I normally sit at the counter and order, watching the cooks in the tiny kitchen in the remaining 1/4 of the space. This was my second trip here, and our first meal after the monumental, amazing meal we had at the French Laundry. It would also be our first meal after I proposed. The irony - vegan food as a response to being engaged.
Cha-Ya serves Japanese fare in a space that could very well be in Tokyo. If you're wondering how everything could be vegan, well they just focus on good produce and make sure to use fungi effectively.
I ordered the hot bowl of udon noodles with mushrooms, chock full of delicious, earthy fungi ready for consumption after a rich, filling meal at a 3-star Michelin. The broth was flavored well with a superb vegetable stock most strongly flavored of shitake. The noodles were better than your standard issue udon. Christine ordered the vegetable sukiyaki, a boiling bowl of unique vegetables including lotus root. I had this on the previous visit and found it surprisingly good. My cousin Ezra had the vegetable udon noodles, a mix of the two dishes that Christine and I had.
We also had some vegetable sushi, which was deep fried in a thick tempura batter and covered in a sweet teriyaki sauce. This reminded me that vegan food, while capable of decent fare, is never going to get anywhere close to being as delicious as non-vegan food. So I won't go that far.
Cha-Ya
1686 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 981-1213
by the way, I'm experimenting with some smaller photos with this one; you can get a larger version by clicking on them. I know HC is going to like this :)
14 comments:
Mmm! I am impressed by just the tasty appearance!
simple but with amazing ingredients it hits the spot with comfort and goodness- not ironic at all :)
quit the experimenting. those pics are cute but in this case bigger is better :)
Well, this KIND of vegan I would EAT!
Based on your description and photos, it seems like Cha-Ya would play well in L.A. People would probably flock there if it was in Little Tokyo or Gardena. Still, there's no substitute for meat.
LOL didn't expect a shout-out there (sorry christine! I'm sure Matt will make photos "large and in charge" next time)
And mmm... I'm always down for yummy vegan.
WeezerMonkey: yeah it does amazingly look as good as it tastes, unlike most vegan food, which is just goop most of the time it seems (based on personal experience at Pure Luck)
Christine: yeah, i'll switch to bigger next time, but this was just a quick review.
Jo: yes! you should try it if you're in berkeley. it's a hop-skip from Chez Panisse
Josh: Cha-ya would do very well in LA, or something similar to it. Meat is king though, when it comes to flavor.
HC: sigh if you could only find good vegan here...M Cafe is passable, but it's not 100% vegan.
I like the Shojin (also Japanese-vegan), simple, light, comforting . . .
It all looks great, I haven't been to Cha-Ya yet but hope to make it on my next visit to the bay area.
I have to say though, if you seriously think that all vegan food is just a bunch of goop on a plate, you're going to the wrong restaurants. Vegan cuisine has come a very long way since the days of plain boiled tofu and brown rice. You don't have to be a vegetarian or a vegan to appreciate and recognize delicious and beautifully prepared vegan food... and in a city like Los Angeles, there's plenty of it.
Where's Shojin, HC?
Foodeater: I've only had bad vegan food and I mentioned that I've had pretty good food at M Cafe. I haven't been to Vegan Glory, which supposedly has some decent food, but seriously, I don't even agree with the whole premise of veganism to begin so why would I look for good vegan food in LA? The only reason I know about Cha-Ya is that my cousin, who's as much an omnivore and hard-core gourmand as I am, thought it was pretty good.
I think there is some merit to vegetarian restaurants like Ubuntu, but in general I think taking it to another like vegan is out of the question for me. If one really enjoys food, then one would recognize that the best of the world's eats is predicated upon non-vegan items. Foie gras, butter, and kobe beef are on my side on this one.
While I don't think it would ever be possible for me to give up cheese or the occasional big fat steak, those udon noodles do look delicious. I could actually go for a bowl right now -- starting to feel the oncomings of a cold! Eeek!
In Los Angeles, PS and Orange County, I love Native Foods (closest one is in Westwood) for vegan food. I am not vegan and still found that everything tastes great (and I am a big meat eater), so to say that means the protein they use tastes like spicy or savory protein, not some dry or mushy meat substitute. I like them better than M Cafe and Veggie Grill, which are both better known but not as well seasoned.
Well I'm not going to argue with you about the merits of veganism as you clearly aren't interested. My point wasn't to try and convince you to go vegan, but to simply point out that you made a really exaggerated blanket statement about (most) all vegan food being bad when that's clearly not the case.
I don't eat meat or cheese or any of the other things you listed, but I can certainly understand and accept the fact that within any kind of cuisine, there will be good and bad, depending on who cooked it, the quality of the ingredients and how it was made. Certainly you can agree that even a bloody cut of meat right off the cow can become either a well prepared steak or something poorly prepared and not tasty? Not everyone who cooks animals is a great chef and there's plenty of crap food to be found at non-vegetarian restaurants.
The bottom line is there's a lot of amazing vegan food out there being cooked by extremely talented chefs. Saying that all vegan food is just goop is a cop out. It's unfortunate that you didn't like the food at Pure Luck, but you can't judge an entire cuisine or style of eating based on one bad meal.
Also, being a foodie isn't only regulated to people who eat animal products. I truly enjoy food as much as you do, but I don't require Foie gras, butter or kobe beef in order to do so.
Also, Vegan Glory is just one of many Thai-American knocks off that serve mediocre food that is at best, questionably vegan.
If you have any interest in moving past the stereotype that all vegan food is crap, take H. C. up on his suggestion of Shojin. You don't have to be a vegetarian or vegan to recognize when food has been cooked by a true master in the art of deliciousness.
Foodeater - your line of argument would be correct, except for one thing: vegan food is not a 'cuisine.' Yes, there is a wide range of quality in vegan preparations. However, vegan restrictions inevitably make the quality of your food worse.
Butter is better.
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