Founder of Sumanxiang Brand, Dong Changlin: Vegetarian restaurants may become a standard feature in shopping malls in the future

Ask AI · How Can Vegetarianism Transform From a Niche Track Into a New Mainstream?

On March 25, the 2026 China Catering Industry Summit and the 35th HCC Global Catering Industry Expo, co-hosted by the World Chinese Catering Association and Hongcan.com, were held at the Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center. Among them, at the “2026 China Catering Category Development Forum,” Dong Changlin, founder of the Sumanxiang brand, shared on-site how Sumanxiang has redefined a niche track as a “new mainstream.”

He mentioned that early vegetarian restaurants had a fairly strong religious atmosphere, while Sumanxiang made comprehensive innovative upgrades to vegetarian food categories. “At Sumanxiang, you can’t see Buddha statues, and you can’t see scripture books. What we create are bright mall stores and fast-fashion-style renovations. What we sell is not ‘zhai meal,’ but a ‘healthy lifestyle.’” Dong Changlin said.

△ Dong Changlin, founder of the Sumanxiang brand

The prerequisite for redefining a category is that the track itself has potential. The Vegetarian Food Category Development Report 2025 shows that in 2025, the national vegetarian catering market size is already close to 8 billion yuan, and there are more than 4,000 vegetarian outlets. In the long run, Dong Changlin believes that vegetarian food is of great significance for the planet’s environmental protection, green and sustainable development, and it also meets the growing health needs of people, so the outlook is broad.

To promote the concept of vegetarianism and help more people accept it and fall in love with it, Sumanxiang has implemented multiple initiatives in parallel.

First, at the awareness level, Sumanxiang proposed the slogan “One vegetarian meal a day—vitality stays with you,” building flagship signature dishes and optimizing the menu every week, so the idea that eating vegetarian is beneficial for both physical and mental health becomes deeply embedded in consumers’ minds.

Second, at the product level, from ingredients to seasoning, Sumanxiang follows the health philosophy, removing chemical additives as much as possible and switching to seasonings, dishes, and foods made from natural, wild food ingredients such as bamboo salt, mushroom-based seasoning, and walnut blending oil.

Third, at the pricing level, Sumanxiang takes a “high value-for-money” route. Although most outlets are located in malls and offer 70+ SKU self-serve options, the pricing is very approachable, with the average ticket price staying at around the 20-yuan range year after year.

To continuously provide high-quality dishes and service at the front end, Sumanxiang has also put considerable effort into the back-end supply chain and organizational management. For example, Sumanxiang has built nearly 20,000 square meters of its own food processing plant in Zhejiang, specifically to support ingredient supply for 100+ outlets and subsequent outlet expansion, and it has also established a business school to train outstanding management talent for the vegetarian industry.

Dong Changlin believes that as the public’s rational pursuit of health keeps rising, the market size of vegetarian food categories will further expand: “We can’t only think about what we want to eat with our mouths, or what our tongues want to eat—we also need to think about what our cells want to eat. It should be both emotional and rational. In the future, every mall may have a vegetarian restaurant.” He said.

Author: Hongcan Editorial Department