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Veganism and vegetarianism
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Pay-a-Vegan: the app that wants to pay you to eat plant-based

  • Founder Eiko Onishi wants to encourage more restaurants to offer vegan menu options
  • She also hopes to connect meat-free eaters to those restaurants, when the app launches in June

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Eiko Onishi, founder of the Pay-a-Vegan app, which hopes to give diners US$1 credit for every plant-based dish they consume. Photo: James Wendlinger
Lauren James
There’s no denying Hongkongers love meat. However, the past few years have seen huge growth in city restaurants offering vegan and vegetarian dishes, thanks to schemes such as Green Monday, which promotes going meatless one day a week. And a forthcoming app will incentivise diners and restaurants to seek and serve food free from animal ingredients – especially outside the island’s Westernised bubble.
What is the problem with going vegetarian or vegan once a while?
Eiko Onishi, founder, Pay-a-Vegan

For every receipt showing a vegan meal uploaded to the app, Pay-a-Vegan will credit the user with US$1 to be redeemed in the service’s partner restaurants. Gathering receipts will give app-makers an idea of what people are eating and where: consumer analysis they intend to share with subscribed food vendors.

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Some restaurants are offering vegan jackfruit taco. Photo: Shutterstock
Some restaurants are offering vegan jackfruit taco. Photo: Shutterstock

“What is the problem with going vegetarian or vegan once a while?” asks app founder, Eiko Onishi. “Especially this time of year, Chinese people are eating a lot of meat and seafood at banquets. I want to change that, though I’m not asking people to not eat meat at all.

“Instead of convincing people to open a new, purely vegan restaurant, it’s easier to ask regular restaurants to perhaps increase their vegan options.”

Pay-a-Vegan’s aims are twofold: on the one hand, Onishi wants to encourage more restaurants to offer vegan food; on the other, the app will connect vegans with restaurants that are newly catering to their lifestyle.

As Hong Kong’s hospitality industry is dealt one blow after another, the app could bring in new trade to businesses that are willing to roll out the veggies.
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