Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe the holidays have come and gone, it all went by in such a blur. Time seems to speed up as I get older, when I was little, Christmas morning took forever to arrive. Now, I blink and it’s all over.
While on holiday, I had lunch at Ramen Yamadaya in San Francisco’s Japantown. After spending the morning at the Fairmont Hotel gawking at the life-sized gingerbread house*, I was more than ready for a piping hot bowl of vegan ramen.
That’s right, vegan ramen. Rarely if ever seen in Japanese restaurants, but there it was, right there in black and white on the menu amongst the meaty versions of ramen. It comes in your choice of spinach or tomato noodles.
I got the spinach noodles. It came in a flavorful, silky, milky broth, topped with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, corn and green onions. It’s just the right portion size, I finished all of it and even drank the broth. A perfect lunch for a cold winter’s day in the city.
* The life-sized gingerbread house is large enough for people to walk-thru it. It’s a bit of a Willy Wonka experience. I was surprised (and kinda grossed out) to see missing pieces of the gingerbread house, I can’t believe people would actually pick off some of the candy pieces. What did they do with it? Did they eat it? Why?
There was a life-sized gingerbread dog house too, that was really cute with the gingerbread in the shape of dog bones.
I wish I could have a bowl of that sent over to me in foggy cold England right now! I’m adding this place to the list of places to try.
YUM this sounds like a perfect winter lunch. Its always a gem finding hidden vegan items. I was in Texas a few weeks ago and I got a vegan breakfast platter of tofu and veggie scramble, vegan sausage and vegan pancakes. It was so exciting!
That ramen looks so good! Ramen is one dish I could never turn down. It’s great that they have some vegan options. I would have liked to see that life-size gingerbread house. Sounds magical!
That’s good to know! There’s a Ramen Yamadaya in Southern California and I live close by!
Thanks!
No way, I had no idea they offered a vegan option! This one is going to the top of my list, which I intend to tackle straight away upon my arrive. The location is super convenient to my classes, too… This could be some very dangerous information, indeed.
Can’t wait to be back in town in just a few weeks!
You’re sadly too right about there being enough vegan ramen out there. There can never be enough!
I went to the website you linked to for Yamadaya and did not see anything clearly vegan on the menu there, nor did I read anything about vegan options. Can you help me out here? Do you think this was something that was only on the menu in the store? I would dearly love to have vegan ramen! Thanks.
Jeannie – It’s definitely on the menu at the restaurant. I don’t know why it’s not listed on their website, perhaps it hasn’t been updated in awhile? If you look at their yelp page, you can see other people have ordered the vegan ramen as well. Hope that helps. :-)
Thank you for the reassurance!!
I’m back on the blog, I can’t believe December went by already!Thank you so much for leaving me comments while I’m away.
What an utterly delicious bowl of vegan ramen – the spinach noodles sound wonderfully yummy to try! I love how milky it looks!
That’s gross that there were missing pieces of the gingerbread house :( but the life-sized gingerbread dog is adorable!!!!
Cheers to a new year full of love, peace, laughs, joy and beautiful food! Happy New Year, my friend. Have a fantastic weekend! ?