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

How to request a vegetarian/vegan meal

If you login to your EVA 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 EVA 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. EVA 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

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

Vegetarian Oriental Meal (VOML)
Vegetarian Lacto-ovo Meal (VLML）
Vegetarian Jain Meal (VJML)
Vegetarian Hindu Meal (AVML)
Raw Vegetarian Meal (RVML)
Vegetarian Vegan Meal (VGML)

Meals I’ve eaten on EVA

While you cannot see the exact dish you will receive before ordering it (only the descriptions like the ones above), and the meals vary even if you fly the same route, the below will give you an example of what you might receive! Hopefully these help in determining which meal to order for your flight.

Vegetarian oriental meal (Long haul, Asia to USA)

Vegetarian Oriental Meal (VOML): Typically cooked in Chinese style. This meal doesn’t contain meat, poultry, seafood, fish, allium, egg, dairy products and alcohol seasoning.

Although labeled as vegetarian, because it does not contain dairy or egg, it is also vegan

Time: October 2023

Route: Taipei (TPE) to San Francisco (SFO); 11 hour flight. This was the main entree served at the beginning of the flight, and a breakfast meal follows closer to arrival time.

Main entree
Steamed vegetables (cauliflower and carrots), steamed rice, and a mushroom curry.

Sides
Cut fruit: watermelon, pineapple, apple
Bread with margarine
Cold mushroom salad
Jelly dessert

This is the 2nd meal, the breakfast that is served at the end of the TPE to SFO flight.

Main entree
Congee (rice porridge) with taro, peas, and goji berry. Super bland, and no salt was given in the utensils packet.

Sides
Bread with margarine
Cold salad (wood ear mushrooms and cucumbers)
Fruit: orange, apple, honeydew

Vegetarian oriental meal (SIN to TPE)

Time: October 2023

Route: Singapore (SIN) to Taipei (TPE); 5 hour flight. Because of the flight length, this was the only meal served.

Main entree
Rice with jujube and cabbage. The rice and vegetables were bland.

Sides
Cut fruit: Dragonfruit, watermelon, pineapple
Cold “pumpkin” dumpling (I have no idea what this was, it was bland)
Bread with margarine
Cake with berry mousse

Vegetarian oriental meal (TPE to ICN)

Time: April 2024

Route: Taipei (TPE) to Seoul (ICN); 2 hour flight. Because of the flight length, this was the only meal served.

Main entree
Rice vermicelli noodles with various vegetables, including cabbage, string beans, tomato, bell pepper, and mushroom. While not the tastiest, this has to be one of the better meals I’ve had on EVA.

Sides
Fruit: watermelon, pineapple, and honeydew
Earl grey crumble cake

Vegetarian lacto-ovo (Long haul, USA to Asia)

Vegetarian Lacto-ovo Meal (VLML: Vegetarian meal which high protein foods (dairy products, eggs) are permitted. This meal doesn’t contain meat, poultry, seafood, fish, allium products and alcohol seasoning.

Time: October 2023

Route: San Francisco (SFO) to Taipei (Taipei); 13 hour flight. This was the main entree served at the beginning of the flight, and a breakfast meal follows closer to arrival time.

Main entree
Penne pasta with tomato sauce and cheese, with vegetables (zucchini, carrots).

Sides
Fruit: cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon
Bread with margarine
Salad with balsamic vinaigrette

This is the 2nd meal, the breakfast that is served at the end of the SFO to TPE flight.

Main entree
Scrambled eggs with roasted potatoes, bell pepper, and broccoli

Sides
Bread with margarine
Fruit
Salad with balsamic dressing

Taste rating: Although simple, both lacto-ovo meals were not amazing, but edible enough to finish.

Conclusion and overall rating

I know that airplane food is not going to be amazing, but after flying other airlines, EVA food by comparison had to be some of the worst. It’s not just the vegetarian meals, either. I traveled with my family on the same routes and their non-vegetarian meals were bland as well.

The EVA vegetarian meals lacked protein (and seasoning…). If I were to fly EVA again, I would probably order the vegetarian lacto-ovo meals opposed to the vegetarian oriental meals. Although simple, the lacto-ovo meals were more edible and seasoned better. I would expect that the oriental vegetarian meals would be better coming from Asia starting point cities, however they were so bland. If you are vegan, I suggest trying the Vegetarian Vegan Meal (which is what I’ll do if I fly EVA next time).

Although EVA is an overall great airline with excellent service, if timings and price were not a consideration and I were to choose what airline to fly based on the food alone, I would pick a different airline with better food.

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