全素, 蛋奶素, 五辛素: How to Read Taiwan's Vegetarian Labels
Vegigo · Sep 3, 2026
Taiwan has more vegetarian restaurants per person than almost anywhere on earth, and a labelling system to match. Since 2009, packaged food sold as vegetarian has had to carry one of five legal categories, and restaurants have adopted the same words on their menus and shopfronts. Learn these five labels and you can walk into a night market at midnight and eat without asking a single question.
The catch is that the labels don't map onto Western words. "Vegetarian" in Taiwan defaults to something stricter than most Europeans mean, and "vegan" doesn't quite exist as a category. Here's the vocabulary.
The five legal categories
全素 (quán sù) — pure vegetarian. Also written 純素 (chún sù). No meat, fish, eggs or dairy, and no 五辛 (the five pungent plants, see below). This is Buddhist vegetarian food, and it is the default meaning of 素食 in Taiwan. When a shop just says 素食, it almost always means 全素. Closest Western term: vegan, minus the onion and garlic.
蛋素 (dàn sù) — ovo vegetarian. 全素 plus eggs. Still no dairy, still no five pungents.
奶素 (nǎi sù) — lacto vegetarian. 全素 plus dairy. Still no eggs, still no five pungents.
蛋奶素 (dàn nǎi sù) — lacto-ovo vegetarian. Eggs and dairy allowed. Still no five pungents. This is the most common category at cafés and Western-style vegetarian restaurants that aren't Buddhist.
植物五辛素 (zhíwù wǔxīn sù), usually shortened to 五辛素. Plant-based, but the five pungent plants are used. May or may not include eggs and dairy, so check for a second label. This is the category for Taiwanese vegetarian food that tastes like the rest of Taiwanese food.
Notice the pattern: the first four labels are all defined by what is added to 全素. Five-pungents-free is the baseline, and a restaurant that uses garlic has to say so.
What the five pungents are
五辛 (wǔ xīn) are onion, garlic, leek, chive and asafoetida (in practice, shallots and spring onions count too). Buddhist practice avoids them because they're considered stimulating. The practical consequence for you is that a 全素 kitchen has a genuinely different flavour base: ginger, sesame oil, soy, fermented bean, mushroom and basil do the work that garlic and shallot do elsewhere.
If you're vegan but not Buddhist, 全素 is still safe for you. It's just that 五辛素 will often taste closer to what you're expecting.
蔬食 is not a legal label
You will see 蔬食 (shū shí, literally "vegetable food") everywhere on modern menus, especially in Taipei and Taichung. It is a marketing word, not a category. It signals "plant-forward, contemporary, not a temple canteen," and it usually means:
- five pungents are used,
- eggs and dairy may appear,
- and sometimes the menu isn't fully vegetarian at all.
A 蔬食 restaurant is worth checking on Vegigo before you assume anything. Most are genuinely vegetarian and excellent. Some are "we have a nice salad section."
How the labels map to Vegigo tags
Vegigo's tags are global, so the Taiwan labels sit on top of them like this:
| Taiwan label | Vegigo tag | Also safe for | |---|---|---| | 全素 / 純素 | Buddhist Veg + No Onion-Garlic | Vegan, Pure Veg, Jain-adjacent | | 蛋素 | Pure Veg with eggs, no dairy | Ovo vegetarians | | 奶素 | Lacto Veg + No Onion-Garlic | Lacto vegetarians | | 蛋奶素 | Lacto-Ovo + No Onion-Garlic | Most Western vegetarians | | 五辛素 | Five Pungents OK (五辛素) | Vegans who eat garlic | | 蔬食 | Vegetarian Options, or check | Nobody by default |
The point of the tags is that you set your rules once and every restaurant gets a verdict for you. A Buddhist vegetarian and a garlic-loving vegan walk into the same 五辛素 noodle shop and get two different answers, which is correct.
Where the labels come alive
A short list to calibrate on, one per category, with the live Vegigo tally next to each.
One place per label
OrderThe lunch set, whatever it is that day
全素. A long-running Buddhist restaurant beside Longshan Temple. No onion, garlic or leek anywhere in the kitchen, and the clearest place in Taipei to taste what the five-pungents-free flavour base does with mushroom and sesame.
OrderThree-cup king oyster mushroom
全素, home-style. Quiet, in Songshan, and explicitly five-pungent-free (they list all five on the menu so you know exactly what's out). Taiwanese comfort food without a shallot in sight.
OrderSavoury soy milk with a shao bing, then douhua
Breakfast. Everything is soy-based and plant-based, which makes it a rare 全素 breakfast in a city where the classic 豆漿 shop usually has an egg in everything.
OrderAny bowl; they're all meat-free
五辛素 in practice: a fully vegetarian ramen bar that uses garlic and onion in the broth, and says so. If you're vegan and not Buddhist, this is the label you're looking for.
- 原味素食 Yuan Wei Vegetarian
Taiwanese Buddhist Vegetarian Buffet / 素食自助餐 · Taichung
Listed · not yet verified
OrderPay by weight; go heavy on the braised tofu
The Taiwanese 自助餐 buffet format, done as a Buddhist kitchen in central Taichung. Thirty-odd dishes a day, no five pungents, and the cheapest way to try a lot of 素食 at once.
Three phrases to carry
- 我吃全素 (wǒ chī quán sù) — I eat pure vegetarian. Use this if you avoid the five pungents, or if you just want the safest answer.
- 我吃蛋奶素 (wǒ chī dàn nǎi sù) — I eat eggs and dairy but no meat.
- 有加蔥蒜嗎？ (yǒu jiā cōng suàn ma) — is there onion or garlic in it? The question that separates 全素 from 五辛素 when a menu doesn't say.
Taiwan will feed you well either way. Knowing which label you're looking for just means you spend the trip eating instead of asking.
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