Below are some vegan restaurants or vegan friendly restaurants that I have been to and I know they offer vegan options for you. I also provide some additional information about how to order the item to either get a deal or to make sure it’s vegan and/or both.
Mexican
Taco Bell
$1: From the dollar menu you can get a toasted burrito with seasoned rice, black beans and pico de gallo.
Ask for it like this: “I’d like a cheesey bean and rice burrito with no nacho cheese, no creamy jalepeno, Substitute beans for blackbeans, please make it fresco style and grill it twice”.
Note: A representative at Taco Bell may tell you that saying you want something fresco removes dairy and other sauces but you don’t want any accidents in your order. To be accountable for what you purchase, you have to ask this way specifically so you don’t get any mistakes. Also, a good percentage of cashiers will remove beans and add black beans which adds on 60 cents. Let them know that by substituting the beans for black beans that there is no extra charge.
Chipotle
~$10 Rice bowl, salad bowl or burrito with beans, guacamole, peppers, sofritas (flavorful braised tofu)
American
Dunkin Donuts
$2 One english muffin or bagel with added Extra BeyondMeat vegan sausage patty.
Note: There is a sandwich which they’ve called the Beyond Sauage sandwich and it’s $4. However, that comes with egg and cheese and if you’re wanting it vegan, you don’t need to pay extra. Ask for it like so “I’d like one english muffin (or bagel of your choice if you prefer) and please add on one Beyond Sausage patty).
Burger King
The Impossibe Whopper
The Impossible Whopper at Burger King has mostly vegan ingredients. The things you want to request to not be added are mayonaise and cheese. Otherwise, the rest of the ingredients are lettuce, tomato, onions and bread.
Note: It’s important to ask that the patty is cooked in the microwave and not the grill. The grill will have non-vegan meat parts leftover from other patties which you don’t want attached to it when it exits the grill.
Apple Pie
As a dessert treat, you can get an Apple Pie!
French Fries and Tater Tots
These items are both vegan-friendly items but note, you will want to inquire with the restuarant that the items are not cooked in the same fryer as non-vegan products.
White Castle
White Castle offers Impossible Burger Sliders.
Ask for them to make it without cheese and no butter on the bread.
Chinese
Almost any Chinese restaurant
Almost any Chinese restaurant offers entrees tofu, white rice, rice noodles, wheat noodles and vegetables.
Be sure to avoid any sauces that may contain animal products (usually brown colored sauce [soy sauce is ok])
I always ask that the food is not cooked with any animal products, dairy or egg to be certain.
Avoid Panda Express franchises as they use animal products even in their white rice.
Japanese
Almost any Japanese restaurant
Miso soup is usually a vegan friendly soup made with seaweed, tofu and vegetable broth. However, some Japanese restaurants may use fish/chicken broth so be sure to inquire
Vegetable sushi! Get Avocado, Cucumber, Radish, Asparagus, beets rolled in rice and wrapped in nori(dried seaweed) and sesame seeds. Dip it in soy sauce and enjoy the garnishes of wasabi (dried and mashed up horseradish) and sliced pickled ginger. If you see that someone ordering non-vegan sushi gets red tiny balls on the outside of their sushi roll, request that it is not on yours. Those red balls are fish eggs / roe. (Note: If you’ve ever been inside the store called Ikea, they make a faux fish egg / roe that is vegan friendly!)
Garden salad with ginger dressing (Note: some Japanese may use mayo in their ginger dressing so you may have to request a vegan substitute.)
Thai
Almost any Thai restaurant
Curry Dish with Tofu, vegatables served over white rice or rice noodles.
(You can go with Red Curry, Green Curry or Panang Curry)
I always ask that the food is not cookes with any animal products, dairy or egg to be certain.
Indian
Almost any (South) Indian restaurant
Indian food particularly with a Southern part of Indian style cooking uses coconut milk or non-dairy ingredient for sauces that can be curry sauces. Be sure to ask the restaurant to make sure they use non-dairy/non-animal based ingredients in your dish.
They offer chick pea dishes with potato and vegetables over rice. They’re very flavorful. They can provide a lot of heat if you like spicy food.
Thanks for reading. If you have any vegan restaurant tips, suggestions or inquiries, please email me!