SAIDO

SAIDO

~ The world’s best vegan restaurant

 Saido is a vegan restaurant, which opened in Jiyugaoka Tokyo in September 2018. The restaurant was awarded the first place on “Happy cow,” a website introducing vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the world in just a year after opening.  It is now the World’s best vegan restaurant. They also offer Halal menu.

 About 1 billion vegan/vegetarians and 2billion Muslims are living in the world. With more vegan and Muslim people coming to Japan, there is an increasing demand for them because we have few vegans or Muslim eatery in Japan.

 Mr. Kusumoto, Chief Chef at Saido, studied Muslim and Haral food to cater to Muslim people. First, he served Japanese cuisine without pork and alcohol, but it was not well accepted. 

After many trials and errors, he developed a new interpretation of Japanese food that would be enjoyed by Muslims or vegan/vegetarians. For example, he used spicy flavor that would never be used for Japanese cuisine.

 He realized that everyone would love Japanese cuisine, which was designated as Intangible Cultural Asset, but some tricks would be required to be eaten even by Muslims.

 Since then, he tried to “Umami” without using meat or fish and realized that it is possible to make “umami” taste from dried mushroom, tomato, vegetable seeds, vegetable skin, etc.

 Three of us ordered different menus and we were impressed with their presentation and taste of food. When we opened the glass bowl, smoke or mist came out on the table. It was a pleasant surprise!

 

Yuki had “Unaju (grilled eel on rice).” Grilled eel looks like an eel. Atsuko had a ramen noodle and I had “Tricolor rice bowl with mince chicken meat and egg.” Chicken and scrambled eggs on rice are made from beans or something else. The lady in the restaurant said that it is a secret menu.

 They offer a combo platter featuring a main of your choice of either a noodle dish, rice bowl or curry soup. Desserts and liqueur can be added for a full-on experience.

 Saido does not use any animal products such as meat or seafood, chemical additives, refined sugar or the five pungent roots in its recipes.

We all agreed that food was beautifully served and they are healthy and tasty.

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Lunch:JPY2,000

SAIDO

Address:  Meguro-ku, Jiyugaoka, 2-chome. 15–10

Tokyo, Japan

Telephone: +81-357269500