Restaurants Vegetarians Should Avoid

Life can be tough for vegetarians or a vegans who like dining out. One can only eat so many plates of pasta primavera or veggie burritos, after all! Plus you're always that one person in your group who's vetoing restaurant suggestions because there's nothing for you to eat. Then there's the aggravation of paying the same as your meat-chomping companion for a glorified side dish.

If you like exotic international food, the plot thickens: you can never be sure if a sauce has hidden meat or other animal products. And, honestly, the advent of the Impossible Burger, aka "the burger that bleeds" — this meat substitute patty that's taking the veggie world by storm tastes so much like meat that you might worry you've been slipped the real thing by mistake (and it's actually happened before – read on!).

Savvy vegetarians know there are plenty of restaurants with safe options: Subway's veggie subs, or a bean and cheese burrito from Taco Bell to name a few. But, if you one of your tried and true dining spots isn't an option, what's a vegetarian to do? You'll have to take your chances with restaurants primarily focused on serving a world of meat-eating customers. And sometimes, this can be a tough pill to swallow... as tough to swallow as soup secretly made with chicken stock.

Read on for some restaurants that have dropped the ball when it comes to serving vegetarian and vegan consumers — these are the places you should avoid.   

Vegetarians were excited when Burger King and Impossible Foods announced the advent of the Impossible Whopper in April 2019. The company has been gradually rolling it out to cities across the country, with plans to take it nationwide by the end of the year. But, are you really getting a 100 percent plant-based patty in that sesame-studded bun?  One Brooklyn Burger King location recently got busted for serving excited vegetarian customers actual beef patties instead of the promised Impossible Burgers — their location had never started making the trendy plant-based burgers. One customer actually devoured two of them, apparently believing the hype of how realistically meaty the Impossible Burger tasted.

That Brooklyn Burger King manager is not the only restaurant boss who hasn't been able to meet demand for the fabled plant-based patty. As the Impossible Burger is being added to the menus of these big chains, including locations of Red Robin and Qdoba, some of the company's smaller customers are finding they're not able to get their orders fulfilled.  

Can Burger King really be trusted to serve us the real deal? We certainly hope so. Until we can be sure, however, we'll find a source for getting our Impossible Burger fixes that we can actually trust not to lie to us.

You'd think with its California heritage, In-N-Out Burger would be super vegetarian-friendly. After all, numerous vegetarian chains got their start in the Golden State, and several California cities, including Los Angeles, top the list of the most vegetarian cities in the United States. 

But despite its cult following (a secret menu! Fries cut fresh on-site!), In-N-Out Burger still doesn't offer a plant-based burger, even after a 2016 petition among customers to add one to the menu. It wasn't the first petition of this nature, either: A Change.org petition from 2013 years ago garnered 16,000 signatures urging the chain to add a veggie burger after it was revealed that one of its beef suppliers was shut down for its inhumane treatment of its cows. In-N-Out pledged to abandon that supplier, but vegetarians wanted more.

And don't even be fooled by the "Veggie Burger" option from the restaurant. It's simply a burger bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and, if you want, sauce. That secret menu, though, does offer a few hacks for non-meat-eaters if you get creative. You can get a "grilled cheese," basically a burger bun with melted American cheese, lettuce, and tomato, or doctor up their delicious fries, say, with grilled onions or sauce. Those are pretty slim pickin's, so vegetarians may be inclined to dine elsewhere. 

Mind you, not too many vegetarians willingly choose to go to Outback Steakhouse. But sometimes you don't have a choice: perhaps it's a post-work get-together, or Uncle Joe's top pick for his birthday dinner, and you don't want to be the lone dissenter. So off you go to this Aussie-themed meat emporium, and you're likely envisioning that you'll have to make a meal from their famed Bloomin' Onion and maybe a side salad (hold the bacon bits). But not so fast! 

That renowned appetizer is deep-fried in beef tallow (french fries are also not vegetarian here, likely for the same reason). Even the soups are made with meat, and if you order grilled vegetables, know that they're likely cooked on the same grill that cooked ol' Uncle Joe's steak. Some vegetarians are wiling to overlook that, while others are still a bit squeamish about the chances of meat cross-contamination. Your choices, then, are limited to a baked potato, steamed vegetables, or a salad or plate of pasta without the meat. And watching the rest of the family dig into their big slabs of steak.

Our biggest complaint with Arby's is on principle. The company actually has offered a vegetarian menu — but just once. On Leap Year in 2016. Are we vegetarians some kind of joke to you? Apparently so. That Leap Day vegetarian menu wasn't even anything exciting, it was mainly just Arby's regular meat-filled sandwiches, minus the meat, and it was never seen again. 

So until Leap Day comes around again in 2020, your options pretty limited. A quick check of the menu shows that vegetarian-safe items include a side salad, fries, mozzarella sticks, or desserts like a shake or a chocolate chip cookie. The restaurant does not offer a plant-based sandwich at all. Super-picky vegetarians should know that those fried items are made in the same deep fryer as the fish and chicken dishes. Or, we could take a cue from the Leap Day menu and ask for just the toppings on the bun, hold the meat.

This Montreal-based plant-based restaurant has just one location in the U.S., so far, in Fort Lauderdale, according to the location listings on its site. But it's set to expand worldwide, including into New York. It's a plant based restaurant, so vegetarians will find plenty to eat on the menu: grain bowls, sandwiches stuffed with tempeh or falafel, soups, and more. But, if it's a meatless burger you're craving, you might want to go elsewhere. 

The vegan company's flagship Copper Burger, a burger patty made with beets and brown rice, and topped with maple-dijon vegan mayo, is garnering negative reviews (one reviewer called it "just dreadful"), while another report complained that the food at Copper Branch was not as tasty or as visual appealing as its plant-based competitors. Steer clear of the mushy Copper Burger, though, and hopefully you'll find another meatless option at this quickly expanding chain. 

As with Outback Steakhouse, this is an unlikely place to find a vegetarian, but you might find yourself there celebrating a birthday or a bachelor party. Most of these Brazilian steakhouse chains (like Texas De Brazil) charge a fixed price for enjoying the endless procession of various meats that pass by your table, plus an extensive buffet of salads and side dishes. 

We'll give you the good news first: If you don't plan on partaking of any of the famous meat, you can usually pay a smaller fee to only eat from the buffet of salad fixings and side dishes, which is legendary for its huge variety of offerings (this makes sense: perhaps the operators want you to fill up on cheap veggies so you'll eat less of the more expensive beef). 

The bad news is, that reduced fee is around $30 for dinner at the Brazilian steakhouses we surveyed. Yes, for a glorified salad bar. What's more, as one reviewer discovered, that buffet of side dishes, especially the hot ones, isn't necessarily that vegetarian-friendly anyway: it might contain sushi, charcuterie, smoked salmon, as well as vegetable dishes like sauteed mushrooms, black beans, or potatoes that are cooked with beef or chicken broth. So, while the salad bar might be the thing of a veggie-lover's dreams, we're not sure it's worth the high price when you could just hit the salad bar at a place that doesn't also have a meat parade as its entertainment.