Cha Ya

This place was great all around. The food was delicious; it was light and healthy so we ordered many things to share because it wasn't too filling. The ingredients are all very fresh. We ordered sushi, udon noodles with seasoned tofu skin, grilled veggies with miso bbq, sea vegetable salad, and finished with chocolate mousse cake and soy vanilla ice cream. The service was great too; the japanese ladies who run the restaurant were all very sweet and accommodating. Service was extremely fast; some food came out within minutes of ordering. Highly recommend.

We went there for lunch on a trip to San Francisco (to see The Mission & Castro districts).
Everything was so delicious so we came back the same day for dinner :)
First I want to say the place is very clean and neat, something you rarely see: on the way to the bathroom you can see the whole kitchen and storage area.
The service was perfect: the ladies were so friendly and helpful, they didn't rush us and made us feel welcomed. Also the service was fast and our food came out quickly.
The food was delicious and fresh!
I particularly loved the sushi and the sushi combo lunch which has a good price (2 dishes of choice and miso soup for 12$ without tax).
For lunch we both got the sushi plate which includes miso soup, Ten Bou (vegetable and tofu tempura) and Gyoza.
For dinner we got the Vegan Sushi, Sansai Noodle Soup.
I will definitely go back, Cha Ya is just perfect.

SO FRESH! my favorite spots in SF for sushi! I love the noodles, super comforting for a windy day in SF and the sushi is so fresh. They are always so lovely and nice. Great place. Cash only!

This place is a must go. Run by the most adorable ladies on the planet, offering beautifully made Japanese food. Fun Vegan sushi, miso soup, noodles, and Japanese curries. They are always open to customizing your order, and really make you feel welcome and at home.

I love this place - delicious, healthy, flavoursome vegan Japanese food.
Huge menu. Lots of 'authentic' items. Very popular place so reserve ahead if a popular time. Great for a quieter lunch too. This is perhaps the best vegan Japanese restaurant in the world!

The staff are incredibly nice and the food is perfect.

Coming in from a cold SF evening for some miso soup, tenbou or gyoza and cha-ya rolls is heaven. Tofu curry noodle soup is also a favorite.

I visited this place only once, but it was by far the best noodle soup I've eaten. Japanese cuisine is generally subtle, so I don't really agree with the lack of flavor issues from that one experience.

I wanted to try this place because I'm visiting San Francisco and I have to admit, I was skeptical based on the previous reviews. Gave it a shot anyway, and sadly I was not impressed. I got the vegan roll and a noodle hot pot, and both were very bland with hardly any flavor at all. It all looked delicious but it was not very satisfying.

I didn't finish any of it despite my hunger. The sauce served with the hot pot was not appetising at all either... This place could be so much better!!

I went here with my boyfriend for my birthday dinner. I've been vegan for 3 and a half years and have tried a lot of vegan dishes at vegan and non-vegan restaurants. Our meal would have been disappointing even from a non-vegan restaraunt.

Nothing had any flavor! We ordered a vegatable udon soup, vegetable curry the cha-ya rolls, some other vegetable rolls and the agedashi tofu. Ok so the agedashi tofu wasn't bad, but I've still had better. Everything else was totally bland. I couldn't even taste the vegetables in the cha ya rolls, they just tasted like greasy nothingness. After such a bad experience (not cheap, either!) I just had to post as a warning to others. If you really want to try it anyway, maybe don't do it on a special occasion.

I was really excited to try this place. We got the portobello mushroom tempura and a sushi roll. Both were deep fried and tasteless. We felt like we were eating vegan junk food. Presentation was good, but that's all. And who takes cash only in this day and age?? You would need a lot of cash for this.

I am a huge fan of Shojin vegan Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles. Shojin's presentation and food taste is amazing, and it is one of my favorite restaurants in the world.

When I heard about Cha Ya vegan Japanese restaurant in San Francisco, I couldn't wait to try it.

I ordered a combination plate with a shredded salad and the agedashi tofu. It would be very unfair to compare this restaurant to Shojin, as Shojin is a very expensive restaurant. but my experience at Cha Ya was very satisfying.

My meal here was excellent, and $10.50 for a combination lunch at a Japanese restaurant is reasonable. The shredded salad was mild, but delicious. The agedashi tofu was some of the best I have had.

The restaurant is comfortable, and the waiting staff are very kind and helpful. This is now my favorite veg restaurant in San Francisco.

OK - so I'm not an expert on Japanese food. I ordered the Moon Garden, described as steamed tofu custard with broccoli, shimeji mushrooms, kabocha, snow peas, atsuage tofu, broccolini, carrots, asparagus, zucchini, soybeans and gingko nuts.
I expected a lot of vegetables, and as it turns out it was almost all tofu custard and just a little bit of vegetables. The custard was OK, but not to be the whole meal - I wanted more vegetables. The menu looks very interesting and I'm sure I would have enjoyed something else. I guess you have to try different things, but since I live thousands of miles away from SF, I won't have a chance for quite a while. A shame! My spouse ordered Cha-Ya Nabe, a vegan sukiyaki, and he was very pleased. The atmosphere of this restaurant is very nice, the service was good, so I wish I came out feeling more satisfied.

What a treat to come here and know that no dead fish of any kind is lurking in any of the food! Vegan sushi is beautifully presented. All had a fresh, delicious and healthy taste. Excellent!

I was between Cha Ya and Gracias Madre for lunch during a trip to San Francisco recently. A friend who was meeting had been to Gracias Madre, so we decided to go to Cha Ya. A friend recommended the following- The namesake Cha Ya roll is pretty great: a sushi roll, filled with asparagus, avocado, yam, and carrots. lightly battered and deep-fried, tempura style. served with a special house sauce.

We had a delicious lunch to say the least. We got seaweed salad, gyozo, tempura on the outside inside out sushi roll, and miso soup, all for about $12 a piece. The staff were all very friendly and patient as we tried to decide what to get.

The presentation was lovely as well, so much so I had to take photos. A little culture, great food, at a reasonable price makes for a win in my book!

I had first read about Cha Ya San Francisco on HappyCow, and have eaten here 3 times. Was just here in October 2012 for lunch. Here's my Cha Ya Vegetarian Japanese review.

It's moderately sized (as far as San Francisco restaurants are considered where is high) staffed by several Japanese members of what seemed like a family. The menu is extensive with many selections of Japanese food that's all vegan.

My husband have had the hot soba noodle soup (rich, satifying broth + mushroom slices and veggies), the seaweed salad (okay), and the Cha Ya roll (rice and veggies sushi roll coated in light batter and fried). We also had a lunch special, for $9.75, you get white rice, miso soup, and choice of two appetizers or salads--we got the gyoza (pan fried dumpling) and the spring roll (it's fried).

This food is authentic Japanese and very delicious. I like it.

Clean space with minimal Japanese decor. Nothing fancy, just good food.

Beautiful restaurant, very tasty food. I love it.

yummy

My experience here was quite the opposite of my experience at their Berkeley location - this location was terrible. Everything I ordered was a huge disappointment, and the staff recommended the items I ordered. For starters I had the spring rolls (which were tasteless and the sauce accompanying them actually tasted like vomit) and the pot stickers (which were very greasy and flavorless). I was really hopeful for my entree given my experience with the entrees, but alas it was no better. Per the staff's recommendation, I ordered the vegetable tempura with potato noodles, so I had thought this would be a winner. The veggies just did not taste good and the tempura was bland and greasy. The soup was the same and I just couldn't stomach any of it. Given my displeasure, I doubt I'd ever return to this location.