Looking for Cousins Subs vegetarian options? You get one dedicated veggie sandwich, a rotating list of soups worth questioning, and a salad you can build around. Cousins Subs is a Wisconsin sub shop built on fresh-baked bread and stacked deli meats, so the meatless list here stays short, but what’s on it is real. Below is exactly what to order, what to skip, and how to push a few things closer to vegan. For more meatless restaurant guides like this one, start at What’s Vegetarian.
A Quick Look at Cousins Subs
Cousins Subs started in 1972 when cousins Bill Specht and James Sheppard opened their first shop at 60th Street and Silver Spring Drive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The two couldn’t find a sub sandwich in the Midwest that matched what they remembered from the East Coast, so they partnered with a local baker and built the whole concept around fresh bread. That’s still the slogan today, Better Bread, Better Subs. Each location proofs and bakes its own dough daily, though the dough itself is formed off-site and delivered frozen.
The chain closed more than 40 locations during the Great Recession to refocus on quality over rapid growth, then went through a major rebrand in 2016 with remodeled stores and sponsorship deals tied to the Milwaukee Bucks, Green Bay Packers, and Wisconsin Badgers. Cousins Subs remains privately held. Christine Specht-Palmert, daughter of co-founder Bill Specht, has run the company as CEO since 2015. As of early 2026, Cousins Subs operates close to 100 locations, with roughly 92 of them in Wisconsin and a handful of spots across Illinois and Indiana.
Cousins Subs Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s the short version. The Veggie sub is your one dedicated meatless sandwich, and a build-your-own salad and a couple of soups round out the list. Everything else on the sub board, from the Italian Special to the Philly Cheesesteak, is built around meat. The table below marks each pick conservatively. An item only gets a vegan check when it’s confirmed, and anything uncertain gets a warning so you can ask before you order.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie Sub (provolone, spring mix, cucumbers, green peppers, onions, tomatoes) | ✅ Yes | ⚠ Check (ask no cheese, no mayo) |
| Wisconsin Cheese Curds | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| French Fries | ⚠ Check (fryer may be shared) | ⚠ Check |
| Garden Salad, built without meat or egg | ✅ Yes | ⚠ Check (confirm dressing) |
| Cheddar Cauliflower, Cheese Broccoli or Cream of Potato Soup | ⚠ Check (base may use chicken stock) | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Chicken Noodle, Chicken with Wild Rice, Chili, Vegetable Beef Soup | ❌ No (meat-based) | ❌ No |
| Italian or Multi-Grain Bread | ✅ Yes | ⚠ Check (recipe not published) |
| Parmesan Asiago Bread | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese baked into dough) |
| Provolone, American, Cheddar or Swiss Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Chips (flavor varies by location) | ⚠ Check | ⚠ Check |
| Kids Meal Cup of Mac & Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Tuna Sub | ❌ No (fish) | ❌ No |
Subs and Sandwiches
The Veggie sub anchors the Cousins Subs vegetarian options list, and it’s the only sandwich built without meat from the start. It comes stacked with provolone cheese, spring mix, cucumbers, green peppers, onions and tomatoes on your choice of fresh-baked bread. Every other sub on the board, the Club, the Italian Special, the Philly Cheesesteak, the Chicken Cheddar Deluxe, is built around ham, turkey, salami, capicola, beef or chicken. The Tuna sub isn’t a vegetarian workaround either, it’s a tuna and mayo blend, not a plant-based substitute.
Soups, Sides and Salads
Cousins Subs rotates its soup lineup daily. The list includes Cheddar Cauliflower, Cheddar Cheese, Cheese Broccoli, Cream of Potato, Chicken Noodle, Chicken Dumpling, Chicken with Wild Rice, Chili and Vegetable Beef. The cheese and potato soups don’t list meat among their named ingredients. But restaurant soup bases often start with chicken or beef stock even when the name doesn’t say so. Ask before you order one as vegetarian. Wisconsin Cheese Curds, breaded and fried, are a reliable vegetarian side, though they’re not vegan and the fryer may be shared with breaded meat items. Bagged chips round out the sides menu. Flavors rotate by location, so check the bag for dairy-based seasoning if you’re avoiding it.
For a salad, build your own Garden Salad and skip the pre-set combos. The Chef Salad comes topped with turkey, ham, and hard-boiled egg by default. If you’re ordering for a child, ask about the Kids Meal Cup of Mac and Cheese. It’s one of the few vegetarian options on the kids’ menu, next to the usual ham and turkey sandwiches.
Bread and Cheese Choices
Cousins bakes four bread styles: Italian, Multi-Grain, Parmesan Asiago and Garlic Herb. Parmesan Asiago has cheese baked right into the dough, so that one’s off the vegetarian-vegan crossover list if you’re strict about vegan. The cheese lineup covers provolone, American, cheddar and Swiss, all standard dairy cheese with no mozzarella on the board. None of the four breads are confirmed dairy or egg free by Cousins directly, so if you’re vegan, ask your location before you assume the Italian or Multi-Grain loaf is safe.
What’s Vegan at Cousins Subs?
Going fully vegan at Cousins Subs takes some customizing, and a couple of pieces stay unconfirmed even after that. Order the Veggie sub without cheese and without mayo, since mayo contains egg, on Italian or Multi-Grain bread, and you’re close. Cousins hasn’t published a full ingredient breakdown for its bread recipes, so ask your location whether the dough or any wash contains dairy or egg before you count it as fully vegan. Cheese curds are out, they’re breaded dairy. Cream-based and cheese-based soups are out too. Your safest bet is a Garden Salad built without cheese, egg or a dairy-based dressing, put together to order.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
The default mayo on most sandwiches contains egg, so it isn’t vegan even though it’s dairy-free. Several soups that sound plant-based, like Cheddar Cauliflower or Cream of Potato, likely start from a chicken or beef stock base even without visible meat pieces, so ask before ordering one as vegetarian. Parmesan Asiago bread has dairy baked into the dough. Wisconsin Cheese Curds and French fries are fried, and it isn’t confirmed online whether they share a fryer with breaded meat items, so ask locally if cross-contact matters to you. Cousins Subs publishes nutritional information and an allergen PDF on its website for calorie and ingredient lookups by menu item, but it doesn’t tag items as vegetarian or vegan directly, so treat staff as your best source for recipe-level questions if you have specific dietary needs.
Tips for Vegetarians at Cousins Subs
- Order the Veggie sub as-is for a solid vegetarian meal, or ask them to hold the cheese and mayo to push it toward vegan.
- Build the Garden Salad yourself and skip the pre-set combos, since several come with meat or hard-boiled egg by default.
- Ask before ordering soup. Names like Cheddar Cauliflower or Cream of Potato often start from a meat-based stock even without visible meat.
- Skip the Tuna sub. It’s a mayo-based fish blend, not a vegetarian stand-in.
- Cheese curds and fries are a solid vegetarian side if you eat dairy, just ask if the fryer is shared with breaded meat items.
- Stick to Italian or Multi-Grain bread if you’re avoiding dairy. Parmesan Asiago has cheese baked into the dough.
- Call ahead during off-hours. Cousins Subs is a small regional chain, and a quick phone call is often the fastest way to get a straight answer on ingredients.
- Check with your local store before a trip. Cousins Subs vegetarian options can vary slightly by location since bread and soup selections rotate.
Conclusion
Cousins Subs isn’t built for vegetarians, but you can eat well off the menu if you know what to order. The Veggie Sub covers you as a full meal, Wisconsin Cheese Curds and a build-your-own Garden Salad round things out, and a couple of soups work with one quick question to staff. The vegan options take more customizing, but they’re there if you ask. For more on eating meatless at restaurants in general, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants. Browse more restaurant guides for chains like Firehouse Subs, Quiznos, and Potbelly if Cousins Subs isn’t near you.
