Cardiff's five top-rated essentials skip British food entirely, running Vietnamese at Pho, American at The New York Deli, Chinese-British at In Cafe & Restaurant, Taiwanese at Bao Selecta, and Indian at The Atma Lounge. Cake leads the signatures at 10 venues and burgers at 8, croissant trails at 5, and the parallel 10-deep British and Italian cuisine columns are where the local depth actually shows up despite the global-leaning anchors.
Ranked by overall rating, signature dish strength, and how much reviewers praise the food. If you only have a weekend, start here.
Enjoy the extensive separate vegan menu featuring authentic Hong Kong style dishes
Must go · #4 Try the thali platters for varied authentic vegan Indian dishes
Must go · #6 Try the croissants, especially chocolate and almond varieties
Must go · #7 Try the vegan raisin or chocolate chip Welsh cakes
Must go · #8 
Must go · #10 
Must go · #11 
Must go · #12 
Must go · #13 Try a variety of vegan pizzas like the vegan chorizo & spinach or capricciosa
Must go · #14 Be aware that the venue started selling eggs and halloumi from August 2024, so not all items are vegan
Must go · #15 Dishes ranked by how well this city's plant-based venues make them, compared to the other 157 cities we track.
5 places worth stopping for croissant
Try the croissants, especially chocolate and almond varieties
Try the almond croissant and cinnamon roll pastries
Be aware that the venue started selling eggs and halloumi from August 2024, so not all items are vegan
Try the almond croissants and cruffins
10 places worth stopping for cake
5 places worth stopping for sausage roll
spinach · Vegan Food Guide All 230 Cardiff venues on the map. Filter by what's open, save what you'd return for, get walking directions in two taps.
Completely plant-based kitchens. No swaps, no asking, no surprises.
Try the thali platters for varied authentic vegan Indian dishes
Try the mushroom pate and brownies
Try the vegan beef and Korean chicken bao buns
Try the croissants, especially chocolate and almond varieties
Mainstream restaurants where the vegan side of the menu is treated seriously.
Try the vegan cream cheese and bacon sandwiches
Enjoy the extensive separate vegan menu featuring authentic Hong Kong style dishes
Try the vegan roti and seitan curry dishes
Try the vegan raisin or chocolate chip Welsh cakes
Open before 10, good coffee, the kind of place you walk back to on day two.
Try the vegan raisin or chocolate chip Welsh cakes
Try the almond croissant and cinnamon roll pastries
Try the vegan soft serve ice cream with inventive rotating flavors
Vegan dishes are clearly labelled on the menu
Weekday fuel and weekend stretches.
Try the vegan cream cheese and bacon sandwiches
Try the tofu curry, highly recommended by multiple reviewers
Enjoy the extensive separate vegan menu featuring authentic Hong Kong style dishes
Try the vegan beef and Korean chicken bao buns
Date night. Birthday. Tell them you're celebrating.
Where the coffee is the reason to come.
Try the full vegan breakfast with baked beans, mashed avocado, and garlicky spinach
Try the almond croissant and cinnamon roll pastries
Try the seitan "chicken" tikka baguette
Try the full vegan brekkie for a well-thought-out, generous meal
Ice cream, pastry, and the honest dessert case.
Wifi, outlets, no judgement for a 3-hour sit.
Busy rooms with tables big enough for eight.
Menus kids recognize, staff who don't flinch at strollers.
Try the vegan raisin or chocolate chip Welsh cakes
Try the falafel salad box with customizable toppings
Try the mushroom pate and brownies
Try the sweetcorn fritters
Enjoy the wide range of vegan cicheti small plates
Expect very affordable pricing with most dishes around £5
Try the vegan pizza with tenderstem broccoli and vegan cheese sauce
Try the Johnny 5 vegan pizza for a popular flavorful option
Cities where the croissant signature also earns a spot in the top essentials — pack a weekend around one.
Yes — Cardiff has 230 vegan-ready venues. The top-ranked are Pho, The New York Deli, In Cafe & Restaurant. Spinach ranks them daily on overall rating, signature dish strength, and reviewer praise for the food.
Cardiff scores 58.1/100 on the Spinach vegan city index. The city has 32 vegan-friendly venues and 52 high-quality restaurants out of 230 analyzed.
Cardiff has 10 fully vegan restaurants and 6 vegetarian restaurants. 32 venues score B or higher on the Vegan Friendliness grade.
Cardiff's top signature dishes for vegans are croissant, cake, sausage roll, and the city also does burger well. Signature dishes are ranked by how the city's venues score against the other 157 cities we track.
The vegan scene in Cardiff leans British, Italian. British is particularly strong, with 10 venues serving quality plant-based options.
Pho is ranked #1 in Cardiff by the Spinach Essentials algorithm, which weights rating, signature dish performance, and reviewer praise. See all 15 Essentials for the full ranking.
Spinach ranks vegan venues using the same algorithm the mobile app runs: a composite of Google Maps rating, the Spinach Rating (Wilson-confidence scored), dish-quality Wilson scores from extracted review signals, and city-specific signature dish strength. Essentials add a tier weighting; category lists add their own mood/occasion weights. No pay-to-play.
The ranking refreshes daily from Supabase. The last refresh is stamped at the top of this page. Venue data comes from Google Maps, HappyCow, and Spinach's own review-analysis pipeline.
