Looking for Original Pancake House vegetarian options? You’ve got more than a dozen safe picks, starting with a dish the chain itself calls the Fresh Vegetarian Omelette. New to the brand? What about the vegetarians is a fair first question, and this chain answers it better than most breakfast spots. Here’s exactly what to order and what to skip.
A Quick Look at Original Pancake House
Les Highet and Erma Hueneke opened the first Original Pancake House in Portland, Oregon, in 1953. They built the menu around family recipes collected from around the world. That’s why a Swedish pancake, a Dutch Baby, and a corned beef hash still share the same page. The Portland flagship earned a James Beard Foundation “American Classic” award in 1999, one of the highest honors a neighborhood restaurant can get.
The company has stayed privately held and family-run for more than 70 years, with Ronald Highet now serving as president. It never merged into a bigger restaurant group and never filed for bankruptcy. Each Original Pancake House is independently owned and operated under a license from the Portland headquarters. Menu wording and even prices shift a little from one location to the next, and the corporate site says as much outright on every menu page.
Independent ownership means individual restaurants open and close on their own timeline. A few longtime locations closed in 2026 as their owners retired, including ones in Falls Church, Virginia, and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Other franchisees kept signing new leases at the same time. Counts vary by source, but recent franchise disclosure filings and the chain’s own numbers put the total at roughly 150 restaurants across about 30 states. That makes it one of the larger uncovered chains on this site.
The “collected recipes from around the world” idea shows up all over the menu, not just in the origin story. A Swedish pancake, a Danish Kijafa cherry crepe, a Spanish omelette billed as coming “direct from Barcelona,” and a rum-and-brandy crepe called the Tahitian Maiden’s Dream all share menu space. It’s an unusual mix for a pancake house. That mix is part of why the menu has more vegetarian variety than a typical breakfast diner.
Original Pancake House Vegetarian Options: What to Order
The batter-based menu works in your favor here. Nearly every pancake, waffle, and crepe on the board is meat-free by default, and the chain even names one omelette “vegetarian” right on the menu. Here’s the breakdown, based on the official menu at originalpancakehouse.com.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh Vegetarian Omelette (broccoli, tomato, mushroom, cheddar) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (eggs, cheese) |
| Apple Pancake | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (likely contains egg/dairy) |
| Dutch Baby | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (likely contains egg/dairy) |
| Buttermilk Pancakes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (buttermilk is dairy) |
| Blueberry, Banana, Hawaiian, Pecan, Coconut Pancakes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (buttermilk batter) |
| Swedish Pancakes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (traditional recipe is egg-heavy) |
| Potato Pancakes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (likely contains egg) |
| Bacon Pancakes | ❌ No (real bacon in the batter) | ❌ No |
| Three Little Pigs in Blankets | ❌ No (sausage links) | ❌ No |
| Plain, Strawberry, Apple, Blueberry, Coconut, Pecan Waffles | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (batter contains dairy) |
| Bacon Waffle | ❌ No (real bacon baked in) | ❌ No |
| French, Continental, Cherry Kijafa, Mandarin, Fresh Fruit Crepes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (crepe batter likely has egg/dairy) |
| Mushroom, Cheese, Spanish, Plain Omelettes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (eggs, some with cheese) |
| Ham Omelette, Ham and Cheese Omelette | ❌ No (ham) | ❌ No |
| All Egg Specialties (Ham & Eggs, Sausage and Eggs, Bacon and Eggs, Eggs Benedict, Corned Beef Hash, etc.) | ❌ No (every one comes standard with meat) | ❌ No |
| Toast with Preserves | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* (ask for no butter) |
| Fresh Fruit, Fresh Berries, Fresh Grapefruit | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Dry Cereal | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (served with whipping cream by default, ask for it left off or made with water) |
| Orange, Apple, Tomato, Grapefruit Juice | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Coffee, Decaf, Tea, Postum | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (black) |
| Hot Chocolate | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (whipped cream, likely dairy milk) |
The Fresh Vegetarian Omelette
This is the easiest order on the menu. A fluffy omelette comes filled with fresh broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, and aged cheddar cheese. It’s the only dish on the corporate menu that carries “vegetarian” right in its name. You don’t have to ask for substitutions or hope the kitchen understands what you need. Just order it by name and it comes out exactly as described.
Pancakes, Waffles, and Crepes
Most of the batter menu is naturally meat-free. Buttermilk, blueberry, banana, Hawaiian, pecan, and coconut pancakes all share the same egg-and-buttermilk base, with fruit or nuts folded in and no meat anywhere in the recipe. Plain, strawberry, apple, blueberry, coconut, and pecan waffles follow the same rule. Every crepe on the menu is meat-free too, from the simple French crepe to the rum-and-brandy-spiked Tahitian Maiden’s Dream. Two items break the pattern: the Bacon Pancakes and Bacon Waffle mix real bacon bits right into the batter, and the Three Little Pigs in Blankets wraps sausage links inside the pancake itself. Skip those three and the rest of the batter menu is safe.
Want something lighter than a stack? The Swedish Pancakes and crepes are worth a closer look. Both are thin, closer to a French crepe than a diner pancake, and both come loaded with fruit toppings instead of meat. The Danish Kijafa Cherry Crepes and Mandarin Crepes stand out as two of the better vegetarian picks on the whole menu, a dessert-for-breakfast option without touching the omelette page twice.
Omelettes Beyond the Vegetarian One
Want variety beyond the Fresh Vegetarian Omelette? Four more are meat-free as listed: the Mushroom Omelette, topped with a mushroom sherry sauce, the Cheese Omelette, the Plain Omelette, and the Spanish Omelette, which comes in a spicy tomato-based sauce. The Ham Omelette and Ham and Cheese Omelette are the only two on the page that aren’t, so read the name before you order.
What’s Vegan at Original Pancake House?
This isn’t a strong vegan stop. There’s no dedicated vegan menu, and the default pancake, waffle, crepe, and omelette recipes all run on eggs and dairy. Your safest defaults are fresh fruit, fresh berries, fresh grapefruit, and the fruit juices, all vegan as served. Toast with preserves is vegan too, as long as you ask the kitchen to hold the butter. Oatmeal and cream of wheat come with whipping cream by default. Ask for that left off, or ask if the kitchen can make it with water instead, since some locations will do this on request. Black coffee, tea, and Postum, a caffeine-free roasted-grain beverage some locations still carry, are vegan as poured. Each restaurant is independently owned, so confirm with your server before ordering since recipes can vary by location.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Original Pancake House doesn’t publish a company-wide allergen chart. That’s common for a chain built on independently owned locations with their own kitchens. A few things are worth flagging anyway. The corporate menu notes that its pancakes and waffles are cooked with peanut oil unless stated otherwise, the one exception being the Potato Pancakes. This is a peanut-allergy concern, not a vegetarian one, but worth knowing if you’re managing both. Whipping cream, butter, and cheese show up across the specialties, sides, and cereal pages. Ask before you order if you’re avoiding dairy on top of meat. Recipes can also shift slightly by franchise, especially for syrups and sauces, which aren’t standardized chain-wide. Always confirm with your server if you have a specific restriction.
Tips for Vegetarians at Original Pancake House
- Order the Fresh Vegetarian Omelette by name. It’s the one dish the chain itself labels vegetarian, so there’s no guesswork.
- Stick to the fruit, cheese, and vegetable-filled crepes and omelettes if you want more variety than the vegetarian omelette alone.
- Skip the entire Egg Specialties page. Every single item there, from Ham & Eggs to Eggs Benedict, comes standard with ham, bacon, sausage, or corned beef.
- Watch for the Bacon Pancakes, Bacon Waffle, and Three Little Pigs in Blankets. Their meat is mixed into the batter itself, not served on the side, so it’s easy to miss on a menu skim.
- If you’re avoiding peanuts too, ask about the fryer and batter oil. The corporate menu flags peanut oil on everything except the Potato Pancakes.
- For vegan orders, ask for toast without butter, oatmeal without cream, and fruit or juice on the side. Confirm with your server since each location is independently owned.
Conclusion
Original Pancake House makes vegetarian ordering simple. Get the Fresh Vegetarian Omelette by name, or build a plate from the pancake, waffle, and crepe menu, naturally meat-free outside the bacon and sausage items. Vegan diners have thinner pickings and will need to ask for a few swaps. For more on eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, or to browse other chains, check out our full restaurant guide directory. If you like breakfast spots, see what we found at Another Broken Egg Cafe and Black Bear Diner.
