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cha-ya vegetarian: hit or miss
18July 17th, 2009more restaurants (not LA), san franciscoone restaurant that all my vegan friends in the bay area constantly rave about is cha-ya vegetarian. the san francisco casual eatery serves up fresh vegan japanese fare that tastes great and is relatively healthy. i went there when i was up in SF and i felt that the restaurant had great potential…you just gotta know what to order. the menu is absolutely huge, daunting, and in some cases unspecific. unfortunately on my visit, i felt i ordered the wrong stuff, and found myself drooling over the food being brought to the other tables. oh well, i guess this just gives me a chance to return to cha-ya, because it seemed like a really great place.
Haru Maki ( Spring Roll) Asparagus, shitake, carrots, long beans silver noodles, and atsuage tofu rolled in rice sheet. Lightly fried and served with sweet and sour sauce (2 rolls cut into 6 pieces). $6.25
we started out with the haru maki spring rolls which were very tasty, but a lot heavier than i expected. the fried tofu and vegetable concoction ended up being the highlight of our meal.
Natto Fermented soy beans sushi roll. $4
we also ordered the fermented soy bean sushi roll, which was decent, but not very flavorful. i don’t think i would order it again.
Soba Salad Soba noodles topped with various seasonal vegetables, sesame-oil vinaigrette dressing. $7
the meal took a turn when they brought out or soba salad dish. the plate of noodles was covered in a mish mash of fruit and vegetables that didn’t seem to go together at all: strawberries, onions, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, and edamame. seriously who thought of this dish? does that look or sound tasty to you AT ALL?
Cha- Ya Nabe ( Vegan Sukiyaki) Nappa cabbage, spinach, red onion, carrots, mushrooms, kabocha, broccoli, cauliflower, lotus root, zucchini, snap peas, snow peas, silver noodles, and tofu in sukiyaki broth. Served in an iron pot. $8.75
for our entree we ordered the cha-ya nabe, which turned out to be a vegetable soup in a hot pot with tofu and noodles. there was very little tofu in it, and i when ordering, i was expecting it to be more of a noodle dish than a soup. it was good, i just wasn’t prepared for it. we also got the vege-tofu curry soup (pictured below) so we wound up having two soup entrees for dinner on accident. they both kinda tasted the same, and i have to say we were pretty underwhelmed by these dishes.
Vege-Tofu Curry Curry soup topped with tofu, pearl onions, kabocha, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms, and sugar snap peas. $8.75
as we were leaving chay-a, completely full of soup, i couldn’t help but notice all the beautiful dishes on other tables that i wish i’d have ordered. colorful sushi rolls, mounds of vegetables, and plates piled high with thick noodles. how did i end up with all the liquid and a strawberry bell pepper salad?! i have friends who went there recently cha-ya recently and had a very similar experience. they ordered tons of things off the menu, and when the food arrived, everything turned out to be fried! just be sure you know what you are ordering when you dine at cha-ya.
ah well, i guess i will just have to go back to san francisco and eat here again to set things right.
cha-ya vegetarian
Tags: curry, japanese, san francisco, udon
762 Valencia St
(between 18th St & 19th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
17 responses to “cha-ya vegetarian: hit or miss” 
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the salad does seem very odd. soba is usually just served cold with a cold broth, not topped with salad fixings and a sesame oil dressing?
mm nabe looks good, thought, but probably not something to order in the summer. nabe is such a winter food.
you will have to try it again, cuz even though what you picked doesn’t look like it was right for you, it all looks super fresh and well prepared. -
It is trickly!!
but they do offer a lot of good stuff. Tempura is always great (whether the regular one or the mushroom special); and I always like the miso soup too! -
none of that stuff looks that appetizing to me. i’d probably pass on this place and eat some maggie mudd.
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whatmoonsongs July 17th, 2009 at 09:57
i agree with Nora… the first thing i thought when i saw that soba salad was, “PRETTY!” 😀
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The sushi and spring rolls look pretty good but that salad does look a bit strange!
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I think their vegetable tempura and miso soup are unparalleled. They are delicious. And my partner loved the potstickers. It sounds like you sadly made some unfortunate choices for you.
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melissa July 18th, 2009 at 12:28
when you go back:
chaya roll
sansai soup with udon noodles
gyoza
fried banana dessert
SO FREAKING GOOD!!! -
While the strawberry with veggies sounds odd, as someone who has eaten strawberries on an otherwise veggie pizza, all I can say is, it’s not as weird as you’d think.
In fact, think pineapple on pizza. Not so far off from that and quite tasty.
I don’t know how the berries were with the salad you ordered but fruit in savory salads (like peaches and apples) is tasty!
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I’ve only been to the east bay one, but I’ve found almost everything I’ve ordered there to be delicious. Melissa’s suggestions are good.
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Katherine Falk September 26th, 2009 at 22:15
I’ve had good luck at Cha-ya with:
Tempura
Chawan Mushi (so good!)
Stuffed eggplant (I think that’s what it was)I also remember getting eggplant nigiri once at the Berkeley location and being amazed by the texture. It was really good.
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Mature Vegan March 27th, 2010 at 13:29
If the delicious strawberries freak you out so much, simply remove them.
Why throw a tantrum about it like a little girl?
Everything else was standard salad stuff, you exaggerate the (UNFORGIVABLE) presence of one tangy fruit beyond all reason.
Cha-ya is too good for whiny little dogs like you.
I like how at least two commenters have told you that “Yes! That soba salad looks amazing. Sorry you can’t appreciate it because they put ONE LITTLE SLICED BERRY ON TOP AND THAT SENDS YOU OUT OF YOUR DELICATE COMFORT ZONE, INTO A SOBBING MELTDOWN.”
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I used to live in Berkeley and went to the one there. I was addicted to the Cha-ya roll and the avocado tempura roll. They are both AWESOME.
HOWEVER…I stopped getting anything fried there after a visit where I was the last lunch customer out. Like most Japanese restaurants, they close between lunch and dinner. As the kitchen staff were sitting down to their own piping hot lunch, I realized that what they were eating was fried (tempura) soft-shell crabs. I was sitting at a table across from the bar (and incidentally the kitchen), so I didn’t watch them drop crab into the fryer or anything, but I can only assume that they fried those poor little creatures in the same fryers they use to make the everything else. The whole restaurant is about the size of my living room.
Now, I moved to LA in 2006 and haven’t eaten there since, and that was also the Berkeley location, not the SF location, but it’s just something to be aware of.
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Cha-Ya Vegetarian Vegan Japanese Restaurant in San Francisco | quarrygirl.com January 3rd, 2011 at 07:13
[…] and I mean “SHIT”, rather than “THE SHIT”, which has a positive connotation.My recollection from the first time I visited Cha-Ya Vegetarian, was of bland food in small portions, rude service, high prices and […]
Emily July 17th, 2009 at 07:06