Vegetarian and vegan meals in Chongqing

You do not have to settle for plain steamed rice when exploring Chongqing without meat. These eight places to eat offer everything from a budget buffet in Jiefangbei to spicy shared Sichuan plates and river-view dining. Use the local Chinese dining cards below to keep broths, noodles, and hotpot free of lard, meat stock, and animal products.

A quick lunch or a temple meal

Susu Su vegetarian buffet, Jiefangbei (素素素·素食自助餐厅(解放碑店))

Susu Su vegetarian buffet, Jiefangbei (素素素·素食自助餐厅(解放碑店)) is an easy, low-cost stop between central city walks. The lunch buffet has a CNY19.8 (≈ USD 3.0 )-per-person offer. Fill your plate with cumin potatoes, lotus-root soup, eight-treasure sticky rice, and savoury vegetarian floss rolls. The restaurant sits on the fourth floor of the China Post building at 民权路3号. Take the direct lift above the 诚泰通信 shop to the fourth floor.

Wuguantang lunch at Luohan Temple (罗汉寺五观堂)

For a simple vegetarian lunch during a central-city temple visit, choose 五观堂 inside Luohan Temple. The communal meal is free; temple admission costs CNY20 (≈ USD 3.0 ) per person. Join the dining-hall queue around 11:15 for service at 11:30. The meal includes vegetable dishes, rice and soup.

Huayan Vegetarian Restaurant (华岩素食餐厅)

Huayan Vegetarian Restaurant (华岩素食餐厅) makes an ideal lunch stop when visiting Huayan Temple. This is a sit-down restaurant where you order from a menu. Standout dishes include crispy sesame flatbread (金刚烧饼), soft tofu, and mushrooms. Expect to spend around CNY75 (≈ USD 11 ) per person. The restaurant is inside the scenic area at 华岩寺路华岩旅游风景区内, a short walk from Huayan Temple metro station. It opens from 09:00 to 19:30.

Sichuan flavours for a shared meal

Sucha Sichuan Vegetarian, Guanyinqiao (素茶·川味素食(观音桥店))

Sucha Sichuan Vegetarian, Guanyinqiao (素茶·川味素食(观音桥店)) delivers the bold, spicy punch of Sichuan cooking without meat. Popular dishes include pepper-seasoned bamboo fungus, handmade noodles tossed with king oyster mushrooms and two kinds of chilli, and crisp lion's-mane mushroom cutlets. Dining here costs around CNY78 (≈ USD 12 ) per person. Find it at 启元光里B区L1-09, near Mahuangliang station (Line 9, Exit 3D). It opens from 10:00 to 22:00. If you eat strict vegan, check whether honey is used in the passion-fruit peach dessert.

Puti Su, Jingliguan (菩提素素食餐厅(晶郦馆店))

Puti Su, Jingliguan (菩提素素食餐厅(晶郦馆店)) serves creative vegetarian dishes near Crystal City. Highlights include fresh vegetable hand rolls, olive-vegetable fried rice, and their aubergine dish (那一年秋天的茄子). Expect to spend around CNY126 (≈ USD 19 ) per person. The restaurant is located at 新南路160号龙湖水晶郦城晶郦馆LG-01, close to Dongbu Park station on the Loop Line. It opens from 10:00 to 21:30. The Puti Su brand began in January 2008.

A river-view dinner or a private celebration

Fulai, Nanbin Road (福来·料理餐厅(南滨路店))

Fulai, Nanbin Road (福来·料理餐厅(南滨路店)) offers views of the riverfront without high tasting-menu prices. A two-person set with river views costs CNY158 (≈ USD 24 ), while a solo set is CNY80 (≈ USD 12 ), with average spending around CNY89 (≈ USD 13 ) per person. Popular plates include chilli-fried termite mushrooms, pepper-seasoned elm-ear mushrooms, and vegetarian sashimi platters. Window tables look directly toward Raffles City and Jiangbeizui, so ask for a window seat when booking. The restaurant sits at 石溪路正街38号1–2层, at Qianfo Temple near the Nanbin Road bell tower. Enter the temple, turn right, and follow the restaurant signs. Lunch runs from 11:00 to 13:30, and dinner from 17:00 to 21:30. Some dishes use eggs or dairy, so let staff know if you need purely vegan dishes.

Qianyue Ming Vegetarian Private Dining (千阅鸣素食私宴)

Qianyue Ming Vegetarian Private Dining (千阅鸣素食私宴) is built for special evenings and multi-course seasonal dining. Look for wild mushroom rice alongside beautifully plated signature vegetable creations. Two-person set menus cost CNY566 (≈ USD 85 ) for the seasonal set (CNY283 (≈ USD 42 ) per person) or CNY766 (≈ USD 115 ) for the chef's tasting set (CNY383 (≈ USD 57 ) per person). The private dining rooms sit at 北滨路鎏嘉码头B区2栋3层, near Liujia Tai station (Line 9, Exit 2). It opens from 11:30 to 14:00 and 17:30 to 21:00. Inform the kitchen when booking if you require an egg-free, dairy-free, and honey-free vegan sequence. The Qianyue Ming brand dates to 2014.

Pair a temple visit with tea and dinner on Nanshan

Shanjue Xingsu (山觉行素·素食雅宴餐厅)

Shanjue Xingsu (山觉行素·素食雅宴餐厅) combines a walk around Tushan Temple with afternoon tea or a relaxed mountain dinner. Glass-walled dining rooms look out into the woods of Nanshan. Popular orders include black-truffle rice, morel mushrooms, fresh mushroom noodles, and coconut-milk sweets.

The full dinner set costs CNY288 (≈ USD 43 ) per person, while afternoon tea is CNY88 (≈ USD 13 ) per person. The address is 真武山39号涂山寺旁. Private rooms and large tables suit groups.

Fit a vegetarian meal into your sightseeing

Central city day: Explore Jiefangbei in the morning, then stop at Susu Su for lunch. Continue through the peninsula's central streets and visit Hongya Cave at dusk. This keeps your sightseeing and lunch on the same side of the river. For a temple morning, visit Luohan Temple and eat at 五观堂 before continuing around Jiefangbei.

Huayan outing: Visit Huayan Temple in the morning, then eat at its sit-down vegetarian restaurant. Return by metro after lunch. This works as a separate trip to the southwest of the city.

Nanbin evening: Walk along Nanbin Road in the afternoon, then dine at Fulai from 17:00. Return to the river promenade for the lights across the water.

Nanshan outing: Visit Tushan Temple during the day, then choose afternoon tea or dinner at Shanjue Xingsu beside it. This pairs the temple and your meal on the same mountain outing.

Choose vegetarian, vegan or no-allium dishes

Search 素食餐厅 for vegetarian restaurants and 纯素餐厅 for strictly vegan spots in your navigation app. While dedicated vegetarian kitchens offer the easiest choice of tofu, bamboo shoots, and fresh greens, some dishes still contain eggs, milk, or honey.

When ordering at an ordinary local restaurant, show this written phrase before choosing dishes:

我吃素。请不要放肉、鱼、海鲜、猪油、牛油和肉汤。请用植物油。 (I eat vegetarian food. Please leave out meat, fish, seafood, lard, beef fat, and meat stock. Please use vegetable oil.)

For a vegan meal, add: 也不要放蛋、奶和蜂蜜。 (Also do not add eggs, milk, or honey.)

If you do not eat alliums (Buddhist vegetarian diet), add: 不要放葱、蒜、韭菜、洋葱等五辛。 (Do not add scallions, garlic, chives, onions, or other alliums.)

Always specify cooking fats and stocks when ordering ordinary vegetable dishes like stir-fried greens, dry-fried green beans, or mapo tofu, as standard kitchens often use lard or chicken powder for seasoning. Ask for mapo tofu without minced meat.

Order noodles and hotpot by their base

When ordering Chongqing street noodles, seasoning sauce is often blended with pork lard in the bowl before soup is added. Show this request at the noodle counter:

不要猪油、不要骨汤，用植物油和清水。 (No lard and no bone stock; please use vegetable oil and plain hot water.)

For hotpot, 牛油 is beef tallow and makes up most traditional red broths. A 清油 pot uses vegetable oil, but you must still check that the base liquid is water or mushroom stock rather than chicken or bone broth. Tomato and mushroom pots can also use meat stock. Choosing a restaurant with individual small pots allows you to enjoy your own broth cleanly while friends cook meat in theirs. Lotus root, tofu skin, preserved lettuce stems, potatoes, and mushrooms are useful choices.

Practical tips for the rest of your food day

For breakfast, fresh soy milk, steamed buns with vegetable or red bean fillings, and seasonal fruit are easy to find near any hotel. Check dough and fillings if you avoid dairy or lard. When buying grilled street skewers, confirm that the basting oil is plain vegetable oil without oyster sauce or meat seasoning.

Food allergies need their own clear wording. Peanuts, sesame oil, and soy appear widely across local sauces; check the food allergy guide to show exact ingredient requests. When taking day trips to Wulong or the Dazu Rock Carvings, arrange a vegetarian lunch with your guide or driver and pack a filling snack for the road. The local dining guide and apps guide offer more tips on finding eateries and using map filters.