Vegan Milan

Milan had a fully vegan restaurant by 1983, when La Colubrina opened on Via Felice Casati, and in 1996 Joia became the first vegetarian restaurant in Europe to earn a Michelin star. The city of risotto alla milanese (saffron risotto) and cotoletta (breaded veal cutlet) has been feeding plant eaters for decades, and the newer places build on that head start.

This list runs from a Michelin tasting menu to a Hare Krishna thali, with sushi, cream buns and gelato in between. Most of it sits around Porta Venezia and Stazione Centrale, so you can walk between three or four places in an afternoon. For more cities, browse all the Your Vegan Passport destinations.

Vegan Milan at a Glance

• Best for pasta and sushi in one sitting: Linfa
• Best for vegan cheese and an old-school trattoria: La Colubrina
• Best for a special occasion: Joia
• Best for sushi with a view: Nori Way
• Best for a meal near the train station: Giardí
• Best for pastries and Sunday brunch: Nepà
• Best for a cheap, cosy lunch: VegAmore
• Best for a thali near the Duomo: Govinda
• Best for gelato: Gelato Giusto

Best Vegan Restaurants in Milan

1. Linfa: Gluten-Free Pasta and Plant-Based Sushi Vegan

Order the Cashew & Pepe, a cacio e pepe (cheese and black pepper pasta) rebuilt on cashews, then the “Vitello” Stonnato, a pea-protein spin on cold veal with a vegetable tonnato (tuna-style) sauce. Diners keep naming the gnocchi and the tiramisu, and the garganelli (ridged pasta tubes) with shiitake ragù gets the same love. I would book this first.

The sushi counter is the second reason to come, with uramaki (inside-out rolls) like Save a Crab and Mediterraneo, gunkan (rice wrapped in a strip of nori) and nigiri. Everything on the menu is plant-based and gluten-free. In August 2026 Linfa moved into the lower floor of the Visionnaire design showroom, where the bar mixes low and no-alcohol cocktails.

💡 Tip: Linfa is closed on Sundays. Lunch runs 12PM to 3PM, and dinner runs 6PM to 11PM (11:30PM on Fridays and Saturdays). Book dinner a few days ahead.

📍 Piazza Cavour 3, 20121 Milan | Centro, by the Giardini Montanelli | ☎️ +39 340 581 3312 | 🌐 linfamilano.com | 📸 @linfa_milano

2. La Colubrina: House-Made Vegan Cheese Since 1983 Vegan

Start with the vegan cheese plate, because cheese is the house obsession and the kitchen makes its own. Then order the cacio e pepe, which keeps coming up in reviews, and save room for a tiramisu that more than one diner has called the best vegan version they have eaten. The chickpea balls and the risotto have their own fan clubs too.

La Colubrina has served vegan food on Via Felice Casati since 1983, which makes it older than a fair number of its customers. The chef makes nearly everything in house and likes to stop by tables to talk through the menu. It feels like a retro neighbourhood trattoria (casual family restaurant), with organic wines and a short walk from Porta Venezia.

💡 Tip: La Colubrina is closed on Mondays. Buy a wedge of their cheese to take back to your hotel for a picnic breakfast.

📍 Via Felice Casati 5, 20124 Milan | Porta Venezia | ☎️ +39 02 2951 8427 | 🌐 lacolubrina.it | 📸 @lacolubrina

3. Joia: Michelin-Starred Vegetarian Tasting Menus Vegetarian

Joia serves two tasting menus of small, painterly plates with names like Col favore della luna (With the favour of the moon), and diners describe each course as a little story. Recent guests singled out the asparagus courses and the wine pairings, which the sommeliers match to the season. Every menu can be cooked fully plant-based, so say so when you book.

Joia opened in 1989, and in 1996 it became the first vegetarian restaurant in Europe to win a Michelin star, which it still holds under chefs Sauro Ricci and Raffaele Minghini. Dairy appears on the standard menus, though never eggs or cheese made with animal rennet. This is the special-occasion booking in Milan, with prices to match.

💡 Tip: Book lunch and order the Piatto Quadro, five small tasting dishes served together, for a shorter and lighter visit. Joia is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

📍 Via Panfilo Castaldi 18, 20124 Milan | Porta Venezia | ☎️ +39 02 2049244 | 🌐 joia.it | 📸 @joia_altacucinanaturale

4. Nori Way: Plant-Based Sushi by Bosco Verticale Vegan

Give the team a budget and ask them to build you a menu, then let the sushi chefs show off with uramaki, gunkan and nigiri made from marinated and fermented vegetables. Diners call the flavours fresh and perfectly balanced, and you can order half rolls, which means trying twice as many. The staff explain every piece as it lands on the table.

Nori Way bills itself as the first fully plant-based sushi restaurant in Italy, and it sits in Porta Nuova, the glassy business district just north of the centre. The veranda looks out at Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), the two apartment towers planted with hundreds of trees. Ask for a veranda table and settle in for a long dinner.

💡 Tip: Nori Way opens for dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday from 7PM to 12AM. Reserve a few days ahead for Fridays and Saturdays.

📍 Via Federico Confalonieri 8/N01, 20124 Milan | Porta Nuova | ☎️ +39 02 5656 9264 | 📸 @noriway.milano

5. Giardí: All-Day Plates Near Stazione Centrale Vegan

Order the Not Avocado Toast or a hummus plate with crunchy focaccia for breakfast, then come back for the Uao Burger, a hemp bun piled with plant cheddar and BBQ sauce, served with roasted potatoes. Diners rave about the bowls of fresh vegetables and fruit, the juices, and both desserts, a chocolate mousse and Ricordo di una cheesecake (memory of a cheesecake).

Dinner adds Che gnocchi! and Mondegreen, legume polpette (meatballs) inspired by Lombard home cooking. Giardí is a small, minimal café a few minutes from Stazione Centrale, the main train station, which makes it the easiest first or last meal of a Milan trip. The owners also host guest-chef dinners called Ah Tavola, so check their Instagram before you go.

💡 Tip: Giardí opens at 10AM on weekdays and 9:30AM on weekends. Dinner runs 6:30PM to 10:30PM from Monday to Friday only, because the café closes at 4PM on Saturdays and Sundays.

📍 Via Napo Torriani 3, 20124 Milan | Stazione Centrale | ☎️ +39 348 006 0211 | 🌐 giardifood.com | 📸 @giardifood

6. Nepà: Maritozzi and Brioche From a Vegan Pasticceria Vegan

Order a maritozzo, a soft sweet bun split open and stuffed with whipped cream, and a brioche (the Milanese word for a croissant), then argue over the last bite. Reviewers keep naming the brioche and the savoury croissants, which are filling enough for lunch, and the cappuccino comes with oat, almond, coconut or another plant milk of your choice.

Nepà opened in April 2023 as a 100% plant-based pasticceria (pastry shop) with a kitchen, and it covers breakfast every day, lunch from Monday to Saturday, aperitivo on Thursday and Friday evenings, and brunch on Sundays. Everything is made without butter, milk, eggs or honey. The cinnamon rolls have a following of their own, and so do the celebration cakes.

💡 Tip: Pair Nepà with Gelato Giusto, a short walk down the same street, for a Via San Gregorio dessert crawl.

📍 Via San Gregorio 45, 20124 Milan | Porta Venezia | ☎️ +39 02 4979 3422 | 🌐 pasticcerianepa.it | 📸 @nepa.milano

7. VegAmore: Tiramisu and Daily Specials in Porta Romana Vegan

Come for the tiramisu, which reviewers mention more than anything else on the menu, and the seitan dishes that rotate through the daily specials. Breakfast brings chocolate croissants and a chat with the owners, and lunch is a changing board of home-style plates like soup of the day, bruschette (grilled bread with toppings) and pakora (spiced Indian fritters).

VegAmore is a small organic bistro in Porta Romana that bakes its own vegan pastries and runs a catering service on the side. Fixed-price menus keep lunch cheap by Milan standards, and Italian food writers single out the desserts. The mood is cosy and relaxed, with chalkboard menus and regulars who drop in for breakfast and stay chatting.

💡 Tip: VegAmore opens at 10:30AM every day and stays open until 11PM from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays it closes at 3:30PM.

📍 Via Crema 12, 20135 Milan | Porta Romana | ☎️ +39 02 3928 7760 | 🌐 vegamoremilano.com | 📸 @vegamoremilano

8. Govinda: Hare Krishna Thali Near the Duomo Vegetarian

Order the thali, a round tray of small dishes that changes daily, with curries, rice, bread and something sweet, all cooked as prasadam (food first offered to Krishna). Diners praise the generous portions and the fast, attentive service. Dairy appears in some dishes, so ask for the vegan thali when you order.

Govinda is run by the Hare Krishna community of Milan, and a small temple sits on the ground floor of the old palazzo (historic townhouse) on Via Valpetrosa. It is a few minutes on foot from the Duomo, the cathedral, which makes it the calmest affordable lunch near the busiest square in the city. The cooking skips onion and garlic.

💡 Tip: Govinda is closed on Mondays. Lunch runs 12:30PM to 3:30PM from Tuesday to Saturday and until 4PM on Sundays, and dinner runs 7:30PM to 10:30PM from Tuesday to Saturday.

📍 Via Valpetrosa 5, 20123 Milan | Cinque Vie, near the Duomo | ☎️ +39 02 4941 2043 | 🌐 govindamilano.it | 📸 @govinda_milano

9. Gelato Giusto: Plant-Based Gelato on Via San Gregorio Vegan

Get the pistachio and almond, which reviewers mention more than any other flavour, then add Ecuador dark chocolate or the oat-milk Venezuela chocolate. Coconut and the peanut with caramel and chocolate both have fans, and diners describe the gelato as fresh, creamy and mild, with nuts and fruit that taste like themselves. Around sixteen flavours rotate through the day.

Founder Vittoria Bortolazzo trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London and worked with chocolatier William Curley before opening on Via San Gregorio. No milk or cream comes into the workshop, and every base is plant-based. The shop stays open late, so it makes a perfect after-dinner walk from Porta Venezia or Stazione Centrale. I would go twice.

💡 Tip: Flavours change through the day, so go early in the evening if you have your heart set on pistachio.

📍 Via San Gregorio 17, 20124 Milan | Porta Venezia | ☎️ +39 02 2951 0284 | 🌐 gelatogiusto.it | 📸 @gelatogiusto

Aperitivo, Milan’s Early Evening Ritual

The hour after work is sacred in Milan. Aperitivo is a drink with snacks, usually from about 6PM to 9PM, and at many bars the snacks grow into a buffet the Milanese call apericena (aperitivo plus dinner). Davide Campari opened Camparino in Galleria, the bar at the entrance to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade, in 1915, and it still pours drinks there today.

The Negroni Sbagliato (mistaken Negroni) was born at Bar Basso on Via Plinio in 1972, when the bartender reached for sparkling wine in place of gin. Campari dropped its cochineal (crushed insect) colouring in 2006, so a spritz made with it is plant-based. For a fully vegan aperitivo spread, go to Nepà on a Thursday or Friday evening.

Vegan Milan: What to Know Before You Go

• Risotto alla milanese is cooked with butter, Grana Padano cheese and often beef marrow, so skip it at traditional trattorias and order the risotto at La Colubrina instead.
• Check closing days before you plan: Linfa closes on Sundays, Joia and Nori Way on Sundays and Mondays, and La Colubrina and Govinda on Mondays.
• Most sit-down restaurants add a coperto, a per-person cover charge for bread and table service, as its own line on the bill.
• In a bar (café), latte means milk, so ask for latte di avena (oat milk) or latte di soia (soy milk) with your cappuccino.
• Nepà, Gelato Giusto, Giardí and La Colubrina are all within a 15-minute walk of each other between Stazione Centrale and Porta Venezia, with Metro stops at Centrale, Lima and Porta Venezia.
• Many family-run places close for part of August around Ferragosto, the 15 August holiday, so check Instagram before a summer trip.

When to Visit Milan

April to June and September to October bring mild weather for walking between neighbourhoods and eating outside. Book tables and hotels early for Milan Design Week (Salone del Mobile) in April and for Fashion Week in late February and late September, when the city fills up. July is hot and humid, and August empties out as residents head for the coast and the lakes.

Winter is grey and often foggy, but it suits long lunches. I would save a cold day for the tasting menu at Joia or a bowl of cacio e pepe at La Colubrina, followed by gelato at Gelato Giusto, because a Milanese will eat gelato in any weather.

Vegan Milan FAQ