Looking for In-N-Out vegetarian options? Here’s the rundown. In-N-Out is a fast-food hamburger chain through and through, so the meatless menu is short, but it’s real and easy to order once you know the words to use. Below you’ll find the off-menu Veggie Burger, the Grilled Cheese, the fries, and exactly how to make each one work for you, plus what to skip if you’re vegan. For more meat-free restaurant guides, start at What’s Vegetarian.
A Quick Look at In-N-Out
In-N-Out Burger opened on October 22, 1948, in Baldwin Park, California. Harry and Esther Snyder started it as a single drive-thru stand, and the company has stayed family-owned ever since. There’s no parent corporation and no franchising. Today the president is Lynsi Snyder, the founders’ granddaughter, which makes it one of the few large American burger chains still run by the family that built it.
The chain stays deliberately small and regional. It operates over 400 locations across California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, and Idaho, with newer expansion into Washington and Tennessee. That tight footprint is part of why the menu barely changes and why the “secret menu” ordering shorthand, including the meatless builds, has stayed consistent for decades.
In-N-Out Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Your In-N-Out vegetarian options come down to two meatless mains, a side, and drinks. The Veggie Burger and Grilled Cheese are both off-menu but fully built into the standard ordering system, so any location can make them. Here’s how each item stacks up for vegetarians and vegans.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie Burger (as served, with Spread) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Veggie Burger (no Spread, no cheese, ketchup & mustard) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Grilled Cheese | ✅ | ❌ |
| French Fries | ✅ | ✅ |
| Fountain drinks, Pink Lemonade, iced tea, black coffee | ✅ | ✅ |
| Milkshakes | ✅ | ❌ |
Meatless Burgers and Sandwiches
The Veggie Burger is your main event. Ask for a “Veggie Burger” and you’ll get a regular burger built without the meat patty: a toasted bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, and Spread. As served it’s vegetarian, but the Spread contains egg, so it’s not vegan out of the box. It’s a no-patty modification rather than a plant-protein product, so don’t expect an Impossible or Beyond patty here. In-N-Out doesn’t build plant-based patties of any kind.
The Grilled Cheese is the other meatless main. It’s the same vegetable build plus two slices of American cheese and Spread. That makes it vegetarian but firmly off-limits for vegans, since it has both dairy and egg, and there’s no vegan cheese substitute on offer. Both sandwiches can be ordered Protein Style, where a lettuce wrap replaces the bun.
One thing worth flagging: the famous Animal Style isn’t a clean vegetarian move by default. The grilled onions are fine, but Animal Style layers on extra Spread and mustard cooked into the patty. On a Veggie Burger there’s no patty, so you can still ask for grilled onions and extra Spread to get most of that flavor. Just know the Spread keeps it off the vegan list. If you eat eggs and dairy, a Veggie Burger with grilled onions, extra Spread, and pickles is about as loaded as the meatless build gets here.
Portion-wise, don’t expect the Veggie Burger to eat like a Double-Double. Without a patty it’s lighter, so a lot of vegetarians order it Protein Style and add a side of fries, or pair two Veggie Burgers if they’re hungry. The toasted bun, ripe tomato, hand-leafed lettuce, and Spread still deliver the In-N-Out taste people show up for. It’s the same fresh produce and the same bun the meat eaters get, minus the beef. That consistency is the real selling point when your only mains are a no-patty burger and a grilled cheese.
- Veggie Burger — toasted bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, Spread. Vegetarian as served.
- Grilled Cheese — same vegetables plus American cheese and Spread. Vegetarian, contains dairy and egg.
- Protein Style — swap the bun for a lettuce wrap on either build.
Sides and Drinks
The French Fries are the simplest win here, and they’re both vegetarian and vegan. In-N-Out uses fresh-cut potatoes cooked in 100% sunflower oil, with no beef tallow or lard. Fries are the only fried item on the menu, so there’s effectively a dedicated fryer with no meat cross-contamination. That makes them the cleanest plant-based choice in the building. You can order them Light, Well-Done, Extra Well, or No Salt to suit your taste.
For drinks, the Coca-Cola fountain products, Pink Lemonade and Light Pink Lemonade, iced tea, and coffee are all vegan. The famous milkshakes are dairy-based, so they’re vegetarian but not vegan. If you’re avoiding all animal products, stick with a fountain drink, lemonade, tea, or black coffee.
The shakes come in chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, and you can mix any two into a combination shake. All three are real dairy ice cream, so they’re a treat for vegetarians but a no for vegans. There’s no plant-milk shake on the menu, so a vegan craving something cold is better off with the Pink Lemonade. The lemonade is a house favorite for a reason, and the Light version cuts the sugar if you want it.
Back to the fries for a second, because they do most of the heavy lifting here. The four ways to order them, Light, Well-Done, Extra Well, and No Salt, let you fix the one complaint people have about In-N-Out fries, which is that the standard cut can land soft. Ask for Well-Done or Extra Well and you’ll get a crispier, more golden fry. No Salt is the move if you’re watching sodium or want to salt them yourself. None of those changes affect the vegan status, since it’s the same potato and the same sunflower oil either way.
What’s Vegan at In-N-Out?
A strict vegan can eat at In-N-Out, but every vegan-friendly order comes from customer modification rather than an official vegan menu item. If you’re avoiding animal-derived ingredients, the build is on you, not the menu board. The chain has no Impossible, Beyond, or branded plant-based patty, and no menu item it designates as “vegan.” Your safest bet is the French Fries, which are vegan in any style. After that, the move is a customized Veggie Burger: order it “no Spread, no cheese, ketchup and mustard instead.” Add grilled or raw onion, pickles, chiles, or an extra-toasted bun if you like.
The thing to avoid is the Spread. It’s a Thousand Island-style dressing made with mayonnaise, so it contains egg. It’s dairy-free but not vegan, which is why you drop it from any vegan order. The American cheese contains milk, so skip that too. If you want a soy-free and gluten-free vegan option, order the Veggie Burger Protein Style with the lettuce wrap, since the bun contains soy and wheat. Round it out with fries, a fountain drink, lemonade, iced tea, or black coffee.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
If you eat gluten-free, the bun is the issue, since the official allergen chart lists the bun’s allergens as wheat and soy. Ordering Protein Style with a lettuce wrap removes both the wheat and the soy from your build, which is the route most gluten-free and soy-free diners take. The fries are made from potatoes and sunflower oil, with no wheat in the ingredient list.
On cross-contact, be realistic. The grill, prep surfaces, and gloves are shared with beef, so a Veggie Burger can pick up incidental contact even though it has no patty. If that matters to you, the fries are the cleanest choice. Buns carry regional shared-facility notes too: the official chart splits them into two groups, with California-area buns produced where sesame and soy are present, and Colorado, Tennessee, and Texas buns produced where milk is present. So the CO/TN/TX bun carries a may-contain-milk disclaimer even though milk isn’t a listed ingredient. The official chart also states In-N-Out does not use peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, shellfish, or fish as ingredients in its restaurants. When in doubt, check the In-N-Out allergen guide or ask your location directly.
Tips for Vegetarians at In-N-Out
- Say “Veggie Burger” by name. It’s a standard off-menu order, so you don’t have to explain the build to the cashier.
- Keep the Spread if you’re vegetarian. It adds the classic flavor and only matters if you’re avoiding egg.
- Drop Spread and cheese to go vegan, and ask for ketchup and mustard instead so the burger isn’t dry.
- Order Protein Style when you want to skip the bun for gluten, soy, or low-carb reasons.
- Make the fries your anchor. They’re the one item that’s reliably vegan with no meat-fryer worry.
- Customize the fries with Well-Done or No Salt if you want them crispier or lower-sodium.
- Check the allergen guide for your region’s bun if you’re managing a milk allergy or strict cross-contact rules.
In-N-Out vegetarian options: frequently asked questions
Conclusion
In-N-Out won’t headline anyone’s vegetarian travel list, but it handles a meat-free order better than its tiny menu suggests. Stick with the Veggie Burger, Grilled Cheese, and fries, and you’ve got a solid meal. Vegans can eat well too, as long as you drop the Spread and cheese and lean on the fries. For more on ordering at chains like this, read our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and browse the full restaurant guides. You might also like our breakdowns of El Pollo Loco vegetarian options and Chipotle vegetarian options.
