It was meh. But maybe I'm being too harsh. I have a high bar when it comes to Japanese food and this was OK but not so good I'll return. I eat mostly vegetarian so I can say that I am used to light eating, but I actually had to eat again when I got home from dinner! It's certainly healthy and the food was okay tasting, so I guess if you want to eat light on volume and on flavor, this is your place. read more

Cha-Ya is definitely worth the wait, every time. The food is delicious with subtle flavors and textures. The vegetables are cooked perfectly, which I cannot say for 90% of restaurants out there. The food is clean and nutritious. Even though it gets packed, I find the atmosphere there also really calming. Eating there is an enjoyable experience. read more

This was really an awesome place. We got there right before the kitchen closed. We shared tempura avocado rolls and I had the mushroom melody soup. Holy moly it was sooo good. I will definitely be going back! read more

good for vegetarians. harder for me to appreciate. soup tasted healthy, very vegetarian. very fitting for berkeley. eggplant miso tasted ok read more

Delicious! Everything that I've tried so far on the menu has been very good. Go early and you shouldn't have any problems getting a table.

Cha-Ya's expansion construction is complete, and they've doubled in size. Decor is still very basic, but more importantly, the menu and food are still the same. read more

Most beautiful, delicious, colorful, simple temple cuisine. I could eat this way every day.

food: good vegan stuff, but ate all my meal and was still hungry..had to order more. the good: yummy veggies, sushi was great (except the cha-ya roll which was totally fried) good broth and tofu! the bad: $60 check for two.. the desert was gross.. had this weird green tea cereal on it? warm diet coke.. and yes lots of fried stuff read more

As a college student, ChaYa loses two stars because of two reasons: it's pricey and it's cash only. I had the vegetable tempura, which had a generous portion of tempura on the side and a bowl of noodles in miso soup. It was good, and that's about all I can say. My friend had the vegetable tofu curry noodles, and he seemed to like it. The food and service were good, but after tax and tip, it came out to $15 for each of us. Not that expensive compared to other places, but for a vegetarian bowl of noodles that were good but not mind-blowing, it's on the pricey side. I'm glad I tried it, but in the future, if I wanted vegetarian, I would go somewhere else and order something vegetarian for about half the price. And cash only! read more

The best place in town really good service great staff great location is really nice hopefully I can come back again soon

This is a great restaurant and I would give it a five, but it is VERY ANNOYING that they don't take credit cards. It's 2014. UPDATE: It's 2016, and still no credit cards. I'm reducing by another star out of frustration. read more

Pinch me! Am I dreaming?! I can eat sushi with my carnivorous meat eatin' boyfriend?! No, I can't be dreaming! I have the belly bulge to prove it! read more

Delicious miso soup, sunomono salad, and gyoza soup. Vegetable soup and vegan roll was just okay.

This place is amazing. I loooooooove the sea vegetable salad. All the items I've ever tried here have brought me back for more. This tiny place will give you well-presented, fresh, tasty, amazing food without the pretentiousness or high prices. Yeah, the wait is really long, so make sure you go with people that you actually like spending time with. read more

My boyfriend and I will return here again and again... but only because it seems to be our only vegan Asian option. The food here is good, but just good. Reducing Japanese food to sans-the-carcass alone just doesn't cut it for me... I love that it's possible for Cha-Ya to offer a vegan-only menu, but the food is bland and uninventive. We tinker with veganizing my mom's old Japanese recipes and even we can think of more daring pieces... and trust me, I'm an awful cook. Live a little, Cha-Ya! You're scaring away all the non-vegans! read more

As a meat eater, it is tough to really like this place. Considering there is no fish on sushi rolls, I don't understand why it is so expensive. Some of the vegetarian dishes are also just a bowl of steamed vegetables. I tried my friend's eggplant, which was good. I'm going to get that next time. read more

This is my favorite restaurant. The food is good, healthy, and not greasy. Definitely order the Cha Ya Roll. It is the beat sushi roll I have ever had! read more

You'll have a very difficult time finding vegan miso soup at a regular Japanese restaurant, so I'm very grateful that Cha-Ya exists. Everything is really yummy. Try the Cha-ya roll. read more

i am not a vegetarian. neither am i a hardcore meat-lover. i am an equal opportunity food lover, but i was disappointed by the food at cha-ya. the flavors were off. let's start with the cha-ya roll. what was up with the sauce? it tasted sharply, overwhelmingly of ginger. the goma-ae was weird, the dressing too creamy. the stuffed eggplant thing was bland. dengaku was... nothing to write home about. i expected to love cha-ya, but at the end of the meal, i just felt somehow cheated. the food was edible but far from amazing. i don't understand why so many other yelpers rave about it. am i missing something? read more

Tasty Tasty Tasty. Cha-Ya owns a little piece of my heart (the vegetarian part).

This restaurant makes vegans, Japanese people, and Berkeley look bad all in one. I really desperately wanted this restaurant to live up to expectations. But sadly, everything I've ordered at this place after going a few times has been flavorless (in addition to being extremely small and expensive for the lack of size and care put into it!). Their rolls are unseasoned, their gyoza basically tastes like dough meant to be dipped in a pure oil sauce, and their noodle soup actually has a decent broth but the substance of the soup is bland, unseasoned steamed vegetables!! I don't understand why people would pay for such a thing, nor why a restaurant would be proud to serve it. They have this one sauce (it might be plum?) that is one-dimensional and extremely overpowering, smothered in gobs over pretty gross steamed eggplant, bland mushrooms, and other vegetables they're trying to hide in this overwhelming sauce. Lastly, the cash only thing is not only suspicious and sketchy, but (assuming everything is on the up-and-up and they just don't want to pay the credit card processing fee) I find it pretty rude to pass on that fee to customers who aren't carrying cash (most people) in the form of a $3+ fee to use the restaurant's ATM. Overall, please consider supporting other vegan businesses in the area and don't mistakenly assume this place represents Japanese or vegan food because it most certainly does not! read more

Definitely worth the wait, this delicious food and cozy atmosphere is completely comforting!

My favorite thing there was this broiled eggplant with miso. It was tender, delicious, and the miso was the perfect combination of sweet saltiness. Not actually sweet like sugar, but a flavorful paste that was fragrant and complimented the eggplant. It also wasn't stringy like eggplant normally is, or tough or covered in greasy. read more

Yummy vegan food! My two friends and I shared the senroppon salad, dengaku, Cha-Ya roll, and stuffed eggplant. Such pretty plates employing the natural colors and textures of vegetable products. The salad was a beautiful and very tall tower of swirling green, orange, and white hues. I was most looking forward to the dengaku, which is the eggplant, mushroom, and tofu trio, but the sauce that covered the trio was oddly extremely salty. I guess that means my favorite entree items were the Cha-Ya roll and stuffed eggplant, a tad disappointing since they are also two items that involve frying which to me is a pretty easy way to make things delicious. So, the only improvement I could think of for this restaurant would be to try challenging oneself by offering more tasty non-tempura items. But Cha-Ya most definitely still serves up a meal that is filling and clean. read more

We liked the place. Kid friendly. Four of us and we each ordered something different and shared. Liked the kinoko miso, soba salad, agedashi tofu, pot stickers, and deep-fried Portobello mushroom. When in the bay area (we live in the Sierras) we seek out vegan friendly new places to try. read more

This place is wonderful! I love Japanese food, but have a hard time as a vegetarian. The menu has so many options, and the food was sooo good. I can't wait to come back! read more

Note: this review is solely concerning their sushi. Cha-Ya's sushi is overrated, if anything. The strategy of "cram lots of vegetables in a roll" doesn't work. I have three main gripes: 1. Portions are tiny, unless you spend way more money than you would at a superior sushi place (Kirala, for instance). 2. Prices are really high, for having no fish. 3. Taste is really bland. Their rice is mediocre, and their vegetable selection is too. read more

You know a place is good when there is ALWAYS a line outside. This is one of those places. You may have to wait 10 minutes to an hour (no reservations) for a table in this small place (why don't they move somewhere bigger? they surely make enough money!) but rest assured: its worth it. Everything is vegetable based (no fake meats) and its all wonderful. Tempura, noodles, soups, sushi, etc. Reasonable prices. Apparently there is a small parking lot, but its easy to park if you cross Shattuck and go up a block or two. Domo arigato Cha-Ya! read more

We had a party of 6 -- a week day lunch. Only two of the 2-tops were occupied. We waited 30 minutes before the waitress came to take our order. Then she didn't get the order right. And never checked on us during the meal. We waited 20 minutes -- waving at her to get our check while she was on the phone. Bad service. I thought vegetarian food would be healthful -- but almost everything was fried. I'd rather get a salad some place else. No thanks, not going back read more

I went to a Sarah Kramer book signing in San Francisco and she got asked what her favorite restaurant is. She said hand downs Cha-Ya! I mean, one of the most popular vegan cook-book authors in the world and that was her choice. Nuff said.If I lived closed to Cha-Ya I would easily eat there several times a week. Not only is it delicious, but it is so nice not to have to worry about finding a piece of meat in my food, having to ask a bunch of questions about whether the dishes are vegan etc. It makes the whole dining experience so much more enjoyable when you know that an entire restaurant is cruelty free. Their Curry Udon soup is my hands down favorite dish. All of their sushi rolls are fabulous as well! My boyfriend is bringing me over some tonight. Heaven. read more

This is our favorite restaurant in the East Bay. The food is so fresh and delicious. Our family is vegan, but we have brought many non-vegan friends here over the years, and they have all loved it. read more

I have been waiting to come to this place forever and I finally went to eat here with high expectations of a vegetarian sushi restaurant...so amazing. Unfortunately I was disappointed because many of the could be amazing ideas somehow were bland and not that tasty. I mean the sad part is that the ingredients sound amazing and the combination I believe would have been really tasty but what the restaurant made didnt come out tasty. too bad. Im still happy that there is so much selection and they have a lot of creative variety but somehow it didnt come out right in taste. So much potential. Small restaurant read more

Five stars just because it offers vegan sushi, vegan miso soup, vegan everything. Occasionally a dish doesn't live up to expectations, but overall, I love eating here enough to go out of my way for it. It is a very small restaurant and sometimes it takes forever to be seated. read more

I'm not vegan. I just like good food. I was interested to see how the words good, vegan, and japanese go together. I got my answer: pricey, long wait, and very creatively. The food here is unique and if you're a meat lover then you're going to be hungry. The place is packed and doesn't take reservations so come early, come in a small group, preferably 2-4. read more

This was the first time I have ever been into a vegetarian restaurant. The food was pretty good and there was a good selection of different vegetables in both the udon soup and the rice dishes. The service was pretty quick and the prices were reasonable. I would definitely come back here again. read more

Simple but delicious. Wholesome food. Cha-ya bowl has lots of good vegetables.Hanetsu is tasty, but could have used a bit more salt..which was fine anyway since there was soy sauce. Overall a great find and highly recommended! read more

This little vegetarian sushi spot is worth the trip to Berkeley if you live in the city. Good prices and a vast selection of healthy, tasty dishes. Mmm...tempura roll. read more

i know, i am quite liberal with the 5 star reviews, but i tend to only review places that i looOOoOove. and this was one of them! im not even vegan and i almost died of excitement as i was browsing the menu. i went here on a friday night at about 8:30 and only had to wait about 3 minutes for a seat at the bar. inexpensive and delicious. i will definitely be coming back very soon. read more

Sushi was good, the fact that it's all vegan is amazing, but the tab adds up and quick!

decent little place in the gourmet ghetto of berkeley. i had the kinoko udon with soba noodles (mixture of mushrooms) which was really nice and warm (perfect for cold winter weather). service was ok. not stellar, but the waitresses come refill your water quite often. read more