Cha-Ya
Cha-Ya
Vegan potstickers, pan-fried and served with gyoza sauce, 6 pieces.
Sweet corn and organic atsuage tofu wrapped in a soybean sheet and nori seaweed, lightly battered, and fried with tempura style. Served with an organic almond sauce.
Sticks of yam, carrots, banana squash, assuage tofu, and green beans, lightly battered and deep-fried, served with tempura sauce.
Fried spring rolls with asparagus, shiitake, carrots, long beans, atsuage tofu and silver noodles. Side of sweet and sour sauce.
Deep-fried tofu in special sauce, garnished with grated daikon and ginger, kaiware, scallions, and shredded nori. 4 pieces.
Breaded and deep-fried asparagus, eggplant, onions, kabocha pumpkin, mushrooms, and atsuage tofu on skewers, and a vegetable croquette. Served with special miso-based sauce.
Broiled pieces of Portobello mushroom, red onion, asparagus, eggplant, and zucchini. Served on two skewers with robata sauce.
Seasoned organic brown rice topped with carrots, kabocha, broccoli, cauliflower, lotus roots zucchini, snap peas, snow peas, hijiki, atsuage tofu, shiitake, broccolini, pickled burdock, and daikon, and aware.
Organic tofu, kabocha, onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, cauliflower, zucchini, and mushrooms, asparagus, kaiware, vegetable croquette with golden curry rice sauce. Choice of white or organic brown rice.
Broiled eggplant tofu, and portobello mushroom with miso paste glaze.
A roll made up of buckwheat noodles (in place of sushi rice), spinach, atsuage tofu, asparagus, cucumber, pickled burdock, and seasoned kampyo gourd and shiitake.
Potstickers, tofu, zucchini, napa cabbage, snap peas, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, silver noodles, and mushrooms in a light broth.
Portobello mushroom layered with atsuage tofu dipped in a light batter and deep-fried. Served with kiwi fruit sauce.
One kappa roll, one nigiri each of shiitake, eggplant, and sea vegetable salad.
Eggplant, yam, asparagus, carrots, kabocha, mushrooms, green beans, and broccoli, lightly battered and deep-fried. Served with tempura sauce.
Napa cabbage, spinach, red onion, carrots, mushrooms, kabocha, broccoli, cauliflower, lotus roots zucchini, snap peas, snow peas, silver noodles, and tofu in sukiyaki broth.
Steamed tofu custard with broccoli, carrots, shimeji mushrooms, kabocha, atsuage tofu snow peas, asparagus, zucchini, broccolini, soybeans, and gingko nuts.
Sushi rice served in a medium bowl, mixed with seasoned shiitake, green beans, lotus roots, carrots, tofu pouch, yam cake, and hijiki. Topped with various cooked vegetables.
Eggplant stuffed with tofu, satsuma potato, corn, hijiki, carrots, and soybeans. Lightly battered and deep-fried, tempura style. Served with a special ginger sauce.
One kappa roll, half vegan roll, and one inari.
Miso soup with portobello, shimeji, eryngii mushrooms, tofu, scallions, and kaiware sprouts.
Organic beans, split peas, lentils, and brown rice, 10 oz. size.
A small bowl of miso soup with wakame sea vegetables, tofu, and scallions.
Clear soup with spinach, shimeji, eryngii mushrooms, tofu, carrots, and ginkgo nuts.
Blanched spinach and broccolini, topped with a sesame dressing.
Shredded daikon, turnip, cucumber, carrots with atsuage tofu, radishes, soybeans, kaiware, and toasted pine nuts. Soy vinaigrette dressing.
Soybeans boiled and lightly salted.
Cucumber and radish salad with golden raisins, wakame, and silver noodles. Non-oil rice vinaigrette.
Soba noodles topped with various seasonal vegetables. Sesame-oil vinaigrette dressing.
A variety of marine vegetables including seasoned hijiki served with a creamy sesame dressing.
Blanched spinach with seasoned root, carrots, shiitake, green beans tofu pouch and yam cake, served with a tahini-tofu dressing.
One kappa roll, one vegan roll, and two inari. Served with a small sunomono salad and small house miso soup.
Choose any three Hosomaki rolls. No substitutions please. Served with a small sunomono salad and small house miso soup.
The entire sushi roll, filled with asparagus, yam, avocado, and carrots, is lightly battered and deep-fried, tempura style. Served with special house sauce.
A large roll with spinach, atsuage tofu, cucumber, broccolini, pickled burdock, seasoned shiitake, and campy gourd, and pickled ginger.
A large roll filled with tempura of banana squash, carrots, yam, and green beans.
A large reverse roll with avocado, cucumber, and kaiware sprouts, topped with sea vegetable salad.
A large roll with asparagus and yam tempura.
Sushi rice with fried yam, shiitake mushroom, rolled up with an outer layer of avocado.
A large roll with asparagus, spinach, avocado, cucumber, broccoli, pickled burdock, and kaiware sprouts.
Organic brown sushi rice, eryngii mushrooms, spinach, and asparagus, rolled up with an outer layer of avocado.
Organic brown sushi rice mixture (with hijiki, wakame, and other sea vegetables), carrot, asparagus, atsuage tofu, and seasoned shiitake, rolled up with an outer layer of mustard green.
A sushi rice with avocado, cucumber, rolled up an outer layer of sea vegetables salad on top sriracha hot chili sauce. (Gluten free)
Reverse roll rice on the outside
Pickled daikon
Cucumber
Reverse roll rice on the outside
Pickled burdock
Reverse roll rice on the outside
Reverse roll rice on the outside
Sour plum and cucumber
Fermented soybeans and green onion
Reverse roll rice on the outside
Seasoned gourd
Reverse roll rice on the outside
Radish sprouts
Stuffed seasoned tofu pouch
Fried firm tofu
Seasoned sea vegetable
Seasoned sea vegetable
Radish Sprouts
Curry soup topped with tofu, kabocha, onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms, and snap peas.
Mushroom medley: shimeji, eryngii, portobello, and oyster mushrooms.
Served hot or cold. Edible bracken, bamboo shoots, carrots, and enoki, and wood ear mushrooms.
Served hot or cold. Plain noodles topped with scallions, kaiware, and shredded nori.
Served hot or cold. Vegetable tempura served with a bowl of udon or soba. Noodles and tempura are served separately.
Cooked Vegetables. Vegetable tempura served with a bowl of udon or soba.
Seasoned tofu pouch.
Wakame sea vegetable.
Deep-fried organic banana, topped with azuki bean sauce and green tea sauce.
Lightly sweetened fresh bosc pear served with vanilla-flavored organic soy milk and green tea sauce.
Agedashi Tofu
Hangetsu $13.50
Haru Maki
a tray of sushi rolls
Soba Sushi
Vegan dinner
Inside of the special vegan bao
Soba Sushi
Sushi Combo Dinner
Garden Roll (gluten free)
Inari and haku rolls
Outside
outside
Close up of green roll.
food, sashimi, sushi and sashimi, sushi
sushi, food, sashimi, sushi and sashimi
Rice vegetable bowl
House Miso Soup and cucumber salad (with combo dinner)
Haku Roll
sashimi, sushi, sushi and sashimi, food
Combo dinner
Curb side view
oysters and mussels, food
Tara K.
Dec 23, 2024
Truly, one of our most favorite spots in Berkeley! Clean home-cooked food. A slightly quirky ambience: it reminds us of an older school café or cafeteria. We really appreciate the Chaya nabe and vegan version of pork buns. This restaurant has a sister location in San Francisco that we also really adore.They accept cash or Venmo, so be ready to have one of those forms of payment available.
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Mary K.
Sep 11, 2024
Not the best vegetarian sushi place I have been to. Service was ok, the place needs an update and smelled of bleach. Not well lit. The food was ok,nothing special. The napkin on the table they use for silverware is a hard bathroom paper towel! Wow... Asparagus was cold. The veggies rice bowl was bland no flavor and had a weird smell. I think it was the bowl and spoon, Maybe the dishwasher needs fixing... the bun was way too hot, I had to cut in half to cool off. I believe it was microwaved not steamed. And the plate color was scraped/scratched off. Time for new plates. To pay its cash or Venmo app only.
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James K.
Jul 18, 2024
Fully Vegan Japanese restaurant, cash or Venmo only! (5/5 green stars)Cha-ya has been around for decades and it's still a good choice for tasty, vegan Japanese food. Yes, it's actually a fully vegan restaurant even though it's more widely known as "merely" vegetarian. If you search for vegan Japanese restaurants in Berkeley, the limelight may be stolen by Tane Vegan Izakaya, also on Shattuck Ave. But Cha-ya is well worth a visit for lovers of Japanese food and/or vegans and vegetarians. It's not as hip or stylish as Tane (honestly, Cha-ya could do with a bit of a makeover) but they do the best version of several Japanese dishes that I've had. From the website: "no product derived from animals of any kind are ever used" (no meat, dairy, fish, gelatin, etc.).Definitely considering having the agadashi tofu and goma ae to share (or have all on your own). Then, one of my favorites is the Taku-Sui which is described as Pot stickers, tofu, zucchini, nappa cabbage, snap peas, asparagus , broccoli, cauliflower, silver noodles, and mushrooms in a light broth and served with a ponzu citrus sauce. This dish has inspired me to make something similar at home, quite often. The Cha-ya nabe is similar but with delicious fresh ingredients like kabocha squash and spinach instead of the potstickers. Another favorite, if you're in the mood for lots of salty miso, is the Dengaku: Broiled eggplant tofu, and portobello mushroom with miso-paste glaze.There's a second branch in The Mission district in SF and remember that this Berkeley branch is Cash or Venmo ONLY! I'm also giving Cha-ya 5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact because Cha-ya is a completely vegan restaurant. Adopting a plant-based diet is the top thing you can do to mitigate climate change, deforestation, animal cruelty, and food scarcity. They could do a better job at providing information on ingredient sourcing, however (e.g., is any pesticide-free or organic?)Please join in and include a Green Stars rating with your own reviews!
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Cynthia C.
Jun 4, 2023
Delivery order was a bit sad looking after the travel. Quality and taste made up for it. Especially loved the potato croquette in the curry and the way they steamed the veg separately was super inspiring. Back in the college days I used to just boil it all together and it was mushy/absorbed all the individual flavors. Definitely get the sea veg salad and the summer greens roll - super refreshing. Everything was topped with Kaiware sprouts and a variety of carefully selected/handled veg. Bookmarked forever, definitely will be a go-to healthy delivery selection if they stay in our range!
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Surya V.
Aug 11, 2024
Come here monthly for a hearty meal but was left puzzled by our experience today. We were given a bill with a 15% tip manually added. Was it a suggestion or a requirement? The host deflected our polite inquiries.We've never had to deal with that in the same establishment before so that kinda left a bad taste in the mouth. The real kicker was we normally tip a standard 20%. If you're up for the drive, the SF Cha-Ya is better. The atmosphere in this restaurant can be better.
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Christine L.
Aug 13, 2023
Everything was beautiful and very fresh! Such a unique restaurant that offers a vegetarian's dream for Japanese food. Very healthy and guilt-free food that looks and tastes like it's made with love. I wish there were more locations!
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Anandita S.
Jun 24, 2023
The food could have little more flavorful with spices. The customer service was amazing and super polite. Its clean place but not fancy.
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Ashley C.
Jan 22, 2022
At first glance, Cha-Ya seems like any other sushi spot. But it's SO MUCH more! I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but was still sold on the food. The place is locally owned by a family, and the creativity of their food is pretty mind-blowing.Ordering process:- there's currently no indoor seating or any sit down offering in general. Only to-go.- Theres parks and the UC campus right nearby, so we ate there instead. - took about 15min to pick up after orderingHere's the lowdown:Subaru Roll (4/5): loved the creativity of the roll with the spinach wrap! As someone who has to limit their seaweed intake, I thought this was a great offering and it mixed well with the brown rice used.Sumo Roll (5/5): The roll is rolled with soba noodles, and has a bunch of veggies packed inside with tofu and mushroom. They were thinner rolls, but similar to any other roll I've had at the same time. The mushroom is absolutely delicious, and would gladly order again.Would gladly recommend this place! Super creative and filling and would be happy to come back to soon :)
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Ken R. K.
Feb 2, 2025
Great vegan food! Novel textures and flavors. Venmo or cash only. All of the dishes we tried were incredible.
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Rrr X.
Jul 22, 2024
A good ole standby. Still dishing up classics and really good for the money. It's been here for over twenty years. Recommended!
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