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• Good restaurant, bad neighbourhood

When in Roppongi, the Happy Cow always recommends the Pink Cow as the place to go. But when I went there, it looked rather uninviting. It's located below street level in a dark shady ally. It's surrounded by drinking establishments which aren't exactly my thing. In fact, the whole neighbourhood looks dodgy. The fact that the Pink Cow also serves meat doesn't help either. So I never decided to actually eat at the Pink Cow. This changed when I was invited by a vegan society in Tokyo which has its monthly dinner at the Pink Cow. And again things looked rather unattractive. At the door a perfectly rude American man collecting entrances fees made it very clear that he felt vastly superior to the Japanese. He didn't want to stick to the Japanese customs, rules or regulations and did everything the American way. Still, I paid him to be allowed in to the vegan meeting. The theme this month was "Cinco de Mayo", so vegan Mexican food was being served. And after one bite my opinion about the Pink Cow changed. The food was wonderful and the chef really knows how to make vegan food taste right! The buffet offered a huge variety of flavours and just about every traditional Mexican dish was available in vegan style. Never did the chef use too much oil or fat to create the taste, so it was healthy as well. Even the dessert was great! On the way back home, late in the evening the "watering holes" nearby seemed to attract an even worse crowd than before (there was even a fight on the street). It's a shame that such a great restaurant is surrounded by such bad people both inside and out, otherwise I would certainly be a regular at the Pink Cow.