Shanghai's 162 plant-based spots stay almost entirely Chinese, with dumplings, bao, and hot pot each pulling 5 places worth stopping for. The A-grade essentials split between dumpling specialists like Dancing Dumplings and Qing Chun By Perma, hot pot through Yangege, and Lakeside Veggie holding the classical end, with Duli as the fusion outlier. The Chinese cuisine lineup runs 10-deep across the city.
Ranked by overall rating, signature dish strength, and how much reviewers praise the food. If you only have a weekend, start here.
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Try the mapo tofu hummus, frequently praised as a standout dish
Try the orange chicken and xiaolongbao for standout flavors
Must go · #8 
Must go · #9 
Must go · #12 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 dumplings
Try the soup dumplings and steamed buns
Try the jiaozi with monkey-head mushroom or sour cabbage fillings
Try the mock meat dishes like vegan duck and three fish soup
Try the vegan deep fried ‘duck’ and dumplings
5 places worth stopping for bao
Try the vegetarian crab dumplings and noodles
Try the vegetable and mock meat baozi
Try the soup dumplings and steamed buns
Try the mapo tofu hummus, frequently praised as a standout dish
5 places worth stopping for hot pot
Try the unique Yunnan mushroom broth and various mushroom sashimi dishes.
Try the all-you-can-eat hotpot with medicine herb base
Try the wild mushrooms variety
Ask staff about vegan dishes since menu labeling is unclear
spinach · Vegan Food Guide All 162 Shanghai 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 sweet & sour lotus root and mapo tofu
Try the unique Yunnan mushroom broth and various mushroom sashimi dishes.
Try the soup dumplings and steamed buns
Try the mapo tofu hummus, frequently praised as a standout dish
Mainstream restaurants where the vegan side of the menu is treated seriously.
Weekday fuel and weekend stretches.
Try the sweet & sour lotus root and mapo tofu
Try the unique Yunnan mushroom broth and various mushroom sashimi dishes.
Try the soup dumplings and steamed buns
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The reason you planned the trip.
Ask for the lunch set for a variety of dishes at reasonable price
Try the fried mushrooms—they are highly recommended
Try the mini cakes with varied flavors
Try the signature nine-course set menu paired with tea or wine
Cities where the dumplings signature also earns a spot in the top essentials — pack a weekend around one.
Yes — Shanghai has 162 vegan-ready venues. The top-ranked are Yangege, Qing Chun By Perma, Dancing Dumplings 舞蔬尚饺. Spinach ranks them daily on overall rating, signature dish strength, and reviewer praise for the food.
Shanghai scores 26.3/100 on the Spinach vegan city index. The city has 34 vegan-friendly venues and 32 high-quality restaurants out of 162 analyzed.
Shanghai has 32 fully vegan restaurants and 53 vegetarian restaurants. 34 venues score B or higher on the Vegan Friendliness grade.
Shanghai's top signature dishes for vegans are dumplings, bao, hot pot. Signature dishes are ranked by how the city's venues score against the other 157 cities we track.
The vegan scene in Shanghai leans Chinese. Chinese is particularly strong, with 10 venues serving quality plant-based options.
Yangege is ranked #1 in Shanghai 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.
