The best vegetarian restaurants in Sydney

There’s a joy in picking at plates filled with salty, vinegary, creamy and crunchy things, and Enmore’s old faithful Emma’s Snack Bar delivers on that and then some. The comforting Lebanese diner’s menu is mostly made up of veg numbers, and the crisp, herby falafel are some of the best we’ve ever had. While the amount of garlic in some dishes may not be first-date territory, man, it’s delicious.

Time Out tip: Oh, and Emma’s is BYO too – double win.

When Yellow ditched meat from its dinner menus in February 2021, the staff noticed a surprising change in its diners. Sure, there were more vegetarian and vegan guests – that was a no-brainer. What they didn’t forecast was the mood-lifting cheer that followed the switch: customers didn’t just bring their appetites, they stepped up the niceness and gratitude, buoyed by the arrival of a vegetarian restaurant with fine-dining cred. Today, Yellow continues to serve some of the most thrilling food in Sydney.

Take a walk down Newtown’s Australia Street and head to Flora, a sunny vego restaurant by the team behind the forever-cool Continental Deli. Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner – as well as breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays – Flora’s mission is to bring seasonal, sustainable, nourishing and – importantly – tasty vegetarian eats to the already strong plant-leaning community. You could start your day with ricotta and cacao husk pancakes served with smoked maple syrup and espresso butter; amped-up avo toast with green chilli sambal, braised zucchini and pepita butter on “life-changing seeded toast”; or a Kangaroo Valley three-egg omelette filled with Monterosso cheese, poblano peppers and salted black bean dressing.

Time Out tip: If you’re not strictly vegetarian, check out Flora’s next-door neighbours: seafood den Mister Grotto, and regional Italian diner Osteria Mucca.

Enmore Road has carved out a solid reputation as a veg-friendly food destination and Cairo Takeaway easily fits the bill. The Egyptian diner assembles one of the best vegetarian mixed plates in town featuring crisp, spiced cauliflower florets, dark green falafel, a little fattoush salad, Pantone-coloured pickles, tahini and soft folds of flatbread. We should mention, in spite of the name you can eat in at Cairo Takeaway, and it’s always a good time.

Fried cauliflower with wood-roasted grapes, creamy labneh and a smoked almond crumb; a bright and colourful fattoush salad with tomato, fresh herbs, radish and pops of pomegranate; and wood-fired mushrooms with potato cream and Jerusalem artichokes. These are but some of the flavoursome vego dishes available at pastel-hued Middle Eastern restaurant, Nour. And take it from us: they give their meat neighbours a run for their money.

Turns out pizza without cheese is still bloody excellent. Sure, there were a lot of naysayers on the internet when Gigi on South King Street changed to a plant-based menu, but they were wrong, because a chewy, wood-fired pizza base covered in a layer of sweet golden tomato puree and tender ribbons of capsicum gets all the umami depth it needs from a liberal dose of olive tapenade, capers, chilli, oregano and olive oil. The salty, savoury and spice trifecta hits all the right flavour zones on your tongue – we swear you won’t even miss the mozzarella. Don’t believe us? Just try getting a table – it’s a packed house every night.

You can’t visit Flyover Fritterie, Redfern's vegetarian Indian eatery, without a taste of their seasonal vegetable fritters stuffed with a mix of onion, lentil and spinach, tofu or paneer, sabudana (tapioca) vada with beetroot yogurt, or chilli. Don’t worry, you’ll get house-made mint and tamarind chutneys to balance the heat. These famous fritters are also served as a side with Flyover’s toasties and burgers, including a cauliflower korma jaffle and their ever-so-popular dosa potato jaffle with bomb peanut chutney, devilled cashews and a coconuty crunch.

There seems to be two approaches in Sydney’s plant-based dining scene. The first tries to replace and replicate the meat, dairy and egg with faithful recreations. The other school of thought seems to go along the lines of ‘vegetables are freaking awesome’ and lets plants take all the lead roles in the dish. Yulli’s approach is the latter. We strongly recommend the kale and saltbush gyoza: they're a showstopper.

It’s no surprise that the star of the show at Jimmy’s is the falafel. An order comes as a pile of seven, heaped onto an oval metal plate with a pot of tahini and parsley. This is the only plausible way to start your meal - whether solo, wrapped in pita, or dunked in mezze dips like hummus, baba ganoush and green goodness tahini. A side of pita bread, tabouli and village cheese would make any vegetarian happy.

Occupying a spot just a stone's throw from William Street in Paddington, Bootleg Social Lounge is a vegan restaurant. A vegan Italian restaurant. All of that salami and cheesy-creamy deliciousness? Fakes. Darn good fakes. Rather than running from dairy and meat to base his vegan menu around plants and grains, chef-owner Sam Overton has gone all in and had a serious crack at recreating the textures and flavours of our farmyard friends. The food is confident and shows that you can certainly enjoy a hearty Italian meal without any animals being harmed in the process.

In a city where you can get pizza by the metre and deep-dish versions impersonating a Mary’s burger, is it still possible to stand out with slices of pie? Yes and Madre in Marrickville is doing just that. This tiny corner pizzeria has tuned out all the gospel about what makes a classic Italian pizza to create something thoroughly local and unlike anything else around, namely, a dedicated vegetarian pizza restaurant.

It’s easy to over order at Pinky Ji. You can expect to find bright, bold flavours, a whole lotta fun, and, of course, unauthentic Indian cuisine that easily accommodates vegetarians. A chutney platter and papadum flight is an intriguing way to start your feast, best followed by a smorgasbord of curries including Old Delhi chana, paneer makhani and vegetable coconut curry. 

Here it's all about the celebration of vegetables typical of the Aegean coastline (though there's a sprinkle of chicken and fish on the menu to keep the carnivores happy). Maydanoz’s colourful menu subs out your classic Turkish kebabs and meat platters for lentil koftes; beetroot falafel with spinach pita and tahini; and barbecued halloumi with thyme honey and sesame. Even your meat-eating mates will be impressed. 

Walking into most restaurants you’re either greeted by a smiling host or waitstaff, or maybe no one at all. At Kurumba, Sydney’s Sri Lankan eatery, you'll be met with a wave of spices – cumin, cloves and cardamom – being cooked down gently in coconut oil so it’s fragrant and hunger-inducing. We imagine it smells like dinner along the palm-fringed Unawatuna Beach and street food stalls in bustling Colombo. The vegetable-based curries are excellent here, and we’re big fans of the hoppers (the street-food staple that's like a crisp savoury pancake) too.

Soulful Sri Lankan food with a side of consciousness is what you can expect at this buzzy Enmore Road eatery. Build your dinner from the ground up starting with an egg hopper base and piling on earthy beetroot curry, rich red lentil dhal, fresh papaya salsa and green mint sambol. The best part is having your dinner cooked by asylum seeker chefs, with Colombo Social also donating a meal to an asylum seeker for every Amma’s Table banquet menu sold as part of the #PlateItForward initiative. 

Half the menu at this South Eveleigh craft brewery is plant-based, so it’s good for vegans, vegetarians and veggie lovers, serving everything from pulled shiitake 'pork' burgers to cheesy 'chicken' parmigiana and their notorious buffalo fried cauliflower wings.

For vegetarians, scanning an Italian menu can feel like a game of chance. Spot the right words (stracciatella! brown butter!) and you’re in for a good time, see a bland risotto and the night could be ruined. But at Kindred, Matt Pollock’s homey 40 seater in Darlington, plant-based options dominate the menu, so the odds are ever in your favour. In the years since the neighbourhood Italian opened, the former A Tavola chef has shifted towards a bigger line-up of veggo dishes that aren’t just cheaper, but more popular. It’s easy to see why regulars are embracing the switch. 

There was a lot of buzz around Melbourne’s latest export when it opened here in 2017 and we can confirm that their vegetarian options live up to the hype. You can taste the bold South East Asian flavours in their DIY vegetable spring rolls with peanut satay; rich yellow curry with grilled zucchini, tofu and squash; and wok-fried brussel sprouts in chilli dressing. If you’re bad at making decisions then leave it up to the chef with their vegetarian banquet menu.

If you’re going to open a coffee place, right up the block from a Taxi depot and a primary school is a perfect location. But this warehouse dining room also opens at night with an all-vegetarian, menu of cheese, dips, and antipasti, creative house-made pasta and salads. They release the new menu each week on a Tuesday, and they'll whip up a vegan version for most things so your dairy-free pals can also join the party. 

You’re in for a treat at this modern Middle Eastern eatery considering that almost every second dish is labelled ‘veg’. Israel-born chef Roy Ner (Nour) consulted on the menu, which navigates trays piled with smoky baba ghanoush, honey-baked halloumi, and eggplant and zucchini fries; alongside a showstopping crispy falafel crusted cauliflower. The more friends you bring, the more food you can share. 

You might assume the long-running vegan menu at Otto was inspired by some righteous celebrity. After all, this glitzy Woolloomooloo institution is known for being a wharfside runway for stars, and there are many A-listers who are pin-ups for the plant-based diet. Turns out a regular – a vegan diner who has been visiting fortnightly for a decade – was the one who sparked executive chef Richard Ptacnik’s experiments with animal-free dining. And so the question becomes: how does a menu without egg, meat and cheese rate in a restaurant known for stylish updates on Italian food? Well, it turns out you can drop the pork ragù and squid ink and still eat incredibly well at Otto.

Pendle Hill, a small suburb in the Western suburbs, lives large as a busy hub for the Sri Lankan community. The neatly packed Sri Lankan and South Indian restaurants and grocery stores along Pendle Way are busy with shoppers and diners stocking up on dried goods, curry spices and something readymade to take home for dinner. The most popular choice is a curry plate, and the place to get it is Abie’s Vegetarian Takeaway. Here, you’ll find all the colours of the edible rainbow in the 20 different all-veg curries on offer.