Thai cooking looks plant-friendly on paper, with its vegetables, herbs, tofu and coconut milk. The catch is that fish sauce, shrimp paste and oyster sauce sit behind much of the flavour. A dish listed as vegetable stir-fry can still contain all three.

Where animal products hide

Curry pastes often include shrimp paste, which is why a vegetable green curry is not automatically vegan. Stir-fries use oyster sauce for gloss, and many soups start from a fish or chicken stock. None of this is secret, but it rarely appears on a menu line.

Questions worth asking

Ask whether the curry paste is shrimp-free, whether the sauce uses fish or oyster sauce, and whether the stock is vegetable. Kitchens used to the question answer quickly, and many will swap fish sauce for soy sauce. Say vegan rather than vegetarian, since vegetarian in some kitchens still allows fish sauce.

A tradition with its own method

Thailand has a plant-based food tradition called jay, recognisable by the yellow flags with red lettering that appear during the Vegetarian Festival. Jay cooking leaves out animal products and traditionally avoids garlic, onions and other pungent vegetables. It shows that vegan Thai cooking has a method behind it and is more than a menu workaround.

Reading a menu for vegan clues

Menus rarely flag shrimp paste or fish sauce, so the clues sit in the structure of the dish. Stir-fries built around tofu, mushrooms and holy basil are easy to adapt, and soups with a clear broth are harder because the stock is the flavour. Salads with a nam pla dressing need a swap.

Sections labelled vegetarian are a starting point, but they still need the stock and sauce questions. A friendly kitchen will say which items can be made fully vegan and which cannot.

Easy swaps that keep the flavour

Soy sauce and a squeeze of lime replace fish sauce in most stir-fries without changing the character of the dish. Mushroom-based sauces replace oyster sauce, and a pinch of sugar rounds the result. Curry paste is the harder swap, which is why asking about shrimp-free paste comes first.

Eating vegan in a mixed group

Shared-plate dining makes mixed tables easy. Order one vegan curry, one vegan stir-fry and a bowl of rice for the table, and let the meat dishes arrive separately. Nobody needs a special meal, and the vegan diner is part of the spread.

What to order

Tofu with holy basil, a vegetable red or green curry made with shrimp-free paste, pad Thai without egg or fish sauce, fresh spring rolls and sticky rice are the dependable picks. Coconut-based curries supply the richness people often miss when meat comes off the plate. Pair one curry with one stir-fry and a bowl of rice and you have a full meal.

Finding it in Chiswick

Vegan Thai food in Chiswick is easiest to find at restaurants whose staff will talk you through the menu, since the answers matter more than the label. Nara Thai on Turnham Green Terrace lists vegan options among its service details.

Calling ahead on 020 8166 6228 lets you confirm which dishes can be adjusted. Mention strict requirements again when you book.