Beijing’s Best Vegetarian and Vegan Chinese Restaurants
We already took a look at some vegetarian and vegan friendly western restaurants in Beijing, and now it's time for a look at some Chinese ones. From three Michelin starred restaurants, to humble vegan dumpling eateries to incredibly cheap vegetarian buffets there is a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan Chinese restaurants in Beijing. So let's take a look at a few of our favorite spots!
Vege Tiger
With a handful of restaurants across Beijing, Vege Tiger serves up a vegetarian buffet every day from 11.30 am-2pm for lunch, and 5-8pm for dinner. They serve up a range of vegetarian versions of Chinese cuisines and are well known for their fake meat dishes like Barbecued "Chuanr" (面筋 miànjīn), Kungpao "Chicken" and Braised Vegan "Meat" Balls.
They also of course have plenty of veggie-based dishes up for grabs like Fried Potatoes With Green Beans or Garlic Broccoli along with a variety of dumplings, baozi, noodles and rice. At only RMB 68 per person, Vege Tiger is a real steal! If you want to find out more, click here to read about our recent visit.
Vege Tiger 素虎素食 (Qianmen branch)
1-3, 1/F, Bldg 3, Zhengyang Market, Qianmen Xijie, Xicheng District
西城区前门西大街正阳市场3号楼一层1-3号
Hours: Daily, 11.30-2pm; 5.30-8pm
Phone: 010 6301 0212
Tianchu Miaoxiang Vegetarian Restaurant
With two branches in Beijing, one near Chaowai and one up in Wudaokou by Tsinghua, this popular vegetarian restaurant is famous for its mock meat, fish and mushroom dishes. Seriously the way these dishes look you’ll find it hard to believe it’s not real! One such dish is their version of Sauerkraut Fish 酸菜鱼 suāncàiyú (RMB 76) called 沧海桑田 cānghǎisāngtián an idiom similar to “the winds of change”, it features slices of fake fish, tofu, wood ear mushrooms and cabbage all cooked in a sour soup.
Some other dishes to try are the Kungpao Cuizhen 宫保翠珍 gōngbǎo cuì zhēn (RMB 52), a play on kungpao chicken; Malaxiangguo 麻辣香锅 málàxiāngguō (RMB 52), you can relax knowing there won’t be any surprise meat in this one; and Colorful Dumplings 彩色水饺 cǎisè shuǐjiǎo (RMB 30) filled with mushroom, tofu and carrot filling.
Tianchu Miaoxiang Vegetarian Restaurant (Chaowai branch)
2/F, Bldg D, Chaowai Soho, 6 Chaoyangmen Waidajie, Chaoyang District
朝阳区朝阳门外大街乙6号朝外Soho大厦D座2层0260号
Hours: 10am-9.30pm
Phone: 010-59001088, 010-59001288
Ori Sake & Food
From their small and unassuming space at 47 Jiaodaokou Nandajie, Ori Sake & Food mostly specialize in vegetarian and vegan Chengdu xiaochi (小吃). Unlike many other vegetarian Chinese restaurants you won’t see any plant-based meats here with the focus instead being on the vegetables and traditional meat substitutes like tofu. They have some classic Sichuan dishes like Mapo Dofu (RMB 50) and Dumplings with Chili Oil (RMB 40) which are stuffed with mushroom, diced radish and fried tofu. Some more unusual offerings are the Fried Cheese Dumplings (RMB 50), Eggplant Cheese Roll (RMB 55) Sake Lees Ice Cream (RMB 55). As you might guess from the name they also serve sake here, with over one hundred varieties of the Japanese rice wine available. You can find out more about Ori Sake & Food here.
哦了 Ori Sake & Food
47 Jiaodaokou Nandajie, Dongcheng District
东城区交道口南大街47号
Hours: Daily, 6pm-1am
Phone: 15652920171
Fragrant Forest 香合林
Fragrant Forest is a 100 percent vegan restaurant specializing in dumplings and noodles. It looks like your usual fanguanr but is owned by friendly devout Buddhist Wan Li, hence the vegan menu. They keep things simple here, with a menu consisting of a handful of noodle dishes, around eight different kinds of dumplings and a couple of small dishes. Some dishes that tickled our fancy were the Noodles served with Soy Bean Paste aka zhajiangmian (RMB 22), Celery with Fragrant Mushroom Dumplings (RMB 32) and Cabbage with Toona Sinensis (RMB 36). Click here to read more about our visit to Fragrant Forest.
Fragrant Forest 香合林
B4 Andeli Beijie, Xicheng District
西城区安德里北街乙4号
Hours: Daily, 11am-2pm, 5pm-8pm
Phone: 13141499491
Vege Wonder
A one Michelin star restaurant, Vege Wonder brings fine dining for vegetarians. They only do set menus, starting out at RMB 980 per person and their current menu takes inspiration from paintings by artist Joan Mitchell. As you can imagine the dishes themselves look like pieces of art and taste just as divine as they look. Here they try to make the most of the natural flavor and texture of the vegetables, as showcased by one of their current dishes “Tomato” featuring a semi-dried tomato atop a tomato gel, surrounded by a frozen soup and tomato salad. They also have more familiar dishes like Spring Pancakes filled with toon, porcini, spring shoots and tiger palm and Dumplings filled with yellow cauliflower, pea shoots and green curry.
Vege Wonder
2/F, West Bldg, WF Central, Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District
东城区王府井大街王府中环西座2层
Hours: 11am-2pm, 5.30-10pm
Phone: 010-68888798, 010-68888199
King’s Joy
Another Michelin starred restaurant, King’s Joy was actually the first vegetarian restaurant in the world to be crowned with three Michelin stars. This restaurant sources all its ingredients locally so its menu changes with the seasons. Some current menu items are Shiitake Peking Sauce Siumai, Clay Pot Wild Mushroom Stew and Matsutake Bean Curd Tofu.
They have a few different set menus available and as you’d expect from the three stars they do tend to be on the spenny side, you can get the Contemorary Beijing Afternoon Tea for RMB 588 or it’s a steep jump to RMB 1399 for the Imperial Grand Menu, RMB 1999 for the Comprehensive Set Menu and RMB 2588 for the Indulgent Set Menu
King's Joy Vegetarian Restaurant
2 Wudaoying Hutong, Dongcheng District
东城区五道营胡同2号
Hours: 11am-9.30pm
Phone: 010-84049191
READ: Beijing’s Best Vegetarian and Vegan-Friendly Western Restaurants
Images: courtesy of the venue, RJ Fry, Dianping, Unsplash
