Local food worth trying
No local dish here is already vegan. Wiltshire, Berkshire and the Chilterns run to bacon, ham and cheese, and the pub menus follow. Two things are still worth ordering on their own merits. The first is a cream tea done properly: the National Trust cafe at Avebury lists a vegan cream tea, scones with an oat-based clotted cream and jam, alongside a vegan cheese and pickle sandwich, soup, flapjacks and chocolate cake, with vegan items marked (likely; the listing's own business update dates from 2020, so ask at the counter). The second is Indian food, which is the strongest vegan cooking anywhere near this route. The Burj at Foxhill stands on the path in the emptiest part of the downs and describes its cooking as predominantly home-style Indian, Masoom's is in Goring by the Thames, and Princes Risborough and Chinnor have several between them. Order the lentil and vegetable dishes and ask for them without ghee, cream or butter, because the vegetarian side of an Indian menu in England is usually built on dairy rather than around it.
What to buy
The shops along here are village-sized and the range narrows the further west you go. One walkers' guide names the practical stops and they match what is on the ground: a Tesco by Goring station, a Co-op just off the trail at Watlington, a supermarket in the middle of Wendover, and a large Tesco at Swindon for anyone starting from that end. The chilled own-brand vegan ranges live in the bigger stores, so treat a village convenience branch as a place to buy shelf-stable food rather than a vegan ready meal: tinned chickpeas and beans, oatcakes, peanut butter, nut bars, dried fruit, instant noodles, dark chocolate and a carton of oat or soya milk, which is the one chilled thing small shops here tend to have. Longlife milk and a bag of couscous or dried noodles are worth carrying west of Goring, because the two smallest resupply points on the downs, the shop at Bishopstone and the Court Hill tea room, are not places to build a dinner from.
Good places on the trail
Going east to west, with how far each sits off the path, because most of them are below the ridge. Wendover Woods Cafe, up in the woods above Wendover and a climb off the route, is the one place near the trail whose own site says in its own words that it caters for vegans (confirmed, no dishes named), open daily with the kitchen stopping mid-afternoon, 01296 312050. Wallingford, a bridge crossing from Crowmarsh Gifford, used to hold the only fully plant-based cafe near the route, Ribizli on St Mary's Street; local press reported it closing at the end of 2023 and the article itself would not load for us, so treat any listing you find as stale and use the town's supermarkets instead. Goring, where the trail crosses the Thames: Pierreponts by the bridge is the good cafe, closed Mondays, though its own menu marks no vegan dish, so unknown until you ask; Masoom's Tandoori is the dependable evening option; there is a Tesco Express by the station. Wantage, about 4 km off the ridge below Court Hill: Down to Earth on Stirlings Close is a community surplus-food cafe, vegetarian, open Tuesday to Friday in the daytime only, with several reviewers describing vegan meals and cakes (likely). Court Hill Centre, 500 m off the path above Wantage, runs a walkers' tea room doing home-baked cakes and light lunches, closed Tuesdays, 01235 760253, with nothing published either way about vegan food (unknown). Bishopstone, 1.3 km below the ridge: Helen Browning's Royal Oak is an organic farm pub whose menu changes daily, with short kitchen windows at lunch and in the evening; its own pages describe the farm's meat and say nothing about vegan cooking, so ring 01793 790481 rather than arriving hopeful (unknown). Foxhill, standing on the route: The Burj, home-style Indian, open for lunch and again in the evening with the kitchen shut between, 01793 791888, the only place to eat actually on the western downs and the best vegan bet there, but nothing vegan is marked, so ask (unknown). Avebury, 2.5 km north of the Overton Hill terminus, is where the trail's best vegan eating is, at the National Trust cafe (likely).
Trail treats
Two worth going out of your way for. The vegan cream tea at the National Trust cafe at Avebury, scones with oat-based clotted cream and jam, with tea made using oat or soya milk, which is a better finish than the terminus itself offers (likely, from a listing whose vegan detail was last updated in 2020, so ask). And the cake counter at Down to Earth in Wantage, where several reviewers single out the vegan carrot and walnut cake and muffins (likely), which turns the drop off the ridge at Court Hill into a lunch stop rather than a chore. On the downs between them, a vegan sweet stop is whatever you carried up there.
Where to restock
Goring and Streatley is the hinge of the trail. Heading west you have 68 km to Overton Hill with no town on the ridge, and the Tesco Express by Goring station, with the deli and butcher in the village, is the last full shop on the route. Buy for two days here, or three if you do not intend to drop into Wantage. Wantage is the one real resupply on the western half, about 4 km off the Ridgeway at Court Hill with the climb back, a market town with a Sainsbury's superstore and a Waitrose. Most walkers already come off the ridge somewhere near here for a bed, so it costs less than it looks. Two smaller top-ups are worth knowing because nothing else exists out there: Bishopstone Stores, run alongside Helen Browning's Royal Oak in the village 1.3 km below the ridge, which its own site describes as selling organic food essentials, and the Court Hill tea room 500 m off the path, open every day but Tuesday. Heading the other way, east from Goring, resupply stops being a planning problem: the Co-op at Watlington sits just off the trail, Princes Risborough and Wendover have supermarkets in the high street, and there is a large Tesco near Tring at the eastern end. Anyone starting from the west should do the shop in Swindon before travelling out to Avebury, which is what one walkers' guide advises and the reason is plain once you see the size of the shops at that end.
Things that may not be vegan
Much of the eating on this trail is village pubs, so the traps are the ordinary British ones. Soup and gravy are often made with meat stock, mash and pastry are often made with butter, and a dish described as vegetarian says nothing about dairy. On the Indian menus, which are the best vegan option along the downs, vegetable dishes are often finished with ghee, cream or butter and paneer appears in things that read as plain vegetable dishes, so name the dish and ask how it is made. Chips are the usual fallback, and if cross-contamination matters to you, ask when you order rather than assuming it either way. At the western end, a cream tea sold as vegetarian is not the vegan one; the vegan version has to be asked for by name.