Looking for Piada vegetarian options? You get options. Piada Italian Street Food, the Columbus, Ohio fast-casual chain, builds meatless piadas, pastas, and chopped salads on its regular menu. Piada vegetarian options start with the Veggie Piada, the Power Bowl, and the marinara pastas. Skip anything with pancetta, and skip every Caesar, because Piada marks fish on the Caesar dressing. If you’re the one at the table asking what about the vegetarians, here’s your order.
A Quick Look at Piada
Chris Doody founded Piada. He cofounded Bravo! Cucina Italiana and Brio Tuscan Grille with his brother, Rick, and they sold the company in 2006, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. Doody then studied fast casual and saw that nobody was doing Italian in fast casual. He started developing Piada in early 2009 and opened the first store in early 2010, he told QSR Magazine. Doody drew the idea from the roadside food carts in Rimini, Italy.
The chain still runs from Columbus. Wikipedia counts 61 locations in seven states: 26 in Ohio, 19 in Texas, 5 in North Carolina, 4 in Indiana, 3 each in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and 1 in Kentucky. Wikipedia notes that people have called it an Italian copycat of Chipotle, and the format fits. You pick a base, add a protein, and personalize the rest while the staff build it down an assembly line.
Piada’s menu runs in three steps. You choose a piada, a salad, or a pasta. You add a protein for an extra fee. Then you personalize with any sauce or topping on the list. That last step matters for you, because it lets you build around the meat.
Piada Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here is how Piada vegetarian options sort out. Piada’s nutrition and allergen chart (dated June 2026) marks which items carry egg, fish, milk, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, or wheat. Piada labels nothing vegetarian or vegan, so I rated each item from the ingredients on Piada’s menu page plus Piada’s allergen marks.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie Piada (grain blend, hummus, feta, basil aioli) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (feta, egg, and milk in the aioli) |
| Chef’s Favorite Piada (diavolo sauce, mozzarella, spicy ranch) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (mozzarella, spicy ranch) |
| Avocado Piada and BLT Piada | ❌ No (pancetta) | ❌ No |
| Power Bowl | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Likely (Piada marks only sesame, but ask which harissa) |
| Farmer’s Market Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (feta) |
| Avocado Chop Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (parmesan, creamy basil parmesan dressing) |
| Lemon Kale Caesar and Classic Caesar | ❌ No (fish in the dressing) | ❌ No |
| Marinara Pasta | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (grated parmesan) |
| Diavolo Pasta | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (grated parmesan, milk in the sauce) |
| Basil Pesto Pasta | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (parmesan alfredo, pesto) |
| Burrata Marinara Pasta (limited time) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (burrata, parmesan) |
| Carbonara Pasta | ❌ No (pancetta) | ❌ No |
| Garlic Dough | ⚠️ Check (no ingredient list) | ❌ No (milk) |
| Piada Sticks, Cheese and Spinach Artichoke | ⚠️ Check (no ingredient list) | ❌ No (egg, milk) |
| Piada Sticks, Pepperoni | ❌ No (pepperoni) | ❌ No |
| Sweet Corn Salad | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (no allergen marks, no ingredient list) |
| Lobster Bisque and Meatballs | ❌ No (fish, shellfish, meat) | ❌ No |
| Cannoli Chips, cookies, and brownie | ⚠️ Check (no ingredient list) | ❌ No (egg, milk) |
| Kid’s Buttered Pasta with Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese, milk) |
Every cheese on the menu raises one question. Parmesan, mozzarella, feta, and burrata all appear on the menu, but Piada never says which rennet those cheeses contain. Most strict vegetarians eat these cheeses anyway. Avoid animal rennet? Ask a manager before you order.
Piadas
The piada is the namesake, a thin dough baked on a stone grill and rolled around the fillings. Two of the four on the menu work for vegetarians. Start with the Veggie Piada: a grain blend, arugula, hummus, cucumber salad, pickled red onions, bruschetta tomatoes, feta, and basil aioli. That comes to 860 calories, with egg, milk, sesame, and wheat marked on the chart.
Pick the Chef’s Favorite when you want less, at 490 calories. Inside you get spicy diavolo sauce, romaine, mozzarella, sweet peppers, and spicy ranch, and Piada marks egg, milk, soy, and wheat on that piada. Both the Avocado and the BLT use pancetta (bacon), so cross those off unless the chef drops the bacon.
Pastas
The chefs toss each pasta to order, and you choose spaghetti or rigatoni. Piada makes the Marinara Pasta with housemade tomato sauce and grated parmesan, at 320 calories in the small and 620 in the regular. You won’t find a simpler meatless meal here. Diavolo Pasta swaps in spicy diavolo sauce and giardiniera for 330 or 630 calories.
A chef tosses the Basil Pesto Pasta with parmesan alfredo, basil pesto, bruschetta tomatoes, and grated parmesan. At 480 calories small and 1,010 regular, the regular suits two people sharing. When Piada runs the Burrata Marinara as a limited-time item, it tops the marinara with roasted cherry tomatoes, basil pesto, and a full burrata ball. Carbonara carries pancetta, so pass.
Piada marks milk, soy, and wheat on every pasta, so none of these Piada vegetarian options is vegan. The soy and wheat come from the noodles, which Piada marks on its spaghetti and penne bases alike.
Chopped Salads and Bowls
Three salads count as Piada vegetarian options. Try the Farmer’s Market first: chopped greens, a cabbage and kale blend, strawberries, feta, sweet corn and tomato, avocado, glazed pecans, and lemon-basil dressing for 380 calories small or 650 regular. Avocado Chop swaps in pickled red onions, grated parmesan, spiced almonds, balsamic glaze, and creamy basil parmesan dressing at 390 or 610. Expect Piada’s tree nut cross-contact flag on the pecans and the almonds.
Best vegan bet and heaviest on salt: the Power Bowl. Inside the bowl you’ll find a grain blend, hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, sweet corn and tomato, roasted broccoli, cucumber salad, pickled red onions, and creamy harissa. You get 760 calories and 2,440 mg of sodium. On the allergen chart, Piada marks sesame and nothing else, and it lists 0 mg of cholesterol.
Skip both Caesars. Piada puts pancetta on the Lemon Kale Caesar and marks fish on both Caesar salads, so neither one counts as vegetarian.
Street Sides and Desserts
For a side, Piada lists the Sweet Corn Salad at 180 calories and marks no allergens on the salad. The Garlic Dough (280 calories) and the Piada Sticks (580 to 590 calories) satisfy a bread craving, but Piada lists no ingredients for either item. On the Cheese and Spinach Artichoke Sticks, Piada marks egg, milk, and wheat. Skip the Pepperoni Sticks, the Lobster Bisque, and the Meatballs.
Dessert comes down to Cannoli Chips, a cookie, and a brownie. Piada lists no ingredients for any of the three, and it marks egg and milk on each, so treat all three desserts as unconfirmed. If gelatin or other animal ingredients matter to you, ask the staff in the restaurant.
What’s Vegan at Piada?
Vegan options exist, but you build most of your own plate. Your closest match on the regular menu is the Power Bowl. Its only allergen mark is sesame, from the hummus. Piada lists two harissa dressings on its chart, a Harissa and a Yogurt Harissa, and marks no milk on either. On the menu, Piada names only a creamy harissa. Ask which one goes on your bowl, or swap in oil and vinegar.
You can also assemble a plate. Piada says you can modify any order with the ingredients on its list. Start with spaghetti or rigatoni. On its pasta bases, Piada marks only soy and wheat. Add the marinara, which has no allergen marks, then roasted broccoli or roasted sweet potatoes, which have none either. Have the chef leave off the parmesan. Since Piada doesn’t promise that swap, confirm it with the chef before you pay.
Piada marks no allergens on the oil and vinegar, the Harissa, or the Lemon Basil Vinaigrette. It marks none on the Yogurt Harissa either, but the name points to dairy, so ask first. Every other dressing gets a milk or egg mark from Piada, so skip those for a vegan plate.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
MenuTrinfo prepared Piada’s chart, which Piada dated June 2026. Piada warns that formulas and vendors change and that the chart may lag. You won’t find the Italian Hot Honey Mac, a limited-time item on Piada’s homepage, on the chart, so ask about anything new.
- Piada puts pancetta (bacon) on the Avocado Piada, the BLT, the Carbonara, and the Lemon Kale Caesar. You can spot the bacon, since Piada names pancetta on the menu.
- Piada marks fish on the Caesar dressing, along with egg, milk, and soy, plus possible wheat cross-contact.
- Milk marks cover every pasta, every cheese, and most dressings on Piada’s chart. Piada marks egg on the basil aioli, creamy parmesan, creamy basil parmesan, and spicy ranch.
- For the pecans and almonds, Piada adds an asterisk to the tree nut marks, which Piada uses to mean possible cross-contact.
- Because Piada marks sesame on the hummus, the Veggie Piada and the Power Bowl both contain sesame.
- Piada’s staff make every order on one assembly line, where they also handle chicken, steak, sausage, and salmon. Request fresh gloves at the start of the line.
Tips for Vegetarians at Piada
- Order the Veggie Piada or the Chef’s Favorite when you want a handheld meal. Neither carries pancetta.
- Order a small pasta when you want a lighter meal. A small Marinara has 320 calories, against 620 for the regular.
- Watch the Power Bowl’s 2,440 mg of sodium. Request a lighter pour of creamy harissa if salt worries you.
- Skip the Italian Hot Honey Mac. Piada’s homepage describes this limited-time three-cheese Mac with crispy chicken.
- Tell the staff you eat vegetarian before the line starts. Piada says a chef, not a manager, runs every store, so you can ask for fresh gloves or a clean spoon.
- Order online if you want time to read the ingredient list. Check the Burrata Marinara listing before you go, since it comes and goes.
- Check with the staff about cheese rennet if animal rennet matters to you. Piada’s menu never mentions the rennet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
Piada vegetarian options give you a solid shot at a good lunch. You can order the Veggie Piada, the Power Bowl, and the marinara pastas with no special request, and the build-your-own format covers the rest. Watch for the pancetta, the fish in the Caesar dressing, and the rennet Piada never mentions.
For more, see our master guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and the full restaurant guide list. Love Italian? Try our guides to Fazoli’s, Olive Garden, and Noodles and Company. Like the build-your-own line? Read our Chipotle guide too.
