Looking for Ono Hawaiian BBQ vegetarian options? There aren’t many, and that’s the honest answer. This fast-casual plate-lunch chain built its whole menu around grilled chicken, beef, pork, and seafood, so vegetarians are mostly working with side dishes here. Our guide on what about the vegetarians is worth a read before you go, since it covers what to expect when a menu leans this hard on meat. Below is exactly what you can order at Ono Hawaiian BBQ, and what to skip.
A Quick Look at Ono Hawaiian BBQ
Brothers Joe and Josh Liang opened the first Ono Hawaiian BBQ in October 2002 on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. Their idea was simple: bring the Hawaiian plate lunch format, a protein plus two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad, to the mainland. Rather than sell out to a big restaurant group, the company stayed privately held and family-run.
Growth came steadily. Ono opened its 50th location in 2015, passed 65 restaurants across California and Arizona by 2017, and crossed 100 locations in 2025, the same year it landed at No. 179 on Restaurant Business magazine’s Top 500 Chains list. More than 120 restaurants operate in California and Arizona as of late 2026, and the company has announced plans for around 10 more locations near Dallas, Texas. Ono is one of the larger Hawaiian food chains in the country, though still a fraction of the size of a national QSR brand, so you won’t find one in every state yet.
Ono Hawaiian BBQ Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Chicken, beef, pork, or seafood shows up in every single entree on the Ono Hawaiian BBQ menu. No tofu, no veggie patty, and no meatless protein swap appears anywhere on the official menu or the company’s published allergen chart. Few of the chains we cover are this limited, and it means the real Ono Hawaiian BBQ vegetarian options are the side dishes, not the plates. Here’s how they break down.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Steamed Rice | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Macaroni Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (milk, egg) |
| Cabbage (side) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Island Spring Mix (salad, no dressing) | ⚠️ Check (dressing sold separately, ingredients not published) | ⚠️ Check |
| Hula Guava Pie | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (milk, egg, wheat) |
| All Plate Lunches, Aloha Plates, Mini Meals, and Family Meal entrees | ❌ No (chicken, beef, pork, or fish) | ❌ No |
Stay cautious with anything marked “check.” Sauces and dressings don’t come with published ingredient lists, so we can’t confirm them as vegetarian or vegan with full certainty.
The Entrees: Why None of Them Work for Vegetarians
Ono’s menu splits into a handful of formats, Aloha Plates, Plate Lunches, Mini Meals, Family Meals, and Keiki (kids) Meals, but the protein list barely changes across them. Chicken comes as Hawaiian BBQ Chicken, Chicken Katsu, Teriyaki Chicken, Grilled Chicken Breast, and the spicier Island Fire Chicken. Beef and pork show up as Kalbi Short Ribs, Hawaiian BBQ Beef, and Kalua Pork with Cabbage. Seafood options are Island White Fish and Crispy Shrimp. Even the “Island Favorites” mix plates just combine two of those proteins, like Chicken Mix or Seafood Mix, so no version pairs a protein with a vegetable instead.
Appetizers follow the same pattern. SPAM Musubi, BBQ Chicken Musubi, and BBQ Beef Musubi all wrap rice around meat. Crispy Shrimp and Crab Rangoon are both seafood. Grilled Spam & Eggs, the anytime item built for breakfast or a quick bite, is meat and egg with nothing plant-based standing in. None of these work for vegetarians, and it’s worth knowing that going in rather than scanning the menu board hoping for a hidden option.
Sides, Salads, and What Actually Passes for a Meal
Steamed rice is the safest order at Ono Hawaiian BBQ. Plain rice with nothing added, it isn’t flagged for any top allergen on the official chart. Cabbage, listed as a side and also served alongside the Kalua Pork plate, follows the same pattern: no allergens flagged, nothing but a vegetable.
Macaroni salad is the one dish here that actually tastes like a real menu item rather than a plain side. As a mayo-based pasta salad, it’s flagged on Ono’s allergen chart for milk and egg, which tracks with a standard mayonnaise-based recipe, so it’s vegetarian but not vegan. Sold on its own or with a protein added, the Island Spring Mix comes with its dressing separate, and Ono doesn’t publish what’s in that dressing. Ask for it dry, or bring your own, if you want to keep the salad vegan, since we can’t confirm the house dressing’s ingredients either way.
Rice, macaroni salad, and cabbage together get you something closer to a full plate. It won’t fill you up the way a protein plate would, and it won’t win any awards, but it’s a real, confirmed vegetarian option if you’re already at an Ono with a group and don’t want to skip the stop entirely.
Desserts and Extras
One dessert sits on the menu, the Hula Guava Pie, and it’s vegetarian. Milk, egg, and wheat are all flagged on the allergen chart, standard pie-crust and custard ingredients, so it isn’t vegan, but no meat or fish is involved. Closing out a meal built around the sides above? This is a reasonable way to end on something sweet.
What’s Vegan at Ono Hawaiian BBQ?
Two confirmed items make up the vegan options at Ono Hawaiian BBQ: steamed rice and the cabbage side. Neither shows flagged allergens on the official chart, consistent with being plain vegetables and grain with no butter, cream, or animal stock added. Milk and egg rule out both the macaroni salad and the Hula Guava Pie for vegans. Skipping the dressing could make the Island Spring Mix salad work, but since Ono doesn’t publish the dressing’s ingredients, we’re not confirming it either way. A full vegan meal isn’t something this chain can carry on its own.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Milk, egg, soy, wheat, sesame, tree nuts, peanut, and fish all get tracked on the allergen chart Ono Hawaiian BBQ publishes online, though full ingredient lists aren’t part of it, so treat the chart as a starting point rather than the final word. A few things worth knowing:
- Egg shows up on the chart for the macaroni salad, salad dressing, and tartar sauce alike, consistent with mayonnaise as a base ingredient.
- Soy and wheat are both flagged for katsu sauce and teriyaki sauce. Fish isn’t flagged for either on Ono’s chart, but since the company doesn’t publish the recipe, ask before ordering if you’re avoiding fish sauce or oyster sauce specifically.
- Sesame is flagged for the Island Spring Mix side on its own, separate from any dressing, so check with staff if you have a sesame allergy.
- Fryer oil gets shared across items like Crispy Shrimp, Chicken Katsu, and Crab Rangoon at most locations. Whether that oil crosses between meat and non-meat items isn’t published, so ask at the counter if cross-contact matters to you.
- Recipes and prep can vary slightly by franchise location. Ask to see the chart posted at your specific location if an allergen matters to you, rather than relying on the corporate version alone.
Tips for Vegetarians at Ono Hawaiian BBQ
- Set expectations before you go. There’s no entree workaround here, one of the more limited menus we’ve covered for vegetarians.
- Order rice, macaroni salad, and the cabbage side together for something closer to a full plate.
- Skip the macaroni salad and the Hula Guava Pie for a vegan visit, both contain egg and dairy.
- Ask about the Island Spring Mix dressing before ordering it if keeping the salad vegan matters to you.
- Eating with a group that wants the BBQ chicken or Kalbi? This is a fine stop, just plan to fill up on sides rather than a plate of your own.
- Check the allergen chart posted at your specific location, since it’s the most current version for that store.
Conclusion
Steamed rice, macaroni salad, and the cabbage side sum up the Ono Hawaiian BBQ vegetarian options, since chicken, beef, pork, or seafood fills every entree on the menu. It’s an honest gap, not a hidden one, so go in knowing this is a meat-forward menu and plan around the sides if you’re vegetarian. Our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants covers more on eating out without meat, and our full list of restaurant guides is worth browsing too. Want an Asian-inspired chain with an actual plant-based protein? Check out our guide to Flame Broiler, which serves organic tofu bowls, or see what’s on the menu at Bonchon and Teriyaki Madness for other takes on Asian-style fast casual.
