The Vegan Lab, Dahab
A fully plant-based kitchen in Dahab's Lighthouse district, plating rainbow tempeh salads, Beyond burgers and raw desserts a short walk from the Red Sea's best shore-diving sites.
The Vegan Lab is a small terrace kitchen tucked into Dahab’s Lighthouse district, the cluster of dive centres and seafront cafés where the town meets the reef wall and the day’s tempo is set by the wind across the bay. The room reads relaxed: timber tables, painted concrete, fairy lights strung between the bamboo, and a chalkboard menu that runs entirely plant-based with the confidence of a kitchen that doesn’t need to apologise for the absence of meat.
The cooking leans bright, layered and slightly excessive in the best sense. The rainbow tempeh salad stacks marinated tempeh on a base of red cabbage, carrot, beetroot and tahini-lemon dressing; the Beyond burger comes properly dressed in pickle, sauce and a fistful of fresh herbs; the raw cakes behind the counter rotate through cashew-and-date bases under raspberry, lime, peanut butter and mango toppings depending on the morning’s mood. Smoothie bowls, falafel plates and a small line of hot mains fill out a menu that suits divers, freedivers and yoga-week travellers in roughly equal measure.
What earns The Vegan Lab a slot on a Luxa Terra map of Egypt is the obvious thing: a fully plant-based kitchen of this confidence in a Red Sea dive town is not yet the default. The cooking is generous, the plates land bright and full, and the room is exactly the post-dive lunch you want before the wind comes back up and the bay turns blue again.
