8 NYC Michelin-Starred Vegan Restaurants You Can’t Miss

These NYC Michelin-Starred vegan restaurants are so fabulous that you’ll want to rearrange your entire trip itinerary to fit them all in it!

New York City is one of my favorite cities, and when you’re in the mood for a fine dining experience (but make it plant-based), these incredible restaurants won’t disappoint.

People don’t always think of vegan restaurants as being somewhere to go for a high-end experience, but they would be wrong!  The creative and innovative chefs behind these super chic restaurants have created plant-powered menus to delight and awe even the pickiest of eaters! If you’re hanging out in Manhattan, you won’t want to miss these epic spots!

Enjoy an Incredible Dining Experience at These Michelin-Starred Vegan Restaurants in NYC

The city that never sleeps is home to a few incredible Michelin-Starred vegan restaurants as well as Bib Gourmand and Michelin recommended vegan and vegetarian restaurants!

As a long-time vegan, I don’t mind visiting a vegetarian restaurant and much prefer it to restaurants that only have a vegan menu. It’s much easier knowing that a mostly plant-based menu can be made vegan, and you don’t have to watch others eat animal products. Would you agree?

There will be something for everyone on this list, from comforting Southern Soul food to Korean and everything in between! Make sure you save them to your Google Maps – you can thank me later!

CEO and Founder Ravi DeRossi opened Avant Garden as a modern vegan restaurant in 2015 and has inspired people with plant-based food ever since! The restaurant is beautiful, with a touch of glamor and a whimsical Alice in Wonderland-style decor; making it a fabulous restaurant for your next veggie trip to NYC!

The stunning tapas-style menu is incredible, you’ll be struck with indecision! Choose from salads, veggie-topped toast, or if you fancy something hot, they have fantastic dishes such as; Scorched cauliflower with toasted garlic, fried capers, and cauliflower puree. Doesn’t it sound delicious!?

Soda Club is a Michelin Bib Gourmand rated vegan pasta and wine bar with more than 200 natural and organic wines from around the world! The perfect vegan restaurant for your next date night!

The starter menu features choices like pine nut ricotta with seasonal vegetables or Castelvetrano olives with nduja, feta, and orange. For your main dish, you can choose from a huge variety of mouthwatering pasta dishes! If you don’t want to go out, you can even order delivery to your hotel. You’re welcome!

Cadence is a plant-based restaurant with a Southern Soul brought together by Executive Chef Shenarri Freeman, who uses her Virginia upbringing to create outstanding vegan cuisine while focusing on health and sustainability!

Treat yo’self to maple buttermilk cornbread with sage maple syrup, and seasonal jam, buffalo oyster mushrooms with a pretzel bun, ranch, avocado, and pickles, or southern fried lasagna with Bolognese, pine nut ricotta, and spinach, plus so much more! As well as being vegan, the dishes are also 100% soy-free!

You can find this stunning art deco-style restaurant opposite Madison Square Garden and on the corner of East 24th Street and Madison Square. With a choice between three menus, there will be something to suit your appetite and time. The full tasting menu is 9 or 10 courses, lasting around 3 hours, but if that’s too much of a commitment, the 6-course menu is only around 2 hours.

If you fancy a more casual dining experience, the bar-tasting menu features 5-courses and lasts around 1 and ½ – 2 hours. You’ll definitely want to check out their hors d’oeuvre tower featuring mushroom arancini with parsley aioli, Parsnip tart with black truffle and thyme, apple with caramel and amaranth, and Waldorf salad with grape, walnut, and blue cheese.

This restaurant hasn’t always been vegan; after closing during the pandemic, it reopened in 2021 and announced its plant-based switch. Executive Chef Daniel Hum has said the switch is because “The current food system is simply not sustainable, in so many ways,”

Eleven Madison Park was also the first plant-based restaurant to receive 3 Michelin stars! Isn’t that fantastic!?

At Dirt Candy, their philosophy is to make vegetables taste so delicious that we crave them the same way we crave pizza! Their dinner menu is seasonal and includes five courses, which include tantalizing dishes such as celeriac latke with pink applesauce, creme fraiche, and micro celery; and arugula calamarata with arugula and lemongrass meatballs, smoked garlic oil, and Pecorino Romano!

Although not strictly a vegan restaurant, this vegetarian Michelin-starred restaurant is one of the only vegetarian restaurants in NYC with a Michelin-Star! All dishes can be made vegan, so remember to tell your server (they generally aren’t able to accommodate other dietary requests like gluten-free)!

A new restaurant added to the Michelin Guide is Superiority Burger. Its specialty is the Superiority Burger, which is made from quinoa, chickpeas, carrots, and walnuts. A more unusual combination on the menu is the Yuba-Verde sandwich, which is strips of tofu, chickpeas, and broccoli rabe on a crusty baguette.

This is a vegetarian restaurant; however, several of the dishes can be made vegan on request, like the collard greens sandwich, sweet and sour beets, and roasted white sweet potato. If you’re looking for a Michelin-rated restaurant with a casual diner-style experience, then this East Village restaurant is the one for you!

abcV is a vegetarian Michelin-Starred restaurant with clean, minimalist style decor, perfect for taking your special someone for a date night! Choose from avocado lettuce cups with toasted cumin, serrano and lime, and pepitas; mushroom walnut Bolognese with carrot paccheri, celery, and mint; or wood roasted baby artichoke with fermented sea rose and saffron, citrus, and pine nut crumbs.

All dishes on the menu can be made vegan and gluten-free, which I love to see! This fabulous restaurant is open for lunch and dinner during the week and brunch and dinner on the weekend; booking is advised.

This authentic vegetarian Korean restaurant is a must-eat for your next NYC trip! HanGawi features an a la carte menu or a prix fixe menu.I recommend the prix fixe, Emperor’s Tasting Menu, which includes a fall starters platter with black sesame pumpkin porridge, pickled radish, kale broccoli salad, and stuffed tofu in sweet chilli; a fall appetizers platter with stuffed mushrooms, zucchini rolls, and sesame leaf rolls; and a fall stone bowl rice with kabocha pumpkin, over sauteed rice with mushrooms and vegetables.

HanGawi is well worthy of its Bib Gourmand Michelin Star; you can even order the mini Emperor’s Tasting Menu if you have a smaller appetite than me!