Looking for Dave and Buster’s vegetarian options? You can eat a real meal here without touching meat, but you’ll have to know where to look. The menu is built around smashed burgers, wings, and steak, so the meatless wins live in the shareables, the flatbreads, and the sides. The good news is there are more of them than the burger-heavy menu lets on, and a few simple swaps open up even more. The whole experience is built around fun and games, so the food is something to graze on while playing. We run a whole site about what about the vegetarians, and this is the order-by-order guide for your next game night.
A Quick Look at Dave and Buster’s
Dave and Buster’s started with two guys whose businesses sat side by side. In 1978, David Corriveau ran Slick Willy’s, a games-and-billiards house in Little Rock’s old train station. James “Buster” Corley ran a restaurant called Buster’s right next door. Their customers kept drifting between the two, eating at Buster’s and playing at Slick Willy’s, so the pair wondered what would happen if they put the food and the games under one roof.
They moved to Dallas and opened the first Dave and Buster’s in 1982. The name came down to a coin flip, and Dave won the toss. The combined eat-and-play idea worked, and the company now runs about 160 U.S. locations. It went public on the Nasdaq under the ticker PLAY in 2014 and bought the family-entertainment chain Main Event in 2022 for about $835 million. The company is based in Dallas and posted roughly $2.1 billion in revenue in its 2024 fiscal year, though a big share of that comes from the arcade, not the kitchen.
Dave and Buster’s Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s the short answer on Dave and Buster’s vegetarian options: lean on the cheese flatbreads, the cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, the chips and guacamole, and a salad without the chicken. The table below sorts the meatless contenders into vegetarian and vegan, with a note wherever something needs a question at the table. Menus change by location and by season, so treat this as your starting list, not gospel.
One thing to understand before you order: this is an eat-and-play spot, so the food is designed to be shared between arcade rounds, not eaten as a sit-down dinner. That works in your favor. The shareables section carries most of the meatless picks, so a group can graze without anyone tracking down a single veggie entree. Order two or three meatless plates for the table and you’ll do better than chasing one big dish.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| 5-Cheese Flatbread | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Margherita Flatbread | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Cheese Stick Stack (fried mozzarella) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Elotes Cauliflower | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (cheese, sauce) |
| Garlic Parm Brussels Sprouts | ⚠️ Check (bacon, butter) | ❌ No |
| Blistered Chili Green Beans | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (butter) |
| Crisps & Guac (chips, salsa, guacamole) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* |
| House Salad (no chicken) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (cheese, dressing) |
| Caesar Salad | ⚠️ Check (anchovy dressing) | ❌ No |
| Fries / Tots (plain) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (shared fryer, butter) |
| Plant-Based Burger patty (swap) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (bun, toppings) |
| Kids Cheese Pizza | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Kids Mac & Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
Shareables and Appetizers
This is where most of the meatless food hides, which makes sense at a place built for groups. The Cheese Stick Stack is fried mozzarella served with marinara, and it’s the easy crowd order. Crisps and Guac gives you tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole, and it’s the closest thing to a safe vegan starter on the board. Elotes Cauliflower is a street-corn riff on roasted cauliflower topped with cheese and a cream sauce, so it’s vegetarian but not vegan. Steamed edamame shows up at some locations and is a clean, plant-based pick when it does. These dishes are made to share, so a table can split a few while everyone keeps playing.
Two veggie-forward sides are worth a question before you order. The Garlic Parm Brussels Sprouts come tossed with parmesan, and the blistered green beans sound safe too, but kitchens often finish sprouts with bacon and toss vegetables in butter. Ask, and swap if you need to. Pretzel bites can work if your location serves them plain, though the standard build comes with a cheese dip, so it’s vegetarian, not vegan. Skip the loaded fries, the pretzel dogs, and anything described as “smashburger” or “bakon.”
Flatbreads and Pizza
The flatbreads are the strongest vegetarian entree-sized option. The 5-Cheese Flatbread and the Margherita Flatbread are both meatless, and they eat like a personal pizza. Steer clear of the BBQ Chicken and the Double-Pepped Up flatbreads, which carry meat. If your location offers a cauliflower crust, it doesn’t change the cheese, so it stays vegetarian, not vegan. For kids, the cheese pizza is a reliable fallback.
Salads and Sides
Order a salad without the protein and you’ve got a quick vegetarian plate. The House Salad is basically a garden salad, and it’s fine once you drop the chicken. Take the cheese off and it leans toward vegan. Ask for a vinaigrette, and skip the croutons if you want to be sure they’re meat-free. The Caesar is the trap here. Caesar dressing almost always contains anchovies, so it isn’t vegetarian unless the kitchen confirms a meat-free version. For sides, plain french fries, sweet potato fries, tater tots, and a baked potato all work. Just ask for no butter on the potatoes, and know the fryer oil is shared with chicken and fish. The kids’ mac and cheese is another quiet vegetarian win when you want something simple.
Burgers and the Plant-Based Swap
Every burger on the standard menu is beef or chicken, so the move is the patty swap. Dave and Buster’s added a plant-based patty back in 2018, rolling the Impossible Burger out to 117 locations, and many spots still let you build a veggie burger by subbing a meat-free patty. Availability moves around, so call ahead if this is your plan. The patty is grilled and served on a regular bun, so order it without cheese and mayo, then ask for a lettuce wrap or confirm the bun, and you’re close to a vegan, plant-based burger. Pile on lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles, and add avocado if they have it. The pasta entrees, like the chicken parm pasta, all come with meat, so ask whether the kitchen will plate a plain pasta in marinara or a creamy sauce.
Desserts
Most of the desserts are lacto-ovo vegetarian, since they’re built on dairy and eggs rather than meat. The chocolate Brownie Bliss, the Strawberry Shortcake, and the crispy Funnel Cake Fries all fit, though the funnel cake fries likely share a fryer. Anything with vanilla ice cream or a creamy cheesecake base stays vegetarian too. The S’mores Cheesecake is the one to question, because marshmallow usually contains gelatin, which is animal-derived. None of these are vegan. If you’re avoiding gelatin, ask about the marshmallow before you dig in.
What’s Vegan at Dave and Buster’s?
Vegan options are thin, and vegans will build most of them with swaps. Your safest bets are Crisps and Guac, steamed edamame where it’s offered, and a House Salad with no cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette, the one dressing most likely to be vegan-friendly. Plain french fries, sweet potato fries, or a baked potato work if you skip the butter and accept the shared fryer-oil risk. The plant-based patty is vegan on its own, so a burger build with no cheese or mayo, served on a lettuce wrap, gets you a hot vegan meal. Confirm each item with your server, because the menu doesn’t label vegan dishes and recipes change by location.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
A few caveats matter here more than the menu lets on. Caesar dressing contains anchovies, so the Caesar salad isn’t vegetarian by default. The fryer is shared with chicken and fish, so fries, cauliflower, mozzarella sticks, and funnel cake fries can pick up traces, which matters if you avoid cross-contact. Some cheeses use animal rennet that the menu doesn’t disclose, and vegetables are often finished with butter or bacon. Marshmallow on the s’mores dessert usually contains gelatin. Gluten is another watch-point, since the flatbreads, mozzarella sticks, and funnel cake fries all carry wheat, and a cauliflower crust isn’t guaranteed gluten-free in a shared kitchen. Dave and Buster’s doesn’t publish a detailed allergen guide for every item, and recipes vary by location, so the safest move is to ask your server to check with the kitchen.
Tips for Vegetarians at Dave and Buster’s
- Treat the shareables as your main course. Two flatbreads and a cauliflower feed a table better than hunting for a single veggie entree.
- Ask about the plant-based patty before you sit down, since availability changes by location.
- Say “no chicken” on salads up front, and ask for balsamic vinaigrette if you want to keep it vegan.
- Skip the Caesar unless the kitchen confirms an anchovy-free dressing.
- Request no butter on fries, tots, sprouts, and green beans, and ask whether the fryer is shared.
- Go on an off-peak afternoon if you want the kitchen to handle special requests without a rush.
- Call your local Dave and Buster’s first, because the menu is not identical everywhere.
Conclusion
Dave and Buster’s won’t win awards for its vegetarian range, but you can absolutely eat here without ordering meat. Build your meal from the flatbreads, the cauliflower and sprouts, the chips and guacamole, and a salad without the chicken, and ask about the plant-based patty if you want something hot off the grill. For the bigger picture, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, browse more restaurant guides, or check the meatless picks at similar spots like Buffalo Wild Wings, TGI Fridays, and Applebee’s.
