The name of this cafe is “Genmai”, meaning brown rice in Japanese. It is 100% plant-based, with its menu focusing on, you guessed it – organic brown rice! It is located in Honmachi, Osaka, a vibrant, bustling area that is home to many office buildings and an array of business people. We arrived at this cafe just in time for opening at 11:00 a.m.
At the entrance, there is a menu alongside a food sample display box known as “Sampuru”. They are very popular in Japan, as the realistic replicas of dishes are used to entice customers into the store. – Doesn’t the food look so pretty?
Sampuru – Japanese food sample display box
I ordered “ichiju-gosai”. This dish consisted of brown rice, a soup of the day, a main dish of the day, five small items and a wild herb tea.
“ichiju-gosai” – ¥1320
Genmai cafe tends to change their side dishes weekly, while their main dishes are swapped out daily! Today’s main dish, however, was thick, grilled, deep-fried tofu seasoned with sesame soy sauce. The weekly dishes on offer range from the following:
Korean-style komatsuna salad (left) wakame & new onion sunomono-Japanese vinegarette salad (right)
hijiki seaweeds, soybeans, aburaage and carrot nimono ( simmered in soy, mirin and dashi ) and salad (left) and Unohana cooked with fermented rice salt (right)
My hubby decided to order the brown rice waffle. This came with gluten-free brown rice waffles alongside soy cream, jam and some sweet red bean paste.
Brown rice waffle – ¥935
Each set menu comes with a sachet, which is actually a fermented brown rice whole nutrient enzyme powder. This is absolutely great for vitamin B!
Since our meals were nice and light, we had extra space for some more yummy, healthy desserts! My hubby was craving the brown rice muffins on display. They had five different flavours: blueberry, brown sugar & ginger, apple cinnamon, figs & walnuts, and tomato sauce. Can you guess which one he chose?… the apple cinnamon muffin, of course!
Brown rice flour muffin (Apple cinnamon) – ¥451
I chose wagashi, which is a traditional Japanese sweet. Monaka is a Wagashi type with a red bean paste filling sandwiched between two crisp wafers. However, the one that I had at Genmai was a more fancy, fun version of Monaka, which included mochi, soy cream, sweet green bean paste and sweet black beans. Compared to the normal Monaka, which is already sandwiched, I got to sandwich the ingredients myself!
Monaka sandwich – ¥684
Even after having these desserts, our tummies still felt light and fabulous!
Next, we headed downstairs to their health foods stall.
They had a great variety of healthy food options in store! This is what we decided to buy:
- Lotus root powder
- Soy yoghurt culture powder
- Yuzo potato chips
- Carrot chips
- Two vegan chocolates – for my sweet-toothed hubby
When you travel, you tend to eat lots of junk food, so this is a great place to visit in order to both rest and heal your stomach. It’s super nourishing, so I highly recommend you visit this place!
Genmai Cafe
Address: 3-6-9 Minamikyuhoujicho, Chuoku, Osaka, Japan
Website: https://www.genmaikoso.co.jp/health/salon/
DO YOU NEED HEALTHY VEGAN COOKING INSPIRATIONS?
DO YOU KNOW I RUN A COOKING SCHOOL IN SYDNEY?
YOU DON’T LIVE IN SYDNEY?
Don’t worry, there are two ways to learn Japanese cooking with me.
NEW Japanese online cooking classes coming soon! More information to come, subscribe HERE so you don’t miss out!
ALSO twice per year I run an online Japanese 30 Day Challenge Course!! Focusing on weight loss and improving your health! Drop your email address HERE and we’ll notify you about the next challenge!
Plant Based Cookbooks
If you want to cook more easy and tasty Japanese vegan meals using Japanese superfoods – real key for Japanese health, please grab my vegan cookbook “Japanese Superfoods” or “Top 3 Japanese Superfoods for Natural Weightloss” or even better, you can have “Japanese Superfoods combo deal” to master Japanese Superfoods.
