The 2026 Vegetarian Restaurant Index: 99 Chains Ranked

Chipotle is the most vegetarian-friendly fast-food chain in America, and Arby’s is the worst. We scored 99 major US chains on how easy it is to eat a real meat-free meal at each one, then handed out our first Veggie Cup awards to the top three in five categories, three restaurant types plus two for how you actually eat. The gap between the best chains and the rest is huge. The average chain scored just 57 out of 100, and 15 offer no real vegetarian main at all.

Here’s who won gold, how every chain ranks, and how to order well no matter where you end up.

The 2026 Veggie Cup winners

We split the field into three types of restaurant so the comparison is fair. A drive-thru burger joint shouldn’t be judged against a sit-down Italian kitchen. Here are the gold, silver, and bronze winners in each.

Fast casual: Chipotle Mexican Grill takes gold

Build-your-own bowls and burritos run this category. The category averages 72.6 out of 100.

• Gold: Chipotle Mexican Grill (95/100). Build-your-own format with a permanent vegan tofu protein, lard-free beans, and two ready-made plant-based bowls.
• Silver: CAVA (92/100). Build-your-own Mediterranean line that’s nearly all vegetarian and mostly vegan, with a vegan falafel pita on the menu.
• Bronze: Moe’s Southwest Grill (91/100). Build-your-own format with a real tofu protein plus beans makes most items vegetarian or vegan, with free chips and salsa.

Fast food: Taco Bell takes gold

The drive-thru tier is the toughest place to eat meat-free, but a few chains shine. The category averages 48.6 out of 100.

• Gold: Taco Bell (92/100). AVA-certified menu with bean or potato swaps on nearly everything and a Fresco mode that makes most items vegan.
• Silver: Subway (85/100). Build-your-own subs, wraps, salads, and bowls make a good vegetarian or vegan meal easy, with a vegan Veggie Patty where stocked.
• Bronze: Del Taco (84/100). Lard-free beans and rice build real mains like the 8 Layer Veggie Burrito that go vegan with simple swaps.

Sit-down: The Cheesecake Factory takes gold

Full-service menus give you room to customize, and a few carry real plant-based mains. The category averages 59.4 out of 100.

• Gold: The Cheesecake Factory (88/100). A 250-plus-item menu with a labeled vegan Impossible Burger and Vegan Cobb Salad plus many cheese pastas and flatbreads.
• Silver: Yard House (84/100). A full Gardein line plus two veggie burgers and veg pizzas give vegetarians real mains, and a couple customize down to vegan despite shared fryers.
• Bronze: P.F. Chang’s (82/100). An Asian sit-down chain that marks vegetarian dishes with a leaf icon and offers several tofu-and-vegetable mains.

Restaurant type isn’t everything. Two situations deserve their own cup, so we scored those too.

Best for road trips: Subway runs away with it

For road trips we scored each chain by its number of US locations times its vegetarian rating, since you want something at nearly every exit that can still feed you a real meal. Subway wins in a landslide. Its roughly 20,000 locations paired with a build-your-own menu put it more than double ahead of the field. Taco Bell takes silver with about 7,000 locations and 11 vegetarian mains on an AVA-certified menu. Burger King rounds out the podium, since the Impossible Whopper is a reliable order at almost any interstate exit. Counting coffee and donut stops would put Starbucks and Dunkin’ in the mix, but a road-trip cup should mean a real meal.

Best for breakfast: Denny’s takes the morning

Breakfast is its own challenge, since so many morning menus lean on sausage and bacon. These three make a meat-free breakfast easy. Denny’s wins with an all-day menu, plant-based pancakes, and build-your-own skillets. First Watch takes silver for genuine vegan breakfast bowls and avocado toast. IHOP earns bronze for the widest spread of egg-and-griddle options, though vegans will find it thin.

Did your chain win? The badge above is yours to share. Email [email protected] and we will send the full-resolution Veggie Cup award for your blog or social channels.

How we scored it

We built every score from our own chain guides, the ones we research and update for each restaurant. No guesswork, no borrowed lists. Each chain earned a score from 0 to 100 based on six things: how many vegetarian mains it offers (not just sides), whether it has a genuine vegan entree, whether you can build your own meal, whether it markets a real plant-based item, how badly shared fryers or beef tallow get in the way, and how wide the options run across breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The biggest factor by far is real entrees. A pile of fries and a soft drink doesn’t make a chain vegetarian-friendly. A bean burrito, a veggie sub, a cheese pizza you can load with vegetables, or a tofu bowl does. We scored mains heavily and treated sides as a tiebreaker.

Scores map to letter grades. A is 85 and up, B is 70 to 84, C is 55 to 69, D is 40 to 54, and F is anything under 40. 28 of the 99 chains failed.

The full ranking of all 99 chains

Every chain we scored, ranked best to worst. The Good for vegans column flags whether you can get a genuine vegan meal, not just a meat-free one. Tap any chain to see its full guide.

Rank	Chain	Type	Score	Grade	Good for vegans
1	Chipotle Mexican Grill	Fast casual	95	A	Yes
2	CAVA	Fast casual	92	A	Yes
3	Taco Bell	Fast food	92	A	Yes
4	Moe’s Southwest Grill	Fast casual	91	A	Yes
5	Baja Fresh	Fast casual	90	A	Yes
6	Qdoba Mexican Eats	Fast casual	90	A	Yes
7	Sweetgreen	Fast casual	90	A	Yes
8	Tijuana Flats	Fast casual	89	A	Yes
9	The Cheesecake Factory	Sit-down	88	A	Yes
10	Subway	Fast food	85	A	Yes
11	Del Taco	Fast food	84	B	Yes
12	Taco John’s	Fast food	84	B	Yes
13	Yard House	Sit-down	84	B	Yes
14	P.F. Chang’s	Sit-down	82	B	Yes
15	California Pizza Kitchen	Sit-down	80	B	Yes
16	Carrabba’s	Sit-down	80	B	Yes
17	McAlister’s Deli	Fast casual	80	B	Yes
18	Noodles & Company	Fast casual	80	B	Yes
19	Panera Bread	Fast casual	80	B	Yes
20	MOD Pizza	Fast casual	79	B	Yes
21	Blaze Pizza	Fast casual	78	B	Yes
22	Papa Murphy’s	Fast food	76	B	Yes
23	Tropical Smoothie Cafe	Fast casual	76	B	Yes
24	BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse	Sit-down	74	B	Yes
25	Denny’s	Sit-down	74	B	Yes
26	El Pollo Loco	Fast food	74	B	Yes
27	Little Caesars Pizza	Fast food	74	B	Yes
28	Marco’s Pizza	Fast food	74	B	Yes
29	Pizza Hut	Fast food	74	B	Yes
30	The Halal Guys	Fast casual	74	B	Yes
31	Wawa	Fast food	74	B	Yes
32	Potbelly Sandwich Shop	Fast casual	73	B	Yes
33	Domino’s	Fast food	72	B	Yes
34	Jamba	Fast food	72	B	Yes
35	Olive Garden	Sit-down	72	B	Yes
36	Papa John’s	Fast food	72	B	Yes
37	Red Robin	Sit-down	72	B	No
38	Dunkin’ Donuts	Fast food	70	B	Yes
39	Panda Express	Fast food	70	B	Yes
40	Pollo Tropical	Fast casual	70	B	Yes
41	Smoothie King	Fast food	70	B	Yes
42	The Habit Burger Grill	Fast casual	70	B	Yes
43	Burger King	Fast food	68	C	Yes
44	Chili’s Grill & Bar	Sit-down	68	C	Yes
45	White Castle	Fast food	68	C	Yes
46	First Watch	Sit-down	66	C	Yes
47	Sheetz	Fast food	66	C	Yes
48	Skyline Chili	Fast casual	64	C	Yes
49	Einstein Bros. Bagels	Fast food	62	C	Yes
50	IHOP	Sit-down	62	C	No
51	Jersey Mike’s	Fast casual	60	C	Yes
52	Shake Shack	Fast casual	60	C	Yes
53	TGI Fridays	Sit-down	60	C	Yes
54	Applebee’s	Sit-down	58	C	Yes
55	Bob Evans	Sit-down	57	C	No
56	Smashburger	Fast casual	55	C	Yes
57	Starbucks	Fast food	55	C	Yes
58	Auntie Anne’s	Fast food	52	D	Yes
59	Golden Corral	Sit-down	52	D	Yes
60	Jimmy John’s	Fast food	52	D	Yes
61	Cheddar’s	Sit-down	48	D	No
62	Cracker Barrel	Sit-down	48	D	No
63	In-N-Out Burger	Fast food	48	D	Yes
64	Firehouse Subs	Fast casual	47	D	Yes
65	Freddy’s	Fast food	44	D	No
66	Culver’s	Fast food	42	D	No
67	Jack in the Box	Fast food	42	D	Yes
68	Sonic Drive-In	Fast food	42	D	Yes
69	Five Guys	Fast casual	40	D	Yes
70	Tim Hortons	Fast food	40	D	No
71	Waffle House	Sit-down	40	D	Yes
72	Carl’s Jr.	Fast food	38	F	No
73	Chick-fil-A	Fast food	38	F	No
74	Outback Steakhouse	Sit-down	38	F	No
75	Whataburger	Fast food	38	F	No
76	Checkers and Rally’s	Fast food	36	F	No
77	Buffalo Wild Wings	Sit-down	34	F	Yes
78	Wendy’s	Fast food	33	F	No
79	Krispy Kreme	Fast food	32	F	No
80	Cinnabon	Fast food	30	F	No
81	Hardee’s	Fast food	30	F	Yes
82	LongHorn Steakhouse	Sit-down	30	F	No
83	Red Lobster	Sit-down	30	F	Yes
84	Zaxby’s	Fast food	30	F	No
85	Jollibee	Fast food	28	F	No
86	Texas Roadhouse	Sit-down	28	F	No
87	Church’s Texas Chicken	Fast food	25	F	No
88	Steak ‘n Shake	Fast food	25	F	No
89	Bojangles	Fast food	24	F	No
90	Captain D’s	Fast food	24	F	No
91	Dairy Queen	Fast food	22	F	No
92	KFC	Fast food	22	F	No
93	Long John Silver’s	Fast food	22	F	No
94	Wingstop	Fast food	22	F	No
95	Boston Market	Fast casual	20	F	No
96	McDonald’s	Fast food	18	F	No
97	Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen	Fast food	16	F	No
98	Raising Cane’s	Fast food	16	F	No
99	Arby’s	Fast food	14	F	No

What the data shows

Build-your-own beats the drive-thru

If you’re vegetarian and you want the best odds, point the car toward a build-your-own fast-casual spot. Fast-casual chains average 72.6 out of 100. Sit-down restaurants average 59.4. Fast food trails badly at 48.6.

The reason is simple. When you build your own bowl or burrito, beans and rice and vegetables do the heavy lifting, and you skip the meat without losing the meal. Chipotle leads everything with its permanent sofritas tofu and lard-free beans. Taco Bell wins fast food outright, and it’s worth knowing its menu is certified by the American Vegetarian Association.

Most chains don’t make the grade

This is the hard truth in the numbers. 28 of the 99 chains we scored earned an F, and only 10 earned an A. The bottom of the list is almost all chicken and seafood. Arby’s, Popeyes, KFC, Wingstop, Raising Cane’s, Bojangles, Church’s, Long John Silver’s, and Captain D’s all scored zero vegetarian entrees. At these places, a meat-free meal means stacking up sides like fries, corn, or a biscuit.

Watch out for beef tallow

Here’s a trap that catches a lot of vegetarians. Some chains fry everything in beef tallow, which means even the fries and onion rings are off-limits. Steak ‘n Shake, Outback Steakhouse, Buffalo Wild Wings, Smashburger, Bojangles, Long John Silver’s, and Captain D’s all use beef tallow or share fryer oil with meat per our guides. When in doubt, ask what’s in the fryer oil. It’s the one question that trips up the most people.

The plant-based patty pullback

A few years ago it looked like every chain would carry a Beyond or Impossible option. That wave has crested. KFC dropped Beyond Fried Chicken. Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. pulled their Beyond burgers. McDonald’s discontinued the McPlant in the US. The chains that kept a plant-based main, like Burger King with the Impossible Whopper and The Cheesecake Factory with the Impossible Burger, now stand out more than they used to. The good news underneath that: genuine vegan entrees are still common. 66 of the 99 chains we scored offer at least one real vegan meal.

How to order well anywhere

• Build your own whenever you can. Bowls, burritos, subs, and pizzas let you drop the meat without losing the meal.
• Beans are your best friend, but check for lard. Chipotle, Del Taco, and El Pollo Loco use lard-free beans. Many Tex-Mex spots don’t.
• Ask about the fryer. Beef tallow and shared oil turn “vegetarian” sides into non-vegetarian ones.
• Pizza almost never fails you. Nearly every pizza chain scored a B, since a cheese or veggie pie is a real main and you can go cheese-free for vegan.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most vegetarian-friendly fast-food chain?

Chipotle, with a score of 95 out of 100, and the gold Veggie Cup in the fast-casual category. It offers a permanent vegan tofu protein called sofritas, lard-free beans, two ready-made plant-based bowls, and a build-your-own format that makes a meat-free burrito, bowl, taco, or salad simple to order.

Which fast-food chains are worst for vegetarians?

Chicken chains rank lowest. Arby’s (14), Raising Cane’s (16), and Popeyes (16) sit at the bottom, each with no vegetarian entree at all. At these spots, meat-free eating means assembling sides like fries, corn, or applesauce.

What is the Veggie Cup?

The Veggie Cup is our annual award for the most vegetarian-friendly restaurant chains. We score 99 major US chains, split them into fast food, fast casual, and sit-down, and award a gold, silver, and bronze cup in each. We also hand out two special cups: best for road trips, won by Subway, and best for breakfast, won by Denny’s. The 2026 category gold winners are Chipotle, Taco Bell, and The Cheesecake Factory.

Are fast-food fries always vegetarian?

No. Some chains fry in beef tallow, including Steak ‘n Shake, Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Smashburger, so their fries aren’t vegetarian. McDonald’s fries in the US contain natural beef flavoring. Always ask what’s in the fryer oil.

Which fast-food chains have a true vegan meal?

Plenty do. 66 of the 99 chains we scored offer at least one genuine vegan entree. Chipotle, CAVA, Taco Bell, Sweetgreen, and Moe’s are among the easiest, all built around beans, tofu, or falafel you can order as a full meal.

Last updated June 2026. Scores are based on WhatsVegetarian.com’s own researched chain guides and are normalized across all 99 chains for consistency. Menus change often, so check with the restaurant before you order.