ORDERING a schnitzel or a steak from the local pub is a favourite Australian pastime, but diners at a Sydney hotel will instead be tucking into vegan “Big Mac burgers” and fake pepperoni pizzas when the pub turns vegan next week.

The Red Lion Hotel in Rozelle, in Sydney’s inner west, is opening up a new vegan-only bistro called The Green Lion, from next Sunday September 18.

“We’ll be doing normal pub fare like burgers, chips and pizzas, but vegan. Basically anything that would normally be on a pub menu, we’ll have in a vegan style,” The Green Lion co-founder Bhavani Baumann told news.com.au.

While the full menu is yet to be finalised, Ms Baumann says there will be at least three burgers on the menu — a vegan Big Mac with a soy bean patty, a fish burger made with “fake fish fillets” and a black bean burger.

A vegan shepherd’s pie, “pepperoni” pizza and a pie with mash will all use vegan “mock meat”, but there will also be healthy menu options like “salads, soups and bakes”.

Ms Baumann, who is a vegan, says while the restaurant is aimed at Sydney’s growing vegan population, it’s also trying to appeal to meat eaters.

“We’re not the super vegans and we’re not here to preach,” she said. “A lot of people just want to have a meat-free meal once or twice a week, so we’re focused on those people as well.

“We’re just doing what we love to do, to show how yummy and tasty it can be to cut down on your meat consumption.”

The wine list will also feature vegan wines — most normal wines use ingredients made from fish and eggs to break down the grapes.

The Green Lion is strictly vegan-only and will not serve any dishes containing animal products.

Australia is the third fastest growing vegan market in the world, according to Euromonitor International, behind China and the United Arab Emirates. Between 2015 and 2020 our vegan sector is predicted to grow by almost 10 per cent.

Between 2012 and 2016, the number of Australian adults whose diet is “all or almost all vegetarian” rose from 1.7 million people (or 9.7% of the population) to almost 2.1 million (11.2 per cent), according to August data from Roy Morgan.

The vegan trend is strong in NSW, where 12.4 per cent of residents say that “the food I eat is all, or almost all, vegetarian”, up from 9.5 per cent in 2012.

rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au