On Loi Kroh Road, a strip better known for boxing gyms and beer bars, a vegan kitchen has collected more than 2,000 Google reviews serving khao soi with crisp noodles and hot coconut broth. Two kilometres north, inside the old city walls, a garden restaurant pours craft beer alongside Burmese fermented tea leaf salad. The vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai stopped being a niche a long time ago. HappyCow lists 38 fully vegan and 97 fully vegetarian kitchens in the city, with close to 400 restaurants offering plant-based options, and the density puts Chiang Mai second only to Phuket among cities worldwide when measured per head of population.
The scene has roots. Aum Vegetarian opened in 1982, when most tofu dishes in the city still arrived with minced pork on top. What follows is a working list of 10 kitchens, with addresses, phone numbers and opening hours checked in August 2026. Ratings and review counts are recorded at the same date.
Which vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai are worth planning a meal around?
Reform Kafé and Goodsouls Kitchen anchor the old city with garden seating and gluten-free menus. Rad Rabbit Vegan Pizzeria handles vegan pizza, Pure Vegan Heaven and Asa Vegan Kitchen cover all-day brunch, and Anchan, Aum, May Kaidee and Vegan Heaven serve vegan Thai food at local prices. Free Bird Café funds refugee education through its kitchen and thrift store.
The 10 sit closer together than the map suggests, and three share an owner. Reform Kafé, Goodsouls Kitchen and the Downtown Vegan Garden branch all come from the same partnership, and the first two share most of a menu. The rest are independent, and four are run by the families who founded them.
Reform Kafé Vegan Garden Restaurant
The busiest plant-based kitchen inside the old city, and the one most likely to convert a sceptic. Reform Kafé sits in the grounds of Green Tiger House, with tables set among trees, and the menu runs from khao soi and tamarind tofu to avocado sandwiches and Burmese fermented tea leaf salad. Portions are generous, produce is local, and the drinks list includes craft beer and kombucha, which few vegan restaurants in the city bother to stock. Rice porridge and the spicy tempeh are the dishes regulars return for.
Chef Varee Kanokkhun and Daniel Georges opened Chiang Mai’s first vegetarian hotel here in 2014 and switched the restaurant to a fully plant-based menu in 2017. The name comes from Daniel’s family organic shop in Switzerland in the 1960s.
Address: 1/4 Sri Poom Road, Tambon Si Phum
Phone: 093 182 8188
Hours: 9am to 10pm daily
Rating: 4.7 from 1,908 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Goodsouls Kitchen
The most reliable kitchen in Chiang Mai for gluten-free plant-based food, and the reason coeliac travellers pass the address between themselves. Goodsouls builds its pizzas on gluten-free bases with cashew mozzarella rather than soy cheese, cooks them in a wood-fired oven outside, and turns out an aubergine and courgette lasagne that holds up against any dairy version. The kitchen stays open through the afternoon with no midday break, which matters in a city where many kitchens close between two and five. Raw desserts include a tiramisu worth ordering before the mains arrive.
The restaurant opened on Sinharat Road in December 2017. A second Chiang Mai branch, Downtown Vegan Garden, operates at 282 to 284 Chang Moi Road with a courtyard and a rooftop bar, and serves until midnight. Filtered water arrives free in glass bottles.
Address: 52 Sinharat Road Lane 3, Old City, Tambon Si Phum
Phone: 088 819 9669
Hours: 8am to 10pm daily
Rating: 4.6 from 2,910 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Vegan Heaven
The largest plant-based menu in the city, spanning Thai, Japanese and western food across a single list. Vegan Heaven covers khao soi, pad see ew, sushi rolls, tempeh rolls, gyoza, cauliflower wings, mushroom laab and a burger built with beetroot and fresh sprouts. Soups come with a chosen heat level, which is rarer than it sounds. The Loi Kroh location puts it within walking distance of the night bazaar and the massage shops along the same street.
The restaurant opened in 2004 under the name Taste from Heaven, and the owner, Naan, describes it as the first fully vegan restaurant in Chiang Mai. Nothing is cooked with MSG or preservatives.
Address: 44/6 Loi Kroh Road, Tambon Chang Khlan
Phone: 087 577 5444
Hours: 9am to 10pm daily
Rating: 4.7 from 2,156 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook
Rad Rabbit Vegan Pizzeria
Chiang Mai’s dedicated vegan pizzeria, and the address for anyone who wants plant-based comfort food without a health-food register. The list covers Margherita through to Texas BBQ, alongside a veatball sandwich, a crunch wrap, cauliflower wings, BBQ jackfruit sandwiches, Caesar salad and hand-cut fries. Breakfast is a genuine draw, with vegan eggs benedict and crispy vegan chicken and waffles served with soy and sriracha syrup. A gluten-free crust is available and adds 20 to 30 minutes to the ticket.
Trading since 2019 under owner and manager Fon, the kitchen names its suppliers, including Swees Cheese, Tempeh House and Yuchan Tomato Farm. Last orders go into the kitchen at 9:30pm even though the room stays open until 10pm. The restaurant runs a pay-it-forward scheme and donates to local food banks, and it states plainly that it cannot guarantee any dish is free of cross-contamination with soy, gluten or nuts.
Address: 27/2 Moon Muang Road Soi 9, Old City, Tambon Si Phum
Phone: 094 754 9095
Hours: 8:30am to 10pm daily
Rating: 4.7 from 1,278 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Aum Vegetarian Restaurant
The first vegetarian restaurant in Chiang Mai, open since 1982 and now run by the third generation of the same family from their own house near Chiang Mai Gate. Aum marks vegan and vegetarian dishes separately on the menu, which removes the guesswork that egg and dairy create in most Thai vegetarian kitchens. The list is long, built on organic farm vegetables, and includes vegan sushi, fresh spring rolls, massaman, pumpkin and green curries, and a khao soi that regulars rate as the best vegan version in the city.
The restaurant moved here from Tha Phae Gate. Seating splits between benches downstairs and floor mats upstairs, and the entrance sits 20 metres down an alley opposite the Chiang Mai Gate Hotel. Payment is cash only.
Address: 1/4 Suriyawong Alley, Tambon Hai Ya
Phone: 089 853 9796
Hours: 11am to 8pm daily
Rating: 4.7 from 1,483 Google reviews
Links: Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Free Bird Café
A kitchen that funds a school. Free Bird Café channels 100 per cent of its profits into Thai Freedom House, a language and arts learning centre for refugees from Myanmar and Thai indigenous students, and the restaurant doubles as a hospitality training centre paying adult refugee students a living wage. The menu leans Shan and Burmese with Thai and western dishes alongside, and the khao soi, the Shan green tomato salad and the mac and cheese carry the strongest reputation. Gluten-free and raw options run through the list.
Lisa Nesser founded Thai Freedom House in 2005 and opened the café in 2009, which makes 2026 its 17th year. The compound also holds the Pre-Loved charity shop and a year-round donation centre that sends two to three truckloads of goods to Myanmar and northern Thailand each week, plus My Best Life CNX, the first zero waste store in the city.
Address: 14 Siri Mangkalajarn Road Soi 9, Tambon Su Thep
Phone: 099 351 4404
Hours: 9am to 5pm Tuesday and Sunday, 9am to 8pm Wednesday to Saturday, closed Monday
Rating: 4.6 from 1,142 Google reviews
Links: Thai Freedom House · Google Maps · Facebook
Pure Vegan Heaven Chiang Mai Old Town
The highest-rated plant-based kitchen on this list, tucked off Rachadamnoen in the old city. Pure Vegan Heaven runs mushroom tacos, quesadillas, burritos, fusilli in lemon cheese sauce, sweet potato waffles, falafel wraps and Thai iced tea made with coconut water. Rice arrives brown and mixed with quinoa by default. Strong air conditioning and raised platforms with floor cushions make it one of the few places worth sitting in through the middle of a hot April afternoon.
Supidcha Kludass, known as Pure, left teaching to open the first branch in 2018. The business now runs across Chiang Mai, Phuket, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, and this Old Town branch opened in late 2023. Drinks are priced noticeably above the city average, so the food is the better value.
Address: 103 Rachadamnoen Soi 8, Old City, Tambon Si Phum
Phone: 063 051 3641
Hours: 8:30am to 9pm daily
Rating: 4.8 from 522 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Asa Vegan Kitchen and Studio
A yoga studio upstairs and a vegan kitchen downstairs, which explains the crowd that arrives mid-morning and stays until the light goes. Asa cooks Thai and western dishes with equal care, and the Pea Flower Curry with pumpkin and coconut remains the dish it is known for. Breakfast is the stronger service, with peanut butter and jelly stuffed French toast, blue chia pudding jars, khao soi and som tam with coconut rice on the same list. The kitchen avoids palm oil entirely. The back patio takes pets.
Ploy and Rosy took over a sixty-year-old shophouse on Tha Phae Road in 2018 and named it after the Thai word for volunteering. The studio hosts workshops, framed hill tribe textiles hang on the walls and several are for sale, and the team places visitors into volunteer roles across northern Thailand at no charge. Takeaway carries a five to 10 baht surcharge because the packaging is biodegradable.
Address: 217 Tha Phae Road, Tambon Chang Moi
Phone: 063 651 4496
Hours: 9:30am to 7pm daily
Rating: 4.6 from 414 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Anchan Vegetarian Restaurant
Family-run vegan Thai food off Nimmanhaemin, served on the second floor with a narrow balcony over a quiet wooded lane. Chef and owner Aye works an open kitchen across a 55-item menu, and Anchan built its reputation on the purple noodle pad thai coloured with butterfly pea flower. The panang curry macaroni, the banana flower tom yum, the crispy tofu in tamarind sauce and the tempeh stir fry all have their own following. Nothing is cooked with MSG, fish sauce or shrimp paste. Four dishes with rice and drinks for two people lands near 530 baht.
The entrance sits on Soi Hillside 2, opposite Soi 13. Last orders go into the kitchen at 8pm, and the specials board changes weekly with whatever local farms are cutting. The midweek closing pattern is the one to note, because it runs Tuesday and Wednesday rather than the usual Monday.
Address: 28 Nimmanahaeminda Road, Soi Hillside 2, Tambon Su Thep
Phone: 083 581 1689
Hours: 11:30am to 8pm Thursday to Monday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Rating: 4.5 from 829 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook
May Kaidee Chiang Mai
A small kitchen north of Tha Phae Gate that cooks the entire menu vegan, built on the original Bangkok recipes with northern Thai dishes added. May Kaidee serves panang curry, tom kha, pad thai, banana flower salad and mango sticky rice without MSG, at prices that have not drifted far from local rates. Portions are generous and service is quick, which suits a lunch stop between the old city and the river.
The business started as a Bangkok street cart in 1988 and now runs restaurants in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and New York. The Chiang Mai cooking school operates separately at 13 Charoen Muang Road Soi 2, teaching vegan Thai recipes in morning, afternoon and express classes, and students leave with a recipe book. Call before travelling on a Sunday, because the published opening time varies between the restaurant’s own site and its Google listing.
Address: 29/4 Chang Moi Kao Road, Tambon Si Phum
Phone: 090 250 4571
Hours: 11am to 8:30pm Monday to Friday, Sunday service confirmed by phone, closed Saturday
Rating: 4.8 from 747 Google reviews
Links: Website · Google Maps · Facebook · Instagram
Where can I eat vegan Thai food in Chiang Mai?
Anchan Vegetarian Restaurant on Nimmanhaemin, Aum Vegetarian near Chiang Mai Gate, May Kaidee off Chang Moi Kao Road and Vegan Heaven on Loi Kroh all cook vegan Thai food without MSG. Expect khao soi, panang curry, papaya salad and pad thai built on tofu, mushrooms and local vegetables. Single dishes run 60 to 150 baht across all four kitchens.
The distinction that matters in Thailand is between vegetarian food that uses egg and dairy, and je food, which excludes animal products along with garlic, onion, chives and other pungent vegetables. Aum marks the difference dish by dish. Anchan and Vegan Heaven cook fully plant-based menus, so the question does not arise.
At general Thai restaurants, fish sauce and shrimp paste sit inside most curry pastes and dressings by default. Three phrases cover almost every situation: gin je for a strict plant-based diet, mangsawirat for vegetarian, and mai sai nam pla for no fish sauce. Saying the first of the three carries the most weight, because it names a religious practice most kitchen staff already understand.
Where can I find cheap je food in Chiang Mai?
Je cafeterias near the larger temples serve plant-based rice plates for 45 to 60 baht, roughly a third of what a restaurant charges. Look for the yellow sign carrying the red Thai character เจ. These kitchens open early, close by mid-afternoon and operate as canteens rather than restaurants, with dishes laid out in trays and no English menu.
These kitchens are the part of the scene guidebooks skip. They exist to serve Buddhist and Chinese Thai residents observing dietary precepts, not tourists, which is exactly why the food is cheap and the turnover is fast. Ming Kwan, a long-running je kitchen once based at Wat Suan Dok, now trades on Moon Muang Soi 6. Warorot Market and the Chinatown blocks around it hold the highest concentration of je vendors in the city.
Which Chiang Mai vegan restaurants handle gluten-free and allergy requests?
Goodsouls Kitchen on Sinharat Road Lane 3 is the strongest option, with gluten-free pizza bases, cashew mozzarella in place of soy cheese, and raw desserts. Rad Rabbit Vegan Pizzeria offers a gluten-free crust that adds 20 to 30 minutes to the order. Free Bird Café marks gluten-free and raw dishes throughout its menu. Aum labels vegan and vegetarian items separately.
Soy is harder to work around than gluten, because tofu, tempeh and soy protein carry most of the protein load on plant-based Thai menus. Goodsouls and Rad Rabbit both use cashew-based cheeses, which helps, though Rad Rabbit states plainly that it cannot guarantee freedom from cross-contamination. Coconut milk replaces dairy almost everywhere, so a dairy allergy rarely limits the menu.
How much does a vegan meal cost in Chiang Mai?
Budget 45 to 60 baht for a je rice plate, 60 to 150 baht for a single dish at the Thai vegetarian kitchens, and 150 to 300 baht for western plates such as pizza, burgers and lasagne. Two people eating four dishes with rice at Anchan pay close to 530 baht. Smoothies and fresh juices add 60 to 120 baht. Aum takes cash only.
Aum, Anchan, May Kaidee and Vegan Heaven sit at the lower end. Reform Kafé, Goodsouls, Rad Rabbit, Pure Vegan Heaven, Asa and Free Bird sit a band higher, reflecting imported ingredients such as vegan cheese and gluten-free flour. The gap between the two groups runs to roughly double for a comparable plate. Card acceptance follows the same split, so carrying cash removes the problem.
Which vegan restaurants in Chiang Mai open early, and which close on set days?
Goodsouls Kitchen opens at 8am and Rad Rabbit at 8:30am, both running to 10pm daily. Reform Kafé and Vegan Heaven serve 9am to 10pm every day. Pure Vegan Heaven opens 8:30am to 9pm daily and Asa 9:30am to 7pm daily. Anchan closes Tuesday and Wednesday, Free Bird Café closes Monday, and May Kaidee closes all day Saturday.
Breakfast is the weak point in most Thai cities and the strong point here. Four of these kitchens serve a full plant-based breakfast before 9am, which covers stuffed French toast at Asa, bagel sandwiches at Goodsouls, eggs benedict and chicken and waffles at Rad Rabbit, and coconut yoghurt bowls across several menus. For late food, Goodsouls Downtown on Chang Moi Road runs to midnight.
What happens to vegan dining in Chiang Mai during the vegetarian festival?
During Tesagan Gin Je, the nine-day festival held in the ninth lunar month, hundreds of ordinary Chiang Mai food stalls hang yellow flags with red Thai characters and cook without meat, dairy, eggs, garlic or onion. Warorot Market and the surrounding blocks carry the highest concentration of stalls. Prices fall and choice widens, which makes it the cheapest week of the year to eat plant-based food in the city.
The festival honours the Nine Emperor Gods and arrived in Thailand through Chinese communities in the 19th century. It usually falls in late September or October, and the exact dates shift each year with the lunar calendar. Observant participants wear white, keep to je food and abstain from alcohol for the duration.
Chiang Mai runs a quieter version than Phuket, where the ceremonies involve firewalking and body piercing. The trade-off suits anyone who wants the food rather than the spectacle. Street stalls that sell pork noodles for 50 weeks of the year switch their entire operation for nine days, so the yellow flag becomes the most useful thing to look for.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chiang Mai a good city for vegans?
Chiang Mai holds 38 fully vegan and 97 fully vegetarian restaurants on HappyCow, with close to 400 venues offering plant-based options. Measured per head of population, the city ranks second worldwide behind Phuket. Most of the dedicated kitchens cluster within walking distance of the moat.
What is the difference between vegetarian and je food in Thailand?
Thai vegetarian food, mangsawirat, often includes egg and dairy. Je food excludes all animal products along with garlic, onion, chives and other pungent vegetables, following Chinese Buddhist practice. Je is stricter than most western vegan labels.
Which is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Chiang Mai?
Aum Vegetarian Restaurant has traded since 1982 and is now run by the third generation of the same family, which makes it the first vegetarian restaurant in the city. Vegan Heaven opened in 2004 as Taste from Heaven and describes itself as the first fully vegan one.
Which vegan restaurant in Chiang Mai has the highest rating?
Pure Vegan Heaven Chiang Mai Old Town holds 4.8 from 522 Google reviews, and May Kaidee holds 4.8 from 747 reviews, as recorded in August 2026. Reform Kafé, Rad Rabbit, Vegan Heaven and Aum all hold 4.7.
Do Chiang Mai vegan restaurants take card payment?
The larger kitchens accept cards and Thai QR payment. Aum takes cash only, and several of the smaller family-run kitchens accept cash and QR without cards. Carrying cash removes the problem entirely.
Are these restaurants suitable for people who do not eat plant-based food?
Every kitchen on this list trades on food quality rather than dietary compliance. Reform Kafé, Rad Rabbit and Goodsouls draw mixed tables regularly, and none of the three announces itself as health food.
Chiang Mai stopped needing to make the case for plant-based food decades ago. One kitchen on this list has been cooking meat-free since 1982, another funds a school, and the rest run full menus on steady trade and repeat customers. The 10 addresses here are the ones that will still be cooking next year.