The founder of a not-for-profit restaurant at the former Abbotsford Convent has vowed to fight to stay after management put its lease out for tender.

Shanaka​ Fernando, creator of the Lentil as Anything chain, claims the vegetarian eatery's landlord, the Abbotsford Convent Foundation, is kicking it out to seek a higher rent-paying tenant.

Customers at Lentil as Anything cafe in the Abbotsford Convent. Credit:Simon Schluter

He said it was part of "a strategy to get rid of us". The foundation was running a "process of gentrification", he said, and management wanted the convent to be "a little South of France hobby farm, where community means having some high-end artists and organic vegetables that the common person can't afford".

Lentil customers pay only what they can afford or deem reasonable for meals. Mr Fernando said Lentil had trained "thousands" of asylum seekers and volunteer workers.