Hong Kong is known for being expensive, which can be true, but also you can find some cheap eats if you follow my guide below!

To start off with, I think Hong Kong vegetarian friendliness is 5/10. The vegetarian options are very limited at restaurants that are not fully vegetarian, and vegetarian restaurants are also quite expensive (for both Western and Chinese style vegetarian restaurants).

As I am mostly a budget traveler, and try to avoid eating Western-style vegetarian food while traveling in Asia, I will list the restaurants that I didn’t get to try at the end. Generally, at vegetarian restaurants, dishes usually cost $80-120 HKD per dish. At some Chinese restaurants, there may be an additional tea charge per person (usually $10-12 HKD) and 10% service charge. If you go to a dim sum restaurant, this tea charge and 10% service charge is almost guaranteed.

Now let’s get into my cheap vegetarian eats in Hong Kong, where I’ll list fully vegetarian restaurants first.

Here is a short version. Be sure to follow me on Instagram and send this post to your travel partners!

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Paradise Veggie

This is a fully vegetarian buffet. The prices, and selection, vary depending on the time you go. For weekday lunch, I paid $119 HKD after service charge. You are permitted to stay for 90 minutes. There are English name labels and markers about what contains egg, milk, or onion.

Sushi and fried food

Fried food selection included: sesame balls, spring rolls, tempura sweet potato, fried mochis

There were also a few large steamers with dim sum. There is also a section with soups, noodles, and vegetables. However I pretty much loved (and filled up on) the taro mochi balls, “shrimp” dumplings, and curry fish balls. The curry fish balls and shrimp dumplings are hard to find vegetarian elsewhere!

Everything I had was pretty tasty. Buffets are always fun, and this is a great choice because of the variety of foods you can try. For the price, it is a great deal, when other vegetarian restaurants can be that price for a single dish! Though, be aware that dinner prices can be closer to 200 HKD per person, but I think there should be more variety.

Paradise Veggie – Google Maps link

This is located in the basement level of Tower 535. Make sure you find this sign for it, and take the entrance that has an escalator going down.

Tishifang (香港佛光道場滴水坊)

This vegetarian restaurant is not located near a MRT station, which makes it inconvenient to get to, however I wanted to try their cha siu. They also did not have an English menu, and staff English levels were limited.

I ordered the cha siu (秘製叉燒). It was super close to real cha siu!

I also had their dumplings (I think it was #11 on the menu)… These were very delicious as well!

I also received free porridge with the meal.

Would I travel here again? Probably not, if I only had a few days in Hong Kong.

Google Maps link, HappyCow link

Vegetarian Options at non-vegetarian restaurants

The below section will have LABELED vegetarian options at non-vegetarian restaurants.

Nom Nom Dumpling

This is a chain dumpling restaurant with several locations in Hong Kong. It has both a vegetarian and vegan dumpling option. You can get them steamed or pan fried.

I got the vegetarian wild matsutake dumpling pan fried. These were good! The dumplings are also quite large.

Northern Dumpling Yuan

This dumpling restaurant has 2 vegetarian options. The staff also spoke good English. They have a nice afternoon tea special from 2:30-6pm, where you can get 8 dumplings (4 dumplings with your choice of 2 fillings) for $54 HKD (fried) or $49 HKD (steamed). It also comes with a drink. Otherwise, the price of the dumplings is $33-42 HKD for 5 pieces.

I tried both the “Vegetarian dumpling” and “Fungus, mushroom vegetarian dumpling”, as well as both fried and steamed styles. I preferred the “Fungus, mushroom” filling and the dumpling steamed.

I believe the “vegetarian dumpling” filling was wood ear mushroom with primarily some sort of green vegetable, while the “fungus, mushroom” dumpling filling was primarily shiitake mushroom and carrots.

Northern Dumpling Yuan – Google Maps link

Kung Wo Beancurd Factory

This popular restaurant is located in Sham Shui Po, and specializes in soy products. There are a handful of labeled vegetarian options. You don’t need to worry about language barrier while ordering here, as you just mark on the menu what you want.

I tried the: steamed rice roll, which is steamed rice noodle rolled into small pieces and topped with both a sweet hoisin-style sauce and chili sauce. This is a classic HK street food that you need to try! The rice noodle rolls tasted fresh here.

They also have a gingko and beancurd sheet congee here. Honestly, this wasn’t the best congee – it was super thick (not the smooth consistency that HK congee is known for)! However, it’s hard to find vegetarian congee outside of vegetarian restaurants.

You can also get soymilk, both cold and hot versions are served here.

They are also famous for their tofu pudding (slightly sweet tofu dessert).

Their tofu ice cream was EXTREMELY good as well. It is not labeled as vegetarian (contains milk), though I believe that the labeling is wrong and whoever made the menu confused “vegetarian” and “vegan”.

Kung Wo Beancurd Factory – Google Maps link

Hana Musubi

Locations of Hana Musubi are available in nearly every MTR station. Hana Musubi sells grab and go rice balls with filling.

There are a few vegetarian options (grilled plant-based beef, nametake mushroom with truffle flavor, sauteed burdock root), and usually each location has at least 1 (but usually only 1-2, never the full selection of veg options) flavor available. You can check their website for locations and see all the vegetarian options.

Hana Musubi website

Other foods to try

These are dishes that are vegetarian, or the version at this restaurant does not have meat (but these restaurants do not have vegetarian labeling).

Fung Mei Steam Food

This is a “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant, with no English menu. However, you can easily mark your selections on the menu. Their specialty is steamed rice noodle rolls (cheung fun), which is topped with sweet(ish) soy sauce. If you translate the options, you can get:

• mushroom
• egg
• corn
• green onion
• lettuce

I ordered the mushroom cheung fun, which was 21 HKD.

Fung Mei Steam Food – Google Maps link

Egg waffles

Egg waffles are a famous HK dessert, which are vegetarian. I tried this milk tea egg waffle at PuffLife (Google Maps link) for 29 HKD.

For vegan egg waffles, you can try LN Coffee (but I did not get a chance to try).

Chung Kee Congee

If you want a cheap eat with the smooth congee consistency that HK congee is known for, then you can try Chung Kee Congee. They have cheung fun, soymilk, and you can pick the toppings that go into the congee. I got the “sweet corn” and “pumpkin” in my congee.

English menu is available. Please note you pay when you exit at the counter, and unlike all other restaurants in HK, no order slip is given and you must repeat what you ordered. 2 combo congee was 25 HKD. The corn tasted a bit dry, but the pumpkin was super sweet. Next time I would just stick to only pumpkin!

Chung Kee Congee – Google Maps link

Cha chaan tengs

Cha chaan tengs are Hong Kong cafes that serve drinks (most famously, milk tea), pastries, and cha chaan teng style dishes (usually Cantonese-Western fusion dishes). Getting the quick in and out, curt yet efficient service at these old-fashioned cafes are a quintessential Hong Kong experience. However, these cafes usually don’t have any vegetarian dishes.

The rule of thumb is that usually every customer must order at least one drink or meet the minimum spend (this is usually printed on the menu). If you really want to eat at a cha chaan teng for the experience but not consume non-vegetarian food, you can order just drinks. There is milk tea, which is the local version of black tea with condensed milk (for iced milk tea) or evaporated milk (for hot milk tea). Unfortunately, no non-dairy options are present.

If you are vegan or cannot consume cow’s milk, you can order soymilk or lemon tea.

Please be aware that most pastries (such as egg tarts, pineapple buns “bolo bao”), and possibly bread (like in toast), may contain lard.

A famous cha chaan teng that I saw labeled vegetarian options on the menu was at Kam Wah Cafe (Google Maps link). There was curry fried rice vermicelli noodles and curry fried rice. However, these dishes are usually only available closer to lunch time and I did not try them.

You can check out the interior, as well as the milk tea, in my Instagram post for this spot (please note lard presence in the pineapple bun is unconfirmed but likely). What I love about cha chaan teng is the old-fashioned decor, including the plates and cups the food is served in.

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Capital Cafe (Google Maps link) is another cha chaan teng that also has labeled vegetarian options, however I didn’t get a chance to try this place!

Other vegetarian restaurants

There are lots of other vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong, but they are pricier and I did not get a chance to try them. Here are a few suggestions that come up as highly rated from other blogs and on Instagram:

Veggie Kingdom (Vegan dim sum)
Three Virtues Vegetarian (Vegetarian dim sum)
Maya Bakery (Vegan bakery with vegan egg tarts; pineapple buns). See their Instagram for locations.
LN Coffee (Vegan restaurant with vegan egg waffles)
Vegetarian Kitchen (Vegetarian restaurant with Chinese/HK food)
LockCha (Vegetarian dim sum)
Yat Sum Vegetarian (Vegetarian Chinese, slightly cheaper)

There are also some takeout vegetarian dim sum counters. I passed by these as I was in the area, but did not try any food as I didn’t have a microwave in my hotel to heat the food up. They also have restaurants, but the menu is more expensive for dine-in.

Po Lin Vegetarian
Three Virtues Vegetarian