Looking for Penn Station vegetarian options? Order the Veggie sub or the Artichoke sub straight off the menu, no substitutions needed, then round it out with fresh-cut fries and fresh-squeezed lemonade. If you want the full picture before you go, including what’s actually vegan and what to skip, here’s what about the vegetarians eating at this East Coast sub chain.
A Quick Look at Penn Station
Jeff Osterfeld opened his first sandwich shop, Jeffrey’s Delicatessen, at the Dayton Mall in Dayton, Ohio, in 1983. A trip to Philadelphia introduced him to the cheesesteak, and he started selling his own version back home. It was a hit. In 1985 he opened the first Penn Station East Coast Subs in Cincinnati with just four sandwiches on the menu, the cheesesteak among them. Fresh-cut fries and fresh-squeezed lemonade were on that first menu too, and they’re still the chain’s signature today.
Osterfeld started franchising in 1988 and still runs the company as founder and CEO. Penn Station is privately held, not part of a bigger restaurant group, and headquartered in Milford, Ohio. It has grown to more than 320 restaurants across 15 states, concentrated in the Midwest and Southeast. The brand updated its logo in 2016 and rolled out a refreshed identity and an expanded menu in 2026 as it keeps adding new locations.
Penn Station Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Penn Station’s sub menu is built around grilled cheesesteaks and cold deli meats, but it keeps two vegetarian subs on the regular menu and lets you build a third. Here’s how the East Coast sub menu breaks down.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie sub (grilled mushrooms, banana peppers, onions, green peppers, cheese) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese, butter oil) |
| Artichoke sub (artichoke hearts, provolone, parmesan, oregano, mayo, mushrooms) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese, mayo) |
| Build-your-own grilled veggie sandwich (Dagwood without the meats) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (ask no cheese, no butter oil) |
| Fresh-cut fries | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Cheese bread | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Chocolate chunk cookies | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy, egg) |
| Fresh-squeezed lemonade, iced tea, fountain drinks | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Kids grilled cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Wraps and salads made from the meat subs (Dagwood, Club, Italian, cheesesteak) | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Grilled Subs and Wraps
The Veggie sub is the closest thing Penn Station has to a signature vegetarian order. Grilled mushrooms, banana peppers, yellow onions, and green bell peppers come with your choice of cheese. Get it hot off the grill, cold, wrapped, or as a salad. Artichoke hearts, provolone, parmesan, oregano, and mayo make up the Artichoke sub instead, with mushrooms on request. Both come in Regular and Large sizes and can carry a teriyaki flavor. Neither one sounds right? Ask for a Dagwood without the meat and build your own from the topping bar (lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, onions, pickles, and more). Any sub on the menu, including these two, can be ordered as a wrap or a fresh salad instead of on bread.
Sides, Bread, and Sweets
Fresh-cut fries have been a Penn Station staple since the first store opened, and they’re fried in a peanut oil blend rather than any animal fat, so they’re vegetarian and dairy-free as served. Cheese bread is a popular add-on, but it carries real dairy so it’s vegetarian, not vegan. The chocolate chunk cookies and any chips at the register round out the vegetarian side of the menu, though none of the sweets are dairy-free.
Drinks
Fresh-squeezed lemonade is the other Penn Station menu item that’s been around since day one, and it’s dairy-free along with the iced tea and Pepsi fountain drinks. There’s no dairy in any of them, so they’re a safe pour for vegans and vegetarians alike.
What’s Vegan at Penn Station?
The vegan list at Penn Station is short but real. Fresh-cut fries, fresh-squeezed lemonade, iced tea, and fountain sodas are all vegan as served. Build a vegan salad from the topping bar instead, using lettuce, tomato, pickles, red onion, sauerkraut, and avocado spread, dressed with olive oil and vinegar, spicy brown mustard, or oregano. Skip the Veggie sub if you need strict vegan, though. Trace milk and egg show up in the butter-flavored oil that’s brushed onto the bread and used to grill the vegetables, so the sub picks up dairy before the cheese even goes on, per Penn Station’s own allergen data. Dropping the cheese and the butter oil gets you closer. The shared grill still handles dairy and meat all day, so it’s not a certified-vegan order.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
- Soy plus trace milk and egg show up in the butter-flavored oil brushed on the bread and used for the grilled vegetables, per Penn Station’s own allergen page. That’s what keeps the Veggie sub from being vegan even before the cheese.
- Provolone, parmesan, American, and Swiss cheese all contain dairy. None of Penn Station’s public materials confirm whether the rennet is animal or microbial, so mark any cheese ⚠️ if you’re avoiding animal rennet strictly.
- Mayo on the Artichoke sub and elsewhere is egg-based, so it’s vegetarian, not vegan.
- Wraps and salads made from the meat subs still carry that same butter oil and shared prep space. Swapping a meat sub to a wrap doesn’t make it vegetarian on its own. Order the Veggie or Artichoke version instead.
- The grill and fryer are shared with meat and cheese items, so cross-contact is possible if you’re strict about it.
- Bread lists gluten and sesame, which matters for allergy readers even though it doesn’t affect vegetarian or vegan status.
Tips for Vegetarians at Penn Station
- Order the Veggie sub or the Artichoke sub straight off the menu. Both are built vegetarian by default, no substitutions needed.
- Want something different? Ask for a Dagwood without the meat and build your own from the topping bar.
- Get any sub as a wrap or a fresh salad if you’d rather skip the bread, but stick to the Veggie or Artichoke version, not a meat sub with the meat left off.
- Trying to stay vegan? Ask for no cheese and no butter-flavored oil on the Veggie sub, and lean on the topping bar, fries, and lemonade to fill out the meal.
- Round out any order with fresh-cut fries. They’re cooked in a peanut oil blend with no animal fat, so they work for vegetarians and vegans.
- If cross-contact is a concern, ask the crew about the shared grill and fryer before you order.
Conclusion
Vegetarians have it easy at Penn Station. The Veggie sub and the Artichoke sub sit on the regular menu, fresh-cut fries and fresh-squeezed lemonade have been staples since 1985, and building your own from the topping bar covers whatever those two don’t. Vegans get a thinner path, limited mostly to the fries, drinks, and a topping-bar salad, since the standard cheese and butter oil keep the subs out of vegan territory. Want more on eating out without meat? See our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, or browse the full restaurant guide list. If sub shops are your thing, check out what’s vegetarian at Jersey Mike’s, Firehouse Subs, and Subway.
