China Food for Thought #11: Is It Finally Plant-based Restaurants’ Turn to Grow in China?
The Restaurant Industry Is Under Strain, but the plant-based Segment Is Growing
In recent years, restaurant owners around the world have faced a tough environment. Businesses are finding it difficult to stay profitable due to rising food costs, higher wages, and changes in consumer behaviour.
China is experiencing similar pressures. Industry experts estimate that70% to 80% of Chinese restaurants lost money in 2024, and seven out of every ten new restaurants failed within three months. Yet in this difficult climate, vegetarian and vegan restaurants have been one of the few segments showing growth.
A Rapidly Expanding but Still Tiny Category
Lamdre, Beijing
With an average annual growth rate of more than 25%, the number of plant-based restaurants in China has increased from less than 5,000 to almost 14,000 over the last five years, far outpacing popular categories like hotpot, barbecue, and fast food.
Even so, the category remains small. As of 2025, China has almost 8 million restaurants in total. Whether measured by market share or consumer access, China is still in the early stages of developing a plant-based dining ecosystem. And the category still has room to expand several times over.
Social Media, Health Trends, and Demographics Are Driving Demand
The recent increase is the result of several factors. The first is social media. On platforms including Douyin, Kuaishou, and Weibo, vegetarian related topics have generated billions of views. According to data fromOcean Engine, as of October 2025, the topics “vegetarian” and “vegetarian restaurant” on Douyin have reached a cumulative3.7 billion and1.42 billion views respectively.
Hanshan Temple, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province | Credit: Lanjingling
On Red Note, “temple vegan food” has become one of the most popular topics. Gen Z enjoys visiting temples as a way to slow down, say a prayer, and then savor a bowl of vegan noodle soup. The ritual feels soothing and refreshing, even though most of them are not Buddhists. Popular check in spots include Longhua Temple in Shanghai, Wenshu Monastery in Chengdu, and Xiyuan Temple in Hangzhou.
Health awareness is another major catalyst. Gen Z wants to control their weight and enhance their wellbeing because they spend a lot of time sitting at work and frequently eat comfort foods high in calories. As a result, more of them are shifting toward vegetarian or flexitarian eating habits.
According to data from Meituan, a Chinese super-app that offers a wide range of lifestyle services that include food delivery and restaurant reviews, consumers aged 25-35 contribute 68% of vegetarian catering orders. Even more astonishingly, the proportion of people born after 1995 in the vegetarian consumer group has surged by 29% within three years.
China’s rapidly aging population is also reshaping the market. By the end of 2024, the country had 310 million people aged 60 and above. Older consumers often reduce meat intake due to digestion issues or cardiovascular concerns. Sumanxiang, a large vegan chain, reports that customers aged 55 and above make up 35% of its diners, showing that seniors have become a core demand group.
Duli, Shanghai
Economic pressures have played a role as well. As growth slows, consumers are trading down from full service restaurants to fast casual formats. In this environment, vegan buffets priced around 30 yuan (~USD $4.24) have gained traction, while non vegan buffets with similar quality typically cost closer to 100 yuan (~USD $14.14). At roughly the cost of a bubble tea, these buffets offer compelling value. Most diners are not vegan at all, and the customer base spans families and young professionals.
Meanwhile, Dao Foods has noted that such vegan buffet restaurants were mostly not well received by Chinese mainstream consumers before the economic downturn, for a variety of reasons, including the intended patrons – religious vegans and poor people – and the perception of quality of the food.
Three major catagories of China’s Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant Market
1. Thirty Yuan (~USD $4.24) Buffets Are Driving the Category’s Mass-Market Expansion
In China, affordable vegetarian restaurants priced below 100 yuan (~USD $14.14) make up about 70 to 80 percent of all vegetarian establishments. Among them, the vegan buffet format is the most popular. According to Ocean Engine, from January 2023 to October 2025, the search heat of “vegetarian buffet” on Douyin has shown an overall upward trend. The largest brand in this segment is Sumanxiang.
Sumanxiang
Sumanxiang
Founded in 2012 in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, Sumanxiang has spent the past 12 years specializing in vegan buffets. Today, a typical store serves close to 1,000 customers a day, with some locations turning tables more than six times. The chain has grown to more than 100 stores across 16 provinces and 37 cities, supported by a membership base of 400,000 people and a repurchase rate above 60 percent.
Sumanxiang’s two Beijing locations are both in relatively quiet areas with limited foot traffic, yet each store has become a traffic driver since opening. On weekends, the Shunyi Sam’s Club location is packed, and in the summer even the outdoor seating at its Changying Tianjie outlet stays full.
Sumanxiang | Credit: Baimaxiaozhi
From hotpot and stir fries to dim sum and drinks, Sumanxiang serves about eighty dishes in twelve different categories. Its menu combines Zhejiang–Jiangsu, Sichuan, and other regional flavors, and includes vegan versions of familiar Chinese dishes. To keep quality consistent and lower labor costs, the chain uses AI powered cooking robots that reproduce chefs’ flavor profiles. The menu is updated every week, and new dishes are added regularly. Sumanxiang also manages much of its own supply chain, working with local partner farms, running a central kitchen, and operating its own tofu production facilities. It is one of the few vegetarian brands in China with the ability to build and optimize its supply chain in this way.
The vegan buffet model built on extreme value, high quality ingredients, and fresh stir frying has been around for more than a decade. Similar formats can be found across China under different local brands, including Sutianzhen in Beijing, Sugen in Jinan in Shandong province, and Suxinfeng in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.
@theroroverseHave you tried a vegan buffet before?🌱📍 素满香 (Sù Mǎn Xiāng) #vegan #veganfood #chinesefood #buffet #shanghai #china
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2. The 100 Yuan (~USD $14.14) Segment Is Redefining Modern Vegetarian Dining
Restaurants in this tier generally price at about 100 yuan (~USD $14.14) per person, offer broad menus, and emphasize modern design. Vegetarian and vegan restaurants had an outdated reputation because they were traditionally connected to Buddhist food. . The new wave aims to shed that perception.Their average seat occupancy rate reaches 72%, well above the industry average.
Many plant-based restaurants enjoy high popularity, such as Oii in Beijing, Jujube Tree in Shanghai, Soodle in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The most representative is Qingchun Perma.
Qingchun Perma
Qingchun Perma
Founded in 2021, its first restaurant was located in Hangzhou. It now has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and each location ranks high on local review lists.
Qingchun typically chooses prime commercial districts and builds large stores exceeding 1,000 square meters. Some locations incorporate courtyard landscapes with moss, black pines, and gravel. Guests enter through an open kitchen styled around Song-Dynasty aesthetics, with cooking stations spanning desserts, coffee, Western dishes, Sichuan cuisine, and soups.It feels like walking through a food market from the Song dynasty.
Qingchun Perma
From 6 yuan (~USD $0.85) for taro with osmanthus to 56 yuan (~USD $7.92) for black truffle fried rice, the prices are purposefully affordable. Portions are small, allowing diners to sample widely.
The recently opened Qingchun Permaculture store in Guangzhou, capital city of China’s Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong, is located in Tianhui Plaza (the core CBD) in Guangzhou. Qingchun Permaculture often has long queues before dinner hours. According to staff, the Guangzhou branch opened in June 2025 and was instantly popular from day one; now a one-hour wait is normal, with a table turnover rate as high as 6–7 rounds.
It is worth noting that Qingchun never seems to have the intention of positioning itself as a vegan or vegetarian restaurant but rather one that provides “natural hand-made plant-based food” as can be seen from the sign at the entrance of its restaurants. With its reasonable price, modern and clean label kind of ambience, and certainly the quality of the food, we have reasons to believe that there is still ample room for its growth and potential with Chinese mainstream consumers.
With good food, a comfortable setting, and attentive service, the pricing feels justified, offering strong value for the experience. Qingchun Permaculture has shown that vegetarian food, if cooked and positioned correctly, can certainly appeal to a mainstream audience.
@kinasaaa___Finding food as a veggie in china isn’t as bad as i thought 📍Qingchun Perma #michelinrestaurants #chinarestaurant #veganresturants #guangzhou #china
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3. High End 1,000 Yuan(~USD $140) Dining Gives Vegetarian Food New Prestige
Vegetarian and vegan fine dining is also an important part of the market in China. As of November 2025, the Michelin Guide lists four vegetarian or vegan restaurants worldwide with two stars, and three of them are in China: King’s Joy, Fu He Hui, and Lamdre.
King’s Joy
King’s Joy, Beijing
From 2020 to 2026, King’s Joy has earned 24 stars (and was a three-star restaurant for four consecutive years, 2022–2025). It was also the first restaurant in China to receive the Michelin Green Star, an award that recognizes restaurants for their commitment to ethical and environmentally responsible practices, and it has held this honor for six years.
King’s Joy is located in Beijing’s cultural protection zone, adjacent to historical sites such as Yonghe Temple and the Imperial Academy. The interior design creates an elegant space blending Eastern and Western aesthetics.
Although the tasting menu at King’s Joy runs from about 1,000 to 2,000 yuan per person (roughly USD 140 to 280), the restaurant continues to be busy. Many diners share their experiences on Red Note, a popular Chinese social media platform. Some are food lovers who chase Michelin stars, while others go because it is not uncommon in China to eat a vegetarian meal on special occasions such as birthdays or the Lunar New Year. King’s Joy offers an elegant setting for these moments, so it has become a popular choice for celebratory meals.
King’s Joy, Beijing
King’s ingredients come from local farms and are carefully selected. The cooking follows a light, minimally seasoned approach that aims to preserve the food’s original flavor. It also corresponds to the Chinese traditional concept of “eating seasonal food” and “food as medicine.”
Aside from the restaurants mentioned above, there are also some other high-end vegetarian/vegan restaurants such as Puzhu in Hangzhou, and Wuwei Nature Food in Xiamen and Michelin one-star Mi Xue Tea House in Chengdu.
Despite their visibility, restaurants with average spending above 200 (~USD $28.25) yuan account for only 6% to 8% of the vegetarian category. These restaurants are mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities.
@thesamtylerDon’t miss this unique restaurant in Beijing, China 🇨🇳 📍King’s Joy restaurant #china #beijing #kingsjoy #visitBeijing #mastercard #priceless #beijingrestaurant #chineserestaurant
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Challenges and the Road Ahead for Vegetarian Restaurants in China
Market outlook and scale
China’s vegetarian dining market has expanded at an unusually fast pace. From 2020 to 2025, the category recorded a compound annual growth rate of 19.2%, well above the global average. In 2025 alone, consumption frequency jumped 217% year over year. By the end of 2025, the market is expected to surpass US $14 billion, representing roughly one quarter of global vegetarian spending.
Despite this increase, the category remains small in a country with nearly 8 million restaurants. Vegetarian concepts still account for a limited share of total dining options, and their ability to scale is far from proven.
Operational constraints
Wuwei Natural Food, Shanghai
Many vegetarian restaurants in China were started by founders motivated by personal beliefs or passion projects rather than commercial ambitions. As a result, many owners operate with limited systems, weak financial discipline, and little appetite for expansion. Passion alone is not enough to sustain a business in such a competitive market.
The largest structural obstacle is still chain development. The market is incredibly fragmented, with 95.1% of vegetarian brands still having fewer than three locations. In contrast, comparable non-vegetarian chains, such as Laoxiangji with 1,500 stores or Green Tea Restaurant with 500, have already built national footprints.
Execution is also more challenging for vegetarian kitchens. Menus rely heavily on fresh produce, making ingredient quality and consistency central to the dining experience. Maintaining the same standards across multiple cities requires a sophisticated supply chain and tightly managed back of house systems. Few vegetarian operators today have that level of infrastructure in place.
Consumer-side barriers
Oii, Beijing
On the demand side, vegetarian food still appeals to a minority of mainstream diners. Traditional menus lean on beans, mushrooms, and carbohydrates, which limits flavor range and makes it harder to satisfy consumers accustomed to stronger, meat-driven dishes. For many people, eating vegetarian once is easy; eating it often is not.
Younger consumers may be open to healthier meals, but they also expect variety, convenience, and strong flavor. Without broader menu innovation, vegetarian restaurants face difficulty attracting repeat visits from non-vegetarians, the group that ultimately determines whether the category can scale.
The future of vegetarianism lies in the “non-vegetarian population.” aka mainstream consumers that Dao Foods has the mandate to engage for alternative proteins via our entrepreneurs. We would like to point out that China’s younger-generation mainstream consumers in particular are keen on pursuing trends, health, and value for money, and they hate to be restrained or even lectured upon by moral imperatives from other people.
What it takes to win
Instead of emphasizing ideology, the most successful operators prioritize taste, experience, and value. Brands that can make healthy eating flavorful and enjoyable have a much better chance of reaching a mass-market audience.
China’s recent coffee boom offers a useful parallel. Although China is traditionally a tea-drinking country, local chains like Luckin Coffee have expanded the market by lowering price barriers and attracting young consumers with new flavors. Vegetarian food will likely require a similar period of taste cultivation, where repeated exposure helps build long-term habits.
To win, brands will need to upgrade and localize flavor profiles, introduce more approachable dishes, and use modern marketing to reach younger consumers. Operators that can pair consistent execution with accessible pricing and a broad, appealing menu will be best positioned to grow beyond a niche customer base.
Forward-looking conclusion
Bliss of Nirvana, Chongqing
China’s vegetarian restaurants are entering an important transition period. The market is growing quickly, but the category remains fragmented and faces operational and consumer-related challenges. For vegetarian dining to move from a niche trend to an everyday habit, operators must focus on taste, scale, and experience, not just mission-driven ideals.
Without a doubt, the future evolution of vegetarian restaurants in China remains a trend to observe. Dao Foods is and will always be here. We will keep you posted. Please stay tuned.
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