Some basic tips on finding vegetarian/vegan food

​​​​Finding allergy-friendly, vegetarian, vegan, and halal food in Japan can be challenging, but technology makes it easier to locate suitable options. Here are some essential tips and resources that I use!

While dining at local restaurants I use some simple phrases to customise dishes to my dietary preferences:

・while asking for non-meat dishes: お肉入ってないものありますか。(Oniku haitenai mono arimasuka – Anything that doesn’t contain meat?)

・Requesting to remove meat on a dish: 肉抜きでお願いします。(Niku nuki de onegaishimasu – Please remove the meat.)

Thankfully, many restaurants allow customization. For example, I can ask to remove bacon from a pizza or pasta in family restaurants like Gusto, Jolly Pasta, OLIVE HILL. Moreover, large food chains provide detailed allergy information on their websites which is very useful for finding allergy friendly information. For example: MOS BURGER, McDONALD’S have websites that provide detailed information on ingredients and allergens of each dish they serve.

Tips on Hunting Vegetarian/ Vegan restaurants:

Some useful websites or apps that I use to look for vegetarian and vegan options are vegemap and happycow. Alternatively,I also recommend using Google Maps with keywords like “ベジタリアン"(Vegetarian) or “ビーガン"(Vegan). The example photo below shows options near Kashiwanoha-campus station. Beware that some restaurants don’t show up in this filter, in that case it is better to use the app or ask a restaurant to customize your order as mentioned above.