Whether you’re a devout vegan or a flexitarian, eating out can be a challenge. You might avoid going out altogether because of limited choices and dietary requirements. When I first transitioned to a vegetarian, I was severely disappointed by how restricted my menu options were. But as the determined foodie I am, I tried many restaurants all around Canberra and found some absolute standouts. There are loads of places around our wonderful city offering delicious options for vegos and vegans.
Having one vegetarian/vegan option on a menu doesn’t satisfy me and it shouldn’t satisfy you either. So I’ve put together the ultimate vegos guide to Canberra to give you more options next time you decide to dine out! These amazing local businesses allow me to enjoy dining out even more than I used to.
Vegan & vegetarian restaurants
Eating at vegan only restaurants means you can enjoy the whole menu with like-minded people. These are Canberra’s finest vegan/vegetarian restaurants:
Kingsland is a casual restaurant putting a vegan twist on classic Asian meals. It was life changing for me when I first went vegetarian. The meals were cheap, delicious and all made from amazingly accurate soy meat.
Address: 5/28 Challis St Dickson ACT 2602
Opening hours:
Tues to Sun: 5pm-10pm
Wed to Sat: 12pm – 2:30pm
Must try meal: Peking Duck Rolls
My Rainbow Dreams Vegetarian Café is a colourful and healthy wholefoods café, with a philosophy of inner and outer wellbeing.
Address: Shop G1, Dickson Chambers, Dickson Place
Opening hours:
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri: 8:30am-5:30pm
Wed & Sat: 8:30am-4pm
Must try meal: Indian spiced lentil burger
Au Lac Royal Vegetarian Cuisine
Au Lac is a sleek South East Asian style vegan restaurant. With a stylish fit-out, extensive menu and the most accommodating staff, Au Lac is a treasure for Canberrans.
Address: 4/35-39 Woolley St, Dickson ACT 2602
NEW Woden restaurant Shop G90A Corinna Street, Phillip, ACT, 2606
Opening hours:
Tue-Sun 11.30am-2.30pm
Mon-Sun 5.30pm-10.30pm
Must try meal: Soy Chicken in Satay Sauce
Making some of Canberra’s best baked treats, Sweet Bones Bakery and Café is a vegan café and bakery that’s loved by vegans and omnivores alike.
Address: Shop 8, 18 Lonsdale Street, Braddon, Canberra
Opening hours:
Mon – Sat 7:30am–4pm
Sun 8:30am–3pm
Must try meal: Sweet Bones Short Stack
Vegan/vegetarian menus available
Sometimes dragging your meat eating friends to a vegan restaurant is a little tricky. Instead, you can convince them to go to one of these eateries so you both have options!
The Fish Shack made Canberra vegans very happy when they introduced their vegan fish menu. Enjoy grilled, crumbed and battered soy versions of fish, calamari and prawns.
Address: 87/105 Petrie Plaza, Canberra ACT 2601
Opening hours:
Everyday 11am-4pm,
Sun – Tues 5pm- 7:30pm
Wed, Thurs & Sat 5pm-8:30pm
Fri 5pm-9:30pm
Must try meal: Vegan Mixed Grill
This wholefoods salad bar and café serves up nourishing and healthy breakfast options, superfood smoothies, healthy treats, coffee, and a whole variety of vegan and gluten-free salads, with the option to add on different animal and non-animal proteins. The whole menu is vegetarian and can easily be made vegan too. Breakfast includes a number of different toast & toppings and a make your own breakfast bowl selection. Lunch features a variety of gluten free & vegan salads, with the option to add on vegan dressings and a range of animal and non-animal based additions.
Address: No Name Lane, 40 Marcus Clarke St, Canberra City
Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri 6:30am – 4pm
Saturday 7am – 1pm
Must try meal: Beetroot Hummus, Pumpkin and Dukkah Toast
The funky Smith’s Alternative is a fun place to hang out. They have a small menu because they don’t have a full kitchen but they serve a range of housemade vegan baked goods and they also have some savoury options. Most of their menu is vegan with lots of gluten-free options.
Address: 76 Alinga Street, Canberra City ACT 2601
Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri 8am-2am
Sat & Sun 8am-12am
Must try meal: Smith’s Loaded Sweet Spuds
One of my favourite places to eat! At Malaysian Chapter, the staff are overly accommodating, and vegans can choose to have their main with soy-meat, mushroom cutlets, vegetables or tofu and potato.
Address: 8 Weedon Close, 2617 Belconnen
Opening hours:
Tues – Sat 12pm–2pm
Mon – Sat 5:30pm-9pm
Must try meal: Soy Beef Rendang
This contemporary Italian cafe allows vegans to enjoy the very best Italian food. Il Covo is very vegan friendly, with amazing vegan pizzas and wines on offer.
Address: 3/40 Allara Street Canberra ACT 2601
Opening hours:
Mon & Tue 7am-4pm
Wed – Fri 7am-9pm
Must try meal: Asparagus with maple pumpkin, eggplant and pomegranate pizza
Yummy Yalla is a wonderful Lebanese restaurant with friendly and accommodating staff!
Address: 49/51 Colbee Court, Phillip ACT, 2606
Opening hours:
Tues – Sat 9am to 10pm
Sun 9:30am to 2pm
Must try meal: Lebanese Fatteh
The beautiful XO Restaurant combines all of your favourite elements in a modern Asian fusion.
Address: 16 Iluka St Narrabundah ACT 2604
Opening hours:
Tues – Fri 12pm-3pm
Mon – Sat 6pm-11pm
Must try meal: Asian Bolognese and Shantung Bao (both vegan on request)
Vegan-friendly eateries
These restaurants have loads of vegetarian and vegan items on their menu and the staff will go out of their way to make vegan-friendly meal alterations.
Address: 81 Giles St, Kingston ACT 2604
Opening hours:
Tues – Fri 7:30am-4pm
Sat & Sun 8am-5pm
Must try meal: Blueberry & Banana Oat Pancake or the vegan soups
Address: 1/18 Lonsdale Street, 2612 Braddon
Opening hours:
Mon – Sat 6am-4pm
Sun 7am-4pm
Must try meal: Green Nourish Bowl
Address: Shop 1 – 70 Hodgson Crescent, Pearce ACT
Opening hours:
Tues – Sun 5.30pm till late
Must try meal: Ethiopian Vegetable Combination
Address: 5 Genge St, Canberra ACT
Opening hours:
Everyday 11:30am-3pm
Sun – Thur 5pm-10pm
Fri & Sat 5pm- 11pm
Must try meal: Malai Kofta or Vegetable Korma (can be made vegan)
This funky Japanese, Korean & American fusion restaurant has a range of vegan and vegetarian options on their standard menu. They’ve also hosted two Korean vegan events recently and if you haven’t been then you need to get yourself along to the next one! For $39 you get a smorgasbord of vegan dishes and you can get refills of anything you want.
Address: 9 Lonsdale St, Braddon
Opening hours:
Tues – Thurs & Sun 12-11pm
Fri & Sat 12pm-1am
Must try meal: Su’s Nori Sweet Potato Taco and Korean Glass Noodle Salad
Opening soon….
We’re looking forward to the opening of this wholefoods new generation supermarket and bites bar that will be Canberra’s only stockists of the amazing Panna cakes by Panna Chocolate. Their supermarket will stock organic, chemical-free fruit and vegetables, vegetarian and vegan alternatives, wild-caught sustainable seafood and lots more produce to satisfy all vegetarians and vegans. They’re also going to have kombucha on tap!
Address: Unit G17, Palko Building, 27 Lonsdale St, Braddon
If you Eat Canberra foodies have any other vego suggestions please let us know in the comments! You might also want to check out our healthy guide to Canberra.
By Bronte Mann.
Amelia Bidgood
Amelia is the Founder and Editor of Eat Canberra and the Founder and Managing Director of Eat Canberra Food Tours. She's a qualified journalist, presenter, freelance writer and also runs a boutique communications agency working with small business owners on all things social media, content creation and marketing. She's taught cheesemaking classes, judged hospitality and tourism awards, completed the WSET Level 1 Award In Wines, loves to cook and has travelled to 23 countries. She's also passionate about mental health and has recently started studying to become a Counsellor.
Shout out to the Knox at Watson which was missed from this list but which has several really great vegetarian and vegan dishes.
I am so sick of Canberra restaurants and cafes having a single vegetarian option. It is not hard to make the chicken or beef optional for a lot of dishes, but they don’t even try. I’m actually now boycotting restaurants that have only one or two vego options. No meat-eater would consider going to a restaurant with only one thing on the menu, and I don’t see why I should either.
Awesome – thanks for letting us know about the Knox at Watson! This list has lots of great places with more than a few vegetarian options so hopefully it will give you some new options to try. It’s great to see more that have a vegan or vegetarian menu and lots of options to suit everyone.
An Nguyen in Kingston is all vegan and has awesome food.
Great to know Sue! Thanks so much for commenting and letting us know about it.
Akiba has a bunch of delicious vego and vegan options on their menu that they also list on an entirely separate vegan menu (just ask for it) to save you the trouble of picking them out yourself!
Also Round pizza in dickson (formerly Walter G’s) has pizzas with mock meats and vegan cheeses.
Awesome – thanks Laura! Love Akiba!