Veganic To Go

If you like your vegan food traditional (i.e. not made to be almost indiscernible from actual meat), then Veganic To Go for you.

The name combines the three core elements to their key concepts: vegan, organic, macrobiotic. This is not vegan food for the faint-hearted, but it’s delicious. With pretty much every box ticked—no MSG, GMO, white sugar, artificial chemicals, additives or trans fat—you can be sure it’s good for you as well as tasty. Sixty to 100% of the ingredients are organic, 100% vegan, and all made in house, down to the charcoal hemp burger buns! You can eat in or take out (a lot of thought has been put into the take-away presentation).

The menu

The lunch menu consists of a variety of burgers (black bean, tofu, teriyaki and a tartar non-fish option) and brown rice don bowls (yakitori, fried soy meat, coconut curry and Kurumafu stew), with some sides and specials like vegan pizza and sweets.

We opted for the avocado tofu burger after a lot of prolonged stares at the coconut curry don bowl. Rice bowls are 850 yen with burgers costing 980 yen. You can add a drink for 300 yen or the soup of the day for 400 yen. Oddly there is no option for both which would seem like the logical choice.  We opted for soup and waited, feeling  healthier simply by being there.

You order and pay at the counter for lunch and it arrives at your table when ready. A few sides are available and there are lots of interesting signs, drinks and posters to keep you entertained as you wait.

The food

Our burgers arrived quickly and were mountainous. With black hemp charcoal buns they certainly looked interesting, and were held together with a stick, in what could have otherwise been a landslide disaster of all things green.

The soup was delicious and a good reminder that homemade really is much better than anything else. We tackled the burgers, which were a mess once you tried to bite into them—but after a little deconstruction they were tasty and there was certainly a lot going on. With shredded cabbage and a dressing, tomato, cucumber, avocado and leafy greens, it was like having a salad in a bun—although when you eventually found the tofu it was nicely flavored.

We were full after lunch, but would suggest having soup or a side as the burger comes alone.

Overall, Veganic To Go is perfect if health/environmental concern is your key focus, otherwise it’s tasty, but not earth-shatteringly so.

by Lily Crossley-Baxter