Looking for Tous Les Jours vegetarian options? This Korean-French bakery-cafe chain built its whole business around bread, and most of that bread never touches meat. Croissants, milk loaves, whole cake cases, two officially plant-based loaves. The catch is a handful of items with vegetable-sounding names that hide fish sauce or pork, so you need to know which shelf to skip. Here’s exactly what to order, what to avoid, and how it compares to what other chains serve vegetarians.
A Quick Look at Tous Les Jours
Tous Les Jours means “every day” in French. The brand launched in 1996 under the South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, with its first store opening in Guri, South Korea in September 1997. No single founder gets credit here. CJ built the chain directly through its foodservice arm, now called CJ Foodville, which also owns the Bibigo and VIPS restaurant brands. The company opened a frozen-dough production plant in Eumseong in late 1997 and started public franchise licensing the following year. It reworked the format into a full cafe, adding coffee, sandwiches, and juice, in the early 2000s.
The chain crossed into the US in April 2004 with its first store in Los Angeles, and it’s grown steadily since. As of a February 2026 flagship opening in New York City, CJ Foodville puts the US count at over 100 stores, part of more than 1,750 locations worldwide. The company has said it wants 1,000 US stores by 2030 and, in September 2023, announced a $47 million bakery production facility in Hall County, Georgia to support that growth. Tous Les Jours USA is led by CEO Tony Hunsoo Ahn.
Tous Les Jours Vegetarian Options: What to Order
The bread and pastry case is where nearly all of the Tous Les Jours vegetarian options live. Most of it is built from flour, butter, milk, and eggs, with no meat anywhere near it. The sandwiches and a few named breads are where meat shows up, and a couple of items with innocent-sounding names are the real traps. Here’s the rundown before you order.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Grain Loaf | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (official plant-based bread) |
| Olive Basil Loaf | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (official plant-based bread) |
| Milk Bread & Milk Soft rolls | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (milk, egg) |
| Croissants & cream cheese breads | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (butter, egg, dairy) |
| Egg Salad Sandwich | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg, mayonnaise) |
| Caprese Sandwich | ⚠️ Check (mozzarella rennet type unconfirmed) | ❌ No |
| Plantastic vegan mini cakes (Raspberry & Blueberry Chocolate) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (limited-time, participating stores) |
| Cloud Cakes & mousse cakes | ⚠️ Check (possible gelatin stabilizer, unconfirmed) | ❌ No |
| Coffee & tea drinks made with Oatly oat milk | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Kimchi Croquette | ❌ No (contains fish sauce) | ❌ No |
| Croque Monsieur (filed under “Bread”) | ❌ No (ham) | ❌ No |
| Bulgogi Sausage Roll, Spicy Sausage Bread, Garlic Ham Cheese Bread | ❌ No (meat) | ❌ No |
Breads and Pastries
Bread is the reason Tous Les Jours exists, and by company estimates it makes up more than 40% of total sales. Most of the case is lacto-ovo vegetarian: milk loaves, cream breads, custard buns, red bean bread, cranberry and blueberry cream cheese breads. Add in a long list of croissants and Danish-style pastries built on butter, milk, and eggs, and that makes the bread case the easiest place to find real Tous Les Jours vegetarian options without asking anyone anything.
Two loaves go further. The Multi-Grain Loaf and the Olive Basil Loaf, both launched as permanent items in June 2023, are officially labeled completely plant-based. The Multi-Grain Loaf’s ingredient list runs on wheat flour, a multi-grain mix, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and a soy-based margarine, no dairy, egg, or honey anywhere in it. The Olive Basil Loaf swaps in sliced olives and basil on the same plant-based base. Both are sold at roughly 90 US locations and up as the rollout continues.
Not every bread is safe to grab without reading the label. The Bulgogi Sausage Roll wraps a pork sausage in a beef-collagen casing inside pastry dough. Spicy Sausage Bread uses a beef frank. Garlic Ham Cheese Bread names its ham right in the title. None of those three hide what they are, but they sit on the same shelf as the vegetarian breads, so a quick scan isn’t enough. Read the case label before you grab anything shaped like a filled roll.
Cakes and Desserts
The cake case runs from Cloud Cakes (a lighter whipped-cream style) to buttercream classics like Red Velvet and Black Sugar Buttercream, plus mousse cakes like Strawberry Tiramisu and Sweet Potato Mousse. All of these are built on dairy and egg, so they’re vegetarian by default. A customer question to the company’s Yelp page asked specifically which cakes are free of pork gelatin, and it went unanswered beyond a link to the ingredients page. That’s not a confirmation either way. But it’s a real enough signal that some mousse and cream-stabilized cakes may use gelatin, so ask an in-store associate to check the label if that matters to you.
The Plantastic Raspberry Chocolate and Plantastic Blueberry Chocolate miniature cakes, introduced in August 2024, are the clearest vegan pick in the cake case. Each is a dense chocolate cake filled with berry flavor and vegan cream cheese, topped with fresh raspberries or blueberries. No eggs or dairy in either one. Marketing Manager Sue Han called the launch “a respectful nod to our planet,” saying the miniature cakes reinforce the company’s commitment to sustainability and innovation. They’re a limited-time item at participating stores, so call ahead if you’re planning a trip around them.
Sandwiches: Read This Section Twice
This is the one category where vegetarians need to slow down. Of the roughly 18 sandwiches on the menu, the large majority carry turkey, ham, tuna, chicken, or bacon. That list includes Turkey Bacon Egg Salad, Ham & Cheese Sandwich, Tuna Melt Baguette, Chicken Club, and Jalapeño Ham & Cheese Croissant. Only two or three are meat-free: the Egg Salad Sandwich, the Egg & Cheese Morning Bun, and the Caprese Sandwich (mozzarella, tomato, basil).
The Caprese is the closest thing to a dedicated vegetarian sandwich here, though the rennet type used in its mozzarella isn’t disclosed on the official site, so strict lacto-vegetarians who care about that detail should ask in store. Also worth knowing: the Croque Monsieur, a ham-and-cheese classic, is filed under the “Bread” section of the online menu rather than “Sandwiches,” so a search that only scans the sandwich list can miss it.
Coffee, Tea, and Oatly Drinks
The espresso and latte lineup covers the usual range: caramel, hazelnut, brown sugar, lavender, pistachio, cold brew, and more. Oatly is the chain’s exclusive oat milk partner at over 100 US bakeries, part of a stated push to add more dairy-free options. It backs two drinks built specifically around it: a Shakerato (iced espresso shaken with vanilla syrup and Oatly Barista Edition oat milk) and a Shaken Tea Latte (Assam tea, vanilla syrup, and oat milk). Any milk-based drink on the menu can generally be made with oat milk on request, which makes the coffee counter the easiest spot in the store for anyone going dairy-free. The Honey Lavender Macchiato is the one drink worth flagging for vegans specifically, since it’s built around honey.
What’s Vegan at Tous Les Jours?
Vegan options at Tous Les Jours used to be close to nonexistent, and older customer questions on Yelp confirm that. That’s changed since 2023. The Multi-Grain Loaf and Olive Basil Loaf are permanent, officially plant-based breads sold at roughly 90-plus US locations. The Plantastic Raspberry Chocolate and Plantastic Blueberry Chocolate mini cakes are vegan, though limited-time and store-dependent. And the Oatly partnership means most coffee and tea drinks can go fully vegan with an oat milk swap. Vegan bread selection is still thinner than the vegetarian side of the case, but it’s a real and growing list, not just a plain roll and black coffee.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
The biggest hidden trap on the menu is the Kimchi Croquette. It’s marketed with vegetable-forward language about kimchi, vegetables, and spices. But the official ingredient list confirms the filling includes anchovy fish sauce, a standard ingredient in traditional Korean kimchi that isn’t obvious from the name. The croquette’s bulgogi marinade component also carries a beef-associated flavor profile. Treat the whole item as off-limits rather than assuming “kimchi” means plant-based. The standard plain Croquette, by contrast, lists onions, carrots, mushrooms, and a pulse-protein filling with no meat or fish sauce disclosed. That makes it egg-vegetarian-safe (it’s fried in a wheat-and-egg dough) but not vegan.
Beyond that, the case-wide allergens are the usual bakery list: wheat, soy, egg, milk, and sesame show up across most items, with fish limited mainly to the Kimchi Croquette and any tuna-based sandwich. Rennet type for the mozzarella and cream cheese used across sandwiches and cheesecake isn’t disclosed on the official site, so ask in store if animal rennet is a dealbreaker for you. If you or someone you’re ordering for has a fish or shellfish allergy, the Kimchi Croquette and any sandwich naming tuna are the two items to flag by name to staff.
Tips for Vegetarians at Tous Les Jours
- Stick to the bread and pastry case first. Most of it needs no substitutions at all.
- Order the Multi-Grain Loaf or Olive Basil Loaf if you want a confirmed plant-based, dairy-free option with no egg.
- Skip anything with “sausage,” “ham,” “bacon,” “turkey,” or “tuna” in the name. That covers most of the sandwich list.
- Don’t assume “kimchi” means vegetarian here. The Kimchi Croquette contains fish sauce.
- If you’re vegan, ask for an Oatly oat milk swap on any coffee or tea drink, and check for the Plantastic mini cakes if your store carries them.
- Ask about rennet before ordering the Caprese Sandwich or a cheesecake slice if that detail matters to your diet.
- Call ahead for the Plantastic vegan cakes. They’re a limited-time, participating-store item, not a guaranteed stock item everywhere.
Conclusion
Tous Les Jours vegetarian options are easy to find as long as you stay in the bread and pastry case. This is one of the few bakery-cafe chains with real, confirmed vegan bread and cake options too. Just keep an eye on the sandwich list, the ham-filled Croque Monsieur hiding under “Bread,” and the fish-sauce-based Kimchi Croquette. Do that and you’ll walk out with exactly what you meant to order. For more on eating out without meat, check our full guide to vegetarian and vegan dining at restaurants, or browse our full list of restaurant guides. See how the sister Korean bakery-cafe brand Paris Baguette compares, along with Bruegger’s Bagels and Corner Bakery Cafe.
