit. Reservations are required (and can be made one month in advance), and when you reserve you have to choose what meal or set you want. We went for the sushi course, which offers lots of the most popular dishes on the menu. It’s expensive, but we decided to treat ourselves. Here’s what we got.

After some edamame to get things started, we were served the sushi platter, which I think was a new addition to the menu. Some of the pieces were excellent, particularly the vegan eel (bottom right), plus the mushroom and corn (bottom left), the latter of which had a really pleasant charring. The pepper ones were a bit too sharp for us, but generally this was a big hit. Also, you may be thinking right now that ten pieces of sushi is a lot for one person. You are correct! This was a massive meal and could probably have done with some of the servings being a little smaller.

This corn soup was surprisingly tasty (I’m not a huge fan of corn soup), it had quite a rich flavour and the colourful bits you can see there were something like puffed rice and added a good texture.

The tempura was really great. The batter was light and crisp and there was a fun assortment of vegetables. We had a lot of deep fried enoki mushrooms on this trip, and they are always an absolute delight.

The yakitori was possibly the highlight for both of us. It was really delicious, and neither of us had ever had a vegan version of this dish, so it had the novelty factor. Even better, after we had finished eating our skewers, the server whipped off the grill and revealed…

…edible charcoal! These were tasty chips with some kind of charcoal coating. They were really fun and unexpected. I enjoyed hearing each table react as they found out what was going on.

Next came the okonomiyaki. This is certainly the most elegant version of the dish I’ve ever had! It was tasty, and I’m glad we didn’t get a whole one to ourselves, based on how the rest of the portions were shaping up.

I’ve seen the ramen at Saido ranked as one of the top ramens in Tokyo. Alas, I would disagree with that. The broth predominantly tasted peppery to me and didn’t have the depth of flavour that we encountered at Vegan Bistro Jangara or T’s (see more Tokyo ramen options here). The fake egg was good. Overall, there were lots of vegetables and generally I prefer more meaty or tofu elements. The main issue I had with the ramen was its size. We got the regular portion of ramen, on top of all the other food we’d eaten. I don’t know who this menu was designed for, but it’s not me – by this point I was really struggling and I didn’t make much of a dent in this dish. Perhaps if I were visiting the restaurant just for the ramen, I’d have found it more enjoyable.

I still managed to enjoy my desert – though not all of it! This plant pot is filled with raspberry mousse which is topped with a nut crumb. There’s a pretzel stick with a little bit of matcha sponge on top to look like a tree. It’s visually impressive (I also love the shovel for a spoon), and it was quite a suitably light dessert after such a massive meal. We didn’t get loads of desserts in Japan, so this was a bit of a rarity. We also got some tea with the mousse, but it was a bit nondescript to my very poor palate.

As a culinary tour of Japan, this was excellent. We got to try a lot of the highlights, which is exactly what we wanted. Everything was delicious and the restaurant was really nice. However, it is simply too much food for a normal human who has not fasted all day. I would not necessarily recommend getting this set menu, but I certainly recommend visiting Saido for some amount of food!

Activities in Tokyo

On the same day we went to Saido, we spent some time looking at public toilets in Tokyo! We really loved the film Perfect Days, which features some very impressive toilets around the city. There are websites and maps showing where to find all of the ones that feature in the film. We didn’t have the time or energy for that (the temperature was mid-thirties and the humidity was around 100), but we did make an effort to find three of them that were not too inconveniently located. Unexpectedly, we also found the spot where the main character has his lunch break every day. Top sightseeing!