Looking for Big Boy vegetarian options? This Michigan-rooted diner chain is built around a double-decker beef burger, but its breakfast menu, side salads, and appetizer list still give what about the vegetarians plenty to order. Here’s exactly what to get and what to skip.
A Quick Look at Big Boy
Bob Wian opened a small hamburger stand called Bob’s Pantry in Glendale, California, on August 6, 1936. A group of regular customers, local big-band musicians, asked him for “something different” the following year, according to Wikipedia. Wian improvised. He stacked two thin beef patties between three bun layers with lettuce, American cheese, and a signature red relish of pickle relish, ketchup, and chili sauce. That double-decker sandwich went on to inspire McDonald’s Big Mac and Burger King’s Big King, and Wian named his growing chain after it.
Marriott Corporation bought the chain in 1967 and ran it for two decades. Franchise operator Elias Brothers took over in 1987 and moved headquarters to Warren, Michigan, then filed for bankruptcy in 2000. Investor Robert Liggett Jr. acquired the brand out of that proceeding and formed Big Boy Restaurants International. A territorial settlement split the trademark: Frisch’s Restaurants kept the Big Boy name across Kentucky, Indiana, and most of Ohio and Tennessee, while Liggett’s company kept everywhere else. Michigan investors bought the company in 2018, renamed it Big Boy Restaurant Group, and later moved headquarters to Southfield, Michigan.
Big Boy Restaurant Group now runs roughly 54 US locations, most of them in Michigan, with a handful in California (branded Bob’s Big Boy), Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, and North Dakota, plus one in Thailand. Frisch’s Big Boy operates about 31 more restaurants under the same trademark across the Ohio Valley. The chain marked its 90th anniversary in 2026, a long run for a sandwich invented to impress a table of hungry musicians.
A grinning, checkerboard-overalls mascot holding a hamburger platter overhead is almost as famous as the sandwich itself. Fiberglass Big Boy statues still stand outside restaurants across the country. Wikipedia’s own catalog of historic Big Boy franchisee logos shows just how many regional operators, Elias Brothers, Frisch’s, Manners, and Eat’n Park among them, once ran the brand under their own name. One original location still stands: the 1949 Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, California, the oldest surviving Big Boy in the country and a designated California Point of Historical Interest since 1993.
Big Boy Vegetarian Options: What to Order
The core Big Boy menu leans hard on beef, bacon, and sausage, so the best Big Boy vegetarian options cluster around breakfast, appetizers, and the sides list. Here’s how the confirmed items break down, built from the official bigboy.com menu.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Very Veggie Omelette (eggs, onion, green pepper, tomato, mushroom, cheddar) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (eggs, cheese) |
| Mushroom Swiss Scramble (eggs, mushroom, spinach, caramelized onion, Swiss, hash browns) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (eggs, cheese) |
| Original or Multigrain Hotcakes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg and dairy batter) |
| Classic or Cinnamon French Toast | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg batter) |
| Waffles (Strawberry, Malted, Apple Cinnamon) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg batter) |
| Eggs Any Style / Egg Whites | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Toast | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (buttered unless you ask for it dry) |
| Mac & Cheese (four cheese sauce) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Mozzarella Sticks | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Pretzel Bites with Four Cheese Sauce | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Side House Salad | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (depends on dressing) |
| Side Caesar Salad | ⚠️ Check (many Caesar dressings contain anchovy) | ❌ No |
| Fried Pickles, Onion Rings, French Fries, Waffle Fries | ⚠️ Check (cooked in shared fryers with meat items) | ⚠️ Check |
| Seasonal Vegetables | ⚠️ Check (may be finished with butter) | ⚠️ Check |
| Coleslaw | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg-based mayo) |
| Mashed Potatoes with Gravy | ❌ No (standard gravy is meat-based) | ❌ No |
| Fresh Fruit | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Milkshakes (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Cookies & Cream) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
Breakfast: Big Boy’s Strongest Vegetarian Options
Breakfast is where Big Boy vegetarian options are easiest to find. Packed with onion, green pepper, tomato, and mushroom under melted cheddar, the Very Veggie Omelette is the closest thing on the menu to a dedicated vegetarian entree. A close second is the Mushroom Swiss Scramble, which swaps in spinach, caramelized onion, and Swiss for a similar meat-free plate. Both come standard with hash browns, so ask if those are cooked on a shared flattop with sausage and bacon if that matters to you.
Past the egg dishes, the hotcakes, French toast, and waffle lineup are all meat-free by default. The seasonal Strawberry Waffle and Strawberry Hotcakes lean on fruit and syrup rather than any animal protein beyond the batter’s eggs and milk. None of these are vegan as served, since the batter itself uses egg and dairy, but they’re a safe order for a vegetarian at the breakfast counter. If you want something heartier, the Very Berry Multigrain Hotcakes under the menu’s “Blockbusters” heading add oats, nuts, and berries to the standard batter for a more filling vegetarian plate than the plain version.
Sides, Salads, and Appetizers
Appetizers give vegetarians more room to work with than the entree menu does. Mozzarella sticks, pretzel bites with four-cheese sauce, and the four-cheese mac and cheese are all dairy-heavy but meat-free as listed. Fried pickles, onion rings, and both fry styles are plant-based on paper. Big Boy’s kitchens don’t run separate fryers for meat and non-meat items, though, so ask your server if that cross-contact matters to you.
For salads, the side house salad is the safer vegetarian pick. Skip the Caesar unless your location confirms an anchovy-free dressing, since classic Caesar dressing is traditionally built on anchovy paste. Don’t be fooled by the produce in the name of the Strawberry Grilled Chicken Salad either, since it’s built around chicken and isn’t vegetarian. Coleslaw and seasonal vegetables round out the vegetarian side options, though the vegetables may come finished with butter and the coleslaw’s dressing is egg-based mayonnaise.
Skip the mashed potatoes unless you’re fine eating them plain. Big Boy’s standard gravy is a meat-based sauce, not a vegetarian roux, so the potatoes only stay vegetarian if you ask for them without it.
What’s Vegan at Big Boy?
Vegan options at core Big Boy Restaurant Group locations are thin. Fresh fruit is the one confirmed vegan item on the bigboy.com menu. Dry toast can work if the kitchen skips the butter on request, and plain hash browns may be vegan depending on how your location’s fryer oil is set up, so ask before you order. Bigboy.com doesn’t list a plant-based burger or a vegan cheese option as of 2026. Frisch’s Big Boy, the separate co-registrant chain across the Ohio Valley, is the exception: it sells an Impossible Big Boy with two plant-based Impossible Foods patties on the classic three-bun roll. As served, with cheese and tartar sauce on top, it’s vegetarian rather than fully vegan, but asking for it without either gets you close. Check your specific location’s menu before counting on it.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Shared fryers, shared grills, and shared utensils cross meat and non-meat items in Big Boy’s kitchens. The chain does not claim any menu item as gluten-free under the FDA’s definition, according to allergen guidance compiled by FindMeGlutenFree for Big Boy locations. That shared-equipment setup means fries, onion rings, and fried pickles can pick up trace contact with breaded chicken and fish items cooked in the same oil. Caesar dressing is the other watch point, since traditional recipes use anchovy paste even when the label doesn’t spell it out.
Milk, egg, wheat, and soy show up across the menu’s cheese sauces, batters, and breading. Anyone managing one of those allergies alongside a vegetarian diet should treat the omelette and scramble line as the safest order, since every ingredient is listed up front. Ask your server to check with the kitchen first if a specific allergen or strict avoidance matters to you.
Tips for Vegetarians at Big Boy
- Go for breakfast if you can. The Very Veggie Omelette and Mushroom Swiss Scramble are the two closest things to a dedicated vegetarian entree on the whole menu.
- Ask if the Caesar dressing at your location contains anchovy before ordering the Side Caesar Salad.
- Order the mashed potatoes without gravy, since the standard gravy is meat-based.
- If shared-fryer cross-contact matters to you, ask before ordering fries, onion rings, or fried pickles.
- Build a side plate: mozzarella sticks, pretzel bites, mac and cheese, and a side salad make a filling vegetarian meal without touching the burger menu.
- Don’t assume a salad is vegetarian just because it’s a salad. The Strawberry Grilled Chicken Salad and other named salads may include meat as standard.
- Check which soup is on offer before ordering. Big Boy locations often rotate a vegetable soup alongside chili with beef.
- Near an Ohio Valley location? Ask if it’s a Frisch’s Big Boy, since those restaurants sell the plant-based Impossible Big Boy that standard Big Boy Restaurant Group locations don’t carry.
Conclusion
Big Boy vegetarian options won’t rival a plant-forward chain, but the 90-year-old diner still gives you a real breakfast and a real side menu to work with once you skip the famous burger. Order the Very Veggie Omelette or the Mushroom Swiss Scramble for a proper entree, and lean on the appetizer list for anything lighter. For more on eating meat-free at sit-down chains, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, or browse the full restaurant guide list. If you’re comparing other diner-style chains, check out what’s vegetarian at Denny’s, IHOP, and Friendly’s.
