If you’re wondering what vegetarian / vegan meal options Cathay Pacific offers, as well as some examples of what I’ve eaten while flying Cathay, continue reading below.

How to request a vegetarian/vegan meal

If you login to your Cathay account to view your flight reservation, there should be an option to select a special meal. Be sure to pre-order your special meal at least 24 hours in advance, so that Cathay can make sure your meal is available for your flight.

Unfortunately, in case of any last minute flight changes, your meal may not be available. Cathay does not offer a vegetarian meal without pre-orders (but Singapore Air does).

After boarding but before takeoff, the flight attendants will come by and verify that your name, seat number, and meal request.

During meal service, special meals get served before pre-ordered meals. So if you’ve pre-ordered your meal, you can look forward to eating first! Most of the time, your meal is a mystery, though sometimes there will be a very short label of what the food is.

Vegetarian and vegan options

Cathay Pacific provides many different types of vegetarian meals. Please refer to their website for the latest options and descriptions.

Vegetarian vegan meal
Vegetarian oriental meal
Vegetarian raw meal
Vegetarian lacto-ovo meal
Vegetarian Hindu / Indian vegetarian meal
Vegetarian Jain / Strict Indian vegetarian meal

Meals I’ve eaten on Starlux

Vegetarian oriental meal (Long haul, USA to Asia)

Vegetarian oriental meal: Vegetarian food prepared in East Asian style, along with fruits and vegetables. No meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy products, roots or bulbous vegetables including ginger, garlic, onion, spring onions, etc.

Although labeled as vegetarian, this meal is also vegan because it does not contain meat, eggs, or dairy. It also does not contain alliums.

Time: December 2024

Route: Hong Kong (HKG) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL); 4 hour flight. Because of the flight length, this is the only meal served.

Main entree
This was rice, 2 pieces of a green vegetable, and a curry. The curry had peaches and chunks of a soy product (similar to pressed tofu sheets) in a tomato based curry. It sounds weird – but it was actually super delicious. I finished the entire curry!

Sides
A cold salad with mushrooms, dried bean curd, and carrots.
Fruit: honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon.
Bread and margarine.

As usual, I don’t find anything too special or particularly tasty about the sides. However, I am very impressed by the main entree, as it was very protein packed and tasty.

Unfortunately, the meal did not come with a vegan dessert. The other passengers who didn’t pre-order a special meal received chocolate chip Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Since I am not vegan, I requested it additionally while the flight attendants were serving other passengers.

Overall rating: ✅ Very satisfied with Cathay meals and would look forward to trying their other vegetarian meals again!

Interested in how Cathay Pacific’s vegetarian meals compared to other airlines? Check out the above post!