Cha-Ya Vegetarian Japanese Food, San Francisco

On Friday night, I went to CHA-YA Vegetarian Japanese Cuisine in the Mission. I'm definitely an omnivore, but my UCLA library school friend Shannon is vegetarian and I'm trying to not eat dairy...so this place was perfect! We were joined by librarians/archivists Jen and Arvid.

I was in town to go to the BlogHerFood conference at the St. Regis...more on that in my next post!

Oh my gosh! Cha-Ya was delicious! I could be vegan if I could eat this all day long. So, even if you love a steak, try Cha-Ya for a yummy change. Everything was so beautifully prepared and the flavors were lovely.

I grabbed a to-go menu and copied down the descriptions and prices. Which, of course, are subject to change. Here is what we ate:

Pictured above, Jenn had:
Sansai (wild vegetables) Soba: Edible bracken, bamboo shoots, carrots, and enoki and wood ear mushrooms. (veggies not pictured, my photo didn't turn out!) $9.75

Kansai Set Noodle Dinner: For an extra $4.50, Jen got two pieces of inari sushi and a small Sunomono salad with her noodle dish.

Sunomono (cucumber vinaigrette salad): Sliced cucumber and radishes with golden raisins, wakame, silver noodles, and toasted organic soybeans. Non-oil rice vinaigrette.

Mary had: Umekyu Hosomaki roll (umeboshi pickled plum with cucumber). Nice and tart. $4.40

Mary had: Senroppon Salad (shredded salad): Shredded daikon, turnip, cucumber, and carrots with atsuage tofu, radishes, soybeans, kaiware, and toasted pine nuts. Soy-vinaigrette dressing. $7.00

Arvid had: Shira Ae (Vegetables with tofu dressing): Blanched spinach with seasoned lotus root, carrots, shiitake, green beans, tofu pouch, and yam cake, served with tahini-tofu dressing. $7.25

Arvid had: Haru Maki (Spring rolls): Asparagus, shiitake, carrots, long beans, silver noodles, and atsuage tofu wrapped in wheat sheets. Lightly fried and served with sweet and sour sauce. $7.25

Shannon had: Sea vegetable salad: A variety of marine vegetables including seasoned hijiki served with a creamy sesame dressing. $7.75

Shannon had: Gyoza (pot stickers): Vegan pot stickers, pan-friend and served with Gyoza sauce. $7.00

It was all super yummy. Cha-Ya has several desserts...but we opted to walk up to Bi-Rite Creamery and get some ice cream. I got the chocolate coconut (non-dairy, made with coconut milk) and raspberry sorbet. No photos...we just gobbled it up! :)

P.S. Note to Arvid and Jen: Great to meet you! And Arvid, please send me that cheesecake recipe! :)

Do they not have a website? Can't find it...
Here are some Yelp entries: Cha-Ya Mission | Cha-Ya Inner Sunset | Cha-Ya Berkeley

CHA-YA
Vegetarian Japanese Cuisine
762 Valencia Street (in the Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-252-7825
Note: Cash Only