Vegan Food in Ho Chi Minh City

Is Vietnam vegan friendly? Yes, if you learn one word

The word is chay. It covers vegetarian and vegan food alike, with no distinction. You will see it on signs, menus and carts near pagodas.

Many Vietnamese eat chay on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month, as Buddhist practice. On those days chay restaurants fill up and temple stalls appear.

What differs is the definition. A Western vegan menu is built around no animal products. Chay is built around no meat and no fish. Most of it is vegan, but not all.

What com chay means, and why it is not always vegan

Com chay means vegetarian rice plates: a scoop of rice with several cooked dishes around it. A quan chay is a vegetarian restaurant.

Traditional chay cooking follows Buddhist rules. It leaves out meat and fish, and often garlic and onion too. Instead of fish sauce, these kitchens use soy sauce or a vegetarian dipping sauce, nuoc cham chay.

Egg and dairy are rare in chay food, but some dishes labelled chay contain them. A dedicated quan chay is the safest place for a strict vegan. In an ordinary restaurant, never assume.

How to ask in Vietnamese, and the traps

Show these on your phone or say them slowly.

Short forms work too: không nước mắm, không trứng, không sữa. Món ăn chay means a vegetarian dish.

Where animal products hide

• Fish sauce goes into almost everything, often invisibly. Some cooks add it even after you ask for chay.
• Pho broth is simmered for hours from beef bones and oxtail, and fish sauce goes in at the end.
• Hu tieu broth uses pork bones, dried squid and dried shrimp.
• Banh trang tron, the rice paper salad, has dried shrimp in its base, and often quail egg.
• Shrimp paste and chicken stock can sit in a dish described as having no meat.

Where to eat: the addresses we can vouch for on paper

We only name places whose vegetarian kitchen is on record. Four are in the city's 2026 Michelin Guide list as Vegetarian. Our Michelin Guide page lists all 79 addresses.

Chay Garden is the cheap one, in the guide's lowest band, on Vo Van Tan Street in old District 3. Hum Garden and Du Yên sit in Thao Dien, across the river. Tales by Chapter is the fine-dining choice; book ahead.

One non-vegetarian Bib is worth knowing: Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ 127, 127 Dinh Tien Hoang, open from 7:00. The guide notes vegetarian options among its rice rolls. Ask for chay, without fish sauce.

Beyond the list

Many small quan chay and com chay counters never make a guide. Find them by the sign, not by name: look for chay, often near pagodas.

Street food and markets: what you can eat without negotiating

Most carts cook one dish from one pot, so street food needs the most thought. Our Saigon street food guide explains the classic dishes; here is how they sort for you.

Sugarcane juice costs 10,000 to 20,000 VND (about $0.40 to $0.80). Cut fruit runs 20,000 to 40,000 VND. Pick carts with a queue and food cooked hot in front of you.

Breakfast and coffee

Saigon's signature coffee is not vegan. Ca phe sua da is dark-roast robusta, dripped through a metal phin filter onto sweetened condensed milk, then poured over ice. Bac xiu is even milkier.

Order ca phe den da instead: black, iced, and just as strong. At a street stall it costs 15,000 to 25,000 VND (about $0.60 to $1).

Plant milk

Modern cafés increasingly make a vegan ca phe sua da with plant milk, at around 79,000 to 89,000 VND (about $3 to $3.40). At a street stall, ask whether they have soy milk, sua dau nanh; do not count on it.

Strict vegans should know some roasters roast the beans with butter: ask.

Desserts and fruit

Dessert is the easiest course. Che are sweet soups and puddings sold in cups. They are built from mung beans, red beans, tapioca, taro, sweet potato, grass jelly, fruit and, in the south, coconut milk.

• Che: 10,000 to 28,000 VND (about $0.40 to $1.10) a cup, depending on the stall.
• Tau hu nuoc duong: silken tofu in ginger syrup, with coconut milk, red beans or grass jelly.
• Chuoi chien: fried banana with sesame.
• Market fruit: mango, jackfruit, longan, whatever is in season, 20,000 to 40,000 VND.

Banh mi and rolls: what to ask them to leave out

A standard banh mi holds pork, cold cuts, liver pâté and mayonnaise, with pickles, cucumber and coriander. Removing the meat still leaves the pâté and mayonnaise.

Banh mi chay swaps the meat for tofu or seitan. It costs about 15,000 to 25,000 VND (about $0.60 to $1). Ask for no pâté and no mayonnaise.

With rice paper rolls, ask for goi cuon chay, the vegetarian version. Then check the dip: ask for nuoc cham chay, the dipping sauce made without fish sauce.

Protein: tofu, seitan, mushrooms and eggplant

Chay cooking builds protein into the menu.

• Tofu, fried in golden cubes, braised, or silken in desserts.
• Mi can, wheat gluten or seitan, shaped and seasoned as mock meat.
• Mock meats: ask for thit ga chay, vegetarian chicken, or thit heo chay, vegetarian pork.
• Mushrooms, the base of vegetarian broths and fried rolls.
• Eggplant, braised, as at Chay Garden.

Gluten-free eaters should avoid mi can and soy sauce, and say so clearly.

What a local guide changes when you do not speak Vietnamese

Phrases have limits. A vendor can agree to "no fish sauce" and still use a stock that contains it.

On our tours, 37% of guests ask us to adapt the menu: vegetarian, vegan, halal or allergies. We keep vendor lists for each diet. On the Vegan Food Tour, every food stop is checked for fish sauce, oyster sauce and egg.

Travelling with meat-eaters? The Street Food Tour can switch one guest to a vegetarian or vegan menu. To compare operators, see our best food tours guide.

A vegan day in Saigon, morning to night

How we would eat plant-based for a full day.

1. 1
   7:00

   Banh mi chay and black coffee

   Tofu banh mi and a ca phe den da.

2. 2
   11:30

   Com chay for lunch

   A rice plate at a chay counter, or Chay Garden, open from 10:30.

3. 3
   15:00

   Juice and fruit

   Sugarcane juice and a bag of cut fruit.

4. 4
   17:30

   Che on a stool

   One cup while the street lights come on.

5. 5
   19:00

   Dinner at a quan chay

   A full meal at a local vegetarian restaurant.

These ranges come from 2026 travel sources and our street research, so check on the day. Add a GrabBike between districts: about 18,000 to 25,000 VND for 3 km. Our budget per day guide covers the rest of the trip, and our travel tips cover cash and apps.

Questions we get on the bike