Looking for Newk’s Eatery vegetarian options? This Mississippi-born fast-casual chain builds its menu around scratch-made soups, salads, sandwiches and pizzas. A good chunk of it is meat-free by design. This guide covers what about the vegetarians can order, and what to skip, so you’re not guessing at the counter.
A Quick Look at Newk’s Eatery
Newk’s opened in 2004 in Oxford, Mississippi, as “Newk’s Express Café.” Don Newcomb, a retired dentist, founded it with his son Chris Newcomb and family friend Debra Bryson. Don had already built and sold the sandwich chain McAlister’s Deli. The company renamed itself Newk’s Eatery in 2013. It’s still headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.
Ownership has changed hands twice since. Private equity firm Sentinel Capital Partners bought a majority stake in 2014. The chain quietly sold in late 2023 to FSC Franchise Co., the parent company behind Beef ‘O’ Brady’s and The Brass Tap.
As of early 2026, Newk’s runs about 97 locations across 13 states, most of them franchised. System-wide US sales run roughly $213 million a year, per Technomic’s restaurant tracking data. One brand quirk worth knowing: Newk’s kitchens skip deep fryers and microwaves entirely. Chips and sides come packaged instead of fried in-house, which cuts the usual shared-fryer cross-contact risk.
Newk’s Eatery Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Newk’s splits its menu into soups, salads, sandwiches, pizzas and sides. There’s a real vegetarian thread running through all five. Here’s the fast rundown before the details below.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie Club sandwich (portobello, roasted peppers, pesto, goat cheese) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, no pesto/goat cheese |
| Farmer’s Market sandwich (portobello, squash, zucchini, Gouda) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, no Gouda/basil mayo |
| Pimiento Cheese sandwich | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese, mayo) |
| Margherita pizza | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, no mozzarella |
| Portabella Veggie pizza | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, no cheese |
| Garden salad | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, no cheddar/croutons |
| Greek salad | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, no feta |
| Tomato Basil soup | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cream, goat cheese) |
| Grilled Vegetable soup (when available) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* |
| Spinach and Feta soup | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (feta, sour cream) |
| Tippah County Caviar (black-eyed pea relish, side) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Rotini Pasta Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg) |
| Five Cheese Mac & Cheese (kids menu) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Loaded Potato soup | ❌ No (bacon) | ❌ No |
| Caesar dressing | ✅ Yes (no anchovy) | ❌ No (egg, milk) |
*Grilled Vegetable soup is called out as vegan by a couple of third-party guides, but Newk’s hasn’t published the stock base publicly, and soups rotate daily by location, so ask before you order it if strict vegan matters to you.
Soups: A Vegetarian Strong Point
Soup is where Newk’s leans hardest into scratch cooking. Several rotate through the daily lineup as meat-free. Tomato Basil is marked vegetarian right on the official catering menu, built on cream with a goat cheese garnish. That makes it off-limits for vegans but a safe pick if you eat dairy. Spinach and Feta is the same story: a dairy-heavy, vegetarian-only bowl thanks to feta and sour cream.
Grilled Vegetable soup shows up most often as the vegan-friendly option in third-party guides. Newk’s doesn’t spell out the stock on its own site, though, so treat that one as likely rather than guaranteed. Skip Loaded Potato. It carries bacon despite sounding harmless. Skip the chicken, beef and seafood soups too: Chicken Noodle, Chicken Tortilla, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, Newcomb Family Recipe Beef Chili, Lobster and Crab Bisque, and Pepperjack and Crawfish.
Salads Worth Ordering
Garden salad and Greek salad are both vegetarian as served. The Garden is mixed greens with cheddar and croutons. The Greek adds feta, artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives and pepperoncini. Both go vegan easily with a no-cheese request. The Caesar is a pleasant surprise. Newk’s Caesar dressing tests positive for egg and milk but negative for fish, so there’s no hidden anchovy paste working against you. Order it without chicken and the salad is genuinely vegetarian, though not vegan, because of the egg and dairy in the dressing.
For a fully vegan dressing, reach for Balsamic Vinaigrette, Ginger Wasabi, Greek, Raspberry Vinaigrette or Sherry Vinaigrette. Skip Ranch and Lemon Basil Vinaigrette, both of which carry egg. Every other salad on the board leans on meat, poultry or shellfish. That includes the Cobb, the Southern chicken salad and the Shrimp Remoulade, none of which are vegetarian as served.
Sandwiches and Pizzas
The Veggie Club is Newk’s dedicated vegetarian sandwich. It’s grilled portobello mushrooms, roasted red and yellow bell peppers and basil pesto with goat cheese, on 11-Grain Parisian Bread. Order it without the pesto and goat cheese and it’s vegan. Both of Newk’s breads, French Parisian and 11-Grain Parisian, are confirmed egg- and dairy-free. The Farmer’s Market sandwich works the same angle: grilled squash, zucchini, spinach and caramelized onions under shredded Gouda and basil mayo. It’s vegan too, minus the cheese and mayo. Pimiento Cheese, built from aged cheddar and Vermont white cheddar rolled in pecans, is vegetarian but not vegan.
On the pizza side, two options come out vegetarian: Margherita (grape tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil) and Portabella Veggie (portobello mushrooms, roasted peppers, red onion, mozzarella, basil pesto). Both go vegan with a no-cheese request. Everything else on the sandwich and pizza menu is meat-built. That includes the signature “Q” line, the Club, the Italian and the Supreme, all loaded with chicken, ham, turkey, bacon, beef or shrimp.
What’s Vegan at Newk’s Eatery?
Nothing on the menu is vegan exactly as pictured. Several dishes get there with one or two easy swaps. Order the Veggie Club or Farmer’s Market sandwich without cheese, the Margherita or Portabella Veggie pizza without cheese, or the Garden or Greek salad without cheese and croutons, and you land on a real vegan meal. Tippah County Caviar, a black-eyed pea and pepper relish served as a side, is vegan as written, and so is the fruit cup. Kettle chips are vegan too. Since Newk’s doesn’t run fryers, there’s no shared-oil risk with anything fried elsewhere. What you won’t find is a vegan cheese swap or a vegan dessert. Every dessert on the board leans on eggs and dairy, from the rice-crispy treats to the cake slices.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Newk’s doesn’t publish an easy-to-find allergen PDF directly on newks.com. Item-level nutrition and allergen data lives on third-party databases instead, like Nutritionix and fastfoodnutrition.org. Both reportedly source from Newk’s own data feed, so use those if you need item-level flags. One gap worth knowing: the cheese rennet source isn’t published anywhere. That covers mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar, feta and goat cheese. If you avoid animal rennet on principle, there’s no way to confirm it either way at Newk’s.
Soup stock bases aren’t fully documented either, beyond what’s marked “(v)” on the catering menu. Soups also rotate daily by location. A vegetable soup on Tuesday isn’t a guarantee the same soup shows up the same way next week. Ranch dressing and Lemon Basil Vinaigrette both carry egg. And at least one diner reported a mix-up where a salad marked vegetarian arrived with chicken on it. Double-check with your server rather than assuming the menu labeling is foolproof.
Tips for Vegetarians at Newk’s Eatery
- Order the Caesar salad without chicken. It’s genuinely vegetarian since the dressing has no anchovy, unlike most Caesar dressings.
- Ask for the Veggie Club or Farmer’s Market sandwich without cheese if you want it vegan. Both breads are already dairy- and egg-free.
- Skip Ranch and Lemon Basil Vinaigrette if you’re avoiding egg. Balsamic, Ginger Wasabi, Greek, Raspberry and Sherry Vinaigrette are all vegan-friendly.
- Ask your server which soup of the day is vegetarian before ordering. The rotation changes daily and not every location carries the same lineup.
- Confirm your order at the counter, especially on salads. At least one diner reported a vegetarian-labeled salad arriving with chicken on it.
- Try Tippah County Caviar as a side if you want a confirmed vegan option that isn’t just “hold the cheese.”
- Don’t expect a vegan dessert. None of Newk’s rice-crispy treats or cake slices are dairy- or egg-free.
Conclusion
Newk’s Eatery vegetarian options run deeper than you’d expect from a sandwich-and-pizza chain. The soups, salads and a couple of dedicated veggie builds do real work here. Stick to the Veggie Club, the Portabella Veggie or Margherita pizza, the Garden or Greek salad, and the Tomato Basil or Spinach and Feta soup, and you’ll eat well. For more on eating out without meat, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, or browse our full list of restaurant guides. You can also check what’s meat-free at McAlister’s Deli, started by the same founder, plus Panera Bread and Firehouse Subs.
