Nakameguro—Meguro, Tokyo. This stylish district is lined with fashionable select shops, second-hand clothing stores and antique sellers where fashion dolls and dandies from inside and outside Japan bustle.

At just a 3-minute train ride from Shibuya via the Tokyu Toyoko Line, Nakameguro is an easily accessible location.

Today, we will take a look at SOAKS, a popular café you can stop by during your shopping spree. At this vegetable powder café, customers can look forward to tucking into tasty, high-quality vegetables made by Kumiko Takeshima.

The owner of SOAKS is an experienced reporter on gourmet cuisine. She decided to open the café from her own experience to serve food that is both delicious and good for the body.

This year marks the 7^th anniversary of SOAKS, where the main menu item is doughnuts made using healthy lotus roots. The name of the café originates from wanting to offer vegetables “soaked” in nutrition.

SOAKS is an open-kitchen style café where you can enjoy the food making process, from the sounds to the smells. There are both table seats as well as individual counter seats if you’re just popping in by yourself.

The most popular item sold at SOAKS is their vegetable powder (43g / \650 tax incl. *ginger powder only 27g) that’s made using 100% pure vegetables grown in Japan. Its characteristic comes from the boiled vegetables and same quality of nutrition that’s left in the powder. For example, in the case of the spinach powder, it’s packed full of nutritional value with just one teaspoon!

There are 13 varieties of powder to choose from, including lotus root, broccoli and yuzu. The café also offers simple recipes that can be made using the vegetable powder.

This is the doughnut that’s made with lotus root vegetable powder (Right: \300 tax incl. / Left: \16- tax incl.) There are 6 doughnut varieties in total: on weekdays there are 3 and, on the weekend, the full line-up of 6 is on offer.

The doughnuts are cooked with organic palm oil. The baking powder used contains no alums, only ingredients that are good for the body, allowing you to enjoy eating the doughnuts without worry. You can order doughnuts to take out from 10:30am, so it’d be perfect to take one while walking along Meguro River!

Other popular menu items include the plate servings. This is the hearty doughnut plate (\900 tax incl.) which also comes with salad, bacon, sausages and more. The doughnuts aren’t overly sweet, so they go well with bacon and sausages. The salad is dressed with flavourful ginger powder.

During the evening, the café turns into a bar where you can order alcoholic drinks. One popular drink is a cocktail specially made with spinach powder (\800 tax incl.) With just a sip from your drink, you can get your fill of vegetables. It’s especially recommended for people that don’t have time to keep up their looks every day.

SOAKS is a place where you can easily get your fill of delicious vegetables. Whether you’re a veggie lover or not, be sure to stop by to give the café a try.

Photo：Haruka Yamamoto

Edit：Namiko Azuma

Text：Ryoichi Komaba