If you prefer organic food, visit Crayon House (クレヨンハウス吉祥寺) on Taishō-dōri Shopping Street (大正通り) in Kichijōji. The natural food spot has a restaurant and an organic grocery and product shop with many vegan options. Lunch and dinner are served in buffet style! The menu changes daily, so you won’t be eating the same thing if you visit the place two days in a row. With a focus on the quality of the ingredients and their natural flavors, you won’t feel like you have eaten a lot of artificial seasonings.
About Organic Restaurant Hiroba (オーガニックレストラン「広場」)
Each dish in the buffet is clearly marked if it is vegan, with detailed information written in Japanese. Most of the time, all dishes are vegan except one, making your life much easier if you don’t consume animal products.
The staff there is very kind and helpful, so if you are unsure about anything, just ask!
If you visit Crayon House in the afternoon, vegan savory light meals are also available. There might be vegan cakes too!
Refer to HERE for Crayon House’s menu!
As you can imagine, a vegan buffet is rare in Japan. And because the food there is tasty, Crayon House is so popular that there might be a queue before it opens on a weekday! But the good thing about having a busy buffet is that the food is constantly refilled – so you are guaranteed to get freshly cooked dishes!
If you visit Crayon House with children, bring them to the second floor after your meal. The area is filled with picture books and toys.
Tips:
☛ The Mabo tofu is recommended.
☛ Making a reservation is recommended for lunchtime on weekends and public holidays.
☛ Check with the staff if the takeaway bento box is still available.
Our Visit to Crayon House’s Organic Restaurant Hiroba
We walked past Crayon House during lunchtime. The restaurant was full with a couple of people queuing up. So, we returned for dinner and was relieved to find that there wasn’t as many customers in the restaurant.
The staff was kind enough to combine another two-seater table with our four-seater table so that we had extra space to place our belongings.
Soon after we were seated, a cup of delicious vegetable soup (they called it phytochemical soup) was served to each of us. The soup was full of the vegetables’ original taste and sweetness.
Because there weren’t many customers, the dishes at the buffet bar were already lukewarm. Nevertheless, they were still tasty. For some reason, I especially liked their miso soup – so much that I had four bowls!
But we were shocked by the amount charged per person on our way out. It was almost 3,000 yen for a simple buffet! No wonder there was such a big difference in the number of customers between lunch and dinnertime!
So, our advice is to visit Crayon House for lunch, as the lunch buffet is around half the price of the dinner buffet!
Crayon House’s Business Hours and Access Information
- Crayon House is open from 11 am to 9 pm.
- Lunch is served from 11 am to 2:30 pm.
- The buffet bar is closed at 2 pm.
- Tea time is from 2:40 pm to 4:45 pm.
- Dinner is from 5:30 pm to 9 pm.
- The buffet bar is closed at 8:30 pm.
- Lunch is served from 11 am to 2:30 pm.
- The restaurant is a 6-minute walk from Kichijoji Station.
Other Vegan-Friendly Restaurants in Kichijōji
Kichijōji in Tokyo has many amazing cafes and restaurants, although many don’t cater to a vegan diet. Fortunately, there are still a couple of places for us vegans and/or vegetarians to visit. Most offer meat and vegan options, perfect for those who travel with non-vegan families and friends!
Refer to our article on Vegan-Friendly Restaurants in Kichijōji for other options!
