Looking for Ruby Tuesday vegetarian options? Start at the Garden Bar, the build-your-own salad bar that has anchored this chain since 1972. Pile a plate with fresh greens, beans, and vegetables, add a plant-based burger or a marinara pasta, and you have a full meal without the meat. This guide covers every Ruby Tuesday vegetarian option worth ordering, what to skip, and how to keep it vegan. Wondering what about the vegetarians? That is the whole reason this site exists.
Ruby Tuesday is a sit-down, casual American chain, so you get table service, a real salad bar, and a kitchen that can adjust a plate. That makes it friendlier to vegetarians than a lot of drive-thru menus. The meat-free choices are not buried in fine print either, and once you know the handful of items to reach for, ordering here is easy.
A Quick Look at Ruby Tuesday
Ruby Tuesday opened on February 19, 1972 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Sandy Beall, a college student at the time, started it with a few fraternity friends and named it after the Rolling Stones song “Ruby Tuesday.” The salad bar and the burgers have carried the menu ever since.
Morrison Inc. bought the chain in 1982, and Ruby Tuesday became the surviving company after a corporate split in 1996. NRD Capital acquired it in 2017. The chain filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2020 and came out smaller in February 2021. Today it is privately held and runs roughly 190 to 200 restaurants across about 29 states, still known for that Garden Bar. (Sources: Wikipedia, Restaurant Business.)
Ruby Tuesday Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here is the short version. The Garden Bar does the heavy lifting, and a handful of sides, a pasta, and a plant-based burger round out the meal. The table below marks what is vegetarian and what you can push to vegan. Menus change and recipes vary by location, so treat anything marked “Check” as a question for your server.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh Garden Bar (greens, beans, vegetables, seeds) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* (skip cheese, egg, bacon bits, creamy dressings) |
| Pasta Marinara (penne, tomato basil sauce) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (order no cheese) |
| Plant-based burger patty (Impossible) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (shared grill, availability varies) |
| Garlic breadsticks | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (possible dairy) |
| Baked potato (plain) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (no butter or sour cream) |
| Steamed broccoli, grilled zucchini, roasted vegetables | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (cooked in plant-based margarine) |
| French fries, tater tots | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (shared fryer) |
| Roasted vegetable soup | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (confirm broth) |
| Croutons | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check |
The Garden Bar: Your Best Vegetarian Bet
The Garden Bar is the reason a vegetarian can walk into Ruby Tuesday and eat well. It is an all-you-can-build salad bar, and you can order it as a standalone meal or as a side. The produce runs deep: romaine, field greens, baby spinach, and iceberg for the base, then broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, mushrooms, beets, and onions on top.
For protein and staying power, add garbanzo beans, edamame, peas, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Crispy cucumbers, crispy onions, roasted corn, artichoke hearts, banana peppers, pepperoncini, olives, jalapeños, dried cranberries, grapes, mandarin oranges, and pico de gallo add flavor and texture. Dress it with balsamic vinaigrette, golden Italian dressing, plain balsamic vinegar, or olive oil to keep it vegan. Skip the diced egg, shredded cheese, bacon bits, and creamy ranch or blue cheese if you are strict. Read the topping ingredients when you are unsure, since a few items carry dairy or egg.
Because it is unlimited, the Garden Bar is also the best value among the Ruby Tuesday vegetarian options. Go back for a second plate, mix a grain of beans and seeds into the greens, and you have a meal that actually fills you up rather than a sad side salad. Add it to any entree for a few dollars, or order it on its own.
Burgers and Sandwiches
Ruby Tuesday has offered a plant-based burger built on an Impossible patty, served on a brioche bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. It is a genuine meat-free option, but two things matter. First, availability rotates and varies by location, so call ahead or ask before you sit down. Second, the patty shares a cooking surface with meat, so if that is a dealbreaker, ask the kitchen to cook it on a clean spot. For a lighter route, any burger can be swapped for a Garden Bar plate.
If the plant-based patty is not available on your visit, you still have a sandwich-style route: a bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle alongside a baked potato and a Garden Bar plate. It is not fancy, but it keeps the meal meat-free and filling. Feeding kids? The children’s menu adds simple vegetarian picks like buttery pasta, grilled zucchini, steamed broccoli, and grapes.
Sides and Vegetables
The sides are where you fill out the plate. A plain baked potato is vegan as long as you hold the butter and sour cream and add your own salt, pepper, or bar toppings. Steamed broccoli, grilled zucchini, and roasted vegetables like baby bella mushrooms and corn are cooked in plant-based margarine, so they work for vegans too. French fries and tater tots are meat-free by recipe, but they ride a shared fryer with breaded meat items, so mark them “Check” if cross-contact matters to you.
Pasta and Soup
Pasta Marinara is the easy hot entree. It is penne in a tomato basil sauce with a breadstick, and ordering it with no cheese makes it vegan. The roasted vegetable soup is a good starter, though broths change, so confirm it is made without chicken stock before you count it as vegetarian. Pair either one with a Garden Bar plate and you have a full, filling meal that covers greens, a hot dish, and bread.
What’s Vegan at Ruby Tuesday?
Plenty, if you build it right. Ruby Tuesday has no separate printed vegan menu, so you assemble vegan options from the same items. A Garden Bar plate made from produce, beans, seeds, and an oil-based dressing is fully vegan. Pasta Marinara with no cheese, a plain baked potato, steamed broccoli, grilled zucchini, and roasted vegetables all work. The Impossible burger patty is plant-based, but confirm the bun and the shared grill before you order it as vegan. The two things to watch are the shared fryer for fries and tots, and the gluten-free bun, which contains egg and is not vegan.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
A few caveats keep you honest here. The fryer and grill are shared with meat, so fries, tots, and the plant-based patty can pick up cross-contact. Creamy salad dressings like ranch and blue cheese contain dairy, and Caesar dressing usually contains anchovy, so it is not vegetarian. The salad bar sets out diced egg, cheese, and bacon bits, so skip those bins if you are vegan. The gluten-free bun contains egg. When in doubt, ask for the current allergen guide, since Ruby Tuesday updates recipes and toppings by season and by location.
Tips for Vegetarians at Ruby Tuesday
- Make the Garden Bar your base. It is unlimited, and you control every topping.
- Ask for the plant-based burger by name. Availability varies, so call ahead if you are set on it.
- Order Pasta Marinara with no cheese to keep it vegan.
- Choose balsamic vinaigrette, golden Italian, plain vinegar, or olive oil to dress a vegan salad.
- Skip Caesar, ranch, and blue cheese dressings if you want to stay strict.
- Ask the kitchen to cook your patty and vegetables away from meat if a shared surface is a concern.
- A plain baked potato plus a Garden Bar plate plus a breadstick is a filling meat-free plate.
Conclusion
Ruby Tuesday vegetarian options come down to one great asset and a solid supporting cast. The Garden Bar lets you build an unlimited salad meal, and the plant-based burger, Pasta Marinara, and roasted vegetables fill in the rest. Ask about the shared fryer and grill, choose your dressings with care, and you can eat well as a vegetarian or a vegan. For more meat-free dining, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and browse every restaurant guide we have. If you like a salad bar, try our Golden Corral guide, and for more casual American picks see Cheddar’s and Olive Garden.
