Dechibica is probably my favourite and first place I will usually take any vegans visiting us. Not only is the food delicious, but it's presented so beautifully, it's hard not to be impressed.

They offer a variety of vegan meals (as well as a couple of non-vegan options) and everything we've ever tried there has been great! Another bonus if you're with kids, is the fact that they have a bunch of kids toys there to entertain them if you forgot to bring anything from home.

Update - I've heard GubGubs is now closed but the owner can still be found selling burgers at the Koza Vegan Night market and the vegan food fest.

GubGub's is the ultimate vegan junk/comfort food experience. We have been here with vegan friends numerous times and they are always blown away by the food! Their Cheeseburger and BBQ burgers are my ultimate favourites. They also offer an option to pay a little more and support animal welfare, and you can bring your dogs and sit outside if the weather is nice.

Ukishima Garden is a lovely vegan restaurant in Naha, perfect for a fancy date night with organic wines. We have been here every time we have been to Naha and it's always lovely. Their tofu caprese salad tastes just like real mozzarella, and the creamy pasta was also amazing. Their lunch menu is more casual with burgers, soups and curry.

Bollywood Dreams is the most delicious Indian resaturant we have found in Okinawa (and we've tried lots!). They also have a select number of vegan curries, which are amazing! The dinner menu is more extensive and lunch is mostly just set meals. This place gets BUSY, so it's worth coming early for lunch or dinner.

Ok, so Sakae Ryoriten is the place we keep going back to, and pretty much take all guests to. It's "okinawan style" food, so a great way to get a taste of the local cuisine, but they will also adjust the menu for any allergies or dietary requirements where they can, which means making food vegan and vegetarian friendly. It's also very kid friendly.

The go-to dishes they will adjust for vegetarians is the Umibudo (sea grape) and tomato salad, the jimami dofu (peanut tofu), the seasonal stir fry vegetables and the eggplant and red pepper with miso stir fry. They might likely adjust other dishes, but these are our go to every time we're there.

Sakae is located in Ishikawa and they have ample parking space in a lot across the road. The entrance is quite unassuming (pictured above).

What would a post about vegan food be without mentioning the vegan menu at Coco Ichibanya? Coco's, over the past year or so have been rolling out a vegetarian menu at select stores. It says vegetarian but is actually vegan. In Okinawa only 2 stores that I know of have the vegetarian menu, Ishikawa and Haebaru. Please feel free to comment if there are any more additions to this. Cocos, although i'm sure is full of MSG, is super delicious!

We got there at 12 and it was already pretty busy and we managed to nab the last free table. I was super excited to see the menu option, over half being vegan and it all sounded delicious! We decided to share the Vegan Chorizo tacos and the two bean tacos. The vegan chorizo is basically made with tofu and chorizo spices, and was super tasty. They also had a kind of vegan parmesan on top, and I have no idea what that was made from, but it was another nice touch. The two bean burritos were also tasty, but my favourite were definitely the "chorizo" ones.

The tacos were huge, and they also have a "salsa" bar, with different sauces, salsas and an onion and coriander mix. Definitely a nice touch!

Esparza's also serves a range of drinks, including Coronas, sangria and tequila drinks. The other good thing (and a rarity in Okinawa) is that it opens from 7am for breakfast (servicing breakfast burritos and pancakes).

Esparza's is located on route 58 in Chatan, and you can find the map here. It's great to have another vegan and vegetarian friendly option in Okinawa!

Exterior

Vegan "chorizo" tacos

vegan two bean tacos

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This past weekend, I was in Tokyo with some vegan friends, and I wanted to give them the best Tokyo experience possible. I had heard about the Ain Soph restaurants and wanted to get to at least one of them. I decided on Ripple, because who doesn't love a good dirty burger, and these looked the business!

The menu <3

We arrived there at around 12:15, and were lucky to grab a table (we were a group of 6), even though it's a pretty small place. The menu isn't huge, which I liked, so we decided on the cheese burger and the crispy "chicken" burger. Everything on the menu is vegan, even though it sounds like it isn't.

The burgers were tasty and I really loved the fries. The vegan cheese they used was really good. it was really melty like real cheese. If you're a vegan and looking for some junk food, I think it's worth the effort to get here, although I wasn't completely blown away by the burgers, which is probably just because we had eaten at Gub Gubs here in Okinawa a few days before, which makes probably the best burgers i've ever had (and that's including meat burgers too!).

Cheese burger and cheese fries

I'm going to make the call and say that Yomitan Monogatari is now my favourite out of the two and it if definitely a great place to take guests if you want to impress them with some quality Okinawan food in a really lovely setting. The only thing that doesn't really work to it's advantage is that it's not very child friendly, whereas Sakae Ryoriten you can definitely do with kids.

The drinks here are wonderful! We started with some of their awamori cocktails. We all chose a different one and all were delicious! All the drinks came in really lovely hand-blown glassware or pottery, which we couldn't stop raving about. 

Food-wise, we loved everything. The menu seemed to have quite a few vegetarian-friendly options, and it was all delicious. Again, all the food was served on Okinawan pottery, which was a lovely touch.

The only issue we had that night was when we got the restaurant to call for a daiko to take us home. First, I should explain the awesomeness of a daiko service. A daiko is like a taxi service, but you use it when you have driven to your destination and want to get yourself and your car home. A taxi with two drivers comes and meets you, and one of the drivers drives your car and you home, while the taxi follows to pick up the driver. It is also cheaper than a taxi! I love this service!

Anyway, back to our almost dilemma. The restaurant called for a Daiko and came back to tell us that there were none available, nor taxis because of some event happening in Kadena. I was furiously searching for bus time tables, or the walking distance (a few hours), when eventually the waiter came back to tell us that there was one coming for us! Phew! One of the downfalls of Okinawa, is the fact that everything is far away and there is no reliable public transport....

I will definitely be going back to Yomitan Monogatari when we have another child-free night. It was fantastic. You can find a map and phone number here. It's not the easiest place to find as it's in a nondescript residential street in Yomitan, but it's worth the search.

child-free dinner!

Umi budo or sea grapes.

Green papaya and tofu salad with a tofu "cheese" sauce

Somen with creamy perilla sauce and more umi budo

Some sort of tasty spring roll

Karaage - fried chicken

More tofu

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Last week we managed to make it to the beach after work twice, which was awesome. We have all our beach stuff ready to go in the car and head straight to the beach after work, stopping off at a convenience store on the way to get some food for dinner. Dinner on the beach and a swim in the ocean really improves a work week.

After work swims at Nabee Beach

Lots of swimming practice lately trying to teach this guy how to swim

Derpy pets

Little G is in love with his instruments at the moment

Another awesome thing about June is that we've finally found ourselves a great babysitter, who we've now used twice and both times has gone really well. It meant that we got our first real date night in ages a couple of weeks ago, and then we got to have a night out last weekend with our visitors as well. I really think this is going to be awesome if the arrangement continues. We have a very well behaved child who we are lucky enough to get to take out to restaurants often, but there is just something so luxurious to be able to go out to dinner, and not worry about how much food is being spilled all over the place by a child!

Maruki Pizza is my new favourite restaurant

Early in the month I went to Tokyo for work, just for 24 hours, but it was so nice to be able to use the chance to catch up with by Japanese besties who I met when I was working for NOVA almost 10 years ago. I also had an amazing traditional lunch at a fancy hotel restaurant which was incredibly delicious (see photo below).

Amazing lunch in Tokyo a few weeks ago

I'm obsessed with peonies at the moment

Tide pools at Maeda Beach

Lastly, we've had visitors from Melbourne this past weekend, and although the weather hasn't been great, we managed to make the most of the brief sunlight yesterday (Sunday) morning and do some snorkelling at Maeda Beach before 100 yen sushi lunch! Basically the best of Okinawa.

Next week we're off to Korea for 5 days for my birthday and to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We'll be spending a couple of days in Seoul before heading down to Busan and Gimhae (where my borther lives) to hang out! I can't wait! If you've got any tips for child friendly Korea, please let me know in the comments!

Maeda Beach

Someone has learnt to write his name! I love that he uses a squiggly G

Visitors from home and delicious food at Monogatari

Nabee Beach swims - how beautiful is the place??

Hydrangeas