Looking for Five Guys vegetarian options? There’s no veggie burger and no meatless patty, so you’re working with fries, free peanuts, and a build-your-own veggie sandwich. It’s a thin menu for plant-based eaters, but you can put together a real meal once you know which toppings and condiments to ask for. This guide walks through every vegetarian and vegan pick, the hidden animal ingredients to watch, and how to order so you actually get fed. For more meatless restaurant guides, start at What’s Vegetarian.
A Quick Look at Five Guys
Five Guys started in 1986 in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Jerry and Janie Murrell opened it as a carry-out burger joint, and the name comes from their five sons: Jim, Matt, Chad, Ben, and Tyler. It stayed a family operation, and it still is today, run under Five Guys Enterprises, LLC, which the Murrell family privately owns.
The chain didn’t franchise until the early 2000s, then it grew fast, selling out its regional territory in about 18 months. Today Five Guys lists more than 1,800 locations across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia, with roughly 1,500 more in development. The U.S. holds most of those stores, though the company doesn’t break out an exact domestic count in its public materials.
Five Guys Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s how the core menu breaks down for vegetarians and vegans. The big thing to remember: the bun contains both milk and eggs, and the cheese lists non-specific “enzymes,” so a few items that look safe carry caveats. The table marks an item vegan only when the ingredient list confirms it.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| French fries (Five Guys Style) | ✅ | ✅ |
| French fries (Cajun Style) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Free in-shell peanuts | ✅ | ✅ |
| Veggie Sandwich (on bun) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Veggie Sandwich (lettuce wrap, no cheese/mayo) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cheese Veggie Sandwich | ⚠️ | ❌ |
| Grilled Cheese | ⚠️ | ❌ |
| Milkshake (most mix-ins) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Fresh toppings (lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, peppers, jalapeños) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Grilled onions / grilled mushrooms | ⚠️ | ⚠️ |
| Ketchup, mustard, relish, BBQ, hot sauce, A.1., malt vinegar | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mayonnaise | ✅ | ❌ |
The ⚠️ marks are worth a second look. Cheese gets a warning because its label says “enzymes” without naming the source. That can mean animal rennet, so strict vegetarians may want to skip it. Grilled onions and mushrooms cook on the same flat-top as the beef. So they’re flagged for cross-contact, even though the vegetables themselves have no animal ingredients.
Sandwiches and Build-Your-Own
Your main event as a vegetarian is the Veggie Sandwich. It’s a bun loaded with whatever fresh and grilled vegetables you want, no patty. Add American cheese and it becomes the Cheese Veggie Sandwich. You can also order a plain Grilled Cheese if you just want melted cheese on the toasted bun.
Pile on the toppings, because that’s where the flavor lives. All of these are vegan by ingredient list and free to add:
- Lettuce, tomatoes, raw onions, and pickles
- Green peppers and jalapeños
- Grilled onions and grilled mushrooms (cooked on the shared griddle)
- Ketchup, yellow mustard, relish, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, A.1. steak sauce, and malt vinegar
Skip the mayo if you’re avoiding eggs. It’s made with soybean oil and egg yolks, so it’s fine for ovo-lacto vegetarians but not vegan. Same goes for the fry sauce, which also contains eggs.
Fries and Sides
The fries are the best thing on this menu for plant-based eaters, and they’re genuinely vegan. Five Guys Style fries are just potatoes, refined peanut oil, and salt. The Cajun Style adds a seasoning blend of garlic, paprika, oregano, red pepper, and onion. One supplier version also includes canola oil and silicon dioxide as an anti-caking agent. Both are vegan.
What makes the fries reliable is the fryer setup. Five Guys cooks fries in dedicated 100% peanut-oil fryers that handle nothing else, so no meat ever touches that oil. That means no fryer cross-contamination, which is rare at a burger chain. The catch is the obvious one: peanut oil, plus free peanuts everywhere, so this is a hard no if you have a peanut allergy.
Beyond fries, you’ve got the free in-shell peanuts by the door and milkshakes for dessert. Shakes are dairy-based, so vegetarian but not vegan. Every mix-in except bacon is vegetarian too, so Oreo, banana, chocolate, peanut butter, strawberry, and salted caramel are all fair game.
The shake itself starts from a vanilla dairy base, then you stack on whatever mix-ins you want at no extra charge. That’s a nice perk for vegetarians, because you can pile two or three together without paying à la carte. The one mix-in to leave off is bacon, which is the only meat option in the bunch. Whipped cream comes standard on top and it’s dairy, so it’s fine for vegetarians but skip it if you’re vegan. If you’re avoiding peanuts entirely, remember the peanut butter mix-in is there too. The shakes are also made on equipment in a kitchen full of peanut oil.
One thing worth knowing about the fries: portion size is generous to the point of comedy. Five Guys is known for scooping the fries into your cup and then dumping a second handful straight into the bag. A “little” fry feeds one person easily, and a “regular” can stretch across two. For a vegetarian relying on sides to round out the meal, that matters. Order one regular fry to share with a loaded Veggie Sandwich and you’ve got a full plate without buying extra. Both the Five Guys Style and Cajun Style come from the same potatoes-and-peanut-oil process. The only choice you’re making is whether you want the seasoning.
Drinks at Five Guys
Drinks are an easy win here. Five Guys uses Coca-Cola Freestyle machines, so you get well over 100 fountain choices — Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, lemonade, flavored waters, and more. Standard soft drinks and bottled water are vegan, so the only beverage that carries an animal-ingredient caveat is the dairy milkshake. Grab a fountain soda or a bottled water alongside the fries and you’re set.
What’s Vegan at Five Guys?
The vegan menu is short but real. Your confirmed vegan options are the Five Guys Style and Cajun Style fries, plus the free peanuts. The closest to a vegan main is a Veggie Sandwich ordered as a lettuce wrap with no bun, no cheese, and no mayo. That lettuce wrap is the closest thing to a full vegan meal here, and you can stack it with any of the vegan toppings and condiments listed above.
What to avoid is just as important. The bun is out for vegans because the dough contains both milk and eggs. American cheese is out (dairy plus those unnamed enzymes), and so are mayo and fry sauce, which both contain egg yolks. Milkshakes are dairy, so those are off the table too. And if you’re strict, think twice about grilled onions and mushrooms, since they share the flat-top griddle with beef burgers and hot dogs. Cooks wipe the surface between orders, but it isn’t deep-cleaned, so residue is possible. Ordering raw toppings sidesteps that risk entirely. One note on the toasted bun: Five Guys uses a butter-flavored oil (“liquid butter”) that the company says is dairy-free. So the toasting fat itself isn’t the dairy problem — the milk and eggs in the bun dough are.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Everything at Five Guys is made to order by hand, and the company openly warns about cross-contamination risk. For gluten-free eaters, the natural move is a lettuce-wrapped veggie sandwich or a bunless order, since the bun contains wheat. The fries are made from potatoes, peanut oil, and salt, but they share kitchen space with other items. Ask your location how comfortable you should be if you’re highly sensitive.
The peanut situation deserves a flag of its own. Free peanuts sit out in the open and the fryers run on peanut oil. That makes Five Guys one of the riskiest fast-food chains for anyone with a peanut allergy, separate from whether something is vegetarian. For the full breakdown, check the official Five Guys Nutrition and Allergen Guide before you order. That matters most if you’re managing a dairy, egg, soy, sesame, or wheat allergy. The ingredient lists there are the source of truth and they update them periodically.
Tips for Vegetarians at Five Guys
- Order the Veggie Sandwich and load it with both fresh and grilled toppings — they’re free, so don’t be shy.
- Going vegan? Ask for it as a lettuce wrap with no bun, no cheese, and no mayo.
- Stick to raw toppings if you want to avoid the shared griddle. Grilled onions and mushrooms cook next to the beef.
- Skip the mayo and fry sauce if you avoid eggs; reach for ketchup, mustard, BBQ, A.1., or malt vinegar instead.
- Vegetarians wary of animal rennet should skip the American cheese, since the label only says “enzymes.”
- The fries are your safest bet thanks to the dedicated peanut-oil fryers, unless you have a peanut allergy.
- For dessert, any milkshake mix-in except bacon is vegetarian, so build whatever combo you want.
Five Guys vegetarian options: frequently asked questions
Conclusion
Five Guys won’t win any awards for its meatless menu, but you won’t go hungry either. Build a loaded Veggie Sandwich, grab the famously good fries, and finish with a shake, and you’ve got a solid vegetarian meal. Vegans have to work a little harder with the lettuce-wrap route, but the fries and peanuts make it doable. The main rules are simple: skip the egg-based mayo and fry sauce, watch the cheese if you avoid rennet, and choose raw toppings if the shared griddle worries you.
Want more help eating out? Read our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, browse all our restaurant guides, or check out similar fast-food breakdowns like In-N-Out vegetarian options and Shake Shack vegetarian options.
