Did you know that Warsaw was a really vegan-friendly city? I didn’t, until I visited and discovered a vegan heaven.
I wrote this vegan Warsaw guide after spending about a week in Warsaw, Poland and I’m happy to tell you that vegans are spoilt for choice in the Polish capital.
When arrived in Poland and looked on Happy Cow for vegan restaurants, it informed me that there were no less than 38 vegan restaurants in Warsaw! That’s 100% vegan restaurants, not vegetarian places or just those with veg options.
It came as a surprise, as I never knew that Warsaw was so vegan friendly. Now I can easily add it to my list of top vegan friendly cities in the world.
Vegan food in Warsaw is great, and as an added bonus, food prices in Warsaw are about 50% of what you would typically pay in Western European cities for a decent vegan meal.
So… What are the best vegan restaurants Warsaw? Where can you get a vegan pierogi in Warsaw? And how about a vegan burger or a vegan pizza? Read on to find out…
Vege bistro – traditional vegan polish food
This is one of the loveliest vegan places in Warsaw. It serves its own vegan versions of traditional Polish food, like vegan pierogi or buckwheat with caviar.
It’s a rather small place and when I arrived one day at lunchtime it was completely full, which is always a good sign. When I came back on a Sunday afternoon it was much more relaxed.
I had kompot, a traditional Polish fruit drink, and tried their vegan cheesecake with strawberries made of chickpeas and coconut.
A chickpea cake may sound weird, and that was a first for me, but its texture was so perfect that I went ahead and Googled “chickpea vegan cake”. I found 710,000 results. Should try some of those recipes sometime…
Vege miasto – vegan restaurant in warsaw
Another 100% vegan restaurant with a rather unique menu mixing vegan takes on traditional Polish food with international dishes, from Italian to Middle Eastern.
There’s an English menu available, though for the changing daily lunch menu you’ll have to ask for translation.
They offer a big range of dishes, including a lot of raw food options. Everything is marked clearly on the menu.
If the weather is nice, you can sit outside. I had a very satisfying meal there: potatoes with vegan cashew and tofu cheese and a thick soy mango lassi.
I’d come back to Vege Miasto if I had more time in Warsaw, as it had so many interesting things on the menu to try, and the vegan cakes looked amazing.
Mango – warsaw vegan street food
This restaurant has a funky vibe, thanks to its mango coloured walls and cool design.
It’s a street food restaurant, offering vegan burgers (with mango sauce), hummus and falafel.
As you might expect, many of their dishes involve mango in one way or another.
It’s not too big but spacious enough and you can also sit outside. Their service is very fast, as you’d expect from a street food place, and their mango smoothie was fantastic.
Krowarzywa – vegan burgers in warsaw
A great vegan burger place with several locations in Warsaw and in Poland. I visited their restaurant on Hoza street, which had a lot of space to sit inside and outside.
There’s an English menu available (not on the board but on the counter) and super friendly English speaking staff.
They offer six different types of vegan patties, all of which looked excellent.
You can choose the rolls, sauces and extras. I went for the the millet burger which was rich in flavours and textures and totally satisfying.
They also have a branch in Krakow that I wrote about in my Vegan Krakow Guide.
Momencik – warsaw vegan mexican restaurant
A small and cozy vegan Mexican place that serves burritos, tacos, tostadas, tortillas and more.
I tried the guacamole burrito which was great and the wonderful home made lemonade.
The service was friendly and they have an English menu. The menu is quite varied, so you can either pop in for a quick bite, or have a full meal there.
fit & green – vegetarian restaurant in warsaw
This is a vegetarian fast food place with a very pleasant interior and plenty of natural light. It has an English menu available on the counter, but the vegan options are not marked on the menu, so you need to ask before you order. I had the Polish burger, as I happen to like buckwheat, which seems to be a very common ingredient in vegan burgers in Warsaw. It came in a nice generous portion. You can also get a double burger, which I didn’t order, as I read elsewhere that it was simply huge. This vegetarian eatery is a good place for a quick lunch, service was very fast, just don’t forget to ask what’s vegan. Fit & Green on Facebook –><!–
Bal bar
A lovely vegan restaurant and a very pleasant place for lunch, with quiet music in the background and super cute yellow decor. I had a good millet burger that came in an extra crunchy bun and a small salad with mango sauce, followed by a rather perfect chia dessert. –>This restaurant is in Praga, which has nothing to do with Prague – it is a district of Warsaw. You’ll have to cross the river to reach it. Praga is the up and coming artistic part of the city, and formerly a dodgy place people used to avoid. Now it has post-industrial buildings converted into arts and culture spaces, some cool bars and a couple of vegan places. BelBar on Happy Cow –>
Loving hut warsaw
Part of the international Loving Hut chain, this is one of two vegan restaurants in Warsaw, and it serves mostly Vietnamese food.
As you would expect from a Loving Hut, there is a huge selection on menu, which is available in English and has pictures of all the dishes.
I am not a fan of meat substitutes personally, and there are many of those among the main dishes here.
Luckily, there were also other vegan foods to try, so I went for the fried tofu in spicy lemongrass sauce and the spring rolls.
This restaurant is good for days when you feel like some hot, fried vegan food. Service is very fast, it’s inexpensive, with simple decor. It seems to be popular with the locals, as the place was nearly full at dinner time.
Leonardo verde – italian vegan food in warsaw
UPDATE: This place is now closed
I was really happy to find this vegan Italian restaurant, with over 20 types of vegan pizza and some other Italian dishes, like vegan lasagna, pasta, focaccia and more.
Twenty types of vegan pizza sounds promising, until you learn that there’s no English menu available, and the menu is far too long for the waitress to translate.
So I used the Google Translate app on my phone to translate from Polish.
Translating menus with Google Translate is something I’ve had to do in the past on occasion, and it’s a fun way to learn some new words in a foreign language, especially useful words like “spinach”.
This language learning exercise is a little less appealing when you arrive at the restaurant hungry and it takes ages to go through all the pizza toppings… Luckily, it’s all vegan, so you can’t go wrong 😉
My pizza was very good, especially if you like a thin crust. The vegan cheese had a great texture and melted nicely.
I also had a cold lemonade with chia seeds. It was an interesting combination that I didn’t expect.
The restaurant is big and welcoming, with many tables inside and outside and a very tempting menu that I’d like to try again. Hopefully by the time of my next visit to Warsaw they’ll have it translated 😉
Warsaw’s vegan explosion
As I mentioned earlier, I was surprised by the number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants you can find in Warsaw these days.
Turns out this change started a few years ago. Happy Cow made this lovely video, exploring the rise in the number of vegan restaurants in Warsaw in recent years.
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Vegan Warsaw Poland Travel Guide
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Travelling may be sometimes more difficult for vegans, but not impossible 🙂 Warsaw is actually great, because there are tens of fantastic vegan places, and to my surprise many non-vegan restaurants have at least few options or prepare vegan dishes on request. My friend has organized her birthday in one of such places, as not all of my friends are vegan. The restaurant was called the Akademia and it was amazing, because they had no problems to prepare a vegan dish on request so that everybody in our company could enjoy their meal. The food was really delicious, and the atmosphere very nice and elegant. I loved it/