Traveling in Italy as a vegan foodie is not as easy as in some other countries in Europe. That is due to many reasons, but the main reason is that Italians take pride in their local food traditions that sadly include lots of animal derived ingredients. Though it might sound discouraging, there is an upside to it: the vegan food in Italy is usually of higher quality and tastes better than in most of Europe.
Turin, or Torino in Italian, is situated in the region of Piedmont (literally “mount’s foot”) in north-west Italy. Piemonte, as the Italians would say, is well known for its hazelnuts, chestnuts, white truffles and Porchini mushrooms. Many of the local dishes include these in addition to other seasonal local ingredients. This beautiful region is widely known for its culinary creations, some of them are even traditionally vegan by chance. To name a few: Farinata – a chickpea pancake roasted in a pizza oven; Castagnaccio – a Chestnut cake (check out our recipe); and some types of Gianduja – a delicious chocolate with hazelnut paste candy, are all examples of traditionally vegan local treats. Hence, it is no surprise to discover that the neighboring town of Bra is the birthplace of the slow-food movement, which encourages consumers to eat more local and seasonal produce to support small businesses and farmers.
Our vegan foodie list of recommendations focuses on small local businesses that offer the best vegan food in Turin according to our own gluttonous opinion. Nevertheless, there are many more vegan and vegan-friendly options in the city, and much more is left to be discovered for the curious traveler.
Tourist tip: check the opening times of each business – it’s Italy!
Bakeries and Cafés
Efrem
Via Almese 15E (Cit Turin)
This is the ultimate fully vegan Italian pastry shop, or pasticceria as Italians call it. Here you can indulge yourself with home made Croissants and a variety of fillings to choose from, such as: pistachio paste, chocolate, hazelnut paste or marmalade, accompanied by a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. They offer some classical Italian pastries and seasonal treats such as panettone which could be found just around Christmas time, and also pizza and sandwiches for lunch.
Orso-Laboratorio Caffè
Via Claudio Luigi Berthollet 30H (San Salvario)
Via Cagliari 18 (Aurora)
This little roastery has the best coffee in Turin, and they also offer cappuccino and iced coffee with a few milk-alternatives to choose from. It’s a place to drink and enjoy coffee as is, with a narrow choice of delicious vegan pastries, most notably the Pain au Chocolait “comme il faut“.
Mara dei Boschi
Piazza Carlo Emanuele II 21 (city center)
Via Claudio Luigi Berthollet 30 (San Salvario)
Corso Alcide De Gasperi 57 (Crocetta)
A relaxed place with excellent coffee and very good ice cream (Marotto, Mará dei Boschi, Banana, Cachi, Avena 5.0). There is plenty of seating space outside and inside and even free wifi and workstation with electric outlets for those who wish to work or study.
L’Orto Bistrò
Piazza Palazzo di Città 6 (מרכז העיר)
This strictly vegan bistro in the center of the city is also a great place to try some home made croissants filled with a legendary Gianduja cream (the local hazelnuts chocolate) or the different cakes offered. Among other hot drinks in the menu, their coffee is organic and fair trade. The place also serves a changing lunch menu. We’ve tried here an epic seitan dish that absolutely blew our mind.
Soul Kitchen
Via Santa Giulia 2 (Vanchiglia)
A completely plant based fine-dine restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. We haven’t had a chance to try their lunch nor the dinner menu, but we did try their diverse pastry options for breakfast, ranging from cakes, muffins to different Croissants.
Panificio Pasticceria Ezzahra
Piazza della Repubblica 16/E (central market)
This family owned pastry shop is a great place to try some Moroccan classics that are traditionally vegan. The cookies are the stars here, as the shop offers exceptional almond, marzipan, nuts and pistachio cookies, all scented with orange or rose blossom flavors. Not everything is vegan here but the owners are knowledgeable about plant based diet.
Torteria Berlicabarbis
Via Catania 10 (Aurora)
Via Po 11 (city center)
Via Cernaia 44 (near Porta Susa train station)
Via Carlo Alberto 26 (city center)
A small local café chain with a cute and friendly décor. This chain always offers a few vegan cakes like pear and chocolate, apples and other seasonal cakes.
Panificio Luciano Aldo
Via dei Mercanti 2 (Quadrilatero Romano)
A small family run bakery in the city center run by a friendly couple that is very knowledgeable about different dietetic needs. The bakery produces many typical Piedmontese sweets, some of which are originally vegan. This is the place to try some local vegan classics like the Farinata (a savory chickpea pancake) and the Castagnaccio, (a Chesnut cake for which you can find our super easy recipe here)
On the go: Street Food
Van Ver Burger
They move across Torino, follow their Instagram to find where they are each day.
The coolest food truck in the city happens to be the vegan one. The sweet team of Van Ver Burger offers a few of their artesanal burgers and side dishes. Our absolute favorite one is the Piemuntèis: their own ingenious vegan burger version to the local bloody raw beef Tartar dish.
Mollica
Piazza Madama Cristina 2 bis (San Salvario)
Via Giuseppe Verdi 33 (city center)
Mollica serves the famous Italian Panini, sandwiches of homemade focaccia breads with different toppings. You can choose between several typical vegan Italian spreads, grilled and fresh vegetables and vegan cheeses.
Trapizzino
Piazza Carlo Emanuele II 17
A Roman chain with branches throughout Italy and even the first branch in New York, of their invented street food, Trapizzino – a slice of focaccia baked on the spot and stuffed with traditional stews. In addition to these, they offer Supplì, the Roman version of a stuffed and fried rice ball, similar to the Arancini of Sicily.
It’s not every day that you’ll find vegan Trapizzini, but it’s worth a try and checking the daily menu on the chalkboard sign at the entrance to the restaurant, because it’s really delicious.
Restaurants and Delis
Antonio Chiodi Latini
Via Antonio Giuseppe Bertola 20/B (city center)
A vegan fine dine restaurant serving a local and seasonal menu. Here food is treated as art and the quality is phenomenal. We only had the pleasure to eat here once but it was a memorable experience.
Plin E Tajarin
Goffredo Casalis 59 (Cit Turin)
A beautiful small bistrot, focusing on the local pasta dishes of the area, Plin (small Piedmont dumplings) and Tajarin (hand made spaghetti). The restaurant has a separate vegan menu with a few exquisite Plin and Tajarin dishes in addition to a few starters and desserts. Our favorite dish here are the Tajarin with a savory sauce of chocolate and hazelnuts and the Plin stuffed with chestnuts and hazelnuts.
As this place is tiny in size, you better book a table in advance or just do takeout, which you can eat at the nearby Piazza Benefica, which conveniently happen to be in front of the all-vegan ice cream shop Il Gelato Amico.
Oh Crispa! 生煎馒头
Belfiore 16bis/D (San Salvario)
A small Chinese restaurant offering Chinese cuisine, made from local ingredients. This place offers just a few vegan dishes of which our favorite ones are the Bao-Zi, steamed bun stuffed with vegetables and the Dan Dan Mian noodle dish in its vegan version (on request) with spicy peanuts sauce and tofu.
LAO 老
Via Giuseppe Barbaroux 25 (Quadrilatero Romano)
A second and more organized branch from the same owners of Oh Crispa! restaurant,
You won’t find sushi, ramen, tiramisu, or coffee here. There’s no fusion, it’s strictly authentic Chinese cuisine.
Bangla Food
Corso Giulio Cesare 27b (Aurora)
A popular and excellent Bangladeshi restaurant. Suitable only for spicy food lovers because all the dishes are spicy and seasoned just like in Bangladesh. Here you will find an excellent vegan selection alongside a lot of non-vegan food, but everything is really delicious, spicy and oily, that is, authentic to the original.
Highly recommended vegan dishes are: Shingara (Bangladeshi samosa), Nan (flat bread), Chana (chickpeas in a spicy sauce), Chana Dhal (chickpeas), Brinjal (eggplant, rare here) and any other vegan dish, but skip the rice. Alongside the dishes you will also receive a plate of fresh vegetables.
Communication with the staff is not easy because they stutter in Italian and English, but the food is worth it. The prices are really cheap and there is no formal pricing of the portions at all, you just eat and then ask to pay at the register (they accept cash and credit card) and leave a generous tip, one that says “thank you very much” in the most international non-verbal language. They will try to refuse the tip, but you have to insist in order to sustain this wonderful business.
Il Posticino
Via Ormea, 29 BIS/D (San Salvario)
A small deli that is almost entirely plant-based offering a lunch buffet with a daily selection for seating or takeout. Here there is a mix between classic Italian dishes and innovative non-traditional cuisine. We tried a savory Strudel with celeri and lentils that was exquisite in taste and texture.
Red Carrot
Corso Sebastopoli 226/A (Santa Rita)
Vegan grocery store with an amazing selection of pastries and other sweets. The lunch food is less impressive. Here you will find lots of Italian products for vegans that are very hard to find in stores around Turin.
Una Gemma
Corso Tortona 2G (Vanchiglia)
A health grocery store with a vegan restaurant based upon the macrobiotic approach. An interesting selection of dishes, pastries, and lots of Italian vegan products.
Pizza
Margherì
Corso Guglielmo Marconi 23 (San Salvario)
Sant’Ottavio 51C (Vanchiglia)
The perfect Rome-style pizza (square shaped, thin and crispy). This place offers a few vegan options: Eggplant in a parsley-garlic sauce with a dreamy flavor, potatoes and rosemary that are especially crispy, cherry tomatoes in a parsley-garlic sauce, and other vegetables and legumes that change according to the season and the mood of the pizzaiolo.
Vegans are definitely better off choosing the first branch in the San Salvario neighborhood, run by chef Ilenia from Modena. She takes great care to provide a rich and delicious vegan selection, sparing no effort and choosing the best ingredients.
Focacceria Roberta
Via S. Tommaso 8A (Quadrilatero Romano)
The very best Ligurian-style focaccia pizza (square shaped, thick and soft). This place offers several vegan options: the best rosemary-potatoes we ever had, onions-trio, cherry tomatoes and the mixed seasonal vegetables.
The prices are high relative to the genre, but for those who don’t mind, the taste won’t disappoint.
UÂO
Via Claudio Luigi Berthollet 17B (San Salvario)
The best Neapolitan pizza in Turin!
They offer quality vegan cheese from DreamFarm and a selection of vegan toppings. Simply assemble your own vegan pizza with the toppings of your choice.
Assaje
Via Andrea Doria 11 (city center)
A chain specializing in Neapolitan pizza that decided to offer a vegan variety to sausage lovers. The prices are excessive, but so far it is the only place in the city that offers vegan meat-substitutes on a properly made Neapolitan pizza.
Pizzium
Via Torquato Tasso 5 (near the royal palace)
Corso Giacomo Matteotti 3 (near Porta Nuova central train station)
Via Bava 2R (Vanchiglia near via Po and piazza Vittorio Veneto)
Via Claudio Luigi Berthollet 16 (San Salvario)
Via Duchessa Jolanda 8 (near Porta Susa train station)
A good Neapolitan style restaurants’ chain about 50 branches across Italy and several in Turin. This is the first chain to offer an almond based cheese-alternative. Although their menu shows only the Margherita as a vegan option in some branches they were willing to change to the mozzarella cheese to the almond vegan alternative for a small extra surcharge.
Fradiavolo
Via IV Marzo 7A (ליד הארמון, הסניף היחיד שמוצלח)
A Neapolitan-style pizza chain with a few dozen branches in northern Italy and a few in Turin. The pizzeria offers a vegan almond-based cheese for an additional fee, although the vegan selection is disappointing. The best branch is the one near the palace. Yes, there is a difference and it depends a lot on the staff.
Ice Cream
Mara dei Boschi
Piazza Carlo Emanuele II 21 (city center)
Via Claudio Luigi Berthollet 30 (San Salvario)
Corso Alcide De Gasperi 57 (Crocetta)
Besides the excellent coffee, the specialty of the place is amazing ice cream. Our favorite flavors are: Marotto, Mará dei Boschi, Banana, Cachi and Avena 5.0. Besides these, you will find many other changing flavors.
Il Gelato Amico
Principi d’Acaja, 47 (Cit Turin)
A completely vegan ice cream shop that also offers some home made vegan cakes and drinks. They offer classical flavors like hazelnuts and gianduja, but also some unique flavors such as the super tasty Snoopy 🥜🍫🍪 (roasted peanuts, single origin St. Domingo 72% dark chocolate and self-made caramel and gluten-free corn flour, rice and almond cookies), Café Lavazza and many more.
Aria
Santa Giulia 32/F (Vanchiglia)
In Aria you’ll find the best vegan chocolate ice cream in the city, in our opinion. They also offer delicious fresh seasonal fruit flavors like avocado lime, blackberry or cachi (persimmon).
Papalele
Corso Guglielmo Marconi 23/A (San Salvario)
Piazza Emanuele Filiberto, 8/E (Quadrilatero)
A new ice cream chain with a vegan selection that includes a great Gianduia chocolate in town, a great coffee flavor, salty pistachio and varying fruit flavors.
Ottimo!
Corso Stati Uniti 6/c (Crocetta, near Porta Nuova central train station)
Piazza Francesco Borromini 86/F (Gran Madre)
A small local chain with some wonderful vegan flavors and seasonal sorbet. The Gianduja is a must here, but also lemon, chocolate and coffee flavors are great.
Vanilla
Palazzo di Città 7B (near the royal palace)
In the most central location in town, next to the royal palace, this small ice cream parlor offers wonderful pistachio and Gianduja flavors as well as a seasonal variety of fruit sorbets.
We could go on and on about the vegan places in Turin. This city certainly has plenty to offer vegans of all kinds, from junk food lovers to elite chef restaurants. In this list, we have selected for you our favorite places as locals, those persistant in quality and some that offer local flavors. Turin is arguably the most vegan-friendly city in Italy.
Markets
Porta Palazzo
Piazza della Repubblica (central market)
Monday: Stalls 8:00-13:00, indoor market closed
Tuesday to Friday: Stalls 8:00-13:00, indoor market 8:00-17:00
Saturday 8:00-sunset, indoor market 8:00-17:00
Sunday usually closed
This food market is the biggest of it’s kind in Europe. It offers every morning fresh vegetables, fruit and other local and seasonal products. This is a great place to try out many different fresh delights of the highest quality that could be found only in Italy. Italians are known for their tomatoes and herbs but here also the mushrooms and nuts are a source of pride. This market is also the reference point for buying authentic Middle-Eastern, Chinese and other oriental food products.
Farmer markets
On Sundays there are local farmers’ markets in the center of Turin (and outside the center on other days as well). The location varies according to the week of the month. The opening times could be much shorter than what we write here bellow, so a morning visit would be a safer choice if you don’t want to miss out these delights.
- Every 1st Sunday of the month, 9:00-14:00:
Mercato Campagna Amica – Piazza Palazzo di Città
Mercato del Paniere – Piazza C.L.N. - Every 2nd Sunday of the month, 9:00-14:00:
Mercato C.I.A. – Piazza Palazzo di Città
Mercato Campagna Amica – Piazza Cavour - Every 3rd Sunday of the month, 9:00-14:00:
Mercato Campagna Amica – Piazza Vittorio Veneto
Mercato C.I.A. – Piazza Bodoni - Every 4th Sunday of the month, 9:00-14:00:
Mercato Campagna Amica – Piazza Bodoni
During the weekdays and especially on Sundays Turin’s Piazzas host several farmer markets that sell local produce. This is the best place to purchase delicious local hazelnuts as well as other seasonal fruits, wines and fresh breads.
Zero Waste Stores
The term “zero waste store” can be misleading. In stores of this type, the products are sold in bulk, and thus in fact the responsibility for reusing the packaging is transferred to us – the consumers. This is an excellent opportunity to buy high-quality products with the possibility to taste before buying, avoiding the waste of disposable packaging that would otherwise be added to the mountains of garbage that we produce due to our modern lifestyle.
Traditional Italy abounds in zero waste stores, most of which are not at all aware of their trendy feature. This is simply the best and most logical method to sell their fine products so they never had any good reason to change it. We present here a shortlist of our favorite food stores in the city, but please do recommend in the comments if you have discovered other fantastic ones.
Le Delizie del Piemonte
Via San Domenico 40 (Quadrilatero Romano)
This deli offers a variety of fine wines to fill straight from the barrel along with other preserved farmers’ produce of the Piedmont region. The prices here are the cheapest in town without compromising on the exceptional quality of the products. Keep in mind that the famous wine brands that are protected by law (DOP or IGP) must be sold in sealed bottles with their original label, which is why in Italy we recommend to try equally good and occasionally even superior off-brand wines.
Ferraris S.a.s.
Piazza della Repubblica 26 (Behind the southern building of the market)
In this crazy little store for dry goods you’ll find local grains such as the black and red Venere rice varieties from the flooded fields along the Po River (Pianura Padana), dried Porcini mushrooms collected in the alpine forests, chestnut flour collected from the ancient edible forests of the district, hazelnuts and more.
Negozio Leggero chain store
Several branches around the city
A national chain of stores for food and hygiene products sold in bulk. These stores are very interesting to visit if this is the first time you visit this type of store, even if just to see the devices used by the vendors and the various containers.
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