Feel-good Feasting: The Best Vegan Restaurants in Melbourne

Melburnians are spoilt for choice when it comes to vegan eats, with innovative, imaginative, and downright delicious options across every cuisine and budget. Whether you’re after vegan-friendly fried chicken, a raw macrobiotic wholefood bowl, a quick pizza drizzled in dairy-free mozzarella, or a decadent eight-course degustation – here are a range of places to eat if you’re vegan (or non-vegan, too).

Huong Viet Vegan

Vietnamese food, with its love of fish sauce, pork and seafood, doesn’t normally come to mind as a vegan-friendly cuisine. However, you’ll find that the folks at Huong Viet are doing magical things with plants, recreating all of your favourite dishes in vegan form. They use soy and spices to recreate everything from sizzling beef and sweet’n’sour flounder to smoky pork sausage, and it’s all so moreish that even the omnivores will be happy. With silky sauces and fabulous tofu and veggie dishes to boot, eating sustainably has never tasted so good - which is why this Footscray favourite is one of the best vegan restaurants in Melbourne. 

36A Leeds Street, Footscray 

Shu Restaurant 

Say hello to Shu, a vegan restaurant in Melbourne serving up a uniquely delicious, plant-based interpretation of modern Sichuan cuisine. By using local and seasonal produce, executed with a creative mind and contemporary philosophy, this is one dining experience in Melbourne you won't find anywhere else. Craving a Yum Cha session? Go for their unlimited Yum Cha on Saturdays and Sundays. Keen to impress a fellow vegan friend? We highly recommend the 10 course vegan degustation, which includes nut cheese infused with Asian herbs and spices, and other snackier fare such as plant prawns and salmon. The stand out is the charcoal dumplings made with kohlrabi mince, the slow-poached, thousand layers beetroot and the slow-roasted eggplant wrapped with pickled chilli jam. 

The interiors are just as surprising and vibrant as the menu, with chef and owner Shu having designed the striking artwork displayed on the ceiling. Make sure to look up! It's moody, with a touch of industrial and neon lighting aplenty. 

147 Johnston Street, Collingwood

Pinchy's Lobster Bar 

Does your partner have a hankering for a luxurious seafood spread, and you don't want to miss out on a delightful dining experience? Head to Pinchy's. Sitting pretty above the hustle and bustle of the city, it's bringing a delicious dose of the beach to Bourke Street. In vibrant surrounds (a literal sea of pink), while your date indulges in some of the best seafood, you can be treated to the same luxe menu, made entirely vegan. Their lion's mane mushroom roll is jaw-droppingly good, and you'll be surprised that it's not actually lobster! We also rate their charred capsicum crisp and spiced tofu tacos. As you relax atop their charming balcony, with a glass of sparkling or spicy Margarita. you'll easily see why this is one of the coolest vegan restaurants in Melbourne. 

Sitchu Tip: Go for their vegan bottomless brunch. 

Level 1/200 Bourke Street, Melbourne 

The Carringbush Hotel

At 130 years, The Carringbush Hotel proves that an old dog can indeed learn new tricks, relaunching as a fresh new pub that’s all about sustainability. With new owners at the helm, they’ve created an entirely vegetarian and vegan menu that will satisfy even the biggest of meat lovers. Dig into the likes of smoked potato and eggplant dumplings, maple teriyaki tofu and spiced sweet-potato steaks. Waste reduction is a focus at the new Carringbush too, with metal straws and wines on tap offered.

228 Langridge Street, Abbotsford

Red Sparrow Pizza

Vegans shall never again look wistfully at the cheesy pull of their neighbour’s pizza, before settling for a marinara. Red Sparrow has mastered the art of non-dairy cheese – their mozzarella features tapioca for stretchiness, while parmesan gets crumbliness from coconut and almond feta is deliciously tangy. Keep the party going with meat-free pepperoni or feel virtuous via a super green pizza topped with zucchini and broccolini.

406 Smith Street, Collingwood

Lona Misa 

Shannon Martinez, the queen of Melbourne’s vegan scene, has opened a blockbuster venue in South Yarra’s sleek Ovolo Hotel. Lona Misa is an all-day, plant-based diner that transforms from café to restaurant to wine bar with ease. Start the morning with coconut yoghurt granola and huevos rancheros, or book in for luxurious Latin-inspired dinners and cocktails. Martinez continues to wield her kitchen magic by creating veganised versions of morcilla (Spanish blood sausage), barbacoa tostadas, peri peri chicken and Brazilian seafood stew you have to taste to believe. It's one of our favourite vegan restaurants in Melbourne - the grilled over coals Pastor mushroom skewer (blue oyster mushrooms, with a corn puree and fermented pineapple and chilli) is charred and smoky perfection and a must try dish. 

234 Toorak Road, South Yarra 

Shoku Iku

If vegan eating to you means bland salads and not a lot else, then prepare to be schooled by Shoku Iku. The term itself literally translates to food education and that is exactly what owner Yoko Inoue set out to do. While the menu changes daily, expect to feast on raw, vegan plates enhanced by traditional Japanese macrobiotic and organic philosophies. It's the perfect spot for your next healthy lunch date. 

120 High Street, Northcote

Evie’s Disco Diner

Serving late-night vegan fare with a disco twist, this Fitzroy hangout is a local favourite. A buzzing 80s-themed diner, Evie’s Disco Diner will transport you to Stranger Things and back again, quicker than you can order a Bloody Mary. Comfort food classics are the order of the day, and with meat-free versions of fried chicken waffles, burritos, mac n cheeseburgers and towering Rueben sandwiches, you won’t even miss your old meat-eating ways.

230-232 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Green Man's Arms

Who says pub grub needs to be heavy? Not the folks at Green Man's Arms, an entirely meat free pub nestled in leafy Carlton. Featuring an Israeli inspired menu, with most ingredients plucked from the owners’ Yarra Valley farm, dishes such as polenta cakes, golden beets and their famous flat bread tacos feature unexpected flavours that offer a truly delicious take on veggie fare.

418 Lygon Street, Carlton

Vegie Mum

The place to be for affordable Asian vegan food, Vegie Mum is as comforting as a hug from your mama, and (shh) even more delicious than her home-cooking. Specialising in vegetarian Asian cuisine in particular, they have plenty of mock options including seafood, chicken, beef and pork, as well as nourishing and flavoursome soups, hot pots, noodles, rice and vegetable dishes. In-the-know Melburnians would rather we keep this one secret, but Vegie Mum is just too good not to share! 

72 Johnston Street, Fitzroy 

The Cornish Arms Hotel

Pub grub is usually a full-blown meat fest, but the considerate folk at The Cornish Arms have created a completely veganised menu of all the classic pub faves. There’s fish and chips, chicken kievs, classic parmas and even a plant-based spin on the Big Mac. You’ll never go hungry while catching up over beers or doing Thursday night trivia again, making this a favourite vegan pub-restaurant in Melbourne. 

163A Sydney Road, Brunswick

Maha

Years pass but the lustre on Shane Delia’s sleek modern-Middle Eastern diner Maha never fades. Never one to shy away from a challenge, his eight-course vegan tasting menu is an explosion of imagination and flavour, from charred young leeks with vegan feta toasted maize ‘sambousek’ to red lentil Turkish dumplings with peas, sumac and mint. Dessert is no less exotic, with treats like saffron and orange ice and ‘sutlac’ toasted rice sorbet.

21 Bond Street, Melbourne

Smith and Daughters

After years of conquering Latin American cuisine, Shannon Martinez is taking her “can’t believe it’s not meat” sorcery at Smith and Daughters to the cheese and prosciutto-loving dishes of Italia, with a little French and Modern Australian inspiration thrown in for good measure. Brazilian dishes like Coxinha (spiced 'chicken) are still sitting pretty on the ala carte menu, which now includes faithful vegan recreations of the Cotoletta, a reginetta pasta swimming in a salsiccia ragu, and even a very special tiramisu for dessert. Everything tastes so legit they’ll have you scratching your head while licking your lips.

175 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Shakahari

Shakahari’s been around for over 45 years, making it a grand dame of Melbourne’s vegan dining scene. Their menu criss-crosses the world, affording the pleasure of ordering satay seitan skewers, turmeric yellow paella and a miso hotpot all in the one meal. On warm days their peaceful, leafy courtyard is particularly attractive – the perfect place to take dessert of tofu caramel topped with pistachio toffee and gingery coconut sugar.

201-203 Faraday Street, Carlton

Gong De Lin

Hidden away on the third level of an inner CBD block, this vegan Chinese restaurant offers convincing mock meat versions of favourites like sweet and sour pork and XO crab. Equally impressive however is their diverse menu of veg-centric dishes featuring uncommon ingredients – there’s kung pao hedgehog mushrooms, lily bulb soup, and rice-stuffed lotus root to name a few. Just don’t forget deep-fried ice cream for dessert.

3/264 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Sister of Soul

True to its name, this vegan and vegetarian café has a whole lot of soul, contributing to St Kilda's community gardens in between nourishing its locals with wholesome, delicious food. Many of their dishes have become staples for their loyal fanbase, like the zucchini-layered rawsagna with cashew cream, sticky miso eggplant, or their rainbow buddha bowls. They even have a list of vegan friendly wines, beers and cocktails, or you can try something a little more left field with their spiced carrot and dandelion lattes.

73 Acland Street, St Kilda

Loving Hut

Loving Hut serves every speed of vegan. For your raw, superfood loving types, there’s colourful papaya and pumpkin salads dressed in cashews and spicy chilli dressing. For mock-meat fans, there’s satay soy nuggets, aromatic not-beef rendang and Mongolian barbecue. And for everyone else, there’s the joy of ordering Asian favourites like pad Thai, rice paper rolls and char kway teow without asking if the kitchen uses fish sauce.

10/242 Victoria Street, Richmond

185 Victoria Street, West Melbourne

377-379 High Street, Northcote

Have you enjoyed your fair share of delicious vegan restaurants in Melbourne and keen to expand your dining horizons even further? Why not book into one of Melbourne's vibrant vegetarian restaurants, or journey outside of the city to one of the finest regional restaurants in Victoria?