Minako Organic-ish - San Mateo

Simply delicious. no idea why no one knows about this two-year restaurant. very pleasant staff. very attentive and detailed. as well as all vegans as they use separate section and utensils for vegan vegetarian preparations. meat options told by my guests are very good. do not choose COLOGNE/PERFUME by heavy personal allergies. very simple atmosphere, clean beautiful decoration toilet. highly recommended this secret gemstone

Friendly restaurant with a lot of Vegan options. The food is authentic Japanese and tasted fantastic! The owner handed me over a hand written book where other customers shared their Vegan restaurants around the globe. Definitely a place to go even if it’s only Vegan.

My wife and I went here this last weekend for a date night. Eating out can be complicated, since we're both on the same vegan diet except for the fact that she's also very allergic to wheat gluten and some other grains (luckily, not rice). When it comes to getting sushi, our options are rarely any good, and we've mostly just given up on eating it. After searching Happy Cow, we found Minako. It was in the right area for where we were going out, and we were surprised to find that such an establishment was able to be found outside of San Francisco proper. ATTN: we saw a review that mentioned how allergic the restaurant owner was to fragrances, and that you can't wear perfumes or colognes if you want to eat here. Being that we were on a date night, normally we would wear such fragrances. But I also know a few people allergic to perfumes, so we decided to heed this advice (which is wrong to call advice, and more accurate to call policy). I'm glad we did. There are signs all over the entrance and front of the house mentioning this allergy and that the restaurant owner retains the right to refuse service to anyone right below it. This may seem heavy handed to some, and might put you off. I encourage you to see through that perception. The main reason for this is that the woman that owns this restaurant, Minako, is a WONDERFUL human being, so lovely to talk with, personally waited on us, and made our night special. And I haven't even gotten to how great the sushi was. IT WAS AMAZING. We ate 4 different varieties of sushi rolls, which fed us very well, had incredible green tea, and left very satiated for under $50 including tip (we tip well). I couldn't recommend this place more. The quality of food, ownership, and environment is so worth the stop. And the mild inconvenience of not wearing cologne or perfume shouldn't be a problem for you in any way. If it is, this isn't the type of place you'd enjoy anyways. I can't wait to return.

Minako's used to be in The Mission in San Francisco. It was the original restaurant in the mission to offer Vegan Sushi and was always the best in my opinion. We tried to go there many times over the last few years but it was always packed until it shut down a couple of years ago. Imagine our delight to stumble upon the new Minako's Organic(ish) restaurant on the edge of Burlingame/San Mateo (Peninsuala Ave) just five mins from my office. The menu has several vegan sections, roughly 50% of the menu is vegan as well as some of the specials. They serve fish and chicken, however no cross-contamination with chicken or fish occurs as separate utensils and cutting boards are strictly used. The chef is Minako's lovely mother, Yoko, and everything she cooks is beautifully prepared and perfectly served and always delicious. My vegan gioza and sushi came with several little sides of seaweed and pickled salads a well as fresh wasabi. Poor Minako was allergic to us (we are not heavy perfume users) but she was still very friendly, and even exchanged lists of favorite vegan restaurants with us.

There are a lot of great vegan options and gluten free options. We came with a group, and the woman taking our order spent a lot of time with us to understand everyone's food preferences and allergies. She was very friendly and gave us all free vegan gluten-free mochi for dessert! I had vegan sushi and a tofu and veggie dish with homemade curry that she recommended that wasn't on the menu. Absolutely delicious. There is currently no indoor seating (as of June 2022 . There are a couple of small tables outside, or you can take your food to go. (We had a picnic at Coyote Point. They are being extremely careful about covid, so definitely bring a mask.