From an NYC innovator to thoughtful vegan courses in Sydney, these restaurants deliver a series of meat-free dishes that abound with creativity, complexity and chutzpah.
There is nothing quite like a tasting menu. The multi-course meal is often compared to an 'art form', giving chefs an opportunity to flex their talent by taking diners on a culinary journey that connects them to the land, the seasons and the finest regional producers. It's not just an opportunity to savour skillful cookery, but to be immersed in a place and its people. In the case of these 10 restaurants, the multifarious menu experience is entirely meat-free, with each bitesize course reincarnated into something quite extraordinary. From depth of flavour to dynamic presentation, these vegetarian and vegan tasting menus are worth writing home about.
King's Joy, Beijing
Designed by Chinese‑American architect Yung Ho Chang, the restaurant has both an open‑air courtyard (pictured) and an indoor courtyard capped with a transparent roof
Chef Gary Yin's courtyard house-turned-restaurant, in Beijing's historic quarter, is worth a visit for the ambience alone. No stone has been left unturned to ensure guests feel at ease in this temple to vegetarian haute cuisine – the artwork, the decor, the landscaping, the harp music. Choose from a quartet of inventive set menus (the 'Luxuriant' is the splash-out) all of which lean into Chinese cuisine with an emphasis on nourishment and health – there's even an in-house nutritionist. Organically-grown, in-season fruits and vegetables (some of which you'll have likely never seen or heard of) are treated reverentially, painstakingly transformed into plated works of art.
Jola, Vienna
Seasonal edible flowers crown a rhubarb dessert made with juniper and almond
In a city where schnitzel reigns supreme, Jola has put upscale vegan dining on the map. A portmanteau of the couple who founded and run this bijou restaurant, Jonathan and Larissa, this place is fully committed to sustainability and transparency. Every course of the creative tasting menu – incidentally, printed on plantable seed paper – is a celebration of what's just been pulled from the ground or picked from a tree by nearby farmers and producers. Pair dishes such as buckwheat tartelette with marinated radishes and spring meadow green chive cream; aubergine ragout-stuffed ravioli; and kohlrabi-Thai basil dim sum with the organic wine flight or a non-alcoholic alternative.
Cookies Cream, Berlin
Blistered eggplant is served alongside a bouquet of julienne carrots
Heinz Gindullis became a vegetarian at the age of eight, so it made sense that when he opened a restaurant in 2007, it was purely plant-focused. By his own admission, it took a few years of tweaking to ease out the very best in the farm-sourced vegetables – finding that perfect smokiness and richness – but today Cookies Cream remains one of Europe's most popular non-meat spots. The five-course vegan and vegetarian tasting menu can be expanded to six or seven courses – add in one of their signature dishes for a surcharge too, such as the Parmesan Dumpling or onsen egg yolk topped with seaweed caviar and soured cream.
Dirt Candy, New York
A clever spin on Peking duck pancakes, the Peking Peas course achieves depth and umami with a tabletop robata grill
The OG of New York's vegetarian restaurants was established by chef Amanda Cohen in 2008 in a city that was hitherto meat centric. Many veggie eateries have popped up since, but if you're after imaginative plant-based cooking, this Lower East Side establishment is still amongst the best. The kitchen is often likened to Cohen's laboratory, her single vegetarian tasting menu changing seasonally, with diners invited to enjoy the raw and the cooked, the bold and the beautiful. For each of the five courses, one ingredient shines in dishes that are deceptively, delightfully complex. The wine list only features female winemakers, vineyard managers or owners.
Plates, London
Every three months, Plates refreshes its multi‑course menus to spotlight the season's freshest produce (Image: Safia Shakarchi)
When Kirk Haworth was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2007, he adopted a fruit and vegetable-focused diet. He's since become a leading figure in British plant-based cookery, opening a rustic Scandi space in Shoreditch with his sister Keeley in 2024. Their innovation when adapting ingredients from the earth for the plate is unrivalled, with Plates becoming the first vegan restaurant in the UK to be awarded a Michelin star. The eight courses on the tasting menu sing with originality. Cornish potatoes come with toasted hazelnut and sweet and sour apricot; lion's mane is caramelised alongside blackberries and beetroot; while rice pudding ice cream is paired with olive oil, chewy beets and mulberries.
Bentley, Sydney
Set behind a 169‑year‑old sandstone façade once home to Australia's Fairfax newspaper, the dining room marries Sydney's past with its modern food scene
Long the go-to for Sydney fine-diners who book for Brent Savage's audacious Australian cooking and one of the best cellars in the city, overseen by sommelier Nick Hildebrandt. This isn't a vegetable-only destination but in addition to the a la carte and set menus, you'll find a vegan tasting menu. In no way is it an afterthought – as much care and attention goes into the seven plant-based courses than everything else. To start, the likes of sunflower seed parfait, broad bean tartlet or confit Jerusalem artichoke; followed by larger plates of grilled green asparagus and celeriac fettuccine, rounded out by rosemary ice cream with ginger and quince jam. The Bentley wine flight? It would be a shame not to.
Oyster Oyster, Washington DC
Oyster Oyster's sustainability ethos extends far beyond the plate, from closed‑loop sourcing with local farms to banning single‑use plastics entirely
This DC eatery spins around the mushroom and the mollusc, though the emphasis is firmly on the earth over the sea. The seasonal set menu is prepared vegetarian or vegan, but with the option of a midway oyster course should you desire. Ingredients are scrupulously sourced from Mid-Atlantic growers and farmers, bringing a vibrancy to dishes such as confit honeynut squash, eggplant dumplings and persimmon sorbet. Wines are biodynamic, vegan, organic and natural; beers are made from local grains, yeast and hops. For parties of more than four, book the psychedelic Shroom Room where you'll have your own dedicated culinary and service team.
Fu He Hui, Shanghai
Every quarter, the menu shifts, with each course built around one standout vegetable, fruit or flower
This tasting menu-only restaurant is minimalist, its pared back decor bringing a serenity that verges on the zen. This is no place for rushing your meal but you wouldn't want to – each of the haute fungi- and plant-based courses reflect a master at work. The set menus draw on the bounty of the landscape, with Lu and his team using culinary alchemy to transform it into the likes of Heilongjiang beetroot served with a red chilli pepper, curry and mountain pepper oil sauce; grilled porcini smoked in a jar with grape vine; and a mushroom-and-tofu take on Peking duck, the intense, textural flavours best paired with delicate teas.
Fyn, Cape Town
Situated on the fifth floor of arts centre Speaker's Corner, floor-to-ceiling windows offer views over Cape Town's CBD
Though Fyn isn't vegetarian-only, when a restaurant's name is inspired by indigenous vegetation (fynbos, unique to South Africa's Cape region), you know it's going to do its plant-based set menus justice. Divided into sections such as 'Land Plants', 'Roast Bulbs', 'Sea Plants', 'Field & Orchard' and 'Fruit-n-Nut', chef founder Peter Tempelhoff and culinary director Ashley Moss dive deep into their imaginations for each and every bite-size course, using hyper-local ingredients matched with quietly considered Japanese cooking techniques. Stunning Table Mountain views there may be, but you'll be fixated on proceedings in the open kitchen.
Avatara, Dubai
Aloe vera takes centre stage in a starter of tom kha‑spiced gelato topped with a pomelo salad
In a glittering metropolis of seafood towers and wagyu steakhouses, Avatara is something of a culinary disruptor, with no meat or fish in sight. Rather, the menu salutes soulful vegetarian Indian food, the only one of its kind to win a Michelin star. Make no other evening plans as the Experience Menu (with vegan and gluten-free alternatives available) will take you through a stretch of 17 courses. Every dish puts an ingredient centre-stage – aloe vera, jackfruit, morel, corn, truffle – which has been experimented with until it tastes extraordinary. Gold platters, dry ice and edible florals bring visual drama.
Header image credit: Oyster Oyster
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