Is it easy to be vegetarian in Thailand? No.
Can you be vegetarian in Thailand? Yes.
Well, being vegetarian in Thailand is not easy, but not impossible! Eating vegetarian in Thailand did seem like a challenge. But the good news is we took this challenge and here I am, in good health, writing this post for you. Which proves, it is possible to eat vegetarian in Thailand. Like we say, when it is possible to do a family visit to Las Vegas, anything is possible! And as I start writing about vegetarian food options in Thailand , I am trying to set the expectations right to start with.
Of all the places that I have visited so far, it has been most difficult finding vegetarian food in Thailand. Singapore was abundant with vegetarian food and even Indian food restaurants. And on our 2 weeks trip to Europe, we found ample vegetarian food options across Europe. These included pizzas & pastas in Italy across Rome, Florence and Venice, Vegan and vegetarian food outlets in Switzerland, Paris, and Amsterdam. Finding healthy salads which didn’t contain meat, fries, burgers, vegetarian pizzas and even vegan sandwich was not very difficult.
But vegetarian population in Thailand is definitely sparse (Only around 3% people in Thailand are vegetarians!!!). And vegetarian Thai food restaurants are rare. So, how do you manage eating vegetarian in Thailand when you travel there? How to order vegetarian in Thailand? On top of that language problems make it all the more difficult to order the right vegetarian food options in Thailand from the menu. Or, it gets difficult to ask for a customized recipe so that the non vegetarian ingredients are left apart.
Read on to know how we survived being vegetarian in Thailand. On our recent 14 days trip to Thailand where in we spent 5 days in Bangkok, followed by 2 days in Sukhothai and finally 5 days in Chiang Mai. We also spent days in Pattaya, Ayutthaya, Doi Inthanon, Doi Suthep and across other places while traveling between cities and doing day tours. And as per the experience, here are some tips on getting vegetarian food options in Thailand:
Table of Contents
#1 Find Indian Restaurants in Thailand for best Vegetarian food options in Thailand
India has one of the highest vegetarian populations in the world. And thus, it is obvious, Indian restaurants are always abundant in vegetarian food options. Even in Thailand! So, while deciding where to stay, you can look for Indian Restaurants in the vicinity. So that it will be easy for you to get vegetarian Indian food. Luckily, near our accommodation in Bangkok – Hotel Evergreen Place Siam by UHG (Link to book: Agoda, booking.com) – the MBK Center was at a walking distance. And this mall had a food court with Indian counter as well as an Indian restaurant. Again near the one in Chiang Mai –The Empire Residence Nimman (Link to book: Agoda, booking.com) – there was an Indian restaurant “Accha” at a walking distance of around 400 meters. So, most of our dinners were Indian food at one of these outlets.
We highly recommend booking these accommodations if you are traveling from India. And even more so if you are a vegetarian. Indian food is pricier when compared to local Thai cuisines. A single curry with rice or naan for 2 will set you back by easily 250 THB. But remember, vegetarians have limited options in Thailand. So, you can eat from here as per your budget, maybe every night for dinner, or every alternate nights (For the rest, read the next options)
#2 Know some of the vegetarian Thai food options
Well, I am still not sure if there are many vegetarian Thai food options. So, basically, thai food minus the meat part and the non vegetarian sauces makes it a vegetarian food. All you need to know is how to order vegetarian in Thailand! For this you can either use a translator app like google app where you specify “no meat” to them, or learn this phrase in Thai.
After roaming around the food court in MBK Center couple of times, we found a couple of Thai counters which served vegetarian Thai food. Some of the dishes were:
- Vegetarian Pad Thai prepared with Tofu
- Tofu with boiled vegetables
- Papaya Salad
- Thai Noodles with Tofu
- Fried rice with vegetables
- Steamed rice with boiled vegetables
- Sphagetti noodles with garlic chilli sauce.
- Sticky rice with mango (Which is actually a desert)
The price for these vegetarian Thai recipes was very reasonable. A meal for one person would come for 60-80 THB only!
When we went to Chiang Mai, there was a cafe with lots of vegan options at around 300 meters from the Empire Residency Nimman. But it was pricy. Named “Rustic & Blue” it had one of the best carrot cakes and vegan burger that I have had so far. Definitely you can try it a couple of times. It also had an economical option of coffee with vegan croissants.
“Vegetarian” in Thai language – Mạngs̄wirạti
“No meat” in Thai language – Mị̀mī neụ̄̂x
To be honest, I did miss the kind of beautiful vegetarian meals that we had while visiting domestic places like Norwood Greens & The Lodge at Wah in Palampur, the roadside dhabas and even small restaurants across Himachal on our Shimla & Manali trips and also on our trips to Rajasthan in Jaisalmer (Particularly the delicacies available in restaurants inside the Jaisalmer Fort), Jaipur, Jodhpur & Udaipur. But then, going to new places, trying new cuisines, understanding new cultures is part & parcel of travel – isn’t it! I did enjoy some of these Thai cuisines.
#3 Occasional, not so healthy, but nice vegetarian indulgence
These are some vegetarian food options that you might get more easily but you can’t have on a daily basis. Like simple pizza margarita, or vegetarian pizza, potato fries, waffles, burgers, ice creams, smoothies that contain sugar etc. So, while in Bangkok and Chiang Mai we tried to have as much of vegetarian Thai and Indian food as possible. But when in Sukhothai, since our resort was far from the main town, 2 consecutive days we had vegetarian pizza for dinner. So, in case you have such vegetarian food because no other options are available, do balance by eating healthy Thai & Indian dishes at other occasions.
#4 Rely on your hotel breakfast for plenty of vegetarian food options in Thailand
Once again, just like our trip to Europe, we relied heavily on our hotel breakfast spread to have vegetarian food options in Thailand, across our stay in Bangkok, Sukhothai, Chiang Mai. Across the hotels that we stayed in, there were good number of vegetarian food options in the breakfast buffet. (We made sure to book room with breakfast included). These included:
- fresh cut seasonal fruits like watermelon, muskmelon, pineapple, papaya, banana, mini oranges etc.
- fruit juices
- salad ingredients using which we prepared our custom salad
- multigrain bread with butter
- steamed rice
- curd
- cheese
- baked beans
- stir fried vegetables or tofu
- cereals like cornflakes and oats with milk
- boiled egg or omelette (for those who eat egg).
This way we had plenty of fruits and healthy salad on a daily basis during our 14 days trip to Thailand, which more than compensated for any unhealthy option that we had during lunch or dinner. And we could do with lighter meals during lunch time. And on the days when we started little late, we used the breakfast as a brunch opportunity. At almost all the hotels, the breakfast times was standard – 6:30am to 10:30am.
#5 Book an accommodation with a kitchen
Generally when it comes to booking an accommodation with a kitchen, you have the option to book an airbnb or serviced apartment, which often doesn’t come with the lavish breakfast spread that we talked about in the above section. But you need not adjust when visiting Thailand. Both our accommodations in Bangkok and Chiang Mai had a hotel with rooms that were well equipped with kitchen – microwave, cooking utensils, sink, electric cooker, a refrigerator and dish washing facility. So, cooking for our kids was a breeze. We also cooked for ourselves, although occasionally. And sometimes conveniently saved portions of meals to have later. I feel a kitchen is particularly important when you are limited to vegetarian food options in Thailand.
#6 Rely on small vegetarian snacks
You can have smaller bites here and there as and when you get the options throughout the day. Some of the snacks you can even carry from home. These include:
- Dry Fruits
- Energy bars
- Dark Chocolate
- Homemade dry snacks like Indian namakpare
- Some ready to eat meal packets like poha, oats, heat and eat curries etc.
Some small bites that you can readily get in shops, cafes, and even grocery stores like 7 Eleven across Thailand include:
- Ready to consume milk in different flavors (Smallest portion being 200ml bottles)
- Croissants – butter croissants, or plain croissants that you can consume with butter / cheese or Jam
- Waffles. Actually in the evening, you will see some roadside stalls making waffles then and there . You can take plain waffles from them
- Tender coconut water.
- Baked Potatoes.
- Vegetarian buns & cakes like banana cake, fruit cakes etc. and some multigrain cookies (make sure to read the labels and ingredients to ensure there is no non vegetarian ingredients involved )
- Packaged curd
#7 Use Happy Cow app
This app proved super useful on my Europe trip. And again on Thailand trip. It can tell you about available vegan and vegetarian restaurants or those which have vegetarian food options on their menu along with the non vegetarian food options. If you can enable your location and then check, it will tell you about the restaurants and cafes in that locality, showing
- Distance from your location
- How costly it is – $$$ (one $ in yellow means very economical while $$$ in yellow means fine dine kind of)
- Whether it is pure vegetarian or vegan or has mixed options
Using this app I stumbled upon the restaurant “Accha”, “Rustic & Blue” and some of the restaurants in malls and even food court options. So, do install this app on your phone to look for vegetarian food options around you.
Tips for choosing the right vegetarian food options in Thailand
Be vigilant when you are picking the vegetarian food options in Thailand. Some incidence to explain what I am saying:
- Upon arrival at our hotel in Bangkok, we got some snack sticks along with the welcome drink. Since we were paranoid, we asked if it contained non vegetarian ingredients. Turns out, those were chicken sticks!!
- The “vegetarian” section of buffet spread at our hotel contained french toast, egg fried rice, and chicken soup!
- Packaged roasted peanuts had 1% “crispy fish”.
- Mayonnaise & cream spreads often have egg.
- Salad dressings include oyster sauce , egg Mayonnaise etc.
- All cakes, pancakes, bread and ice cream are made using egg.
- Crackers and biscuits have dry meat and chicken ingredients.
- Mug noodles and instant noodles have meat, chicken or shrimp.
- Vegetables are mixed with Oyster sauce or pork broth.
- Fish and chicken broth are often used to cook curries which might have only vegetable pieces and hence appear vegetarian.
Ask about the ingredients in case you are not sure. Use translator apps. And try to explain by showing pictures. Mostly everyone understands “no meat” phrase. In case they don’t, then go for the safest options that you can. Don’t worry, the above six points will help you sail smoothly with vegetarian food options in Thailand. It’s just about being prepared. If you want to know how much food really cost for us during our trip to Thailand, here’s the answer, along with all the other cost breakups like accommodation, transport etc. :
How much does it cost to travel to Thailand?
At the end I will like to narrate some of the funny incidences with respect to food and linguistic limitations that we faced on our 14 days trip to Thailand. Recalling them makes me smile, and feel glad that we sailed through.
The non vegetarian dilemma
Even our non vegetarian friends from back home were paraniod eating non vegetarian food in Thailand. Because in India we mostly stick to chicken while in Thailand there are many more kind of meat options available like pork, beef etc. So here’s an excerpt of communication between my friend and a waiter at one of the Indian restaurants from the first day of our trip:
My friend: Give me simple chicken recipe
Waiter (little baffled) : What is that ma’m
My friend: I mean chicken recipe that doesn’t have any other form of meat – like pork, beef etc.
Waiter( even more baffled ): Why will chicken recipe have that ma’m?
My friend : Because it is Thailand :-I !!!!!!!
The Language Dilemma
Incidence 1:
My friend was trying to order chicken recipe and the waiter couldn’t understand at all. Finally she had to show the picture of a hen on the phone and then they got it!!
Incidence 2:
In one of the 7 eleven stores, I had to show a picture of cheese on my phone to locate it.
Incidence 3:
Me: Veg Pizza?
Waiter: Yes
Me: For Dinner?
Waiter: Yes
Me: When?
Waiter: Day after tomorrow
Me: @#$@$%!^& !!!!!!!!
We had this internal joke in our group that we played a lot of dumb charades during our Thailand trip.
Incidence 4:
On the last day of our trip, while we were killing time in the bus commuting from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, we made a big list of Indian food recipes that we were craving for by now!! And everyone in the group contributed to that.
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