Vegan Food Guide to Brunei

Eating vegan in Brunei can be a bit challenging, but it’s definitely achievable.

Located on the northern coast of Borneo, Brunei Darussalam is a small nation known for its rich cultural heritage, pristine rainforests, and beautiful Islamic architecture. (Check out the 24 Best Things to See and Do in Brunei!)

To be honest, I found it harder to be vegan in Brunei than other places I’ve travelled to. You’ll be eating a lot of plain stuff unless you are willing to pay more expensive prices and go to fully vegan restaurants. 

I stayed near the waterfront and the options were limited but they were there! So it’s not impossible to be vegan, you just need to plan each meal before you arrive. 

If you have money (not a budget traveller like myself), you can easily get a DART (Uber/Grab) to a fully vegan restaurant but that would add up obviously. 

Bandar Seri Begawan is not a pedestrian friendly city. There are restaurants that were less than a 30 minute walk away from where I was staying but it’s impossible to walk there because there are no sidewalks and you’d be walking on a freeway in the intense heat. So I stuck to the waterfront area and places I could get to by just walking. I’ve added a map at the end for you!

Kampong Ayer

DE’GREEN SYLHET

Run by a Bangladeshi family, this restaurant has vegan friendly Dosa, Idli and Aloo Gobbi. Sometimes they run out of items but they understand English fluently and can help you with food. Incredibly friendly staff. No aircon inside, only fans. You can easily get a meal here for under $5 BND.

Veggies and rice from De’Green

KAFE & SAJIAN SYAZWAN

Very friendly staff who speak English, you can get vegan friendly Indian food here too. I think they are friends with the restaurant above because I always saw them in each others restaurants just chatting haha. Similar food to De’Green. I recommend you visiting both. If they run out of items, you can always fall back to rice and vegetables and you can also get a meal here for under $5 BND.

Rice and vegetables from Kafe & Sajian

SUBSTATION

This is like a Subway! They have foot longs, 6 inch and 3 inch breads. And then you choose your toppings. It’s really easy to make your sub vegan here. They have tables inside too. They don’t have any milk or eggs in their bread and a 6 inch veggie sub is less than $3 BND ($3.20 AUD, $2 EUR, $2.10 USD)

A 6 inch veggie sub from Substation

PIZZA HUT

You can order a personal veggie pizza here with no cheese. They may get a little confused when you ask for no cheese and may get concerned that it will burn but they will do it and it works out fine. They also put broccoli on the pizza which is random to someone living in Australia haha. There are seats inside and there is aircon. 

Veggie pizza with no cheese from Pizza Hut

JOLLIBEE

Jollibee fries are vegan. So if you’re looking for a quick snack, you can go here. Google maps doesn’t list the Jollibee near the waterfront, but it’s located on the ground floor of Yayasan Shopping Centre. You can enter from Jalan Pretty or from inside the shopping centre. 

Drink from Jollibee

KIANGGEH MARKET 

Go here for breakfast! Open every morning, wander round and get some fruit for breakfast. It’s quite cheap and you can get a bunch of bananas for $1 BND

Kianggeh Market

THE DAUN

In Kiulap area, this modern restaurant has clearly marked vegan items on their menu and serves local and western food like tempeh, satay and noodles.

AURA BY TIENSING

Located in Gadong area, this clean vegetarian restaurant has marked vegan options like plant based meat and vegan satay. 

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

VEGAN FRIENDLY COFFEE

THE COFFEE BEAN AND TEA LEAF

Located in the middle of the city, on the corner of Jalan Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien and Jalan Pemancha, this coffee shop has some of the best iced lattes I’ve tried outside of Melbourne Australia. They have free soy milk so will swap out dairy for soy with no extra charge! They are very friendly and I saw the Australian embassy staff in there drinking coffee too a few times so it must be good coffee if Aussies are in there haha

Iced latte with soy milk at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Cafe

PICCOLO CAFE

This clean and spacious cafe is located opposite the water and has soy, almond and oat milk options. 

RUSTIQUE BY ABSOLUTE

A cozy rustic and industrial feel cafe in a back street, they have almond and oat milk options as well as Coffee Frappuccinos. 

LANE MICROBAKERY & COFFEE

A cute and clean cafe down a back street with vegan milk alternatives. Quite popular and very instagrammable 

OTHER VEGAN OPTIONS

Always check out Happy Cow for vegan and vegetarian friendly food options and type into Google Maps “vegan food” for the area you’re travelling in.

MAP

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