Waffle House may appear like an unsuitable restaurant for vegetarians and other diners with food allergies or sensitivities, but they actually offer several vegetarian-friendly dishes and vegan-friendly items for these diners.
To ensure that your meal meets your dietary requirements, you must communicate your preferences to your server. Furthermore, ensure that it is prepared without dairy or eggs, as this will allow the proper results to emerge.
White Toast
Waffle House is an iconic restaurant chain known for serving diner-style food. They currently boast over 2,000 locations nationwide, offering breakfast items like waffles and eggs as well as sandwiches, burgers, and other meals. While there are some vegetarian items on the menu at Waffle House locations nationwide, no vegan items are currently offered.
Waffle House provides an All-Star breakfast explicitly designed to cater to vegetarians. It includes two scrambled eggs and your choice of toast or biscuit, along with various other breakfast toppings like grits, hashbrowns, or sliced tomatoes, as well as meat such as bacon, country ham, or sausage – an easy and balanced way to start your day. Plus, it’s available all day!
The All-Star Breakfast is an ideal vegetarian-friendly breakfast choice, yet it contains too much fat. Egg whites alone contain 6 grams of fat – more than half the daily value for fat intake! Sausage and ham also have over 10 g of saturated fat each; bacon only contributes 2 g. To reduce overall dietary cholesterol consumption in your breakfast meal, try replacing turkey sausage or chicken sausage in their place.
An All-Star dinner offers another healthy option, consisting of a chicken breast, hashbrowns, toast, or grits and your choice. Each chicken breast boasts 37 grams of protein! If you want to switch things up even more for good nutrition, opt for wheat toast in place of Texas toast and swap hashbrowns out for grits instead!
Waffle House offers another vegetarian-friendly dish called the Hashbrown Bowl that features hashbrowns mixed with onions, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, grilled mushrooms, diced tomatoes, and shredded cabbage – and more if desired! Perfect as an affordable yet healthy meal option that you can customize with different sauces to satisfy cravings for something filling.
Waffle House also offers a garden salad option featuring an abundance of iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots, cabbage, and diced tomatoes with vegan dressing vignette dressing – however, these details aren’t listed on their allergens page, so be sure to ask your server what options there may be!
Scrambled Egg Breakfast
Waffle House provides breakfast choices to satisfy vegetarians and egg eaters alike, and their lunch and dinner meals include sandwiches and melts as well as their garden salad with iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, carrots, cabbage, diced tomatoes, and tangy vinaigrette dressing, which does not contain milk products.
Waffle House’s two scrambled egg breakfasts contain 345 calories, 8 g of fat (2 of it saturated fat), 27 g of carbs (6 g sugar, and 10 g of protein). You have the option of toast (white, wheat, or raisin) along with either grits (240) or hashbrowns (300). Waffles themselves contain 410 fewer calories when without butter and syrup – these two factors alone could reduce that number significantly!
Grilled Chicken Sandwich has 440 Calories and 12 Grams of Fat; it also has high levels of sodium as it contains less fat than the Texas Bacon Egg and Cheese Melt, which has 730 Calories with 51 Grams of Fat (20 Grams of Saturated Fat, 30 Grams of Carbohydrates, 5 Grams of Sugar, and 26 Grams of Protein it may be beneficial in weight loss efforts.
When looking for a low-calorie lunch option, the restaurant provides several grilled sandwiches and melts that can be ordered without meat – for example, the turkey and avocado sandwich has only 280 calories and one gram of fat; in contrast, a chicken, avocado, and Swiss melt has 310 calories and 13 gram of fat!
A ham, egg, and cheese sandwich is an ideal lunch choice for people seeking more protein in their diets. Ham contains 340 calories with 23 g of fat and 10 g of protein, while eggs have 155 and cheese 60; adding this sandwich up, it totals 320 mg of sodium content; to reduce both calories and sodium intake further, you could swap fries out for vegetables like sliced tomatoes which provide ten calories but 6 g of fiber!
Hash Browns
Hash browns are an easy and delicious way to add extra protein and texture to any breakfast meal. Making hash browns at home requires just three steps – starting by thawing frozen shredded potatoes before placing them into your waffle maker for even quicker results! Once crispy and golden brown, season them up as desired using salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, or even smoked paprika!
As a vegan, you must understand what ingredients are present in the food before dining at any restaurant. Many establishments include animal products like milk and eggs in their menu items; others use sugar filtered through bone char, which is unsuitable for vegans. To avoid issues in these situations, opt for something that is off the menu or ask your server about allergy menus as an alternative solution.
An easy way to quickly identify vegan-friendly restaurants is to visit during breakfast time when there will be many vegan-friendly waffles, omelets, and pancakes on offer. If breakfast doesn’t appeal to you, then why not order something else like salad or sandwich instead?
Keep in mind that restaurant meals may contain ingredients from multiple sources, which increases the possibility of cross-contamination with meat or dairy products. If you’re ordering fried or grilled items, especially those cooked over an open flame, be aware of possible cross-contamination from various ingredients used to prepare them. You could ask your server about these elements so as to have an idea of what may await you when dining at their establishment.
Waffle House locations typically offer some vegetarian-friendly dishes, including Build-Your-Own Hashbrown Bowl and Garden Salad, both of which are vegan. In addition, vegetarian sandwiches and side dishes such as grits, oatmeal, and fruit may be offered depending on location. But for strict vegans, it may be wise to opt for meals other than breakfast.
Garden Salad
Waffle House may present challenges for those with food allergies as many of its breakfast foods contain milk products. But one item on their menu does not contain allergens: garden salad. Not only is this meal low-calorie and fat content-wise, but it also boasts substantial sodium levels; for optimal sodium-related results, ask your server to remove cheese and croutons to bring down this intake.
Waffle House Garden Salad features an assortment of iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots, cabbage, and tomatoes tossed with a vinaigrette dressing that does not contain dairy or eggs; you may ask your server about the choices available to you. Plus, it’s an excellent source of fiber, which is essential to digestive health!
Although a salad at Waffle House might not offer enough protein to keep you full, adding chunks of chicken will provide you with an additional 220 calories and give your body what it needs for energy. Toast can also add 200 calories, which will help ensure a satisfying experience.
Waffle House doesn’t offer many vegetarian and vegan-friendly menu options, but you can still have an enjoyable dining experience by making intelligent choices from their salads, hashbrown bowls, French fries, or build your waffle for an additional fee.
Animal rights activists will welcome news that 2021 will mark the opening of the first vegan Waffle House as a great cause. With more people opting to forgo animal-derived products, veganism will gain momentum, leading more restaurants to adopt plant-based menus and reduce animal suffering while simultaneously decreasing environmental pollution – an integral step toward fighting climate change.
