Looking for Sbarro vegetarian options? You have more to work with than a food court slice line lets on, starting with the NY Cheese pizza, the Veggie pizza, baked ziti, and spaghetti with marinara sauce. Sbarro sells New York-style pizza by the slice in malls, airports, and highway plazas, and most of what makes that counter run is meat-free. This guide walks through what to order, what to skip, and how to eat vegan if you want to. If you have ever stood at the glass wondering what about the vegetarians, this one’s for you.
A Quick Look at Sbarro
Gennaro and Carmela Sbarro opened an Italian grocery in Brooklyn, New York in 1956. The shop sold imported cheese, cured meats, and fresh pasta to the neighborhood. The family followed shoppers into malls in the 1970s, and the pizza-by-the-slice counter grew into the format you know today. That grocery heritage is why the menu leans Italian-American, with pasta and stromboli sitting next to the pizza, and it is part of why the Sbarro vegetarian options run deeper than a single cheese slice.
Private equity firm MidOcean Partners bought the chain in 2007. Two trips through Chapter 11 bankruptcy followed, in 2011 and again in 2014, and the company moved its headquarters from New York City to Columbus, Ohio that same year. Sbarro is private now and has been opening stores again, with more than 600 locations across 28 countries and roughly 350 in the United States. Most sit in malls, airports, and turnpike travel plazas, so the menu is built for a fast tray, not a long sit-down.
Sbarro Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s the short answer. The cheese and veggie pizzas, baked ziti, spaghetti with marinara, and the salads all work for vegetarians. The pizza dough and the marinara are vegan, so a cheeseless veggie slice is the move if you skip dairy. Watch the Caesar dressing and the meat toppings, and you’re set. The table below sorts the Sbarro vegetarian options on the regular menu so you can scan them before you reach the counter.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| NY Cheese pizza | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| 4 Cheese White pizza | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Veggie pizza (peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Create-your-own cheeseless veggie pizza | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Spinach Stromboli | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Baked Ziti | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (ricotta & mozzarella) |
| Spaghetti with marinara (no meatballs) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Garden Salad | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* |
| Tomato & cucumber salad | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* |
| Caesar Salad | ⚠️ Check (anchovy dressing) | ❌ No |
| Breadsticks | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (butter) |
| Veggie rice / yellow rice | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (butter) |
| Cheesecake, tiramisu, cannoli | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy & eggs) |
| Lay’s Classic chips | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Pizza by the Slice
Pizza is the whole point here, and three slices cover most of the Sbarro vegetarian options for pizza lovers. The NY Cheese is the plain, foldable New York slice, just dough, tomato sauce, and mozzarella. The 4 Cheese White skips the red sauce for a blend of cheeses, so it reads richer. The Veggie piles green bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and black olives over the cheese and tomato sauce. All three are lacto-ovo vegetarian as served.
If you want a build you control, ask for a cheeseless pizza with the vegetables of your choice. The pizza crust and the tomato sauce carry it, and you skip the one ingredient that keeps a slice off the vegan list. Bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, black olives, and spinach are the usual vegetable toppings. Stick with red-sauce slices over the white pizza when you are not sure, since the toppings are easy to see.
One thing the slice format does well is flexibility. A slice and a salad make a quick lunch, two slices make a bigger one, and you decide at the counter. The pizza is also the most consistent of the Sbarro vegetarian options from store to store, since the cheese and veggie slices show up at nearly every location, whether you are in a mall, an airport terminal, or a turnpike plaza.
Pasta and Stromboli
The Baked Ziti is the best hot vegetarian plate on the line. It’s pasta baked in a tomato sauce with ricotta and mozzarella, no meat, and it travels well on a tray. Order spaghetti with marinara instead of the spaghetti and meatballs, and ask for plain tomato sauce so you avoid a meat ragu. That bowl is a vegan-friendly choice too, since the pasta and the sauce skip dairy and eggs.
The Spinach Stromboli is the rolled, stuffed option, spinach and cheese baked in dough. It works for vegetarians who eat dairy. Skip the pepperoni and chicken strombolis for obvious reasons. Stromboli is filling, so one piece plus a salad is a real meal.
Menus shift a little by location and season, so the exact pasta lineup can change. The constant is the red sauce. As long as you ask for marinara and not a meat sauce, the pasta side of the counter stays open to you. When a store runs a baked pasta special, ask what is in it before you assume it is meat-free.
Salads and Sides
Salads and sides round out the Sbarro vegetarian options when you want something lighter than a slice. The Garden Salad is your reliable side, romaine and iceberg lettuce with tomatoes, cucumber, and onion, dressed with an Italian dressing that happens to be vegan. A tomato and cucumber salad shows up at some stores and works the same way. The breadsticks are baked from the same dough and seasoned with garlic and Italian herbs, and they come with garlic or ranch dipping sauce, so go with the garlic dip and the tomato sauce to stay meat-free. Check whether the breadsticks are brushed with butter before you call them vegan.
Sbarro also has a few desserts, and they are all vegetarian. The Mama Sbarro’s cheesecake sits on a graham cracker crust, and most counters carry tiramisu and cannoli as well. All three contain dairy and eggs, so they are vegetarian but not vegan. They make an easy sweet finish if you want one, though none of them fit a vegan order.
Be careful with the Caesar salad. Classic Caesar dressing is made with anchovy, which makes it a fish product, not a vegetarian one, and it carries Parmesan on top. Ask for a different dressing or pick the Garden Salad instead. The yellow rice and veggie rice sides are vegetarian but cooked with butter, so they are off the vegan list.
What’s Vegan at Sbarro?
You can eat vegan at Sbarro with a little ordering know-how. Several of the Sbarro vegetarian options cross over to vegan once you drop the cheese. Sbarro says its pizza dough, marinara sauce, and garden salad are vegan, and you can ask for any pizza without cheese. Build a cheeseless veggie pizza, add a garden salad, and you have a full vegan meal off the regular menu.
- Cheeseless veggie pizza on the standard dough and marinara, topped with peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, or spinach.
- Spaghetti with marinara, ordered as a side or an entree, no meatballs and no meat sauce.
- Garden salad with the Italian dressing, which is vegan.
- Lay’s Classic chips for a quick add-on.
These vegan options at Sbarro are limited but real, and they cover a full meal. Online ordering does not always let you remove cheese, so build the cheeseless pizza in person. Ovens and prep surfaces are shared with meat and dairy, so cross-contact is possible if you are strict. If that matters to you, ask the staff about the ingredients and how a slice is handled before you order.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
A few details decide whether an item really fits your diet. Most of the Sbarro vegetarian options are safe as served, but these caveats are worth a quick check before you order.
- Caesar dressing has anchovy. That makes the Caesar salad a fish dish, not a vegetarian one. Choose Italian dressing or the Garden Salad.
- Cheese rennet is not published. If you avoid animal rennet, ask the store or confirm with Sbarro before you count the cheese pizzas as strict-vegetarian.
- Rice is cooked with butter. The yellow and veggie rice sides are vegetarian but not vegan.
- Shared ovens and counters. Slices bake on the same surfaces as meat pizzas, so trace cross-contact is possible. That matters for strict vegans more than for vegetarians.
- Gluten. The pizza, stromboli, pasta, and breadsticks all contain wheat. Salads are the safer gluten-free pick, dressing aside.
Tips for Vegetarians at Sbarro
A few habits make ordering the vegetarian options at Sbarro faster and safer. Keep these in mind at the counter.
- Order a cheeseless veggie pizza when you want vegan, since the dough and marinara are already plant-based.
- Ask for spaghetti with plain marinara, not the meat sauce or meatball version.
- Pick Italian dressing over Caesar to keep your salad meat-free.
- Pair a slice with the Garden Salad for a balanced tray instead of two slices.
- Look at the toppings under the glass. The veggie slices are easy to spot next to the meat ones.
- Tell the counter you are vegetarian so they cut from a clean spot and swap utensils if you ask.
Conclusion
Sbarro is an easy stop for vegetarians once you know the moves. The Sbarro vegetarian options come down to a few reliable picks: a cheese or veggie slice, the baked ziti, or spaghetti with marinara, plus a garden salad on the side. Skip the Caesar dressing and the meat toppings, and you are set. Going vegan takes one extra step, a cheeseless veggie pizza on the standard dough and sauce. For more on eating out without the meat, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and browse every chain in our restaurant guides.
Want more pizza-counter picks? Check what’s meat-free at Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, and Villa Italian Kitchen, another mall and food court staple.
