Cha-Ya Vegetarian: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Cha-Ya Vegetarian on Valencia Street serves a fully vegan Japanese menu. You can order anything on the board without asking a question, which is rare for Japanese food. The kitchen follows Shojin Ryori, the plant-based cooking of Japanese Zen temples. The family that runs the restaurant says it still cooks the recipes the founding chef left.

Start with the sushi. The Cha-Ya Roll is the house signature: avocado, yam, asparagus, and carrot, deep fried and finished with a soy-ginger glaze for $20.25. The Starlight Roll swaps in seasoned brown rice, eryngii mushrooms, spinach, asparagus, and avocado for $22. The Summer Green Roll piles sea vegetable salad over avocado and cucumber. Smaller rolls run $7 to $12, so a few of them make a cheap lunch.

The noodle soups carry the menu in cold weather. The Kinoko Noodle Soup packs shiitake, eryngii, oyster, and enoki mushrooms into a light broth, and you pick udon, soba, or harusame for $21 to $23. The Vege-Tofu Curry Soup Noodle runs a thicker, hearty broth with kabocha, celery, and cauliflower. For something to share, the Cha-Ya Nabe is a vegan sukiyaki stew with kabocha, lotus root, napa cabbage, and tofu in a soy-based broth for $27. The family names stuffed eggplant tempura as a specialty, and the Vegetable Tempura platter, from $15 to $23, covers pumpkin, eggplant, yam, green beans, and asparagus with ginger-soy dashi.

Lighter plates fill out a meal. The Soba Salad ($17.50) tosses cold buckwheat noodles with atsuage tofu, hijiki, and bell pepper in a sesame-soy dressing. Gyoza pot stickers cost $14, and agedashi tofu costs $13.50. Mains cluster between about $17 and $27, so plan on $$ pricing before drinks. A sake shop operates on site.

The kitchen situation is easy to state. Every dish is vegan, so you don’t have to ask about shared fryers or grills. The restaurant does add a caution on its own site: it works to keep every ingredient vegan but can’t rule out contamination from its food vendors. That’s the only asterisk, and most vegan restaurants don’t print one.

Gluten is the bigger catch. Soy sauce anchors most recipes here, and the owners say they won’t replace it with tamari, which isn’t always gluten free anyway. A few dishes skip it, including the Goma Ae with broccolini and spinach, the Miso Vegan Harusame Stew, and the plain miso soup. Gluten-free tamari is available if you ask your server.

Plan your visit around the hours. Dinner runs nightly from 5:00 to 8:45 p.m., with weekend lunch from 12:00 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The restaurant closes on Tuesday. Dine-in seating stops at 8:45, and the staff ask you to arrive by 8:30 to get on the waitlist. Indoor and outdoor seating are open, but there are no heaters, so wear a jacket. Peak hours carry a $15 per person minimum, and parties of six or more get a 20 percent gratuity added. The restaurant encourages sharing dishes family style, and one check goes to each table.

Takeout and delivery run through Square, Uber Eats, and DoorDash. You can also call (415) 252-7825.

One note on names. A separate restaurant called Cha Ya operates in Berkeley and runs independently of this one. Check the address before you go, because 762 Valencia is the one you want.

If you’re staying in the Mission and want a vegan dinner that feels like a proper sit-down meal, order the Cha-Ya Roll, a bowl of mushroom noodle soup, and the gyoza, and split all three.