Vegetarian Vietnam: chay, fish sauce and Indian food

Vegetarian food in Vietnam: chay, hidden fish sauce and Indian food

Short answer

Vegetarian food in Vietnam means looking for chay, the Buddhist vegetarian cooking served at places signed quán chay or cơm chay, often near pagodas. Ordinary dishes hide fish sauce, shrimp paste and meat broth, so say tôi ăn chay. Many Vietnamese eat vegetarian on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month.

Last checked: September 24, 2026

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What to look for, and what to avoid


The word to look for	Chay, meaning vegetarian
Restaurant signs	Quán chay, cơm chay
Where they cluster	Near pagodas, and in city centres
Busy days	The 1st and 15th of each lunar month
Hidden in ordinary food	Fish sauce, shrimp paste, meat and bone broth
The sentence	Tôi ăn chay: I eat vegetarian
Beef	Common, in pho, bò kho and bún bò Huế

Chay: Vietnam’s own vegetarian tradition

Vietnamese Buddhist monks keep a strictly vegetarian diet, and the cooking that grew around them, called đồ chay, is its own cuisine rather than meat dishes with the meat removed. Tofu, mushrooms, gluten and vegetables stand in for meat, sometimes shaped and seasoned to look like it.

Many lay Buddhists eat vegetarian on the 1st and 15th days of each lunar month, so chay restaurants are part of ordinary city life rather than something built for visitors. Vietnam’s tourism authority suggests looking for signs saying quán chay or cơm chay, and trying the streets around pagodas.

Where fish sauce and broth hide

The risk for a vegetarian in Vietnam is not a menu full of meat. It is the dish that looks safe.

Fish sauce (nước mắm) is the most common seasoning in Vietnamese cooking and goes into most dipping sauces, dressings and stir-fries.
Shrimp paste (mắm tôm) is served as a dip and cooked into some noodle soups.
Broth in pho and other noodle soups is usually made from beef or chicken bones, even when the bowl has no visible meat.

One word needs care. Không thịt means no meat, but the Vietnamese word thịt usually means the flesh of animals rather than fish or shellfish. Saying you are chay covers all of them; saying no meat may still get you shrimp.

The words that do the work

Vietnamese	Meaning
Tôi ăn chay	I eat vegetarian
Không nước mắm	No fish sauce
Không trứng	No egg
Không hành, không tỏi	No onion, no garlic
Phở chay	Vegetarian pho
Cơm chay	Vegetarian rice meals

Writing the sentence on your phone and showing it works better than pronouncing it, because Vietnamese is tonal. More phrases are in Vietnamese phrases for travellers.

For Jain travellers

Strict Buddhist monastic cooking avoids garlic, onion, leek and asafoetida, which overlaps with Jain practice. Ordinary chay restaurants do not always follow the monastic standard, though, so ask for không hành, không tỏi and check dishes with root vegetables such as potato, carrot and taro one by one.

Indian food

Vietnam has a small, long-established Indian community. The Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City puts it at nearly 8,000 people, and the city’s Tamil history shows in the Mariamman Temple near Bến Thành market, built in the late 19th century by Nagarathar (Chettiar) traders from Tamil Nadu. Indian restaurants exist in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and a map search is the reliable way to find one that is open now. Getting around each city is covered in the guides to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

The street food this page steers you around, and the dishes worth knowing by name, are in Vietnam street food and pho. Converting menu prices to rupees is in Vietnamese dong to rupees.

Mobile data makes this easier than it sounds: a map search for quán chay shows the vegetarian restaurants around you. The plans are in the Vietnam eSIM store.

We have no arrangement with any restaurant, and this page names none.

Questions

Is it easy to be vegetarian in Vietnam?

Easier than it first looks, because Vietnam has its own Buddhist vegetarian cooking, called chay, with dedicated restaurants in cities across the country. The hard part is ordinary food: fish sauce, shrimp paste and meat broth are in dishes that look vegetarian. Eat at chay places and the problem mostly disappears.

How do I say I am vegetarian in Vietnamese?

Tôi ăn chay, which means I eat vegetarian. Add không nước mắm for no fish sauce and không trứng for no egg. Adding chay after a dish name asks for the vegetarian version, so phở chay is vegetarian pho.

Is pho vegetarian?

No. Pho is normally made with beef or chicken broth, and even chicken pho uses chicken bones. Ask for phở chay, which vegetarian restaurants make with a vegetable broth. Bún bò Huế, another noodle soup, uses beef bones and shrimp paste.

Is beef common in Vietnamese food?

Yes. Beef is in many well-known dishes, including phở bò, bò kho and bún bò Huế. Travellers who avoid beef should check each dish, and chay restaurants avoid the question altogether because they serve no meat or fish.

Can Jain travellers eat at chay restaurants?

Often, but ask. Strict Buddhist monastic cooking avoids garlic, onion, leek and asafoetida, yet an ordinary chay restaurant may still use onion or garlic. Say không hành, không tỏi, meaning no onion, no garlic, and check root vegetables dish by dish.

Is there Indian food in Vietnam?

Yes, in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The Consulate General of India puts the Indian community in Vietnam at nearly 8,000 people, and Ho Chi Minh City has a Tamil temple, the Mariamman Temple, dating from the late 19th century. Indian restaurants exist in both cities; a map search finds a current one.