Everything Vegan at Waffle House (2023)

Waffle House is one of the restaurants I thought there’d be absolutely nothing vegan at. It’s a country southern-cooking grease-loving nightmare, and as someone from Texas, these places rarely have a single vegan option.

Thankfully Waffle House does!

It may only be a few things, and they may still be quite greasy, but they do have a few vegan things and you can have a decent meal at Waffle House.

Vegan Breakfast Choices at Waffle-House:

You can either get their hashbrowns in one of five ways, or a combination of them all and you can get them in one of three sizes, a single stack, a double stack, or a triple stack.

Whenever you order the toppings added into them generally only one, maybe two depending on the location, will have those toppings in them. The rest will be plain, but the one with it will have tons, so there’s normally plenty to go around.

The five styles of Hash-browns you can get are:

• Plain
• Smothered (with chopped onions, I think this is the best)
• Diced (with diced tomatoes)
• Peppered (with jalapeno slices)
• Capped (with mushrooms)

The other vegans options are:

• Toast with jelly (ask for no butter on the toast)
• Garden Salad (Shredded Carrots, Romaine Lettuce, Diced Tomatoes, just ask for no cheese and always check if the dressing is vegan-friendly)
• Tea/Coffee/Soda/Juice
• Pickles
• Maple Syrup

That’s all the options they have.

Their waffles are not dairy-free and thus are not vegan, their biscuits contain milk, and just about everything else they serve is meat, so that’s all there is for us vegans at Waffle House.

So How Does Waffle House Look For A Vegan?

I’d say not too bad, I mean there aren’t many options, but they have a solid option, which is their hash-browns, they have some alright typical drinks, and they have some “freshness” as an option with their salad. They even have some toast and jelly, which is maybe not the best for dinner, but it will do the trick.

It’s not spectacular by any means, but it’s hard to complain since there’s a good sized portion of food that’s fairly priced that can be made vegan.

My only complaint with them is that they use a ton of oil, and I mean a ton, usually about 14 grams of fat per stack (single, double, triple), and well, that’s not too healthy to put it lightly. If you want to avoid this you could ask for less oil, or none, although they won’t crisp up as much or be quite as satisfying.

Overall I’d say it’s a pretty decent place for a vegan. It wouldn’t be my choice when eating out, but I wouldn’t complain or be bothered if a friend or family member wanted to eat there. I’d be alright.

I may prefer other restaurants, including other breakfast type places Ihop as they have more options to choose from but Waffle House is alright too. Denny’s is my favorite of these breakfast-chain restaurants as Denny’s vegan options are quite great.

Disclaimer:

Some people may be bothered because the griddle they use for hash-browns is shared and there could have easily been ham or cheese put on someone else’s before on the same griddle.

That was a huge paranoia of mine before I went there myself once, and then twice, and then many more times.

I’ve never encountered a piece, or a subtle flavor of animal-products in the hash-browns, and from my observations of the many cooks they keep the griddle clean and never cross-contaminate whatsoever.

Your mileage may vary however, but regardless while cross-contamination is yucky in my opinion the animals don’t care and aren’t hurt by it so it’s vegan regardless.

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