Vegan in Hakone: 9 Best Places for Lunch, Snacks, and Dinner
If you’ve already read my guide to Vegan-Friendly Ryokans in Hakone, you’ll already know that you can get a great, multi-course plant based feast in your guesthouse. But if you’re only in Hakone for the day, or you’re skipping the ryokan and experiencing the onsen town on a budget, you’ll need to find food somehow.
Hakone is a town that’s well known for black eggs boiled in volcanic sulphur and fish cake street food. As a vegan in Hakone, finding somewhere to eat can be difficult. I’ve spent more time than I’m happy with looking at the back of an onigiri wrapper in Family Mart, hoping that Google Translate doesn’t reveal “fish flakes”.
Thankfully, Hakone does have some vegan options, from a well loved local burger place to traditional tofu houses. I’ve spent time researching menus and reviews, and put this list together based on the places that look best for a vegan meal – it’s a real pet peeve of mine when the only vegan option is a sad salad or a marinara pizza, so I’ve only included meal options that are actually good for a vegetarian or vegan in Hakone.
Whether you’re looking for a quick lunch on the Hakone loop or somewhere local and cosy to go for dinner in the evening, here’s the best places to eat vegan in Hakone.
Vegan in Hakone-Yumoto: The Gateway Grub
When you first arrive in Hakone, you’re probably getting into the town of Hakone Yumoto. This is a popular base for visitors, and where you get some of the best transport links and easy access to ryokans around the area.
- Box Burger: This is one of the most popular options for vegans around the area. They’ve got two vegetarian burgers on their menu, which can be made vegan for an extra ÂĄ110. They’ve got two locations: the one in Hakone Yumoto is more of a takeaway/casual spot, while if you’re looking for a sit-down meal, the Miyagino branch is about 10 minutes by bus from Gora.
- Cocoro Curry: A well reviewed curry house that has a separate vegan option, usually shown on a menu card on the door.
- Shika-Jaya: A traditional restaurant that specialises in tofu and can adapt their menu for vegans. Watch out for dashi or bonito flakes. You’ll need your translation app on hand here, and I recommend an e-sim if you don’t have roaming data.
Veggie Food in Gora: Mountain-side Meals
Gora is where most people find themselves around lunchtime after the mountain railway. If you’re out and about exploring Hakone during the day, whether that’s on a hike or using the Hakone freepass, you’re going to want to pause for a meal at some point during the day. I’ll be honest with you, vegan options in Gora are not thick on the ground. I really had to dig to find some that seemed like genuine vegan or vegetarian meals, and not just an afterthought. However, there are a couple of places doing vegan sushi or vegetable curries:
- Hakone Kappei: If you find yourself hungry near the Hakone Open Air museum, this sushi restaurant has a few vegan options on the menu: cucumber, root vegetables and inari.
- Hakone Kitchen and Bar: This is a small izakaya right by Gora station. The menu is in Japanese, but plenty of reviews rave about their vegetable curry. It is cash only, and you’re going to need your translation app here to check the menu.
- Yamaji: A Japanese restaurant that usually has a vegan chickpea curry on the menu.
Vegan Food in Owakudani: The Sulphuric Snack
If you’re doing the Hakone loop, you’ll end up at Owakudani station while you’re switching onto the ropeway. There’s exactly one food option here, veggie or otherwise, and that’s the Owakudani Station Restaurant. They do have a Vegetable Curry that’s explicitly labelled as vegan/no animal products. It’s not fancy, but if you find yourself looking for a meal amidst all the tourists eating black eggs, it’s your best option.
Vegan Options by Lake Ashi: Dinner with a View
If you’ve travelled down to Lake Ashi on the pirate ship, or you’re visiting the floating torii gate, options are limited. The only real option is the Lakeside Grill: This restaurant is located right by the shrine, and they have a dedicated vegan menu! Options include tempura, sushi and pasta.
If you search Happy Cow, you’ll see a couple of other places in the area, but from my own digging, the vegan options are slim pickings: basically bread and edamame – and I’m not about to recommend that for you as a valid vegan meal.
Vegan Breakfast: Dining with Monks
Saien is a restaurant I wish I’d known about when I visited Hakone. Based in Miyanoshita, a 20 minute bus ride from Hakone Yumoto station.
It’s a restaurant that is only open for breakfast, it’s fully vegan, and it’s entirely run by monks.
Reservations are required, and breakfast is served from 8am, so it’s an early start, but a great way to start a day’s sightseeing.
Tips for Eating Vegan in Hakone
I’ll be brutally honest with you, finding good vegan or vegetarian food in Hakone is a bit of a mission. I’ve picked out all of the menus I could find that had solid vegan options on them, and even at that, you can see it’s slim pickings. You’re more likely to find plain bowls of rice and edamame, which do the job if you’re in a pinch, but it’s not exactly what you want on your holiday, is it?
Visiting Restaurants
A lot of the restaurants around the area are small, family run places with limited kitchen resources, so menus are often small in return. Even if something looks vegan, like tofu, there’s always a fairly high chance its been cooked in fish stock or have other hidden ingredients.
Then there’s also a language barrier to consider: If you don’t speak or read Japanese (and I don’t!), it’s going to be harder to fully figure out what you can eat. I’ve mentioned it before in this post, but I really cannot recommend an e-sim enough. Using Google Lens on a Japanese menu can save you a lot of time trying to figure out if you can eat something or not. And frankly, it often makes it easier for the restaurant owners if you can quickly translate what you’re looking for.
It’s also worth pointing out that things in Hakone close early – it’s not uncommon to see a restaurant closed for the day at 4pm. Because most visitors are either day trippers or staying in a ryokan with their dinner included, there just isn’t the demand to stay open.
If you’ve seen somewhere you like the look of, bookmark it and check the opening times in advance, unless you want to end up stranded and hungry!
Alternative Options
Because I know what it’s like to be bloated from filling up on bread or feeling cranky that you haven’t had protein in days, I’ve written a separate post on Vegan Travel Hacks that’s full of things I do when I travel somewhere that’s less able to accommodate vegans.
I’d also encourage my fellow vegan in Hakone to consider your accommodation strategy when thinking about how to get fed. I spent a few weeks reaching out to every ryokan I could find in Hakone to check who was vegan-friendly, and you can see the list here – I’ll update it as I get more responses and information.
If you’re not keen on a ryokan stay, I’d then encourage you to book a self-catering option. Having the ability to cook your own meals and take a packed lunch with you means you get fed well, while still being able to get out and appreciate the beauty of Hakone.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve made it this far, then hopefully you’ve got some good ideas of where to eat for your own Hakone trip. While it might be a little harder to be vegan in Hakone than it is in Tokyo, if you plan ahead it is definitely doable.
Sure, you might not get the variety of options like all of Tokyo’s great vegan ramen restaurants, but you won’t go hungry, and it’s a small price to pay for a day or two when you consider everything else Hakone has to offer in the way of nature, sightseeing and relaxation.
And hey, there’s always Huel.
