Happy Cow members raved about the burgers at 100% vegan Café Matsuontoko, and they were right! Our Miso Katsu Burger Kyoto Style was substantial, crispy on the outside without excess oil, came with a flavorful miso sauce, and sat on a lovely soft roll.

We also ordered Today's Pasta, which was excellent. It contained lots of veggies and mushrooms in a rich tomato sauce.

Our enjoyment of Café Matsuontoko was enhanced by meeting two other couples who sat at adjoining tables...Sharon and Mike from Manchester, UK, and Ben and Shawna from Melbourne, Australia! It was a pretty amazing coincidence that tourists from three different English-speaking countries all sat next to each other at the same vegan restaurant in Kyoto. They were all super nice, and we really enjoyed chatting with them about sightseeing in Japan, their home countries, and of course vegan food!

I once again had a difficult time choosing only one dessert, but I was happy with my choice. I'm afraid this photo doesn't fully convey how delicious this parfait was. It had cubes of moist rich pound cake, creamy vanilla soy whipped cream, green tea ice cream, three little balls of mochi (sweet rice dumplings), a tiny crispy spring roll filled with anko (sweet red bean purée), all dusted with matcha (bittersweet green tea powder).

Café Matsuontoko is located at 538-6 Shiyo Agaru Shinkyougoku Nakanocho Nakagyoku (Shijo), about 20 steps off the center portion of the large, lively, Shinkyogoku pedestrian shopping arcade in Kyoto. It is 100% vegan, and is currently open daily from 11am to midnight (last order 11pm). It has a warm, cozy, pub-like atmosphere. The staff is very friendly and speaks some English.

For links to more restaurant reviews from our July 2014 trip, please see our post "The Vegan Community in Japan is Alive and Well!".

Thanks for reading. Peace and love to all who live.

Susan