Vegan Budapest: Restaurants, Bakeries and Shops Compared

Vegan since 2008 and the default answer to where a newcomer eats vegan goulash, seitan brassoi or somloi galuska in the middle of Pest, open every day of the week.

Good to know: Open 11:30 to 21:00 daily with the kitchen closing at 20:30, but the cheap napi menu is only served 11:30 to 17:00; the entrance is on the Curia utca corner of Veres Palne utca. Menu prices exclude the service fee and takeaway containers cost HUF 100 or 200. Delivery through Wolt and foodora starts at 11:00 and reaches about 5 km, though the site gives two different end times, 20:00 in its menu bar and 17:00 on the daily menu page, so order early; the restaurant states its delivered prices are higher than its in-house prices.

Describes itself as Budapest's first exclusively plant-based gastropub, and it is the rare vegan address that stays open to 23:00 seven days a week with proper beer and wine.

Good to know: A second site, Uj Hely, opened in 2023 at Vig utca 30 in the VIII. district (+36 70 381 0805). Both open 12:00 to 23:00 every day, with the kitchen closing 21:45 on Kiraly utca and 22:00 at Uj Hely. Listed prices already include a 12 percent service charge, and the weekday set lunch is the cheapest meal on this page.

Describes itself as 100% vegan, sits in the Central Passage two minutes from Deak Ferenc ter, and runs the latest kitchen hours of any all-vegan restaurant in the centre.

Good to know: Prices are not published anywhere on the website, so budget by comparison with the other central restaurants here rather than by quote. Open Monday to Wednesday 12:00 to 22:00, Thursday to 23:00, Friday and Saturday 11:00 to 23:00, Sunday 11:00 to 22:00, and tables are limited to two hours at busy times.

A serious Neapolitan pizzeria a hundred metres from the Oktogon that builds plant-based pizzas out of real ingredients and states it uses no meat or cheese substitutes at all.

Good to know: This is a vegetarian kitchen, not an all-vegan one: the Margherita, the Bufala and the four cheese contain dairy, so check which pizzas are plant-based when you order. The site also contradicts itself, so plan around what both versions agree on. The footer says Wednesday to Sunday 12:00 to 21:00 with Monday and Tuesday closed, while the contact block on the same page says Tuesday to Sunday; the phone is +36 30 665 2110 in the Hungarian header and footer but +36 30 291 1774 on the English site; and the English pages say the Neapolitan pizzas are eaten in only with the Roman pinsa available to take away, where the Hungarian footer offers both through Wolt and foodora.

Middle Eastern food is the easiest cuisine to eat plant-based anywhere, and here the whole menu is vegan by the venue's own description, a minute from Astoria and the Jewish quarter.

Good to know: The site states the menu is completely vegan, free of processed sugar and soy, about 95 percent gluten free, and halal and kosher. Open 11:00 to 22:00 every day, so it is one of the few reliable late plant-based options near the party district.

Buddhist-style Chinese cooking just behind Keleti station, the cheapest way on this page to eat a big plate of noodles, dumplings or mapo tofu without animal products.

Good to know: The venue describes itself as pure Asian style vegetarian food with vegan, onion and garlic free and some gluten free dishes, so it is vegetarian rather than an all-vegan kitchen: confirm the specific dish. There is no standalone website, prices above come from its own delivery menu and in-house prices can differ, and the shop entrance is door 5.

The everyday vegan lunch counter of Ujlipotvaros, describing itself as vegan burgers and lunchboxes made from fresh, locally sourced seasonal ingredients.

Good to know: Small takeaway-first place open roughly 11:00 to 19:45; there is no standalone website, so the prices above are its own delivery menu and counter prices can be lower. Gluten free and wholegrain buns are offered as swaps.

The Krishna community canteen in Obuda, whose site states its entire offering is made from plant ingredients, and the friendliest introduction to Indian-Hungarian home cooking without meat.

Good to know: Lunch hours only, and its own timetable shows 11:30 to 17:00 Monday to Saturday with Sunday marked closed, though a footnote on that same timetable says Sundays are covered by sandwiches and vegan burgers instead of the usual menu, so ring before making a Sunday trip. Hot dishes start at 12:00 on Saturdays. Self service at the counter, the daily dishes change without published prices, and its Wolt page currently lists only desserts and soft drinks. The group also runs Govinda Vega Sarok at 1053 Budapest, Papnovelde utca 1. (+36 70 255 2195) in the centre of Pest, which govinda.hu lists as vegetarian rather than vegan.

The Buda-side standby a few steps from the Gellert baths and Szent Gellert ter, a plant-based street food menu that grew into a restaurant.

Good to know: Its own site publishes two different timetables: the Hungarian page says 11:00 to 21:00 Monday to Sunday, the English page says 11:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday and 12:00 to 20:00 on Sunday, and the status flag in the Hungarian menu bar reads Zarva (closed) while the English one reads Open. Wolt shows it taking orders 11:00 to 20:55 every day, so treat the last hour as unreliable and check the app before crossing town. The only menu on the website is a set of photographs dated 2018, so the prices above are taken from the current delivery menu instead and counter prices can be lower. No phone number is published on the website.

The answer for anyone who is vegan and coeliac: the kitchen states every dish is 100 percent vegan and gluten free and free of dairy, egg and milk protein, and 99 percent free of additives and artificial sweeteners.

Good to know: Lunch only, Monday to Saturday 11:00 to 15:00 and closed Sunday. The weekly menu is published in English as well as Hungarian, adding a soup or dessert to a main earns a weekday discount, full-time students get 10 percent off, and delivery runs through Wolt and foodora.

A walk-in vegan bakery and cake shop near Nyugati station where the whole counter is plant-based, so nothing needs checking before you point at it.

Good to know: Weekdays only, 7:30 to 18:00, and closed at weekends, which catches people out. Celebration cakes are ordered by phone on +36 20 546 0552, and the site notes that gluten free cake orders are suspended for capacity reasons. The Napfenyes restaurant at Ferenciek tere shares the brand and is listed on this shop's contact page, but the two are separate companies: Napfenyes Cukraszat Kft here and Napfenyes Etterem Kft there.

The place to order a proper birthday cake that is both vegan and coeliac safe: the workshop states its products contain no animal ingredient and that the whole kitchen is 100 percent gluten free.

Good to know: This is an order-ahead workshop rather than a walk-in cafe. Orders cannot be taken for Sunday or Monday, the kitchen asks for at least three days, and chilled delivery covers Budapest and several surrounding areas, with personal pickup as the alternative. Whole cake prices are published openly in the webshop, which has a full English version.

A small Ujlipotvaros package-free shop that covers the plant-based pantry: lentils, chickpeas, rice, oats, flours, nuts, seeds and spices weighed out into your own containers.

Good to know: Bring jars, tubs or cloth bags. Open Tuesday to Friday 11:00 to 18:30 and Saturday 10:00 to 14:00, closed Sunday and Monday, in-store purchase only with no webshop. It is a package-free shop rather than a vegan-only one, so check labels on anything processed.

One of the original Budapest package-free shops, useful for buying grains, pulses, pasta, dried fruit and spices by weight rather than in plastic, with a webshop for bigger orders.

Good to know: Open Monday 10:00 to 19:00, Tuesday to Friday 12:00 to 19:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 15:00, closed Sunday, cash and card accepted. Not a vegan shop: dairy is sold in returnable glass with a deposit, so read what you are scooping.

The shop to fall back on when the supermarket does not stock it: plant milks, tofu and meat substitutes, flours, spices, sweeteners and supplements in one delivery, with the vegan lines flagged on the product cards.

Good to know: Not a vegan-only shop but a general bulk and health food webshop that marks its vegan products, so read the labels. Online only with no counter, run by Discovery Bliss Trade Kft from Csomor just outside Budapest. Its terms state it ships only inside Hungary, delivery is free over HUF 17,000, and the phone line is staffed on weekdays 10:00 to 16:00. The site is in Hungarian, so a browser translation helps.