Vegan Restaurants in Hiroshima: From Peace Park to Plant-Based Okonomiyaki

Hiroshima didn't have a single fully vegan restaurant until May 2025 -- that's the honest starting point. What it did have, for years, was a handful of okonomiyaki shops willing to leave out the pork and swap the sauce. That's still true, but the city has since added its first genuinely 100%-vegan kitchen, built by two internationally recognized chefs, a five-minute walk from Peace Memorial Park. As of July 2026, here's what's real, what to order, and one closed venue you can stop looking for.

The okonomiyaki sauce trap

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is stacked with cabbage, noodles and (usually) pork, egg and a fried-egg topping -- all things a vegan shop has to substitute one by one. But the trap that catches people who've already swapped out the meat is the sauce: standard okonomiyaki sauce is built on dried sardines (niboshi) for umami, so a "vegetable okonomiyaki" made with the house sauce is still not vegan. Ask specifically for a vegan sauce, or go to a shop (below) that already sells one.

Pick by what you're craving

Near Peace Memorial Park -- the two anchors

JoGeSaYu opened on 11 May 2025, a five-minute walk from Peace Memorial Park, and it's Hiroshima's first fully vegan restaurant -- every dish on the menu meets three rules at once: 100% vegan, no five pungent spices (accommodating Buddhist shojin-style vegetarianism), and no alcohol-based seasonings, which makes it halal-friendly too. The main menu is curated by Tokyo chef Katsumi Kusumoto of Saido, who reworks Japanese classics -- ramen, curry, katsudon, tendon -- entirely plant-based; the dessert side is handled by patissier Hironobu Tsujiguchi of the renowned Mont St. Clair, doing egg- and dairy-free parfaits and lemon cake. Reviews into 2026 specifically call out the vegan sushi, okonomiyaki and tempura rice bowls, so it's a legitimate way to eat the city's greatest hits without compromise. Because it's a newer, high-profile spot, booking ahead is worth doing if you can.

Nagata-ya, in Otemachi near the Peace Park, is the long-running specialist for the sauce trap above: it stocks a separate, dedicated vegan okonomiyaki sauce at the register (since the house sauce uses dried sardines), offers 9-10 clearly labeled vegan/vegetarian okonomiyaki varieties, and will grill your order in vegetable oil instead of animal fat and skip the bacon strips if you say you're vegan or vegetarian. It's open daily, roughly 11:00-20:30 (hours can shift slightly by day, so it's worth a quick check before a special trip out).

One venue to stop looking for

Some older round-ups still list Kasane Gasane, a food-court-style okonomiyaki spot near Hiroshima Station that used to run a dedicated vegan menu. As of 2026 it shows as permanently closed on Tabelog -- don't build a trip around it.

The souvenir worth knowing about

Hiroshima's signature souvenir, momiji manju (a maple-leaf-shaped castella cake filled with sweet red bean paste), is not vegan in its standard recipe -- the cake batter itself is built on egg, and some fillings/glazes use honey. But Nishikido, a major manufacturer of the confection, makes Momiji Manju Light, a version free of Japan's eight major declared allergens (egg, wheat, milk and more), using soy milk and rice flour instead of egg and wheat flour -- a genuinely vegan-friendly souvenir you can buy citywide, not just at one shop. Check the wrapper for this specific labeling; a plain "momiji manju" without it should be assumed to contain egg.

Worth reading next

the complete vegan Japan guide