Looking for Hungry Howie’s vegetarian options? You have more to work with than you’d guess from a menu built around pepperoni and ground beef. The Veggie pizza, a cheese pizza on any flavored crust, the Howie Bread, a Garden or Greek salad, and the meatless Veggie Sub all leave the meat off. The dough, the pizza sauce, and the cheese are all meat-free, so the build-your-own route is wide open too. This guide walks through what’s safe to order, what to skip, and the few things worth double-checking. If you’ve ever wondered what about the vegetarians when the rest of the table wants pizza, this is for you.
A Quick Look at Hungry Howie’s
Hungry Howie’s started in 1973 as a single carryout shop in Taylor, Michigan, founded by Jim Hearn. Steve Jackson came on as a partner in 1982, and the two built it into a franchise. The chain still runs privately out of Michigan, and it bills itself as the “Home of the Flavored Crust Pizza.”
That flavored crust is the hook. Hungry Howie’s rolled out eight crust flavors in 1985, brushing the edge of the dough with butter and a seasoning blend before baking. Today the chain runs around 535 locations across 21 states as of 2025, with Michigan home to the biggest cluster by far. Franchise Times ranked it No. 150 on its Top 400 list in 2025. In 2025 the menu also picked up Detroit-style pizza, the thick rectangular pie with crispy cheese edges.
Hungry Howie’s Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s the short version of the Hungry Howie’s vegetarian options worth your money. Pizza is the safest bet, because the dough, the sauce, and the cheese all skip the meat. The table below sorts the regulars into vegetarian and vegan so you can scan it fast. We mark an item ✅ when it’s clearly meat-free, ❌ when it isn’t, and ⚠️ when you should confirm with your store.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie Pizza (mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomato, olives, mozzarella) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Cheese Pizza | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Cheeseless veggie pizza (sauce + vegetables) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Original Round dough | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (no dairy or egg) |
| Pizza sauce | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (plant-based) |
| Howie Bread (with pizza sauce) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (buttered crust) |
| Cheeser / Asiago Howie Bread | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Veggie Sub (vegetables + mozzarella & cheddar) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Garden Salad | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (dressing, croutons) |
| Greek Salad (feta) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (feta) |
| Antipasto / Chef Salad | ❌ No (ham, salami) | ❌ No |
| Chicken Caesar / Chicken Asiago Salad | ❌ No (chicken) | ❌ No |
| Howie Wings, Howie Roll | ❌ No (meat) | ❌ No |
| Buttered / cheese flavored crust | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
Vegetarian Pizzas and Toppings
The Veggie pizza is the headliner. It comes with mushrooms, red onions, green peppers, tomatoes, black olives, and mozzarella, and it’s the easiest meat-free order on the board. Want it your way? Start with a cheese pizza and pile on whatever vegetables you like.
The meat-free toppings include mushrooms, black olives, green olives, green peppers, banana peppers, jalapeños, pineapple, red onions, and tomatoes. The crust helps your case here. Hungry Howie’s lists its Original Round dough with no dairy, no eggs, and no honey, just wheat flour, yeast, sugar, and oil. The pizza sauce is plant-based too, built on tomato puree, sugar, salt, spices, and garlic. So a vegetable pizza is meat-free from the crust up.
One detail vegetarians will like: the mozzarella is made with microbial enzymes, not animal rennet. That means the cheese itself is vegetarian, which isn’t a given at every pizza chain. Skip the meat pizzas, which is most of the specialty list. The Meat Eaters, The Works, Howie Special, Howie Maui, the chicken pizzas, and both pepperoni pies all carry meat.
Flavored Crust, Bread, and Sides
The flavored crust is the signature move, and it’s a fun one for vegetarians. The options are butter, butter cheese, asiago cheese, ranch, garlic herb, Cajun, Italian herb, and sesame. None of them add meat. The butter and cheese versions do add dairy, so they’re vegetarian but not vegan. A plain or seasoned edge keeps things simpler if you’re avoiding dairy.
For sides, Howie Bread is the classic. It’s the chain’s garlic bread sticks served with pizza sauce, and it comes in Cheeser, Asiago, Cajun, and Cinnamon versions. The plain and Cajun versions are the closest to dairy-free, though the bread carries the buttered-crust seasoning, so ask if that matters to you. The cheese-topped versions are vegetarian but not vegan. The Howie Roll is stuffed with pepperoni, so that one’s out. Wings, bone-in or boneless, are meat, so skip those too.
Salads and Subs
Two of the salads are meat-free. The Garden Salad is tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, green peppers, black olives, and croutons over a romaine mix, with your choice of dressing on the side. The Greek Salad adds feta, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, black olives, and pepperoncini, with Greek dressing. Both are vegetarian. The Greek isn’t vegan because of the feta.
Steer clear of the Antipasto and Chef salads, which load on ham and salami, and the two chicken salads. For dressings, the Italian, fat-free Italian, creamy Italian, Greek, and French are dairy-free. Ranch and bleu cheese aren’t, and Caesar dressing often hides anchovy, so it isn’t vegetarian-safe.
The subs are calzone-style, baked from the same pizza dough. The Veggie Sub is your pick here. It’s mushrooms, red onions, green peppers, black olives, and tomatoes with mozzarella and cheddar, plus Italian dressing, and you can add lettuce. It’s vegetarian but not vegan thanks to the cheese. You can also build a sub with three vegetable toppings, sauce, and cheese if you’d rather customize.
What’s Vegan at Hungry Howie’s?
Vegan ordering takes one tweak: drop the cheese. Hungry Howie’s doesn’t carry a vegan cheese, so the move is a cheeseless pizza with sauce and vegetables. The Original Round dough has no dairy or egg, the pizza sauce is plant-based, and the vegetable toppings are fair game. That gives you a real vegan pie, and you can add your own vegan cheese at home if you’re getting it to go.
On the sides, a Garden Salad with Italian or Greek dressing works if you hold any cheese and confirm the croutons. The vegan-friendly dressings are Italian, fat-free Italian, creamy Italian, Greek, and French. For dipping, the BBQ, Buffalo, and Sriracha sauces are dairy-free. The buttered and cheese crusts and breads are off the table for vegans.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
A few things to flag before you order. The cheese-topped breads and the butter, butter cheese, and asiago crusts all add dairy, so they’re out for vegans and anyone avoiding milk. Caesar dressing can contain anchovy and isn’t a safe vegetarian pick. Ranch and bleu cheese dressings contain dairy.
Hungry Howie’s offers a gluten-free crust made from rice flour, but it’s prepped in a shared kitchen, so it isn’t safe for celiac diners with severe sensitivity. Everything bakes in the same ovens as the meat pizzas, so cross-contact is possible if that’s a concern for you. When in doubt, ask your local store to check an ingredient. Recipes can vary by location and change over time.
Tips for Vegetarians at Hungry Howie’s
- Order the Veggie pizza as-is, or build a cheese pizza with mushrooms, onions, peppers, olives, and jalapeños.
- Pick a flavored crust. Garlic herb, Italian herb, sesame, and Cajun add flavor without meat.
- Going vegan? Ask for no cheese, lean on vegetables and pizza sauce, and bring your own vegan cheese for a to-go pie.
- Stick to the Garden or Greek salad, and choose an Italian, Greek, or French dressing to keep it meat-free.
- Skip the Caesar dressing, the Antipasto and Chef salads, the Howie Roll, and the wings.
- The mozzarella uses microbial enzymes, so the standard cheese is vegetarian. No need to ask about rennet.
- Ask about croutons and the buttered-crust seasoning if you’re strict about dairy or hidden animal ingredients.
Conclusion
Hungry Howie’s is friendlier to vegetarians than its meat-heavy menu lets on. The Veggie pizza, a flavored-crust cheese pie, the Veggie Sub, and the Garden or Greek salad cover most cravings, and the vegetarian cheese and plant-based dough mean you can build almost anything. Going vegan just means dropping the cheese. For more on eating out without meat, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and browse all our restaurant guides. If you like pizza-chain rundowns, check vegetarian options at Marco’s Pizza, MOD Pizza, and Pizza Hut.
