I’ve only just cleared my backlog of eateries from my trip to Asia last summer, and now it’s time for another round of Japan posts! We’ve previously visited in July 2019 and July/August 2024. One of our dreams was to get back to Japan in spring – partly to see the cherry blossom, but also partly to see what it’s like to be in this country and not be absolutely dripping in sweat the whole time. It turns out to be a delight on both fronts!

We’re revisiting a lot of our favourite restaurants from last summer, but have found a few new places to try as well. Vegan Sushi Tokyo had just opened last time we visited and was so new that there weren’t many reviews up yet, meaning we prioritised more established spots. But the glowing reviews have been pouring in since then, so it was an easy addition to our itinerary this time around.

Reservations are required for this place, and it is very easy to make a booking online. It’s a small place, with a few tables and a bar, which is where we were seated. You place your order using a QR code on your phone, and pay online while ordering. There is only one food option – a ten piece sushi set served with miso soup and pickled ginger – so the only decisions you need to make are what drinks to get and whether or not you want a dessert. Because it’s a set menu, the food arrives pretty quickly.

Miso soup is rarely impressive to me, and sure enough I found this one nice but not astounding. It did have a strong miso flavour, and I enjoyed the spongy bits of tofu, but it was never going to be the star of the show.

Happily, the sushi was wonderful! The server left us a paper menu so that we could check the description of each piece as we ate, which I certainly appreciated.

The tuna mayo and salmon roe piece was one of our favourites. We worried it would be too mayo- heavy, but it wasn’t at all. It had a good taste of the sea and a really pleasant texture. Mother HH (who joined us on this trip) is not vegan and regularly eats tuna, and even she was wowed by this one.

Alas, the scrambled egg was not a hit with any of us. This one did mostly taste of mayo, and there was no eggy flavour at all, even though that is very easy to achieve with black salt. We were also expecting more texture, but it was very soft and wet. Maybe it depends on how you preferred scrambled eggs? This one appears very popular in the Happy Cow reviews, so perhaps it’s just us who were underwhelmed.

The eggplant was well cooked so it was soft and melting away, and the ginger and soy seasoning was nice.

I thought the avocado would be quite dull, as I am consistently bored by restaurants offering avocado maki as their only vegan option. But this was delightful! The seasoning really elevated it, and I wish all those uninspired restaurants would learn from this.

Conversely, the tempura did not quite live up to our (admittedly very high) expectations. The coating on the shrimp was good and crispy, but the shrimp itself didn’t have the rubbery texture I expect, nor much flavour, which is a shame. Mother HH did enjoy this one quite a bit more than me though.

The tofu and yam had a really nice texture, while the shiitake was full of earthy flavours. It was really simple and effective, cooked to perfection.

I didn’t expect to enjoy the Japanese ginger, but it was sensational – sharp from pickling and extremely tasty. I thought that much ginger would be too much for me, but far from it!

The vegan meat was flavoursome and had a good texture. It was seasoned with something rather mysteriously referred to as “original sauce”. I’d love to know a bit more!

And finally, the king oyster mushroom was another juicy piece of flavoursome mushroom, this time elevated with an incredible yuzu and black pepper sauce. So delicious!

All in all, this was a really incredible set of sushi with some wonderful flavours and textures. Even the couple that didn’t dazzle me we’re still fun to try. You have the option to order refills of specific pieces, but we all resisted in order to leave room for dessert.

The dessert options are donuts, ice cream, or doroyaki pancakes. All three of us went for the latter, for the novelty factor. Also I attempted to make doroyaki pancakes last year with quite mixed results, so I was keen to see how they should turn out! The pancakes were sweet and light. The red bean paste that sandwiched them together was sweet but overall resulted in quite a dry dish. I would recommend paying extra for a scoop of ice cream on top, I imagine that would bring it all together perfectly.

All three of us were totally delighted with this meal. Service was friendly and easy to navigate as an English speaker. The atmosphere and decor were really pleasant too. In a journey full of excellent food, this was one of the real highlights.

And for a non-culinary highlight, here’s some of that cherry blossom that lured us in! We arrived slightly later than desirable, so most of the blossom was already quite pale, but it was still beautiful, especially in Shinjuku Gyoen Garden.