Being Vegan in Sichuan: Actually Possible, With Caveats

Sichuan cuisine has a reputation for meat — particularly pork, beef, and the intestines and offal that feature in many of its most distinctive dishes. The cooking medium is frequently lard or beef tallow. The chilli-bean paste (豆瓣酱, dòubàn jiàng) that underpins many Sichuan dishes contains no animal products, but the broth in which vegetables are cooked often does. This is the challenge for vegans.

However, Sichuan also has a strong Buddhist temple food tradition and a geography rich in vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu. Chengdu in particular has developed a visible vegan restaurant scene since around 2018. The situation in 2026 is substantially better than it was five years ago.

What to Order That Is Likely Vegan

These dishes are predominantly or entirely plant-based in their traditional form, though a specific restaurant may add lard or meat stock. Asking 不放肉 (bù fàng ròu, 'no meat') and 不放荤油 (bù fàng hūnyóu, 'no lard') before ordering increases your chances:

• Mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐) in its meat-free version: the dish is fundamentally a tofu dish in spicy bean paste and Sichuan peppercorn sauce. The traditional version contains minced pork. Ask for 素麻婆豆腐 (sù mápó dòufu) — vegetarian mapo tofu — which replaces the pork with mushroom or simply omits it. Many restaurants offer this.
• Twice-cooked potato (回锅土豆): riffs on the twice-cooked pork (回锅肉) technique but with sliced potato, which picks up the chilli-bean paste and garlic flavouring without needing meat. Not universally available but worth asking.
• Braised aubergine (红烧茄子): typically cooked with garlic, soy sauce, and chilli; can be made without meat broth. One of the most reliably good vegetable dishes on a Sichuan menu.
• Smashed cucumber (拍黄瓜): a cold appetiser of lightly smashed cucumber with garlic, vinegar, sesame oil, and chilli. Reliably vegan.
• Dry-fried green beans (干煸四季豆): green beans dry-fried until slightly charred with garlic, dried chilli, and preserved vegetables. The preserved vegetables (芽菜, yácài) are vegan. Sometimes cooked with pork — specify 不要肉.
• Sichuan cold noodles (凉面): wheat noodles served cold with chilli oil, sesame paste, vinegar, garlic, and cucumber. The chilli oil contains only vegetable ingredients; this dish is almost always vegan.

Buddhist Temple Food

Sichuan has numerous active Buddhist temples with attached vegetarian or vegan canteens (素斋, sùzhāi). Wenshu Monastery (文殊院) in Chengdu operates a vegetarian restaurant serving temple food — mock meats, mushroom broths, tofu preparations — at very reasonable prices. Temple food uses no meat, eggs are sometimes excluded, and the cooking philosophy avoids the five pungent roots (onion, garlic, chives, spring onion, leek) in strict versions.

For visitors who do not want the full temple aesthetic, the mock-meat techniques developed in Buddhist cooking are now used in mainstream vegetarian restaurants across Chengdu.

The Hotpot Problem

Sichuan hotpot red broth is almost always made with beef tallow (牛油, niúyóu). Vegetable-based broths exist (mushroom broth, tomato broth) — request 素汤底 (sù tāngdǐ, vegetarian broth base) — and most hotpot chains offer them. At specialist vegetarian hotpot restaurants (increasingly common in Chengdu), the entire operation is plant-based.

Practical Phrases

• 我是素食者 (wǒ shì sùshízhě) — I am vegetarian
• 我是纯素食者 (wǒ shì chún sùshízhě) — I am vegan
• 不放肉 (bù fàng ròu) — no meat please
• 不放荤油 (bù fàng hūnyóu) — no lard please
• 不放海鲜 (bù fàng hǎixiān) — no seafood please
• 有素菜吗 (yǒu sùcài ma) — do you have vegetarian dishes?

Vegan Restaurants in Chengdu

Searching 素食 (sùshí) on Dianping (大众点评) within Chengdu returns a growing list of dedicated vegan and vegetarian restaurants. The Yulin and Tongzilin neighbourhoods have several well-reviewed options. Quality has improved substantially since the early 2020s.