New Vegan restaurant in Kyoto!

A while ago, me and Pamela (I know it's "Pamela and I" but I feel like a pretentious twat when I use correct grammar so deal with it!) met up with two very lovely Vegan Freaks from New Zealand. I live in Osaka and Pam lives in Shiga so it was easy for both of us to make it to Kyoto and try and hook them up with some tasty vegan fare.

We planned to meet them outside a famous cafe called Sunny Place. I'd been wanting to go there for a long time since I heard that their "chicken" kara-age (deep-fried chicken) and "pork" burgers were delicious. However, when we got there and checked the menu, it seemed like they were actually selling meat not the vegan analogs we expected. In the end, we all decided just to have drinks and then head to a nearby tofu restaurant (which worked out great, check the pictures at the end of the post).

I'd kind of forgotten about all that meat/fake-meat confusion until today. So I set about finding out the truth! Or at least I tried to and then gave up. The websites and pictures that I found, seem to show a very different restaurant than the one we went to. I know that Sunny Place moved so I presume that they are old pictures but, the menu is also different and used to have a clear mark stating "Vegan & Vegetarian" which is doesn't have now.... Oh well.

"Better is a dish of vegetables where
love is, Than a fattened ox and hatred with it"

My research did yield some unexpected happy results though! I discovered that a new vegan restaurant has opened in Kyoto. Yay!! Cafe Proverbs serves, amongst other things, teriyaki tempeh sandwiches, spicy curries, veggie meat miso ankake, nasi goreng, taco rice, various kinds of ramen bowls, gyoza and "meat" satay. They also have some delicious sounding drinks such as the maple green tea latte, soy spice tea, organic tropical cocktail tea and a premium cafe latte made with rice and soy milk. Oh, and of course, they have desserts ;)

Here's the link to the menu for your perusual: Cafe Proverb [15:17]

Food photographs from the first (??) Vegan Freaks meet-up in Japan!

-- Sarah