Fast food for vegans? Yes! And here are some of the best

Subway's Beyond Meat meatball sub sandwich

September 15, 2021

If you’re vegan, you’ve probably had to settle for fries or hash browns when your friends hit the drive-thru lane (well, unless you went to McDonald’s, which are usually not actually vegan in the U.S.).

Luckily, the last few years have brought a wave of new vegan options besides potato-based dishes. With the rise of meat alternatives, avocados and dairy alternatives, there are now more vegan fast food options than ever before.

To help you or your vegan friends on your next trip through the drive-thru, we’ve assembled some of the best vegan fast food options you can get right now that aren’t just french fries or hash browns.

We’ve listed common ingredients, like mayo or cheese, that you’ll have to ask to hold or sub out. Note that you should still check with your local fast food restaurants to ensure they’re not cross contaminating or using non-vegan oils for frying. Availability may also vary by location.

1. Burger King’s Impossible Whopper

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Hold the mayo and cheese

2. Starbucks’ Chickpea Bites & Avocado Protein Box

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

3. Carl’s Jr.’s Fried Zucchini

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

4. Dunkins’ Avocado Toast

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

5. Taco Bell’s Cinnamon Twists

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

6. Subway’s Beyond Meatball Marinara sub

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Hold the cheese

7. Jamba Juice’s Impossible Handwich

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Cheese

8. Del Taco’s Epic Beyond Original Mex Burrito

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The original burrito doesn’t come with cheese, but note that you’ll have to ask to hold the cheese on the eight-layer version!

9. McDonald’s Southwest Salad

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The cheese and Southwest dressing

10. Baskin Robbins’ Vegan Coffee Caramel Chunk ice cream

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

11. Johnny Rockets’ Gardein Black Bean Burger

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The cheese

12. Papa Johns’ Breadsticks

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Order them plain to ensure they’re vegan!

13. Pizza Hut’s Cinnamon Sticks

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Skip the icing dip

14. Chick-fil-A’s Sunflower Multigrain Bagel

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Cream cheese

15. Panera’s Baja Grain Bowl

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The Greek yogurt and cheese

16. Wendy’s Plain Baked Potato with Chives

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The butter, cheese and sour cream

17. Auntie Anne’s Jalapeño Pretzel

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The cheese, and pass on the dips

18. Panda Express’ Chow Mein

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

19. Chipotle Mexican Grill’s bean and rice burrito

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Since this is a build your own burrito, be sure you avoid products with meat and dairy.

20. White Castle’s Impossible Sliders

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: The cheese

A Starbucks coffee — mysondanube / istockphoto

Drinks

21. Starbucks’ Pink Drink

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Just make sure you use vegan milk if you order with creamer.

22. Starbucks’ Caffe Americano

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Be sure to ask for vegan milk or creamer.

23. Dunkin’s Refreshers

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: If you’re ordering with milk, make sure you order oat or almond.

24. Dunkin’s Strawberry Coolatta

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

25. Jamba Juice’s Smooth Talkin’ Mango smoothie

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

26. Baskin Robbins’ Mangonada

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

27. Johnny Rockets’ Vegan milkshake

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Note that only some locations carry the vegan milkshakes, so be sure to ask ahead of time.

28. Dairy Queen’s Misty Slushes

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

29. McDonald’s Unsweetened Iced Tea

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: None

30. A&W’s Root Beer

Ingredients you’ll need to hold: Sadly, you won’t be able to make this a float!

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Constance Brinkley-Badgett

Constance Brinkley-Badgett is MediaFeed’s executive editor. She has more than 20 years of experience in digital, broadcast and print journalism, as well as several years of agency experience in content marketing. She has served as a digital producer at NBC Nightly News, Senior Producer at CNBC, Managing Editor at ICF Next, and as a tax reporter at Bloomberg BNA.