Tofu Yu

Today I took a much anticipated trip to Tofu Yu, a deli and cafe dedicated to tofu. As much as I love fake meat, tofu is by far my favorite food. You can see why I would be excited about this place. Their website looks sharp and the online menu has a lot of tasty sounding dishes. However, when I went in today it wasn't quite what I had expected. From what I gather, the sandwiches are made to order and the other food on their online menu can be found pre-made in the deli case. I showed up in the afternoon so maybe they sold out of a lot of their already prepared items. I was excited to try things from their website like tofu sushi rolls, tofu skewers, fried tofu sandwiches or tea smoked tofu but I didn't see them on the menu inside or in the deli case.

I ordered the BBQ tofu sandwich. It was good, but also weird. The tofu is pressed into thin sheets, which I guess makes it interesting, but it doesn't taste or feel like tofu. It kind of reminded me of fake deli meat before soy meat got tasty, like yves brand in the 90's. From the look of the food in the deli case the soy chicken is made of the same tofu sheets. Instead of the usual sandwich veggies, my sandwich came with cabbage and pickled onions, again, not bad but definitely strange.



I really want to like this place, so I'll try it again. I think it is more appealing for vegans than regular vegetarians. They serve Maggie Mudd's ice cream, have vegan mac and cheese, and special desserts like tofu cheese cake. They gave me a sample of the cheese cake and it was actually really good. They also sell their own tofu in different flavors and veggie meat balls. When I go back, I'll make an update.


Tofu Yu
2929 Ninth St. (at Ashby)
Berkeley
510 665 TOFU