Bangkok’s Best Vegetarian Thai Food
The riverside location of Supanniga Eating Room.
Thai cuisine is celebrated around the world for its bold flavors, and as the capital of Thailand, where people from all over the country have set up restaurants and food stalls, there’s no better place than Bangkok for exploring the diversity of Thai food.
However, despite appearing vegetarian-friendly on the surface, with an abundance of fresh produce, herbs, noodles, and rice being staples of the cuisine, Thai food is not necessarily easy to navigate for vegetarians and vegans. One of those bold flavors found in most Thai dishes is fish sauce, which presents a problem for those of us who don’t eat fish. While it is an important part of Thai cuisine, it’s still possible to take part in the delicious, fragrant flavors of Thai food as a vegetarian.
There are both designated vegetarian/vegan spots in Bangkok, as well as restaurants with veggie options. Often, areas with the most tourists and foreigners are also the areas with the most vegetarian food available, but, as you may expect, some of these restaurants aren’t that great. I used to live in Bangkok, so I spent quite a long time combing the city for the best veg food, so I want to share some of my favorite Thai options with my fellow veggies and maybe make your life a little easier on a visit to Thailand.
A couple of dishes from Jae Lee in Chinatown.
Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants
There are plenty of fully vegetarian or vegan restaurants in Bangkok where you can sample classic Thai dishes. I’ve outlined some of my favorite options here, but this is by no means an exhaustive list!
The sign for jae food.
Jae Food
As a largely Buddhist country, Thailand has a sub-category of cuisine that is entirely vegetarian called “jae”. Jae food follows some rather strict Buddhist rules that not only forbids meat, but also pungent vegetables like garlic and onions. It’s often vegan, but I have seen jae spots selling eggs, too, so make sure you check if you’re vegan. Jae food can be found being sold from stalls in many mall food courts, markets, and street food areas, as well as small, local restaurants throughout Bangkok. It’s usually indicated by a yellow flag or sign with “jae” written in red in Thai and/or Chinese.
Jae food is a great budget option, as you will seldom spend more than a few dollars on a plate of food, which typically consists of rice and your choice of different vegetable and tofu versions of Thai dishes. Some places have other options, like noodle dishes, soups, mock meats, and appetizers.
The best jae spots, in my opinion, are in the Chinatown area of Bangkok. Jae Lee, down a small alleyway with a few seats inside and outside, is always busy and makes a good lunch stop if you’re in the neighborhood. They have a pretty extensive menu with most dishes being 30-40 baht each (around €1). I like their noodle dishes the best!
Another option I like is Ruyi Vegetarian. It’s not as centrally located as Jae Lee, but it’s a great option if you want to sample a wide variety of Thai dishes, with lots of options from regional Thai cuisines. I love that they have so many different Thai salads to choose from! Most plates range from 60-120 baht (around €2-3) so it costs more than Jae Lee, but that’s to be expected, as it is not as basic.
Non-Jae Vegetarian Food
Jae food can be delicious, but if you’re as obsessed with garlic as I am, at some point you’re going to want to branch out. One option I like is Sook Sathorn, which has a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian jae and non-jae Thai food. I’ve actually never been to the physical restaurant–I’ve just ordered delivery from them a lot! This is a good place to try Thai 5-spice stew, which I call “the brown egg thing”. The original version has egg and pork in it, but here you can get a vegetarian one, which has egg and tofu, or vegan, which omits the egg. It’s a really comforting dish for a rainy Bangkok day. It’s also one of the best places I’ve found for vegetarian papaya salad. The prices are also very reasonable!
Speaking of delivery, Pranaa Food for Life is a vegan delivery service with both Thai and international food options that has a focus on healthier eating. I love their krapao, a stir-fried chili and basil dish that ranks among one of my favorite Thai meals. They deliver lunch and dinner and their choices vary daily, so check their website to see what’s on the menu for the week!
Goodsouls Kitchen, a vegan restaurant originally from Chiang Mai, is a pricier option but they have some really great, high-quality Thai food on the menu. Highlights include khao soi (or Northern Thai noodle soup, as it’s called on their menu), tea leaf salad, and tom yum soup with dumplings.
A street in Bangkok’s Chinatown.
Noodles with mock meat and salad at Ruyi Vegetarian.
Vistro is another vegan restaurant on the pricier side, with mains in the 200-250 baht range (around €6-7). While their menu is mostly international, they do have a few good Thai options, like khao soi, moo ping “pork” skewers, and boat noodles.
Along with the aforementioned Goodsouls Kitchen, for khao soi (the famous Northern Thai yellow curry noodle soup), I like Khun Churn, which has moved around a bit but now looks to have reopened a restaurant down by the Ekkamai BTS station. It’s much cheaper as well, with mains around 80-100 baht (approximately €2-3). They also have many other vegetarian versions of Thai dishes, plus vegan options. Plus, they have THE BEST veggie spring rolls!
Finally, my all-time favorite choice is the vegan restaurant May Veggie Home. They have some of the most delicious vegan Thai food I have ever had (it’s on my post about Bangkok’s Absolute Best Vegetarian Meals). I was so sad when they were temporarily closed to move from their previous Asok-area location to Sukhumvit 101, but they came back better than ever with an added bakery and new menu items! Their spicy mixed vegetable soup is a firm favorite of mine, along with the spicy salad with herbs. Less healthy but also delicious are the fried mushroom and garlic balls (although they’re really more like patties than balls).
Non-Vegetarian Restaurants
Pad Thai
These stir-fried rice noodles with tamarind sauce are possibly Thailand’s most well-known dish. It’s also ubiquitous, cheap, and vegetarian-friendly–as long as you’re paying attention!
I’ve found pad thai to be one of the easiest street food options to have made vegetarian, even with a language barrier. It’s made fresh right in front of you, so it’s pretty simple to indicate to the cook which ingredients you want and which you don’t want. Don’t want: fish sauce, shrimp, chicken. Do want: tofu, green onions, bean sprouts, peanuts, egg (if not vegan), and of course, a lime wedge to finish it off.
Vegetarian pad thai from Thipsamai.
Some restaurants will have a vegetarian option on the menu, and it may come with any variety of vegetables in it, but if you want it vegan you will need to specify no egg because it does usually come with it. I like Yord Pad Thai as a cheap, casual option if you happen to be down by Rama IV Road in the Phrom Phong area. The famous pad thai restaurant Thipsamai in the Old City also has a vegetarian option.
An alternative to pad thai is another stir-fried noodle dish: pad see ew. This one is made with wide, flat rice noodles and a bigger variety of vegetables. I didn’t see it that often on the street but it’s common in restaurants and another option that’s pretty easy to have made vegetarian.
Pad thai is a very accessible way to start out with Thai food if it’s not something you’re used to eating. However, make sure you branch out and try other things, too!
Northern Thai/Isaan Food
Food from Northern Thailand and the Isaan region is a favorite in Bangkok due to its flavorful use of herbs and spices. It’s also pretty meaty, with some of its most famous dishes being sausage and meat salads. But there are plenty of restaurants with vegetarian options to be found around the city.
For laab (or larb), an herb, toasted rice, and minced meat salad, I like Supanniga Eating Room’s mushroom version. The restaurant has a few locations around Bangkok: I’ve been to the one in Thong Lor, which is in a kind of industrial chic shophouse, and the lovely riverside location.
I also like The Kitchen at Yenakat down in the Sathorn area, which specializes in Isaan food and has plenty of veggie options. Try the deep-fried mushroom laab balls for something a little different!
Standard Thai
I used to live near Sit and Wonder in Thong Lor, so I’d go there frequently for their lunch special, which currently looks to be sitting at 75 baht (€2) for your choice of classic Thai dishes, like fried rice, fried noodles, and curries. They can make many of them vegetarian or vegan–just make sure you specify that’s what you want when you order with vegetables and tofu, otherwise it might come with fish sauce. My favorite is probably the spicy curry with rice–and it IS spicy!
So, is it hard to find vegetarian Thai food in Bangkok?
The short answer is: no! Even though Thai cuisine isn’t as vegetarian-friendly as it may initially seem, it’s not hard at all to find veggie options in Bangkok; you just have to know where to look. There are many more options than what I’ve written here–these are just some of my personal favorites.
Have you been to Bangkok? What’s your favorite place for veggie Thai food?
