Generally I prefer to go to all-vegan restaurants when I’m travelling, both to support those businesses that usually desperately need it and to ensure there are no non-vegan mishaps. Zen is not all vegan, but we were looking for a meal close to Shinjuku station after a long day trip, so we gave this a try. And it’s an okonomiyaki restaurant, which is another of those dishes we simply can’t get in Prague, so how could we resist?! Shinjuku is an extremely busy area, but luckily we got in without a wait at around 6.45pm on a Friday – it was busy, but no waiting.

There was seating at the bar, at western-style tables, and at low tables as well, with a drop down area for your feet under the table. We had to take our shoes off before scrambling in. Mother HH was not very impressed by this and subsequent restaurants with this low seating, but we all managed to tuck ourselves in properly.

The menu has a specific vegan page, though rather unhelpfully, not all of the dishes on it are vegan, some are vegetarian. Based on Happy Cow reviews, my understanding was that the cheese is dairy and so the truly vegan dishes are those that do not list cheese as an ingredient. I find this inaccuracy around the word vegan extremely unhelpful – and this is another reason I prefer all-vegan spots! Still, I think the staff did have a good understanding, and there is a picture page on the menu where they check which things you do and don’t eat, so it seemed there was little room for error.

After ordering, we were brought a little dish of tofu which was really nice, very well seasoned. Mother HH doesn”t much like tofu, so I got to have extra! The cost of this dish is incorporated into the table charge at the end of the meal, so there’s no getting away from it – you might as well eat it!

There are a few different kinds of okonomiyaki on the menu, but we all got the basic vegan okonomiyaki. It was quite thick, a really generous portion. Mother HH thought there was too much sauce on top – I don’t like saucy food much and I thought it was fine though. For me there was a bit too much ginger in it, but the others really loved that about it. Overall it was neither the best nor the worst okonomiyaki I’ve tried, it was good but not mind-blowing.

Importantly, it was conveniently located not far from the station, so if you’re looking for a convenient spot to try a veganised version of a classic Japanese dish, it’s definitely worth a try!