The Riverside Airport Cafe: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

The Riverside Airport Cafe sits on Flight Road at Riverside Municipal Airport, and the menu makes no promises about vegetarian food. This is a breakfast-and-lunch diner built around 8-ounce Angus steaks, corned beef hash, and a pastrami dip. But look past the burger board and there’s an actual vegetarian meal here, not just a side salad.

Start with the omelette list, the clearest path on this menu. The Riverside Veggie Omelette runs $15, packed with onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers and cheddar, topped with avocado. Mushroom & Spinach Omelette at $16 skips the meat entirely and leans on Swiss cheese. A plain Cheese Omelette at $11 is the cheapest full plate on the menu, vegetarian or not. All three come with two sides included, so you’re not paying extra to round out the meal.

Lunch has a workaround built into the burger board. “Make it a Veggie Patty!” swaps the Angus beef for a plant-based patty on the Hamburger, the Riverside Bacon Cheeseburger, or any of the melts, for an extra $1.25. That’s a substitution, not a dedicated veggie burger built from scratch, and the distinction matters. You’re getting the standard burger build with the meat pulled and a patty dropped in, not a chef’s vegetarian creation.

Sides round it out: cottage cheese, a side salad, tater tots, onion rings, garlic parmesan fries, fried pickles. None of it is a headline dish. Stacked with an omelette or a veggie burger, though, it adds up to an actual meal instead of a plate of fries and an apology.

Nothing on the menu carries a vegetarian or vegan label. No icon, no asterisk, no separate section. You’re reading ingredient lists and doing the math yourself, the same way you would at any diner that never set out to serve a plant-based crowd. The kitchen runs a full grill line for burgers, pastrami, and corned beef, with no sign of separate prep for the veggie patty swap. Ask before you order if shared-grill contact is a concern.

Get the Riverside Veggie Omelette for the most filled-out vegetarian plate on the menu, or the veggie-patty Cheeseburger if you want the diner experience to still feel like a burger. Add cottage cheese or garlic parmesan fries on the side.

This is a working airport diner with outdoor seating and a view of small planes taking off, not a destination built for strict vegetarians. It earns its spot on this list because the vegetarian options are entrees you’d actually order, not a lettuce wedge. Hours run daily, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., breakfast and lunch only, no dinner service. Dine-in or takeout, cash and card both accepted, though takeout stops on weekends according to the site. Call ahead if you’re planning a weekend pickup.

Price band is moderate, $11 to $18 for a full plate, with add-ons like bacon or an extra egg pushing it a little higher.