This is our fourth time coming here and we're always so impressed with the delicious, fresh, creative,unique dishes that are beautifully presented. It's an unpretentious atmosphere and a great value as well. A true Berkeley institution!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Camilo Dolorier
in the top 3 best vegan restaurant in berkeley in my opinion, been here forever, always good, you can order more salty/fried things if you want that, or order more simple, not so salty, not friend things if you are in the mood for that. it really has everything. the berkeley location is definitely better than the valencia street location, but i still love them both <3
love the hasami age, mikuri age, bao bun, pumpkin soup, inari, vege-tofu curry!
cash only!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Winnie Seto
Miso soup is my favorite
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
HelenEarth
I have been eating at Cha Ya for around 15 years. I have never been disappointed in their food. The dishes are consistent in flavor, amount, temperature and texture. I always feel good after eating at Cha Ya. The service is friendly and the environment is clean and quiet. They have lunch specials and other specials. Cha Ya accepts cash or Venmo only. My favorite dishes are: Cha Ya Roll, Gyoza, Agedashi Tofu, Cha-Ya Nabe and the Special Pumpkin Soup.
Prashant Shamarao
Pretty unique vegetarian Japanese restaurant. Lots of choices.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
sidneylbanks
Great vegan spot with lots of options! Sushi is fresh and tasty, great miso soup & gyoza.
Ember Young
Great vegan menu. Cute and clean atmosphere, parking around back and street parking available.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Lucia Arce
Very good and consistent vegan food. We love its soups, shredded salad and spring roll.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
steveveg
We had a lovely experience and dinner. We ordered mostly sushi. Their specialty sushi rolls were exceptionally inventive and delicious. We had a great time. Service was great, the ambience was informal and relaxed.
Prior 2016 review:
Perhaps we were limited by the gluten free menu, but the selection was uninspiring. The main menu was much more interesting. We had the miso soup, summer vegetable roll, garden roll, fava beans and seaweed salad. Dinner was fine.
Updated from previous review on 2016-10-28
LOliva19
Great service, very nice server but what I ordered was probably the worst food I've had in years. My husband's was also mediocre.
The miso soup was delicious but main sukiyaki soup dish 👎
We also had a chocolate mousse cupcake. For me it was to take away the taste of dinner. It was decent. The mousse was like frosting... I thought mousse was fluffy/airy. 🤷🏼
Everyone else's dinners looked great. 🙂
Poor place. No restroom for delivery drivers. Shame on you.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Deborah Keller
This place is in the heart of Berkeley. It has been around for years now and has a refined menu with lots of options. Simply prepared with wonderful flavors. My favorite was the sesame sauce in the broccolini and blanced spinach. As well, the sauce on the sea vegetables was smooth, creamy and delicious. I can't wait to go back. It was 25 dollars each person, and we were happy with that. No leftovers, but satisfied.
ayoub salmasi
Service bad/ late. Waited min 1/2 hour until waitress stopped by. Asked for items and never came. quality food not as expected. looked / tasted cheap
Kwr_
I love supporting vegan restaurants but wasn’t overly impressed with the food. We got the ten bou as an appetizer which was ok but a little bland. For mains we tried the dengaku which had an overly strong miso flavour. We also tried the taku-sui which was just ok. Nothing special.
Updated from previous review on 2024-12-08
Henry Wang
The food quality is good. However, be aware that this is a vegetarian restaurant. I was expecting seafood sushi. It’s a bit disappointing. They don’t offer dine in for now. You need to make an order in person or phone and then pay through cash or Venmo.
This is our fourth time coming here and we're always so impressed with the delicious, fresh, creative,unique dishes that are beautifully presented. It's an unpretentious atmosphere and a great value as well. A true Berkeley institution!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
in the top 3 best vegan restaurant in berkeley in my opinion, been here forever, always good, you can order more salty/fried things if you want that, or order more simple, not so salty, not friend things if you are in the mood for that. it really has everything. the berkeley location is definitely better than the valencia street location, but i still love them both <3
love the hasami age, mikuri age, bao bun, pumpkin soup, inari, vege-tofu curry!
cash only!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Miso soup is my favorite
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I have been eating at Cha Ya for around 15 years. I have never been disappointed in their food. The dishes are consistent in flavor, amount, temperature and texture. I always feel good after eating at Cha Ya. The service is friendly and the environment is clean and quiet. They have lunch specials and other specials. Cha Ya accepts cash or Venmo only. My favorite dishes are: Cha Ya Roll, Gyoza, Agedashi Tofu, Cha-Ya Nabe and the Special Pumpkin Soup.
Pretty unique vegetarian Japanese restaurant. Lots of choices.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Great vegan spot with lots of options! Sushi is fresh and tasty, great miso soup & gyoza.
Great vegan menu. Cute and clean atmosphere, parking around back and street parking available.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Very good and consistent vegan food. We love its soups, shredded salad and spring roll.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
We had a lovely experience and dinner. We ordered mostly sushi. Their specialty sushi rolls were exceptionally inventive and delicious. We had a great time. Service was great, the ambience was informal and relaxed. Prior 2016 review: Perhaps we were limited by the gluten free menu, but the selection was uninspiring. The main menu was much more interesting. We had the miso soup, summer vegetable roll, garden roll, fava beans and seaweed salad. Dinner was fine. Updated from previous review on 2016-10-28
Great service, very nice server but what I ordered was probably the worst food I've had in years. My husband's was also mediocre. The miso soup was delicious but main sukiyaki soup dish 👎 We also had a chocolate mousse cupcake. For me it was to take away the taste of dinner. It was decent. The mousse was like frosting... I thought mousse was fluffy/airy. 🤷🏼 Everyone else's dinners looked great. 🙂
Restaurantji Recommends
Poor place. No restroom for delivery drivers. Shame on you.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
This place is in the heart of Berkeley. It has been around for years now and has a refined menu with lots of options. Simply prepared with wonderful flavors. My favorite was the sesame sauce in the broccolini and blanced spinach. As well, the sauce on the sea vegetables was smooth, creamy and delicious. I can't wait to go back. It was 25 dollars each person, and we were happy with that. No leftovers, but satisfied.
Service bad/ late. Waited min 1/2 hour until waitress stopped by. Asked for items and never came. quality food not as expected. looked / tasted cheap
I love supporting vegan restaurants but wasn’t overly impressed with the food. We got the ten bou as an appetizer which was ok but a little bland. For mains we tried the dengaku which had an overly strong miso flavour. We also tried the taku-sui which was just ok. Nothing special. Updated from previous review on 2024-12-08
The food quality is good. However, be aware that this is a vegetarian restaurant. I was expecting seafood sushi. It’s a bit disappointing. They don’t offer dine in for now. You need to make an order in person or phone and then pay through cash or Venmo.
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