Ramen Sanpachi

Ramen Sanpachi has been on my to-visit list for a while now. Ever since I heard about my friends going there for the veggie ramen I have been waiting to go try it out. Ramen could be considered to be a pretty simple dish in the sense that it's easy to put together, but the prep work is where the skill lies. The most important ingredient is the soup base which takes a long time to cook up and that's usually never vegetarian, so ramen places are known to be not vegetarian friendly. I'm very glad to be a vancouverite that almost all types of restaurants now offer some kind of vegetarian option here.

My sister in law was back in town and we were meeting up for lunch with a pregnant friend who out of the choices of ramen, thai and others, picked ramen :), so sanpachi we went. It was pretty quiet inside when we got there, just us and one other table. 

We all ordered the same thing, which is the only veggie ramen option on the menu and the soup base is made of veggie stock. We also added an egg to the ramen. I enjoyed my ramen, so did the other two ladies. There really aren't that many veggie ramen to compare with, or at least from what I have had, but I would still have to say it was just alright. However I'm really glad they have the option and hope to see more and try in the future.

Kita No Donburi

This is from last summer, or even before that. Forgot exactly how I came across this place online, but I was surprised to see it offers more than one option of veggie donburi. Kita no Donburi is located on Seymour Street, across from Habour Centre. I met up with a friend who works downtown a few blocks away for lunch that day.  

Not that big inside, it was already full when we got there and we didn't really want to wait, so they asked if we would like take the table outside. There are two tables right outside. It was a bit weird eating outside as it was right on the sidewalk and we kept getting stared at by passersby.

Natto Don

Natto Don

Veggie Don

Veggie Roll

I had the natto don and my friend ordered the veggie don and veggie roll. I thought their price is good but the portion is really not that big.  It's okay for girls, but probably not enough for most guys.   I was quite excited to try out their veggie dons, but I would have to say the food was just alright. However, if you've never had veggie dons before, this might be a better place to try it out since most restaurants don't have veggie dons and if they do, chances are they are really just vegetables on rice with soy sauce.

Tokyo Thyme

You know one of those days that you just have that crazy cravings for natto? Or maybe not... Well, for me, it happened a couple months ago and I started searching online for where I can find some natto sushi. I actually had this kind of natto roll in mind, but it's not like I have much choices, so any natto roll would have to do! Luckily I found Tokyo Thyme in Kerrisdale that offers natto rolls :) I went in the afternoon time around 3 or 4? I can't remember anymore exactly, but they have a break in between lunch and dinner. When I went in they told me they were closed, so I actually went back to my car and waited for it to open again :P

I got two kinds of natto rolls, the Natto special and the regular natto roll. Just a note that there's green onions in the natto rolls, I didn't know until I ate them. I also ordered two tamago nigiri, DX Yam Yam roll and 6pc Futomaki. I ordered take out, the staff was very friendly and the food quality was good, I did enjoy it. They have quite a few vegetarian options on the menu too, so I know I would come back again to try out their other vegetarian items :)

Clubhouse Japanese Restaurant

It looks like it might take a long while before I could finish with my Asian trip posts, so I thought I should do some local restaurant posts here and there in between . I heard about Clubhouse Restaurant from my friend who said he's been going there for Veggie Okonomiyaki for many years. I don't think there are many restaurants that offer okonomiyaki let alone veggie ones, so I just had to go try it out!

Inside




Menu










It was a big group dinner, so we also ordered a bunch of other things on top of the okonomiyaki we came for.

Seaweed Salad


Avocado Sushi


Veggie Yakisoba


Veggie and Tofu Donburi


Veggie Okonomiyaki! :)




Side view


The portions are actually smaller than we expected, but the food's good. You have the options of adding more yakisoba, mochi or kimchi into the okonomiyaki. They have a pretty big menu and a good veggie selection too.

I have to confess that we actually went there a long while back, somehow I just lost it in my folders. Now looking at the pictures again I think I will be visiting there again very soon!

Taiwan Trip - Part XIII - Japan Trip Day1 (Part1)

Day one of our short four day trip to Tokyo, Japan. It's my first time visiting Japan :) I was very excited.

Taipei International Airport - ready to fly out!


On the plane (JAL)




Up in the air~


Veggie Meal!! - It's honestly one of the best veggie meals on plane I've had. I finished it so fast and actually felt like having more.


Sweet and sour veggie meat and noodles


View of Tokyo


Landing at airport


Tokyo International Airport




It took a while for us to figure out where to go and where to buy tickets but it wasn't too awful, most of the time we just followed where everyone else was heading and the signs were pretty clear too.

There are tons of different trains which could get confusing but as long as you know where you are and where you're going, you should be able to figure out what tickets to buy from the map.

Train map/machine


Train tickets


Taking the Keikyo line out of the airport that also connects to the Yamanote Line(or the colour green line) which takes us to our hotel and most of the places we want to visit.

Keikyo line


Inside train


This is where we got off to transfer (sign of all lines)


Yamanote Line


We got off at the right station but it took us a while to locate our hotel. We were disoriented, didn't know which street to turn or which direction to go. I asked a couple random store people for help but they either couldn't communicate properly with me in English or were to busy to figure out the map I showed them. Finally a very nice pastry shop lady pointed us in the right direction :)

Hotel New Green - My brother booked this online for me. It's one of those business hotels mostly occupied by male business travelers.


Hotel room




Hotel window view


Hotel bed - when you book online, it usually gives you the dimensions of the bed. This bed just barely fitted the two of us.


My sister-in-law who studied and lived in Japan for many years helped us to write down some useful phrases in Japanese for getting vegetarian food and also some other general stuff like asking for some water or tea at the restaurant. The pictures I uploaded should be big enough for print outs. If anyone needs any more help in Japanese regarding vegetarian stuff traveling in Japan, let me know and I will see if my sister-in-law can help out.

Notes






Add-ons (this is for the Udon restaurant below)


After unloading our stuff at the hotel, we were both pretty hungry. Hanamaru Udon is one of the big chain udon restaurants in Japan that my bro and sister-in-law went to a lot. There was one a couple blocks away from our hotel.

Hanamaru Udon Restaurant


How it works is you go to the counter, order the udon you want and pick the sides you want. There are a bunch of different types of udon you can pick from, but I think most of them are non-vegetarian. There are also a lot of deep fried veggie tempura on the side you can get, and rice balls and egg as well. For the udon, you can pick one portion or more, I think one is a good amount and 2 is A LOT. The food price here is considered pretty cheap too.

Like any other restaurants we went to in Japan, we pretty much just walk up to the counter, and show the people the notes and wait for their responses :P It worked out pretty well.

Inside






Free add-ons


Plain udon with an egg


We got some veggie tempura, and a rice ball (lots of rice balls for vegetarian, and u can get them at any of convenient stores there. I love rice balls! The common vegetarian ones are seaweed, plum, and natto)