How do you eat out as a vegan?

The objection

“Whenever I go out, there’s nothing for me. I’d be sitting there with a side salad while everyone else eats properly.”

The answer

The fear comes from real evenings, and they still happen in restaurants that build every dish around meat. Chain menus in the UK and several of the world’s big cuisines give you far more to work with than a side salad, and most of the rest is knowing which questions to ask.

Do restaurant chains have vegan options?

Plenty of UK chains do: a guide by the animal rights group PETA, updated in 2026, lists vegan food at 61 of them, from burger, pizza and coffee chains to pub groups, though a few are doughnut, cookie or cupcake shops [1]. The Vegan Society, a UK vegan charity, says in an undated guide that most mainstream chains offer at least one labelled vegan option and some print a separate vegan menu [2]. PETA adds that menus change and vary between branches [1], so a minute with the menu online before you go saves the guesswork.

Which cuisines are good for vegans?

Indian, Chinese, Mexican and Ethiopian restaurants tend to be good bets. The Vegan Society points out that many Indian restaurants specialise in vegetarian dishes such as chana masala and saag aloo, that most Chinese restaurants serve a range of tofu dishes, sometimes listed as bean curd, and that burritos, quesadillas and tacos are easily made vegan with beans, vegetables and rice in place of the meat and dairy [2]. Ethiopian cooking is used to feeding people who give up animal products, since devout Ethiopian Orthodox Christians fast on more than 200 days a year and eat a vegan diet while they do (Michael and Baye, 2023) [3], so the dishes made for fasting are a good place to start. Italian takes more care, although most dried pasta is made from durum wheat alone and vegan cheese on pizza is becoming common, particularly in chains [2].

What should you ask about in each cuisine?

Ask about the animal ingredients each cuisine tends to slip into dishes that look plant-based, such as ghee in Indian cooking, oyster sauce in Chinese vegetable dishes and lard in beans [2][9]. The commonest ones named in the guides cited here are listed below, and since restaurants vary, The Vegan Society suggests checking every time [2]:

• Indian: ghee, a clarified butter that is very common in traditional cooking, and yoghurt in creamy sauces, dips and naan [2].
• Chinese: egg, which is very common and is in some noodles, and oyster sauce, which is often added to vegetable dishes, even ones listed as vegetarian [2].
• Thai, Vietnamese and other South-East Asian food: fish sauce and hidden egg [2]. In Thai curries, ask about shrimp or fish paste as well, since green curry paste is traditionally made with shrimp paste and the menu won’t mention it, as the Vegetarian Resource Group, a US charity, points out [7].
• Japanese: dashi, the stock at the base of Japanese cooking and of its soba and tempura sauces, is traditionally made from katsuobushi (dried, smoked skipjack tuna), kombu kelp or small dried fish such as sardines, so ask whether it is made with kombu alone [4]. Tempura batter itself is traditionally egg mixed with flour, according to Japan’s agriculture ministry [8].
• Italian: egg in fresh pasta, butter where olive oil would do, and anchovies in sauces [2].
• Mexican: cheese and sour cream, which can be left off, and dairy stirred into guacamole [2]. Writing about Tex-Mex restaurants in the US, the Vegetarian Resource Group also suggests asking whether lard goes into the beans or the cooking, and whether chicken or beef stock goes into the sauces [9].
• Ethiopian: niter kibe, a clarified butter that is commonly used in Ethiopian cooking and often goes into sauces made from pulses as well as meat [10].
• Chip shops in the UK: chips fried in beef dripping or in the same oil as meat [2].

How can you check a dish when the menu doesn’t say?

Ask the staff: anywhere in the UK a restaurant has to be able to tell you whether a dish contains milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans or molluscs [5][11], and a 2011 EU regulation made the same information mandatory across the EU for food sold without packaging [6]. The Food Standards Agency (2026), whose guidance covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, says restaurants must give allergen information for every dish containing any of 14 allergens, which include those five, either written down, or given by staff with a clearly visible notice saying how to ask [5], and Food Standards Scotland describes the same duty, for the same 14 allergens, in Scotland [11]. That catches most of the list above, because ghee and niter kibe are made from milk, shrimp paste from a crustacean and oyster sauce from a mollusc, while anchovies, fish sauce and dashi made with katsuobushi or dried sardines all count as fish. Meat stock, lard, beef dripping and gelatine are not on the list [5], so ask about those directly. The agency also warns businesses that vegan meals can pick up low-level cross-contamination from egg, milk, fish, crustaceans or molluscs, which matters if you have an allergy [5].

When a place really has nothing, two starters or a couple of sides make a meal, or you eat beforehand and go for the company. Abroad the same questions still work, and travelling as a vegan brings a few problems of its own, such as long journeys with little choice.