Looking for Shoney’s vegetarian options? This Southern diner and buffet chain built its reputation on an all-you-care-to-eat Food Bar. That setup works in your favor. Build a full meal from the salad station and the vegetable sides. Some locations even carry a Vegetarian Stir-Fry. None of it touches the fried chicken or the country ham. Picking through takes some effort, but there’s more here than a side salad. New to the site? Check out what about the vegetarians eating out in general.
A Quick Look at Shoney’s
Alex Schoenbaum opened a single Parkette Drive-In in 1947, next to his father’s bowling alley in Charleston, West Virginia. He became a Big Boy franchisee in 1952. His locations ran as “Parkette Big Boy Shoppes.” Two years later, an employee naming contest picked Schoenbaum’s own nickname, and Shoney’s was born. New owner Ray Danner bought the parent company in 1971. He pushed hard into subfranchising across the Southeast. By 1984, the company had broken from the national Big Boy system entirely.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy hit Shoney’s in 2000. Texas-based Lone Star Funds bought the company out of it in 2002. David Davoudpour, founder of Royal Capital Corporation, took over in 2007 and still owns and runs the chain today. That’s more than two decades of stable ownership since the last real trouble. Roughly 58 restaurants operate across 14 Southeastern states now, stretching from Virginia and Kentucky down through Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Headquarters stay in Nashville, Tennessee.
Shoney’s Vegetarian Options: What to Order
The table below covers the clearest Shoney’s vegetarian options across the Food Bar and the regular menu. Southern cooking leans on butter, bacon, and pork fat more than most cuisines. Treat anything marked “Check” as something to confirm with your server before you commit your plate to it.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetarian Stir-Fry (broccoli, peppers, onions, teriyaki, rice) | ⚠️ Check (confirm it’s on your location’s menu) | ⚠️ Check (garlic toast likely has butter) |
| Veggie Omelet | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (eggs, cheese) |
| Garden Salad / House Salad (Food Bar or a la carte) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (dressing, croutons) |
| Fresh Steamed Vegetables | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (ask for no butter) |
| Fresh Steamed Seasoned and Buttered Broccoli | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (butter) |
| Broccoli & Cheddar Cheese Baked Potato | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Coleslaw | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg in the mayo dressing) |
| Mashed Potatoes | ⚠️ Check (often made with butter or milk) | ❌ No |
| Green Beans (Food Bar and a la carte) | ⚠️ Check (Southern-style green beans are often cooked with bacon or ham) | ❌ No |
| Rice Pilaf | ⚠️ Check (may be made with chicken broth) | ⚠️ Check |
| Black Beans and Pinto Beans (Food Bar) | ⚠️ Check (Southern bean sides are often simmered with pork or ham hock) | ❌ No |
| Mac ‘n’ Cheese (Food Bar) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Spinach & Artichoke Dip | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (three-cheese sauce) |
| Onion Rings | ⚠️ Check (fried in a shared fryer, batter may contain egg or dairy) | ❌ No |
| Baked Spaghetti | ⚠️ Check (some menus list a meat sauce version, confirm before ordering) | ❌ No |
| Biscuits and Gravy | ❌ No (the gravy is traditionally sausage-based) | ❌ No |
| Cobb Salad | ❌ No (bacon and egg) | ❌ No |
| Fresh Fruit (Food Bar) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
The Food Bar: Vegetables, Salads, and Soups
People go to Shoney’s for the all-you-care-to-eat Fresh Food Bar, and it’s your best bet for vegetarian options here too. Rotating “theme meals” mean the exact lineup shifts by location and by day of the week. Vegetable sides that show up regularly include corn on the cob, collard greens, baked sweet potatoes, and cabbage. Creamed corn, grilled onions and peppers, mushrooms, baked potatoes, broccoli, and fresh fruit round out the rotation. Salad choices include Caesar salad, pasta salad, potato salad, coleslaw, a tomato-cucumber-onion salad, and a build-your-own garden salad station.
Soup is the one section to slow down on. Cabbage beef soup, chicken tortilla soup, potato sausage soup, and clam chowder all run on meat or shellfish stock, so skip those outright. Broccoli cheddar soup and loaded potato soup get asked about most, and neither one has a published ingredient list confirming a vegetable-only stock. Ask before you ladle either into your bowl. Black beans, pinto beans, and greens on the bar deserve the same question. Southern kitchens season vegetables with bacon grease and ham hock as a matter of habit. No published ingredient breakdown rules that out dish by dish.
The Food Bar also runs on a seven-day theme schedule, and which day you show up on changes what’s realistic to eat. Thursday’s “Dinner Italiano” theme leans on pasta and marinara, usually meaning more vegetable-forward options. Wednesday’s “Brinner” (breakfast for dinner) puts breakfast staples like the Veggie Omelet within reach at dinnertime too. Monday’s “Backyard BBQ,” Tuesday’s “Flavor Fiesta,” Friday’s seafood night, Saturday’s surf and turf, and Sunday’s “Old Fashioned Sunday Dinner” center hard on meat and seafood. On those days, the core vegetable sides and salad station carry more of the weight.
Sides, Salads, and Starters
Off the regular a la carte menu, Fresh Steamed Vegetables and Fresh Steamed Seasoned and Buttered Broccoli both come confirmed vegetarian. Plain steamed vegetables go vegan too if you ask the kitchen to hold the butter. A House Salad, Side Salad, or Garden Salad works the same way. It’s solid on its own, but check the dressing and croutons if you’re avoiding dairy or egg. Spinach and Artichoke Dip, served with tater chips, counts as a real starter option, not just a side. The creamy three-cheese sauce does rule it out for vegans, though. Onion Rings get hand-breaded and fried, usually in a shared fryer alongside breaded meat items. Treat them as a “confirm at your location” pick, not an automatic order.
Breakfast
Both the breakfast bar and the breakfast menu work for vegetarians here. Veggie Omelet is the clearest pick. Create Your Own Omelet lets you build one from scratch with whatever vegetables and cheese the kitchen has that morning. Pancake Breakfast counts as vegetarian as long as you skip the bacon or sausage side that usually comes with it. Leave Biscuits and Gravy alone, though: the gravy at Shoney’s, like at most Southern diners, gets made with sausage drippings, not a vegetarian roux.
What’s Vegan at Shoney’s?
Vegan options run thin here. Fresh Steamed Vegetables ordered without butter and Fresh Fruit from the Food Bar are the two items you can count on without a special request. Almost everything else runs through butter, cheese, egg-based dressing, or an unconfirmed broth or stock. No published vegan menu or ingredient guide exists to clear more items with confidence. Strict vegans shouldn’t treat this as a destination the way a build-your-own bowl concept works. Think of it as a spot to eat something real if you’re already there with a group. Don’t plan a trip around it.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
No public allergen or ingredient guide exists here the way it does at many national chains, and that gap matters more because the Food Bar runs self-serve and shared. Every station on the bar uses common serving utensils. Cross-contact between meat dishes and vegetable sides is a real risk if you’re managing a strict allergy, not just a vegetarian preference. Southern-style bean and green sides traditionally get cooked with bacon, ham hock, or pork fat, and nothing confirms or rules that out dish by dish. Meat serves as a base ingredient in biscuits, gravy, and most soups on the bar, not an add-on you can ask to leave off. Talk to the manager on duty if a specific ingredient matters to your health, rather than trusting the label on the bar.
Tips for Vegetarians at Shoney’s
- Build your plate from the Food Bar’s vegetable and salad stations first, and treat the soup and bean sides as “ask before you take” rather than automatic.
- Ask your server which soups on the bar are made without chicken or beef stock that day. The lineup changes with the theme meal.
- Order the Veggie Omelet or build your own at breakfast instead of defaulting to biscuits and gravy.
- Request steamed vegetables without butter if you’re avoiding dairy.
- Call ahead if you’re considering the Vegetarian Stir-Fry. Menus vary by location, and not every Shoney’s carries it.
- Skip the Cobb Salad and Baked Spaghetti unless a server confirms the specific location’s recipe is meat-free.
Conclusion
The strategy here comes down to this: work the Food Bar’s vegetable and salad stations, order the Veggie Omelet at breakfast, and ask before you touch the soups or bean sides. This isn’t a chain built for strict vegans, but a vegetarian can eat a full, real meal here without much trouble. For the bigger picture on eating vegetarian and vegan away from home, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants. Or browse the rest of our restaurant guides. Fans of Southern buffet-style dining should also check out our guides to Golden Corral, Cracker Barrel, and Bob Evans.
