The best restaurants and cafes in the world for vegetarians

Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are popping up everywhere. People are starting to eat more healthy foods and less meat. These post we tell about 25 Best vegetarian and vegan restaurants, bars, cafes, dessert spots and takeaway joints around the world, from Berlin to Barcelona, says Shannon Harley.

25 best vegan restaurants, bars & cafes in the world’s

1. Mildreds, London

Mildreds is to vegetarians and vegans what the little black dress is to fashionistas: a timeless staple that will never let you down. With restaurants in Soho, Kings Cross, Camden and Dalston, you can get your fix of hearty global plant-based dishes at this self-proclaimed ‘home away from home’ across the British capital. Our pick? The Sri Lankan sweet potato curry followed by rhubarb polenta crumble.

2. Teresa Carles, Barcelona

Teresa Carles is touted as one of the best (and first) vegetarian restaurants in this jamon-loving city. They have been serving plant-based breakfasts, lunches and dinners since 1979, and true to the Spanish body clock, are open late, which means you have until 1130pm each day to get your fix of vegie tapas, satisfying salads, handmade pasta (including a gluten-free carbonara) and vegan Selva Negra, Black Forest cake. There’s a deli counter at the front of the restaurant for takeaway salads and juices, and a cosy, low-lit dining room with exposed brick walls and funky tartan-covered banquettes.

3. Smith & Daughters, Melbourne

A hip Melbourne icon by plant-based pin-up chef Shannon Martinez. This hipster’s paradise has a Latin flavour via classics such as an excellent tortilla served with a creamy garlic ‘aoili’, equally good patatas con romesco (fried potatoes with smoked capsicum sauce), crisp-crumbed pea croquettes or a hearty hominy and black bean Mexican soup crowned with crunchy chilli and lime-doused tortilla strips that are anything but orthodox.

4. Nix, New York

One-Michelin-starred Nix in New York City’s Union Square is the fantastic result of chef-owner John Fraser’s belief that eating vegetarian or vegan should be a celebration, not a sacrifice.

The pleasant, pared-back interior has a mod Scandi feel with bare wooden tables, hanging greenery and white-painted brick walls, so you can forget about any fanfare and focus all of your attention on the food.

The signature dish is the tandoor bread with dips – simple enough, right?, until you swipe the warm, slightly charred, pillowy dough through the rich, punchy onion dip with pops of pickled cippolini.

5. Yellow, Sydney

This upscale Potts Point restaurant from chef-owner Brent Savage is at the helm of plant-based fine dining in Australia.

The cosy, softly lit, bistro-style interior by Melbourne designer Pascal Gomes-McNabb continues the golden colour theme the name implies, and is an inviting spot to settle in for a five or seven-course vegetarian or vegan tasting menu that is led by ingredient. Start with ‘Pumpkin + Pepita + Wattleseed + Mulberry’ and finish with ‘Honeydew Sorbet + Yuzu Curd + Young Coconut + Peppermint’.

6. Voner, Berlin

Voner understands that vegetarians just wanna have fun too, with their fast-food vegetarian doners (get it Voner?).

The voner plate comes with slices of marinated seitan ‘meat’ plus all the accoutrements you’d expect from your local kebab joint.

7. Farmacy, London

All-day restaurant Farmacy, in London’s plummy Notting Hill, is a clean-eating temple from Camilla Fayed, the daughter of Harrod’s owner Mohammed Al Fayed. There is a star-status to the plush interior that is perfectly curated to feel like a super-stylish living room with pistachio-coloured banquettes, pretty hanging plants and chic Scandi furniture.

Food is healthy twists on comfort dishes that spans breakfast classics of buckwheat pancakes with coconut yoghurt to ‘earth bowls’, mushroom tacos, hearty salads, probiotic jars, ‘nice cream’ made from frozen bananas, and even superfood syringe shots for those in need.

8. Plates, London

Vegan fine-dining touched down in London with the arrival of young chef Kirk Haworth’s Shoreditch restaurant Plates, which he opened with his sister Keeley in 2018.

Haworth has worked in some of the world’s top kitchens, including The French Laundry in Napa Valley and Sydney’s Quay, and is the son of Michelin-starred British chef Nigel Haworth – and he brings this fine-dining pedigree to his innovative East London fine-diner.

Not only is meat off the menu, so are refined sugars, gluten, white table cloths, matching plates and fine-dining stuffiness.

Haworth’s food is fun, intelligent, boundary pushing and lick-the-plate-clean delicious: gluten-free bread rolls come with a carrot and liquorice ‘butter’ and pot-roast cabbage with butter bean and oyster mushroom is a meaty, no-meat revelation.

9. Dishoom, London

Styled to evoke to golden era of Bombay’s jazz cafes in the 1930s, London’s Dishoom Indian restaurants have long been a hot favourite for out-of-the-box Indian that is neither neighbourhood nor takeaway.

At the new Kensington outpost, the interior is highly styled to be dark and sexy, and while not strictly a vegan restaurant, there is a devoted vegan menu with excellent okra fries, vegetable samosa and gunpowder potatoes. A vegan breakfast is also served daily until 11.45am.

10. Avant Garden, NYC

Industrial-chic Avant Garden is located in New York’s East Village with an outpost across the East River in Brooklyn. Both locations are spot on, from the smart-yet-cosy wine bar interior to the finessed vegan fare.

Forget lentil burgers, a meal here consists of exquisite small plates that start with their signature ‘toast’ options think artichoke puree with black truffle vinaigrette to snack on with a glass of unfiltered Italian Col Fondo sparkling wine (it’s way better than Prosecco!), before you succumb to a brilliant scorched cauliflower with fried capers and toasted garlic, and vegan carbonara with house-made spaghetti.

11. Brammibal’s, Berlin

And you thought hotdogs and weissbier were your only concern in Berlin? Think again, because the doughnuts from Brammibal’s vegan bakery (or ‘doughnuterie’, is that a thing?) have caused many an epiphany.

Flavours include matcha, Frankfurter Kranz, salted caramel hazelnut and even an epic Beyond Meat doughnut cheeseburger.

12. Paperbark, Sydney

Paperbark in Danks Street, Waterloo, is one of the newest vegie eateries on the Sydney scene. And what a welcome arrival it is. The mod-Australian menu (with sleek industrial interior to match) showcases native ingredients, small-scale producers and minimum-intervention wines.

Mushrooms look unbelievably meaty, elegantly threaded onto skewers, while beetroot is paired with tart Davidson plum, and stunning pumpkin tostadas – served on a black tortilla topped with nasturtium and pink radish – belie the fact that this is a neighbourhood eatery and not a fine diner.

13. Sama Sama, Lisbon

Chorizo and seafood-loving Portugal is certainly not known for its vegan culture or crepe scene, but a must-eat for anyone visiting the capital, Lisbon, is one of the outstanding crepes at Sama Sama.

The whole-in-the-wall creperie and juice bar in the neighbourhood of Cais do Sodre specialises in vegetarian and vegan crepes, made to order while you stand on the street with an organic cider, green juice or health-boosting ginger shot.

Vegetarian crepes come with a crispy, cheesy exoskeleton, while the vegan options are loaded with creative fillings, such as mushroom and jackfruit stroganoff.

14. L’Arpege, Paris

It was a contentious move when Michelin-starred French chef Alain Passard gave his Paris fine-diner a plant-only makeover in 2001. But the risk paid off, and L’Arpege kept its Michelin stars and will go down forever in the gastronomic annals with its Jerusalem artichoke veloute and vegetable ravioli at the helm.

Meat, fish and poultry has crept its way back into the menu, but L’Arpege remains one of the few plant-forward Michelin restaurants in the world.

Produce is sourced from three farms with different soil terroir chosen for root veg, brassicas or herbs, and the tasting menu will set you back about $700 plus drinks for the privilege of trying some of this ‘best in show’ produce.

15. La Guingette d’Angele

It started at a charming streetside stall in the 1st arrondissement, and now Paris’ superfood queen Angèle Ferreux-Maeght has opened a slightly larger cafe with a few more wooden chairs and pots of daffodils in the hip 11th arrondissement.

Her creative daily soups (carrot, coconut and tamari, perhaps?), salads, juices and bakes (hello mini chocolate olive oil cakes!) are the best plant-based dejeuner to have you glowing in the City of Lights.

16. Ms Cupcake, London

This sweet-as-pie dessert den, tucked in the Coldharbour Lane side of Brixton Market, prides itself on serving the naughtiest vegan cakes in town.

Ms. Cupcake is London’s first entirely vegan cake shop, and while the decadent iced cupcakes, brownies and cookie sandwiches may be plant-based and handmade, there’s nothing guilt-free about them.

17. Santa Cantina, Berlin

Berlin’s hip Mexican streetfood-inspired Santa Cantina was one of the first serious Mexican joints in the city and remains a hotspot for new and interesting twists on the classics.

While there is meat on the menu, the vegan taco banquet for two shows that vegies do it better, from vegie smoked tofu ‘chorizo’ with chimichurri to eggplant tempura with roasted tomato salsa.

18. Cafe Gratitude, LA

A positive affirmation a day keeps the doctor away, at least that’s the idea at Cafe Gratitude, a small chain of all-day smart-casual organic vegan cafes with five locations across Los Angeles.

“Today, ‘I Am Superb’,” you’ll say to the waiter as you order a cacao superfood smoothie with coconut milk, dates, avocado, bee pollen and vanilla to go with your ‘I am humble’ Indian curry bowl. If everyone made food this delicious, we’d all be vegan.

19. Bunna Cafe, New York

Ethiopian food is one of the hot trends to watch, but New York is already ahead of the game with places such as Bunna in Bushwick.

Traditional Ethiopian vegetarian curries and condiments are served on a giant slightly sour pancake called injera made from fermented teff batter.

It’s a hands-on affair as you tear the injera into pieces to wipe up the neat piles of lentil dahl or spiced spinach sitting atop. Think of it as pizza, Ethiopian-style.

20. Beyond Sushi, NYC

You’ve heard of the plant-based Beyond Burger, now it’s time for Beyond Sushi. The vegan sushi at this New York city chain looks like black rice maki rolls with baby kale, charred broccolini and roasted beets topped with walnut and Jerusalem artichoke puree, while dumplings drizzled with charred green onion and beet sauce, and seasonal noodle soups answer the call for warm dishes.

21. Temple of Hackney, London

Because sometimes, even vegetarians need fried chicken. Temple of Hackney is one of the bricks and mortar shops of popular (and excellently named) food truck Temple of Seitan, which dishes up vegan versions of fast food classics made from seitan, a plant-based protein made from gluten.

Fingerlickin’ fried chicken, mac ‘n’ cheese, burgers and coleslaw hit the spot when only junk will do. Sister eatery Temple of Camden, is located in (you guessed it) Camden.

22. ABCV, New York

ABCV is Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s third restaurant inside New York City’s ABC Carpet & Home furniture store (the ‘V’ stands for vegetable), and it is his first vegetarian eatery.

The breakfast menu is inspired by the chef’s love of savoury Asian and Indian dishes, from congee to dosa, while the dinner menu spans the globe and proves meat is not necessary in dishes such as kimchi fried sticky brown rice and chargrilled artichoke with pine nut crumbs. The bright, minimalist lab-like interior belies the earthy, seasonal menu.

23. Purezza, London

The oozy cheese is the best part of a pizza, right? So it’s a revelation that Purezza vegan sourdough pizza in London’s Camden doesn’t forgo the fromage, but rather tops their cult pizzas with lush vegan cheese.

The margherita pizza is topped with their house-made artisan mozzarella made from fermented organic Italian brown rice milk, while the cheeseboard showcases the highs of cashew cheese.

24. Vanilla Black, London

This is what Michelin says about this upscale vegetarian stalwart: “A vegetarian restaurant where real thought has gone into the creation of dishes, which deliver an array of interesting texture and flavour contrasts.

” Vanilla Black has been at the vanguard of meat-free dining in London since 2004 when it opened in EC4. Innovative creations, such as Marmite and sweet onion dumplings and a watermelon ‘steak tartare’, are served in an elegant Art Deco-era drawing room dining space.

25. Plant Food & Wine, LA

Plant-based chef Matthew Kenney’s upscale vegan restaurant on LA’s hip Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice has a sleek, minimalist aesthetic with natural wines in the glass that debunks all those hippie, handwoven clichés of vegetarian restaurants.

Come for brunch, lunch or dinner and don’t miss the cashew raclette, kimchi dumplings and coconut cream pie, which fans of his Sydney restaurant Alibi on Woolloomooloo Wharf may recognise.