Aisunao

Read all the great reviews and was excited to try the hearty healthy all organic local fare. However I think the flavours are really lackluster. A few of the side dishes were just not balanced. The rice was ok but the soup was a little too salty. I think it’s overhyped for the price. Felt quite disappointed after a relatively long wait as well. Limited options on the island hence this might have to be an option if you want a warm meal, though super mid.

The restaurant decor is very warm and emotional. Staff was very helpful and friendly. It’s just I didn’t really like the rice personally. Its more like sticky rice in my hometown. Other than that everything was good and reasonable price. I think any vegetarian should try.

Beautiful restaurant with lovely seating areas and great music too. The food was delicious, and lots of it! Traditional kaiseki style with lots of different dishes, you could tell everything was prepared with care and the ingredients were high quality. A must if you're vegan as the lunch set menu is default vegan it would seem!

I was looking for a vegetarian-friendly spot on TripAdvisor as I was spending the night on beautiful Naoshima and stumbled across Aisunao. Located in an old house, this charming vegan restaurant offers a filling set lunch made with germinated brown rice, a hearty miso soup, and various preparations of vegetables including tomatoes, eggplant, burdock root, sweet potato, radish, and various kinds of pickles. As this is an 80-year-old house, it features tatami seating in several rooms, each with a unique character. They also offer vegan cakes and a variety of beverages, I tried the Yuzu sake on the rocks, and it was amazing! I have had Japanese temple food around Japan, and this is easily some of the most delicious I have had! Please note if you are looking for true vegan temple cuisine, this uses onions, which are not traditional in 精進料理. Many of the guests the day I visited were Taiwanese, many of whom are also Buddhist vegetarians.

Delicious vegan food. You could only order a set menu but we were pretty happy with it. Just sad that we got here too late so couldn’t try their cake desserts but we had the red bean dessert which was delicious too. Will come back in the future

Hip place with locally grown foods that complimented the artsy-ness of the island. The brown rice is grown locally and fermented for a few days to become macrobiotic. It was very tasty and I wouldn’t have known it was fermented if not for the sign. Our miso soup was a unique regional brew. Regional sides also included sweet beans and candied seaweed. Lastly, we ordered the olive soda made from olives grown at a nearby island. We were both very full by the end of our meal with the medium-sized rice, despite skipping breakfast before lunch. Local artists sold their crafts at this store, which could make for good unique souvenirs. The owners were committed to sustainability and encouraged customers to leave their naoshima maps in a corner for the store for others to reuse.

Very touristy, only one meal available which you have to choose at the entry and even then they forgot to bring our food. Group next to us had to wait very long to pay and their table stayed unclean even after they had left long ago. After waiting for ages until the coffee we ordered was ready we had to stand up and leave for our museum reservation. Here the owner was very unfriendly, he refused to acknowledge the bad service he had provided and even wanted us to pay for the filter coffee he had just made after making us wait so long. First and only bad experience in Japan.

Delicious vegan lunch menu set for only 1000yens. We came around 11:30 without reservation. Loved the aged organic brown rice.