Mr. Farmer Omotesando

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After reading a few of our food-centric posts, you might wonder how we don’t weigh 400 pounds, given some of the stuff we eat when we travel. Well, the reason I clock in at a lean 399 is because when we’re at home, we eat vegan. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at our house feature no animal products except honey. We started our plant-based-at-home strategy last year after I read How Not to Die and became insufferable. Since then, we’ve each lowered our cholesterol back to the “not going to die this week zone,” as the doctor calls it.

We still eat meat when we go out, which ends up being once or twice a week, and we still stuff our faces full of enough sugar to kill a bear at every opportunity. But we’ve grown to love healthy food, and try healthy restaurants when we can. Sadly, our neighborhood doesn’t have much in the way of health food, but Omotesando does, so when we get our hair cut, we treat ourselves to the best vegan restaurant in town.

Mr. Farmer vegan cafe in Omotesando

If you’ve never been to Omotesando, what you need to know is that it’s Tokyo’s fancy shopping street, it’s right next to colorful Harajuku, and it’s crazy crowded on Saturdays. While the boulevard itself doesn’t have a lot of food options, a quick jaunt up one of the many side streets will lead you to plenty of restaurants.

Just a short walk from the main drag is Mr. Farmer, a vegan cafe with a welcoming exterior. Unlike some other healthy restaurants, Mr. Farmer doesn’t just have vegan options, but a full vegan menu. You might think that would make it less appealing to meat eaters, but just wait; there are plenty of reasons for omnivores to check it out.

As mentioned, this area is nuts on Saturdays, so they have a sign-up sheet where you put down your name and wait for a table. You can stand around outside or duck inside and watch the staff make the food. Next to the front counter is the water bar, where they have three kinds of water: ginger carrot, citrus grapefruit, and… apple something? I forget.

There’s a lot of seating, so you won’t have to wait long. It’s pretty much bland bright cafe in terms of the atmosphere. This isn’t a romantic restaurant by any stretch. It’s clean, though. The menu is available in hard copy form or through a QR code, which makes ordering easy because you can each type in your own order via your phones, and the restaurant will combine them into a single check later.

Not to spoil the ending here, but we liked Mr. Farmer so much after our first visit that we came back another time and brought a friend, so this post will be about two different meals we had there. They were both good.

Visit 1: konjac burger and the legendary hot Arnold Palmer

Our first visit to Mr. Farmer was in late winter, when it was c-c-c-cold outside. We wanted something nice and warm, and we found it. In fact, we found something I’ve never seen before at any restaurant ever: a HOT ARNOLD PALMER.

You heard that right. Mr. Farmer has a vast selection of iced tea/lemonades, made with different kinds of tea. You can order them hot or iced, and honestly, I don’t know how the rest of the world missed this. Iced tea and lemonade is delicious, so of course hot tea and lemonade would also be good. I got an Earl Grey tea and lemonade, and it came with a bunch of lemon slices in it. This thing was incredible. Nice and hot on a cold day, with delicious flavor. Give these people the Nobel prize.

If you don’t live in Japan, you probably don’t know what konjac is. It’s a slimy… thing that is sometimes used to make fake noodles. More importantly, it’s a key ingredient in doteyaki, the greatest food man has ever created. When I saw that Mr. Farmer had a fried konjac cutlet burger, I knew I had to try it. It was hot and fried (warm food was key on this day), so I’m not sure what else I could want. I loved it. Delicious. A lot of times when you go to a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and they have a fried fake-meat burger, it’s greasy and gross and potentially less healthy than a burger would be, but this wasn’t like that. It felt light while also being filling and satisfying.

Eriko got Mexican minestrone soup with lots of beans in it, and I tried a bite. It was great. The food here wasn’t just “good for vegan food.” It was good for any restaurant. We had such a good time, we knew we had to come back after our next haircut, which is what we did.

Visit 2: soups and salads

We expected this day to be hot, in contrast with our first visit. However, it rained on us, creating a need for another hot Arnold Palmer. This one wasn’t as good as the first, perhaps because nothing can truly live up to that first hot tea and lemonade. I don’t know.

Our friend got a seasonal salad with fruit on it that looked really good, but because of the rainy day, Eriko and I wanted soup. I got the pozole that she had on our first visit, and she tried their creamy oat milk soup. Both were absolutely delicious. I demolished that soup. It didn’t know what hit it.

There’s really not much else to say here. Another visit to Mr. Farmer, another delicious meal. We have yet to eat something from this restaurant that wasn’t absolutely smashing. Love this place.

Verdict: should you try Mr. Farmer?

At lot of Japanese food is fairly healthy (these people are thin), which is maybe why Japan is late to the party when it comes to health food restaurants. There’s of course Woodberry Coffee and its acai bowl, salad places like Green Brothers, and the occasional veggie-centric restaurant like We Are The Farm. They’re all nice, but in truth, Mr. Farmer blows them out of the water. Based on my experience, this is the absolute best healthy and/or vegan restaurant in Tokyo, and should be compared to all other restaurants, not just healthy ones.

If you’re in Omotesando, you have a lot of options. At lunchtime, there’s Tacos 3Hermanos, which is delicious, and at night, there’s Oreno French & Italian. And of course, you’re not far from Shibuya, which also has a ton of choices. The Omotesando/Harajuku area isn’t necessarily a dining destination, but it has a lot of restaurants because of how popular it is.

The reason I bring up how many choices there are is because I want to make it clear that we could choose just about any kind of food after our haircuts at Whyte Vegan Hair Salon and Donut Emporium. We could have anything for lunch, and yet the next time we’re there, we will probably go with Mr. Farmer. It’s that good. It is one of our favorite restaurants. It’s cheap, healthy, and the wait isn’t terribly long. Go there. Your belly will thank you.

Where to find Mr. Farmer in Tokyo

Address: 〒150-0001 Tokyo, Shibuya, Jingumae, 4 Chome−5−12 セピア原宿ビル 1Ｆ

Phone: +81 03 5413 4215

Hours: M-F 10am-9pm, Sat-Sun 9am-9pm

Website: Mr. Farmer Omotesando

Yeesh, what’s going on with Google Maps? Something’s up. Guess we’re going with Apple Maps screenshots this time. Mr. Farmer has several locations in Tokyo, including two in Omotesando. One is downstairs in the station, part of a busy cafeteria, but the other is nicely located on the street and has lots of seating. We like that one.