Vegan restaurant menu

Usual sections

1. To start: hummus and dips, croquettes, pickles, lupin beans.
2. Salads and bowls, if you have several.
3. Mains: curries, stews, risottos, tofu, tempeh, seitan, plant-based burgers.
4. Desserts: cashew cheesecake, aquafaba mousse, plant-based ice cream, fruit.
5. Drinks: kombucha, juices, coffee with plant milk, wine and beer.

If you’re a 100% plant-based restaurant, say so in the subtitle and the footer note: “No meat, fish, eggs, dairy or honey”. That way you don’t need to explain it on every dish.

Names people understand

On a vegan menu there are two temptations: copying the names of meat dishes as they are, or inventing names that say nothing. What works best:

• The main ingredient in the name: “Chickpea and sweet potato curry”, “Crispy teriyaki tofu”.
• Quotation marks for substitutes: “cheese”cake, cashew “parmesan”. They make it clear it isn’t the original product.
• The technique, if it adds something: chargrilled, fermented, smoked, in tempura.

The menu doesn’t have to convince anyone to eat vegan. It’s enough for the dish to sound good.

Prices and portions

Prices work as in any restaurant. Two details of their own:

• If you have dishes for sharing, say so: “For sharing”, “Six pieces”.
• If a dish takes extras (tofu, avocado, gluten-free bread), a section note with prices avoids questions.

Allergens on a vegan menu

This is the tricky part. When milk and eggs come out, other ingredients come in to add texture and protein, and many of them are allergens:

• Soybeans: tofu, tempeh, soy sauce, miso, soya milk and many plant-based meats.
• Tree nuts: cashews in “cheeses” and creams, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts. They’re everywhere in desserts.
• Sesame: tahini in hummus, sesame oil and seeds on top.
• Gluten: seitan (it’s wheat gluten), bread, spelt, oats and traditional soy sauce, which contains wheat.
• Lupin: lupin beans, and lupin flour and protein in burgers and breads.
• Peanuts: nut butters, satay-style sauces, desserts.
• Mustard and celery: dressings, stocks and sauces.
• Sulphites: wine, vinegar and dried fruit.

If a dish needs to be gluten-free, swap the soy sauce for a gluten-free tamari and say so in the description. And coconut, which turns up in many curries and desserts, isn’t one of the 14 allergens; even so, if someone asks, tell them.

Vegan, gluten-free and other tags

Use tags with care:

• Vegan on every dish if you want it to show in photos and on social media, or once in the footer if the whole restaurant is vegan.
• Gluten-free, only if you control cross-contamination in the kitchen.
• Seasonal, for dishes that change. That way you also know which ones to review every few months.

With wine and beer, watch out: some are clarified with animal products, such as egg white, milk casein, gelatine or isinglass, which comes from fish. Many traditional cask ales are fined with isinglass. If you sell them as vegan, check with the producer.

A seasonal menu

Plant-based cooking depends a lot on what’s in season, and the menu changes more often than in other restaurants. To avoid redoing it every time:

• Keep a fixed core (the dishes you always have) and a “Seasonal” section that you change every few months.
• Put the seasonal tag on those dishes: they stand out at a glance on the menu, and you know which ones to review.
• When you take a dish off, hide it in the editor instead of deleting it. Next year, with its description and allergens already marked, you just show it again.

If you also do a set lunch, the set lunch menu guide explains how to build one at a fixed price.

Format and style

• A4 in two columns: starters and mains on one side, desserts and drinks on the other.
• A5 for a small restaurant or a lunch menu.
• Post or story to announce the seasonal dish.

The template’s style is Botanical, with hand-drawn leaves and soft greens. Nordic, cleaner, Brunch, warmer, and Poké, for bowls, also work. More in menu templates.

Make it in MenuDesign

Open the vegan menu template, change the dishes, take your time checking the soya, tree nuts, sesame and gluten in each one, and download the PDF. Free, no account, and saved in your browser.