In 1996, Joia was the first vegetarian restaurant in Europe to be awarded a Michelin star. It is owned by Chef Pietro Leemann and aims to disseminate the principles of a healthy, plant-based cuisine, which is eco-friendly and does not harm living creatures. Every dish is the result of extensive exploration and experiments. However, this is never the ultimate objective; rather, it is just a stage on a long journey.
Music, presentation, colours, and meticulous attention foster a unique tasting experience, allowing diners to explore food in a different dimension.
Eating at Joia means endless surprises, in terms of flavours, but also a marvellous multi-sensory adventure that seduces the diner’s senses, spirit and thoughts due to the evocative, skilfully prepared, novel dishes on offer. Immersed in the tasting of a menu, at one with nature, therefore with ourselves, our palate is enticed by the character, substance, and quality of what is proposed.

Vegetarian cuisine satisfies an innate need to empathise with our planet, its creatures, and its Creator. Nature is our first source of inspiration. Joia celebrates it by reproducing, in every season, its colours and shapes in the dishes it proposes. All our ingredients are organic. Painstaking research engenders a lighter cuisine, containing fewer fats, less gluten and sugar, yet remaining flavoursome and very healthy.

Joia is located in Milan, a stimulating, avant-garde metropolis, which has become even more attractive due to the restaurant’s gourmet vegetarian cuisine.
It is an elegant, understated venue and its style calls to mind oriental essentiality, with an important focus on design. When you enter, you share its philosophy and choices, that is vegetarianism, which has many advantages: promoting health, allowing you to relish new flavours and foster sustainability.

Pietro Leemann created Michelin-starred Joia, considered to be most important restaurant serving vegetarian, ethical and sustainable cuisine. In 2000 he was awarded the Pellegrino Artusi prize for his top-quality, novel cuisine, followed in 2010 by the “Cuoco alle Stelle 2010” award in the town of Fabriano.

In 2015 he was appointed Chef Ambassador of ExpoMilano and in 2018 he received the Prize of the Centenary Foundation of the Banca Svizzera Italiana. In 2020 he was bestowed the Michelin guide green star for his restaurant’s eco-friendly practices. He has written more than ten books on cuisine, food culture, treating diseases with plants and herbs as well as cookery books. Together with his journalist friend, Gabriele Eschenazi, he founded “The Vegetarian Chance”, the first international festival of vegetarian culture and cuisine.

We sell our artisanal products, which are the essence of our work, through Joia Lab. People living in Milan can buy fresh, high-quality plant proteins, some fermented plant-based produce and tasty condiments, plus many other foodstuffs and surprises that can only be bought from us.

Why not give the people you care for the chance to experience an ambrosial world? You can purchase Joia Restaurant gift vouchers to give to family and friends. These vouchers allow diners to experience our eco-friendly gourmet gastronomy. We offer a unique sensory experience through the rich plant world, crafted by virtue of our passion and culinary expertise. Our cuisine uses organic and biodynamic ingredients, or plant produce grown in synergistic vegetable gardens, masterfully prepared using innovative techniques, and giving free rein to our creativity.

On leaving the Joia restaurant, your body and mind will have experienced one of the many facets of nature, through dishes that daringly highlight balanced tastes, a medley of structures and shapes, coupled with harmonious textures and flavours.