Food First: Plant-Based Is Moving Beyond Veganism

InsightTrendsWorld
Aug 24
6 min read

Plant-based food is entering a new phase where taste, quality and everyday appeal matter more than the vegan label itself. As consumers become more skeptical of highly processed substitutes and overtly activist positioning, the opportunity is shifting toward food that happens to be plant-based because it is genuinely delicious.

Why Everyone Is Talking About It: The Vegan Restaurant Boom Is Reversing

Only a few years ago, dedicated vegan restaurants symbolized the future of eating. Now some of the concepts that helped build that movement are disappearing. London has seen the closure of Wulf & Lamb, Farmacy, Rudy’s Vegan Diner, Halo Burger, What The Pitta and The Vurger Co. The latter had expanded to four locations, published a cookbook and launched products at Whole Foods, yet still failed to make the model financially sustainable.

Amsterdam is experiencing a similar correction. Meatless District closed after ten years, the city's last Vegan Junk Food Bar location shut this summer, and several other vegan concepts disappeared after the pandemic. Yet this does not necessarily mean consumers have stopped wanting plant-based food. Instead, it suggests the proposition surrounding it is changing: being vegan is becoming less powerful as the primary reason to choose a restaurant.

➡️ Why It Matters: The decline of dedicated vegan restaurants may represent an evolution rather than the end of plant-based eating. Plant-based food increasingly has to win the same way all good food wins: through taste, quality, value and experience.

Why Consumers Are Changing: Taste Is Beating Ideology

The first vegan restaurant wave was closely connected to health, sustainability and activism. Restaurants could turn their entire environment into a statement: no animal products, colorful interiors and messaging about changing the world. Food trend watcher Gijsbregt Brouwer argues that this combination of activism and hospitality has become far less culturally prominent and says that, if opening a plant-based restaurant today, he would not emphasize the positioning in its name.

At the same time, some substitutes that once represented technological progress have acquired new baggage. Brouwer argues that the backlash against ultra-processed food hurt the vegan burger because it became associated with highly engineered food. That creates an opening for another interpretation of plant-based eating: less imitation, more ingredients; less ideology, more appetite; less emphasis on what a dish excludes, more emphasis on why someone wants to eat it.

➡️ Consumer Insight: Consumers are not necessarily asking, “Is this vegan?” before asking whether it tastes good. The emerging opportunity is to make plant-based food desirable first and virtuous second.

Who Is Driving This Trend: Flexible Eaters

Consumer Profile: The important audience is increasingly broader than committed vegans. It includes consumers who are comfortable eating tofu, mushrooms, vegetables and plant-based dishes but do not necessarily want every meal to become a declaration of dietary identity. The article also highlights the inclusivity problem created when a restaurant's single dietary positioning makes it difficult for groups containing different preferences to choose it.

Core Motivations: Great Food Matters More Than the Label

Taste (food worth choosing)Consumers want plant-based dishes that compete with everything else on the menu because they taste good.

Choice (freedom to mix)Consumers want the flexibility to eat plant-based sometimes without committing to an exclusively vegan lifestyle.

Naturalness (recognizable food)Consumers can gravitate toward vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and traditional dishes rather than products perceived as engineered substitutes.

Togetherness (everyone can eat)Consumers want restaurants that work for mixed groups instead of forcing everyone around the table into one dietary identity.

Quality (culinary credibility)Plant-based food becomes more compelling when ingredients, cooking and craftsmanship provide the reason to choose it.

Viral Potential: The Vegan Backlash Creates a New Food Conversation

“Is veganism over?” is naturally provocative because it challenges one of the defining food movements of the previous decade. The contrast is highly shareable: a category once predicted to reshape mainstream eating is now seeing famous specialist restaurants close. The London and Amsterdam examples make that cultural reversal tangible rather than theoretical.

But the more interesting conversation comes after the provocative headline. Plates became the first plant-based restaurant in the UK to receive a Michelin star in 2025, Unity Diner reopened, and Tofu Vegan is preparing to open its sixth London location. These counterexamples turn the story from “vegan is dead” into “what kind of plant-based food wins now?”

➡️ Viral Insight: The contradiction gives the trend its viral power. Vegan restaurants can struggle while excellent plant-based food succeeds. That tension invites consumers to reconsider whether the future belongs to vegan branding or simply to better food.

Marketing Strategy: Sell the Food Before the Philosophy

Plant-based brands should increasingly lead with craveability rather than restriction. Instead of making “vegan” the entire proposition, marketing can foreground the dish, ingredients, cuisine, craftsmanship and experience, allowing plant-based credentials to strengthen the proposition rather than define it.

The successful examples in the article point in this direction. Tofu Vegan founder Chao Zhang says his business focuses on the kitchen, quality and flavor rather than marketing, while traditional Asian recipes allow tofu and mushrooms to work naturally within the cuisine rather than forcing them to imitate meat-centered originals.

Marketing Strategy: How Can Brands Win

Area	Strategy
Product	Make Plants Naturally Delicious — Develop dishes around vegetables, legumes, tofu, mushrooms and cuisines where plant-based ingredients already belong rather than depending entirely on meat imitation.
Pricing	Make Better Choices Feel Worth It — Compete on perceived quality and satisfaction rather than expecting consumers to pay a premium simply because something is vegan.
Promotion	Lead With Craveability — Show delicious food, texture, ingredients and craftsmanship first; allow sustainability and plant-based credentials to reinforce desire.
Distribution	Put Plants Everywhere — Expand strong plant-based choices across mainstream restaurants and mixed menus instead of confining them to specialist vegan environments.
Innovation	Move Beyond Imitation — Explore naturally plant-forward cuisines, ingredients and cooking techniques instead of treating another meat substitute as the default innovation pathway.

➡️ Strategic Insight: The next plant-based winners may be the businesses that stop asking consumers to choose veganism and start giving them food they would choose anyway.

Trend Snapshot: Plant-Based Is Becoming Food First

The contraction of dedicated vegan restaurants does not automatically signal the disappearance of plant-based consumption. It reveals a more significant transition from movement-led consumption toward food-led adoption, where plant-based options increasingly have to earn their place through the same fundamentals consumers expect from everything else.

Trend Area	Insight
Broad Trend: Pleasure First	Make Better Choices Enjoyable — Consumers increasingly expect health, sustainability and personal values to add to an enjoyable experience rather than replace it.
Industry Trend: Food First	Sell the Dish, Not the Diet — Plant-based food is shifting from vegan identity and activism toward taste, quality and culinary appeal.
Lifestyle Trend: Flexible Eating	Choose Without Committing — Consumers can eat more plant-based food without defining themselves as vegan or following one dietary identity.
Strategy: Lead With Desire	Give People Something They Want — Brands should make consumers want the product first, with plant-based credentials strengthening rather than carrying the proposition.
Consumer Motivation: No Compromise	Taste Still Comes First — Consumers want choices that can combine enjoyment, quality, values and flexibility without feeling like sacrifice.
Business Opportunity: Mainstream Plants	Move Beyond the Vegan Restaurant — Plant-based food can reach broader audiences by becoming a desirable part of mainstream menus, cuisines and eating occasions.
Innovation Outlook: Beyond Imitation	Let Plants Be Plants — The next innovation wave can move beyond reproducing meat toward ingredients, cuisines and formats where plants are inherently desirable.

➡️ Trend Snapshot Insight: Plant-based food may become more culturally powerful by becoming less culturally separate. The opportunity is no longer only to build a vegan alternative to mainstream food, but to make plant-based dishes part of mainstream food itself.

Final Thought: Plant-Based Is Becoming Food First

Plant-based food is entering a more mainstream phase because consumers increasingly do not need to identify as vegan to choose plants. Taste, indulgence, convenience, variety, health and curiosity can motivate a plant-based purchase without requiring consumers to adopt a broader dietary identity. This shifts the category away from asking people to change who they are and toward simply giving them food they genuinely want to eat.

The future opportunity therefore lies in making plant-based products compete as great food first and alternatives second. Brands that deliver craveability, familiar formats, exciting flavors and satisfying experiences can reach flexitarians and mainstream consumers who may happily choose plant-based products one day and animal-based products the next. Moving beyond veganism does not weaken plant-based food—it potentially gives the category a much larger audience and many more eating occasions.

➡️ Final Insight: The next phase of plant-based growth will come from removing the identity requirement from the purchase. Consumers do not have to become vegan to eat more plants; they simply need products that taste good and fit naturally into their lives. When plant-based becomes food people want rather than a lifestyle they must join, its mainstream opportunity becomes much bigger.