Quick Check:
- Quality: ★★★ – Good
- Type: All Vegan; Macrobiotic
- Location: Near Omotesando Station, Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
- Hours: Closed Monday; Tuesday-Saturday, 11am – 4pm (lunch), 4pm – 9pm (Last Order at 8 pm); Sunday: 11:00 am – 6:30 pm.
- Price: $$-$$$ – Average to Slightly Expensive (about ¥1300 for a Lunch Set, ¥1800-¥4000 for dinner)
- Website: Restaurant Website, HappyCow Page
- Menu: Click Here
- Language Barrier: Menu entirely Japanese, but has photos
Address, Access & Contact:
Address, Closet Train Station & Phone Number:
- English: 5-54-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Japanese: 東京都渋谷区神宮前5-53-67
- Closest Station: Omotesando Station (Tokyo Metro)
- Phone Number: 03-6427-3338
Directions:
Go to Omotesando Station on the Tokyo Metro subway line. Take Exit B2. (Biokura Cafe is a 10-15 minute walk from this exit.) This will place you on Aoyama Dori, a little away from Omotesando dori. Keep walking along Aoyama Dori away from Omotesando dori. You will pass Starbucks, Natural House, and KFC. Keep walking. Soon a large plaza will open up on your right, with restaurants in a semicircle. Keep walking. Soon you’ll arrive at a small street with United Nations University on your left and the plaza on the right. The street will have little blue signs that say book (本) on them. Turn right on the street and walk down it, then take the escalator at the end of this road down. Enter the sliding glass doors. Aoyama Book Center will be on your left, and Biokura Cafe will be on your right.
Google Map:
Restaurant Review Food Review: What I keep going back to Biokura Cafe for is their soft serve. So far, I’ve only found a few other spots in Japan that serve vegan soft serve, most notably Vegan’s Cafe & Restaurant in Kyoto. Biokura Cafe’s soft serve seems much more healthy than Vegan’s Cafe’s, and it lacks the malty nostalgic flavor that I remember form childhood trips to Dairy Queen. But it’s still creamy and swirly and will hit the spot if you’ve got a soft serve craving. It’s a soy-based soft serve that’s only lightly sweetened, so it still retains a soy flavor. However, you can choose from 3 flavorings, which are sprinkled over the top: 穀物コーヒー (kokumotsu koohii, grain coffee), きな粉黒蜜 (Kinako-kuromitsu, Brown Sugar Syrup-flavored soy flour), or フルーツスプレッド (Fruit spread). There’s a layer of puffed rice cereal at the base, which I’ve seen at several other Japanese restaurants – it seems to be common way of serving sundaes, and you can mix it into the ice cream for extra texture and crunchiness. I only ever got the grain coffee soft serve, and ended up going back to get it about 5 times. I’m not a huge fan of soy flavor, but when I mixed the soft serve together with the coffee powder and cereal all I could taste was yummmm.
Soy Soft Serve with Coffee Topping – ¥450
Several times I went to Biokura Cafe and only ate the soft serve, mainly because their dinner menu is pretty expensive. However, I did visit for lunch once, and was very impressed. I ordered the The Brown Rice & Seasonal Vegetable Quiche Set (玄米作ったキッシュ~季節の野菜のせ~ セット) for ¥1300 (¥1404 with tax). It comes with Brown Rice Quiche topped with seasonal veggies, a mini salad, and your choice of Miso Soup or a mini European-style soup (varies seasonally). Mine was topped with lotus root, Japanese pumpkin, cauliflower and red pepper (I think). Unfortunately wasn’t very quiche-y, but that makes sense since they don’t use eggs or mock-cheeses: Biokura Cafe is very focused on clean, simple ingredients, skilled cooking and detailed presentation. What I got was more of a tasty baked vegetable and brown rice dish, and although the portion size was small, it was the perfect size for a light lunch. If you really like clean, healthy cooking you’ll find lots of dishes to your taste here.
Brown Rice & Seasonal Vegetable Quiche Set (¥1404)
My friend ordered the Veggie Katsu Burger Set (Vegeカツバーガーセット, ¥1404 with tax), which also looked amazing. I’m more junk-foody than health-foody, so I kind of wish I’d opted for that!
Veggie Katsu Burger Set (¥1404)
Atmosphere & Service: Biokura Cafe is a slightly upscale cafe, which is typical of restaurants located in the swanky Omotesando and Aoyama District. There’s no dress code, and casual clothing is fine, but you’d feel pretty out of place coming in your grungiest, ripped garb. The cafe is spacious, quiet, bright & clean. It has a mostly open layout with a small selection of macrobiotic groceries on the left, a large cafe space in the middle, and a cooking school separated by a glass wall on the right. The cafe has one long communal table and 4 small, low tables for parties of 2 along the front wall. 
If you’re lucky enough to visit while a class is in session, you can look through the glass and observe students in starched uniforms dutifully taking notes as their teacher instructs them on the finer points of cooking. However, you can’t hear what they’re saying (or, at least I couldn’t), so if you aren’t interested it’s easy to block it out and focus on your own conversation. Service is prompt and efficient, but not notably friendly. The servers mostly just take your order, deliver you food with a smile, and then leave you to enjoy in peace. I found the atmosphere and service to be very pleasant. Overall, I enjoyed Biokura Cafe. Portions are a bit small and prices are fairly high at dinner time, but if you swing by for lunch (before 4 o’clock) or even just for a cup of soft serve, You can get a more moderately-priced meal. I especially recommend it for those who enjoy healthy and natural cooking.
Bon Voyage Vegan 