• 4
• Seriously healthy food

This is my first time going to a macrobiotic restaurant. Lunch was a buffet in which you pay $10 a pound (your plates are weighed each time you fill up). Let's begin now, after I've eaten my fill of brown rice, broccoli and kale, BBQ tofu, romaine and shredded daikon salad--I feel terrific and full and energized. That experience alone makes Masao's kitchen more than a restaurant - this is a place that saves lives and builds community - indeed, nearly everyone who came in was a regular who knew the owner by name. It's no small feat to see this kind of nutritional solidarity even in the midst of this remarkable plant based food revolution. The food itself is very simple and not especially flavorful. While there are some exceptions in macrobiotic cuisine--see Marlene Watson Tara's excellent and flavor forward Macrobiotic for All Seasons--the food at Masao's kitchen is old school macrobiotic. As a vegan and a visitor to Waltham, I can honestly say I'd love to have a restaurant like this in my neighborhood. I don't ever plan to follow a strict macrobiotic diet but there's something healing and communal happening here. Seriously healthy food and happy people.