Shojin
Hours
Profile
$$ - average
Japanese, Eclectic (Fusion)
Vegan Japanese food
A new vegan, organic Japanese restaurant in Little Tokyo. Also serves fusion food.
Inside the Little Tokyo Shopping Center, on Alameda & 3rd Sts. There is a parking lot on the south side of the mall - park 4th floor of the parking lot, which has a direct path to the 3rd floor of the mall.
- (Mostly) Organic
- Quiet
- Romantic
Added by conde.kedar on Mar 19 08 (updated Aug 18 08)
Reviews
Really imaginative takes on traditional Japanese food - the bento box with barbequed seitan was especially good. The food is healthy & organic; they even have brown rice (unusual in Japanese food). Definitely try their 'Green Tea “Moss” Cake with Sweet Azuki Beans' too, maybe to share since it's a generous portion!
A great atmosphere too, & really friendly staff.
Shojin offers an upscale experience at reasonable prices. Portion sizes are a bit small, but the ambience and service are excellent. We arrived late and stayed past closing, but our server was continually warm and gracious. I took three colleagues to this place, two of whom are non-veg, but everyone loved the joint.
The grilled seitan roll appetizer was delicious and savory, as were the Nasu miso vegetables, which all of my colleagues loved. They also enjoyed their three-mushroom pasta, whereas I found my BBQ seitan with broccoli a bit too slight---it needed rice (which was an extra charge) and its portion size needed to be increased to justify its price ($11.95).
Desserts were a mixed bag. The green tea moss cake was unusual and while I liked it, no one else did. It might have been too strange a taste for some. The peach and apple cobbler with mint ice cream was a bit pedestrian for me, though tasty enough. The walnut chocolate cake was too flat for my tastes, without enough zing or sugar.
Still, Shojin is to be recommended. The location is a bit shady, and it's on the third floor of a shopping mall which seems to close earlier than the restaurant does, so make sure to get there by 9pm at the latest. We got in because the security guard saw us and let us in.