Naha, Okinawa

November 4-7, 2025

   

After a wonderful visit with Matt and his wife, Michael and I moved on to Naha, Okinawa. This was a fascinating place, popular with Japanese tourists, and rich with its own distinct cultural traditions that draw from its Pacific geography and coral reefs, and centuries of trade with Japan, China, and Korea. We bounced between seeking veg-friendly foods from general vendors (soba, Nepalese, convenience stores and museum cafes) and visiting veg-specific venues. Here are a few highlights.

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We fell upon Mana with relief and delight after a string of improvised meals - each day they offer one vegan meal set, with an emphasis on local and organic ingredients, for ¥1500 ~ AU$14. We were blessed with a bowl of silky pumpkin soup, brown rice, a generous tumble of teriyaki soy meat, tempura shiso leaf, quinoa with green papaya, stir-fried bamboo and burdock (a new fave!), mustard greens and loofah in miso and vinegar, pickled rosella and green papaya, and a fresh wedge of dragonfruit to finish. The cafe was quiet, calm and spacious; everything we needed.

   

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Kuninda sat oddly on a street full of plastic souvenirs and gimmicky foods - it's a starkly modern, high-end restaurant that celebrates local Ryukyu cuisine. While omnivorous eaters a treated to a multi-stage banquet for dinner (and we observed our fellow diners' dishes with interest), veg*ns receive the same multi-dish plate that they would if attending for lunch (¥3500 ~ AU$34). It's still a very special experience with carefully composed local flavours.

We began with a small sample of Ryukyu moromi vinegar, a fermented by-product of the manufacture of awamori, a local spirit distilled from rice. (Among their non-alcoholic drinks was Shikuwasa juice, a native citrus, that I enjoyed very much.) The main plate was a beautiful selection not best photographed in the restaurant lighting: miso soup and rice, jimami tofu (made entirely of peanuts and not soy! has a more elastic texture and is lightly dressed in sweet soy), nigana (a green leafy vegetable) dressed with tofu and sesame (a familiar preparation style from Idées), deep-fried taro (a local staple), tempura vegetables, pickled vegetables including bitter gourd (another local staple), tofu sauteed with carrots, and a special salt-based seasoning. The meal concluded with a small taste of zenzai, sweetened red beans simmered in Okinawan brown sugar and salt, accompanied by jasmine tea.

The meal was very memorable and the service was flawless - the only shame was that, having been served most of it all at once, it was over too quickly.

   

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Our time in Okinawa was brief and, unluckily for us, was mostly spread across the weeknights that smaller venues aren't open. We were able to try Tamatebako for our last dinner - it's a small, densely-packed vegan ramen bar run by two jovial young men. More notable than the ramen was the array of local delicacies were tried there: more jimami/peanut tofu (¥700 ~ AU$7, above), a small cube of richly-textured and fermented tofuyo (¥700 ~ AU$7, below), and a bowl of sea grapes (¥600 ~ AU$6, below).

   

Michael had plenty of appetite to work through their coconut curry laksa (¥1400 ~ AU$13, below right), while I more slowly picked through a bowl of ma jiang mian (¥1400 ~ AU$13, below left), noodles in sesame paste topped with a welcome medley of tofu and fresh vegetables, and fine threads of chilli. The homemade ginger syrup (¥700 ~ AU$7, background) was much more ginger than syrup, and I nursed it across the entire meal. Michael finished with a taste of the awamori spirit on ice, of which they offered many varieties. We were glad to have such a cosy, distinctly Okinawan experience on our last night on the island.