Vegan
Vegan at a Thai restaurant: what to ask about
Most of what determines whether a Thai dish works for vegans is not printed on the menu. Here is what is usually in there, and how to ask about it without an interrogation.
What catches people out
- Fish sauce and shrimp paste
- As above, and both are more common than any dairy would be.
- Egg in noodle dishes
- Pad thai is usually made with egg unless you say otherwise.
- Condensed milk
- In Thai iced tea and several desserts.
Usually a good starting point
Jay excludes egg and dairy as well as fish sauce, so it maps closely onto vegan.
Coconut milk is the base rather than dairy, so the dairy question rarely arises — the paste is the thing to ask about.
What to actually say
One specific question is easier for everyone than three vague ones — for you and for the person answering.
- “Can this be made jay?”
- “Is there egg in the noodles?”
- “Is the curry paste vegan?”
What Thai menus don’t print
Nobody is hiding anything. These are foundational ingredients that a Thai kitchen treats the way you treat salt — not an ingredient, a medium. That is exactly why they never appear in a description.
Almost every savoury dish, including ones presented as vegetarian. To a Thai kitchen it is salt, not an ingredient.
Many curry pastes — green and red included — and most som tam.
A great many stir-fries, especially with greens.
Som tam, and several salads and relishes.
Satay obviously, but also som tam, pad thai and as a garnish.
Recipes vary between restaurants and change without notice, so treat all of this as what to raise with the kitchen rather than a guarantee about any particular dish. The staff always have the final word.
TableSage reads menus using an AI language model, which gets things wrong sometimes.
Know which dishes to ask about.
Photograph the menu and it flags what is worth raising — including the ingredients that are never printed.