Shakeys Pizza vegetarian options start with a real advantage: this is a pizza chain, so the cheese pizza and the Garden Veggie pizza are meat-free mains, not afterthought sides. Shakey’s also runs a salad bar and a spread of starchy sides, which gives meatless diners more to build a plate from than most fast-casual spots. The work is mostly about dairy and a couple of hidden animal ingredients — anchovy in the Caesar dressing, and an unconfirmed batter on the Mojo Potatoes — and we’ll flag every one. For more meatless restaurant breakdowns, browse the rest of What’s Vegetarian.
A Quick Look at Shakeys Pizza
Shakey’s Pizza opened on April 30, 1954, in Sacramento, California, founded by Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson and Ed Plummer. It holds a real claim to fame: it’s the oldest franchise pizza chain in the United States. Johnson’s “Shakey” nickname came from nerve damage after a bout of malaria he picked up during World War II. The U.S. chain is owned by The Jacmar Companies of Alhambra, California, which bought it in 2004 after running 19 stores as a franchisee.
The U.S. footprint is small and concentrated. As of April 2026 there are roughly 43 U.S. stores, almost all of them in Southern California, with Wikipedia listing California and Washington as the active states. Globally the brand is much bigger — around 500 stores worldwide — but the bulk of that is an independently run operation in the Philippines with 300-plus locations, plus stores in Singapore and Japan. That overseas business is a separate operator, and its menu does not match the U.S. one, which matters a lot for vegetarians, as you’ll see below.
Shakeys Pizza Vegetarian Options: What to Order
The honest core of the Shakeys Pizza vegetarian options is a meat-free pizza, a few starchy sides, and the salad bar. Most of it is lacto-ovo vegetarian thanks to cheese and the chance of egg in the Mojos batter. Here’s the full item-by-item breakdown, with the vegan column kept conservative — an item only gets a checkmark there when a Shakey’s source confirms it.
Shakeys Pizza Vegetarian and Vegan Options at a Glance
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Cheese Pizza | ✅ | ❌ (dairy cheese) |
| Garden Veggie Pizza (mushrooms, green peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, black olives) | ✅ | ❌ (vegan only with no cheese) |
| Garden Veggie or Build-Your-Own Pizza, no cheese | ✅ | ✅ (dough & red sauce reported vegan) |
| Build-Your-Own Pizza with veggie toppings + cheese | ✅ | ❌ (vegan only with no cheese) |
| Famous Mojo Potatoes | ⚠️ (batter not confirmed eggless; shared fryer) | ❌ |
| Garlic Bread | ✅ | ⚠️ (confirm spread at location) |
| Garlic Cheese Bread | ✅ | ❌ (cheese) |
| Spaghetti or Penne with marinara, no cheese | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mexican Fiesta Rice | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mashed Potatoes | ✅ | ❌ (typically dairy) |
| Macaroni & Cheese | ✅ | ❌ (cheese) |
| Salad bar veggies & beans, vinaigrette | ✅ | ✅ |
| Salad bar with Caesar dressing | ❌ | ❌ (anchovy) |
| Sliced peaches / pineapple | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pudding / parfait | ✅ | ❌ (dairy) |
Vegetarian Pizzas at Shakeys Pizza
Pizza is the reason Shakey’s is friendlier to meatless diners than a burger or chicken chain. Here’s what’s meat-free and what to know:
- Cheese Pizza: Red sauce and mozzarella on Shakey’s crust. Vegetarian, not vegan — the cheese is dairy and there’s no vegan cheese at U.S. locations. It’s the simplest meat-free order on the menu.
- Garden Veggie Pizza: Loaded with mushrooms, green bell peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, and black olives. Vegetarian as built. It’s the chain’s standout meatless pizza, and it doubles as your best vegan order if you ask for it with no cheese.
- Build Your Own: Start with cheese and pile on veggie toppings only for a vegetarian pie. Skip the cheese and stick to vegetables for a vegan one. The dough and red sauce are reported vegan by a Shakey’s business manager, so a cheese-free custom pizza is the most flexible plant-based route here.
One thing pizza diners should know going in: there’s no non-dairy cheese anywhere in the U.S. system, confirmed by a Shakey’s manager. Every default pizza includes dairy unless you ask for it to be left off. More on the cheese-free vegan order below.
Vegetarian Sides at Shakeys Pizza
The sides menu is where Shakey’s gives meatless diners more than most pizza chains, but it’s also where the hidden-ingredient traps live. What’s safe and what to verify:
- Famous Mojo Potatoes: Seasoned battered potato rounds and a Shakey’s signature. Treat them as vegetarian-uncertain, not a sure thing. Shakey’s doesn’t publish a Mojos ingredient list, and widely-circulated copycat recipes use an egg-and-milk wash, which would make them ovo-lacto vegetarian at best and not vegan. They also likely share fryer oil with battered chicken. If egg, dairy, or fryer cross-contact matters to you, ask your location before ordering.
- Garlic Bread and Garlic Cheese Bread: Both are vegetarian. The plain Garlic Bread is the better bet if you’re trying to avoid dairy, but confirm the spread at your location. The Garlic Cheese Bread has cheese, so it’s vegetarian but not vegan.
- Spaghetti or Penne with marinara: Vegetarian as served, and vegan if you order it plain with no cheese. The marinara is the key — it’s a reliable meatless pasta either way.
- Mexican Fiesta Rice: Listed as both vegetarian and vegan in the menu guide. It’s one of the few sides that’s safe for plant-based diners with no modifications.
- Mashed Potatoes and Macaroni & Cheese: Both vegetarian. The mac and cheese is dairy by definition, and mashed potatoes are typically made with dairy, so neither is vegan.
The Salad Bar and Desserts at Shakeys Pizza
The salad bar is a genuine asset for meatless diners, with one dressing you need to skip. Here’s how it and the desserts shake out:
- Salad bar vegetables and beans: Vegetarian, and vegan when you build a plate of plain veggies and beans. Use an Italian or raspberry vinaigrette to keep it plant-based.
- Caesar dressing — skip it. The Caesar dressing on the salad bar contains anchovy, so it’s neither vegetarian nor vegan. Reach for a vinaigrette instead, which is the easy fix.
- Sliced peaches and pineapple: Both vegetarian and vegan. Plain sliced fruit from the salad bar is a safe sweet pick for any meatless diet.
- Pudding and parfait: Vegetarian but dairy-based, so they’re not vegan. If you avoid dairy, stick to the sliced fruit for dessert.
What’s Vegan at Shakeys Pizza?
Vegan eating at U.S. Shakey’s is do-it-yourself — there’s no official plant-based pizza, plant-based meat, or vegan cheese on the U.S. menu, confirmed by a Shakey’s manager. The single best vegan order is a Garden Veggie or build-your-own pizza ordered with no cheese, vegetables only. A Shakey’s business manager reported on Yelp that the pizza dough and red tomato sauce are vegan, which makes a cheese-free pie your strongest plant-based bet. Round it out from the salad bar with plain veggies, beans, and an Italian or raspberry vinaigrette — not Caesar, which has anchovy — plus plain spaghetti or penne with marinara and a side of Mexican Fiesta Rice.
What to avoid is straightforward. Every default pizza, the Garlic Cheese Bread, the mac and cheese, the mashed potatoes, and the pudding all carry dairy. The Mojo Potatoes are a maybe at best — the batter isn’t confirmed eggless, and they likely share a fryer with battered chicken, so a strict vegan should pass or ask first. And keep the Philippines menu out of your planning entirely: in December 2021 the separate Philippines operator launched a 100% plant-based “Goood Taco Pizza” with a house dairy-free “unCHEESE,” but that product is not available in the United States. Don’t walk into a U.S. Shakey’s expecting vegan cheese or a plant-based pizza on the board.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Shakey’s official U.S. nutrition and allergen PDF wasn’t accessible at the time of writing, so several ingredient questions below couldn’t be positively cleared. If you have a strict requirement, that makes asking at your location more important here than at chains that publish full allergen data. A few notes that matter most to vegetarians and the dairy-allergic:
- Dairy is the main trap. There’s no vegan or non-dairy cheese at any U.S. Shakey’s, so every default pizza, the Garlic Cheese Bread, the mac and cheese, and the desserts contain dairy unless you order around them.
- Anchovy in the Caesar. The Caesar dressing on the salad bar contains anchovy, which makes it non-vegetarian. Choose a vinaigrette instead.
- Mojo Potatoes are unconfirmed. Shakey’s doesn’t publish a Mojos ingredient list. Copycat recipes use an egg-and-milk batter, and the Mojos likely share fryer oil with battered chicken. Treat them as vegetarian-uncertain and not reliably vegan until a store confirms.
- Pizza dough and the “vegan” claim. The vegan-dough report comes from a store manager, not a published spec, and the allergen table flags milk as a possible allergen. Strict vegans should confirm the dough at the location rather than assume.
- Cheese rennet is unknown. We couldn’t confirm whether Shakey’s mozzarella uses animal or microbial rennet, since the official nutrition PDF was inaccessible. If rennet matters to you, ask.
- Cross-contact and the fryer. This is a commercial kitchen, and the Mojos likely share fryer oil with battered chicken. There’s no documented dedicated meat-free fryer, so anyone avoiding cross-contact for an allergy or strict diet should ask the staff how an item is made.
- Gluten-free: The standard pizza dough and the pasta are wheat-based, and the Mojos are battered, so Shakey’s isn’t a strong gluten-free stop. Check the allergen guide and confirm prep at your location before ordering if gluten is a concern.
Tips for Vegetarians at Shakeys Pizza
- Order the Garden Veggie pizza. Mushrooms, green peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, and black olives make it the standout meatless pie. It’s vegetarian as built and vegan with no cheese.
- For a vegan pizza, say “Garden Veggie, no cheese” or build your own with veggies only. The dough and red sauce are reported vegan, so a cheese-free pie is your best plant-based shot.
- Skip the Caesar dressing. It contains anchovy. Use an Italian or raspberry vinaigrette on the salad bar instead.
- Ask before you count on the Mojos. The batter isn’t confirmed eggless and they likely share a fryer with battered chicken. Vegans should pass; vegetarians who avoid egg or cross-contact should verify first.
- Build a full plate from the sides. Plain spaghetti or penne with marinara, Mexican Fiesta Rice, and salad bar veggies give vegans more to eat than the pizza alone.
- Don’t expect the Philippines menu. The plant-based “Goood Taco Pizza” and dairy-free unCHEESE are a separate overseas operator’s products and aren’t sold in the U.S.
- Confirm at your location. Shakey’s doesn’t publish full ingredient lists, and recipes drift between franchisees. For anything critical, ask the staff how an item is made before you order.
That’s the full rundown of Shakeys Pizza vegetarian options. Bookmark this guide so you always know what to order, and check our other restaurant guides for more meatless picks at pizza chains.
Shakeys Pizza vegetarian options: frequently asked questions
Conclusion: Eating Vegetarian at Shakeys Pizza
Shakey’s is an easier stop for vegetarians than most pizza chains because the Cheese and Garden Veggie pizzas are real meat-free mains, and the salad bar and sides fill out a full plate. For a vegan meal, order a no-cheese Garden Veggie or build-your-own pizza — the dough and red sauce are reported vegan — and add plain pasta, Mexican Fiesta Rice, and salad bar veggies. Watch the anchovy in the Caesar dressing and treat the Mojo Potatoes as a verify-first item. For more chain-by-chain breakdowns, see our master guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants or browse the full Restaurants archive. If Shakey’s isn’t your spot, our guides for Little Caesars and Domino’s cover similar pizza-chain territory with the same cheese-free vegan trick.
