Vegan Guide to Bagan

OCTOBER 2022: Due to COVID we were unable to travel for nearly two years, which means it’s been impossible to update our vegan travel guides. Therefore we cannot be sure if the below restaurants are still open, so please contact them directly to check. As travel has now restarted we will be updating guides accordingly, but in the meantime please check out the excellent HappyCow, which you can find via the link at the bottom of this vegan guide.
Published May 2018
Bagan is likely to be at the top of the list when planning a trip to Myanmar and rightly so, the thousands of temples and pagodas dominate the landscape and spending your time exploring these ancient religious monuments is wonderfully enjoyable and exhausting. So after an exhausting day exploring we were happy to discover numerous vegan food options in Bagan and can assure you that you will not go hungry when heading here on your next vegan travel adventure!


Si Thu Restaurant
Riverside
New Bagan
Opening Times: 8am-10pm every day
Location. Location. Location.
Perched high above the river with far reaching views, Si Thu Restaurant has an enviable location in New Bagan; it provides the perfect spot to sit and chill whilst enjoying the river views far below whilst sipping an ice cold drink after a long day of exploring the temples.
That is exactly what we did on our second visit and the lime soda with ice went down very well indeed!
During our first visit our group enjoyed a selection of vegan dishes including a papaya salad and a sweet and sour tofu dish which were both pretty good; the menu has a number of veg options and one of the staff spoke enough English for us to explain we didn’t want oyster sauce / fish sauce or chicken stock in our food.


Golden Bamboo
Golden Bamboo
Kalay Street
New Bagan
Opening Times: 10.30am-9pm every day
Golden Bamboo is located at the river end of the main street in New Bagan and has outdoor seating surrounded by brightly coloured artwork and a large fruit display as a centre point. There were plenty of veggie options and the staff assured us these could be prepared all vegan so we ordered a selection of dishes including a papaya salad and an avocado dish with far too much onion!


Star Beam Restaurant
Star Beam Restaurant
Just off Kayay Street
New Bagan
Opening Times: 11am-10pm every day
Star Beam Restaurant gets some decent reviews online and rightly so, the owner and his family were very friendly and helped us with the menu to esnure our food was vegan. We loved the veg curry and our avocado salad was fresh, flavoursome and not served with way too much onion like our avaocado salad the previous day!


Khaing Shwe Wah
Khaing Shwe Wah
Old Bagan
Ananda Pagoda North Gate
Opening Times: 9am-9pm every day
Just a few hundred metres from Ananda Pagoda this all vegetarian restaurant was our favourite spot in Bagan. The super friendly staff served up super tasty vegan food including a fresh and crunchy tamarind leaf salad and a delicious hot and sour Shan tofu dish.
The extensive veg menu and prime location makes this the perfect option for lunch when exploring the temples and should not be missed.


Shwe Ou Food Garden
Shwe Ou Food Garden
Kayay Street
New Bagan
Opening Times: 8am-10pm every day
Located right in the centre of New Bagan on the main road this place was busy every time we passed. So when our preferred options were closed during the new year celebrations we headed here as we knew they had a number of veggie options on the menu.
The staff were helpful and friendly, even arranging an extra table for us outside and confirmed with us that our food could be prepared vegan. We ordered a few dishes including a Thai style curry and fried Shan tofu which were both just OK but lacked a little flavour. All in all it was decent but we wouldn’t rush back here.


Indian Hut
Indian Hut
Between Lanmadaw Road and Anawratha RoadNyaung-U
Nyaung-U
Opening Times: 10am-10.30pm every day
We were craving Indian food so headed to Indian Hut in Nyaung-U which serves a selection of North and South Indian dishes. Our friends ordered a tasty looking veg thali and we shared a creamy lentil dhal and a rich and flavour packed (although a little oily) veg kofta. It certainly wasn’t the best Indian food we’ve ever eaten but satisfied a craving.


The Moon – Be Kind to Animals
The Moon – Be Kind to Animals
New Bagan
Opening Times: 10am-10pm every day
This all vegetarian restaurant actually has two locations with the original one being in Old Bagan, very close to Ananda Pagoda and Khaing Shwe Wha restaurant. Unfortunatley they were closed for the entire 10 days of Thingyan new year celebrations so we never got to try their vegan food when we were in town.


Bagan Street Food
We loved the sweet treats that seemed to be for sale outside all of the bigger temples and pagodas. The sugar hit was much needed at times, after some exhausting exploring so the chance to try these delcious snacks made with coconut palm sugar was very welcome. They were often very toffee like and very tasty indeed especially the ones flavoured with tamarind. Yum.


Vegan Friendly Luxury Hotel in Bagan
Bagan Lodge
Bagan Lodge
Myat Lay Road
New Bagan
We stayed at Bagan Lodge which provided an excellent base for exploring Bagan and we loved heading back here each day to enjoy one of the huge swimming pools and our inviting, air conditioned tented villa. There were plenty of veg options on the menu including pizza, pasta, Indian food and local Myanmar food and the staff spoke decent English allowing us to communicate our dietary requests. Breakfast each day was varied with our favourites being rice porridge and the veg spring rolls sevred with chick peas and rice.
Here is our detailed review of Bagan Lodge.


Other Vegan Guides to Bagan
Happy Cow is your friend as a travelling vegan so here’s their Bagan Vegan Restaurants page. Hailey, from Vegan Kitty Kat has publsished a decent blog post from her time in Myanmar called ‘Myanmar, what to eat as a vegan’ which includes ‘The Moon – Be Kind to Animals’ which was closed when we visited. Mostly Amélie also features a couple of Bagan options in her blog post ’10 days of Burma’ including ‘Moe Pyae San’ which is all veggie.
Does anyone know of any other useful and up to date vegan guides to Bagan? if so, please let us know and we will add the link here…
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