Veggie Tempo 

Veggie Tempo serves delicious, farm-to-table vegetable dishes for only 1000 yen for lunch. 日本語はこちらから。

Not so known place where music and vegetables come together

Across the street from the busy night life of Akasakamitsuke in a surprisingly-quite area, only a 3 minute walk from Akasaka station, there is Veggie Tempo, a place where music and vegetables come together.

The interior with LPs on the brick walls has a feel of a jazz bar in New York. That’s not too far off because this place turns into a live music club on weekends. So it’s open as a restaurant bar only on weekdays.

A group of people who organize music events and vegetable stands at farmers markets wanted to create a place where they can cook and serve their delicious vegetables and gather around music. That concept came to life as Veggie Tempo, which opened its doors in 2018.

In Japan, there are many restaurants that say that they serve “vegetable dishes,” but the vast majority of them serve vegetable dishes that contain meat and/or fish and only a few use plant-based dashi and condiments. Veggie Tempo doesn’t use the word “vegetarian” or “vegan” anywhere so it’s not very known among vegetarians in Japan, but they serve delicious vegetarian dishes using fresh vegetables straight from the farm.

1000 yen lunch – can’t beat it…

There are only 4 options on Veggie Tempo’s lunch menu and Veggie-Tem plate with various vegetable dishes is the only vegetarian option available.

All-you-can-eat green salad contains various greens such as lettuce, spinach, mizuna and curly kale which can be quite expensive at stores in Japan. It used to be a salad bar style but now with the corona situation, they’ve switched to serving on a plate with free refills (as of March 2020).

With soup curry in the center, a total of 10 dishes (plus mini tomato) which change daily filled my plate. Regular Veggie-Tem plate is vegetarian and contains dishes with eggs and dairy so I ask them to exclude such dishes, and it amazes me every time how they still manage to put so many different kinds of dishes on the plate.

Besides the great variety, the food just tastes really gentle and delicious. There is no fried soy meat like you would find at regular vegetarian restaurants – just simple vegetable dishes. That’s actually how I usually cook at home, so whenever I want to eat something healthy but don’t feel like cooking at home, I go to Veggie Tempo like it’s my second home.

I don’t know how they can serve this lunch for only 1000 yen (tax included!). Being able to source directly from the farmers is definitely their strength.

Rice (white rice) is also all you can eat, so even if you come hungry and really want to get filled, you’ll be taken care of. I do wish they had an option to change to brown rice or rice with millet for an additional cost, but hey I can’t complain at this pricing…!

Lunch comes with a drink (English tea or coffee) but they serve in a disposable cup even for eat-in so you should bring your own tumbler if you can.

For dinner, it’s tapas bar style where you can order bunch of small dishes. There are only few vegan main dish options so it may not be ideal if you want a real dinner but it’s great if you want to drink and have some dishes on the side.

Veggie Tempo
1F Roy Building Akasaka, 6-6-2 Akasaka Minato-ku Tokyo
03-6277-7074
Closed on weekends and holidays

For your information…

I’ve introduced Veggie Tempo in one my videos at TOKYO VEG LIFE before: