The 18 best vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Paris

This is nothing less than the finest vegan restaurant in Paris, where vegetable-based cuisine has a real ambition: to amplify its cuisine towards a meat-free world. On Faubourg Daimant's  menu, you'll find a merry-go-round of successes: melting carrots glazed with a ‘bbq’ sauce; tofu croquettes like a pig’s trotter; Provençal stuffing, roasts and juices from ‘vegetable carcasses’. This is innovative stuff, set out in a beautiful tiled room (and there's a nice courtyard outside too). 

Forget about the carbon footprint it takes to get to Saint-Vrain – the delicately prepared food, straight from the garden, is absolutely worth it. Le Doyenné isn’t a vegetarian spot, but it's perfect for vegetarians; all dishes are available in a meatless version, and they're all packed with maximum flavour. 

With a counter brimming with colourful salads and fragrant pastries, this pretty Mediterranean canteen on the banks of the canal makes you want to order everything. And just as well, at Ima Cantine you actually can order everything, because the dishes are all vegetarian. We love it when a plan comes together. Make sure to order the saucy shakshuka.

Daniela Lavadenz's bistro offers a daring menu that goes against the grain of its classic decor of casson and formica. At Le Saint Sebastien, Christopher Edwards chisels out a variety of dazzling dishes, in which plants feel right at home.

In his neo-cantine, Mauritanian chef Harouna Sow, a chef trainer for Refugee Food, revisits the emblems of West African gastronomy. Both the mafe (African peanut stew) and yassa (a stew from Senegal) at Waalo are available vegetarian as well as meat; the only thing to note are the veggie versions are more expensive, somehow. 

Specialising in vegetarian dishes from northern India and already something of a hit across Paris, this restaurant on the Rue de Cail is now one of four Krishna Bhavan addresses across the capital. This particular outlet can be a tight squeeze, but it’s worth getting used to the cosiness for all the great, filling, cheap food on offer; paneer butter masala, dal makhani and aloo gobi masala all come in under €10. 

It feels quite symbolic – a restaurant that’s 100 percent vegetarian located in a former butcher’s shop on the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. Le Daily Syrien have even kept hold of the huge, once meat-packed fridge. Grab a pitta and stuff it with everything you can get your hands on – the falafel, hummus and lentil dishes are particularly good. Order a huge bowl of hummus, topped with broad beans.