Vegetarian and Vegan Options at Whataburger

Is there a veggie burger at Whataburger?

No. Whataburger's current menu has no veggie or plant-based burger in our data. The meat-free sandwich is the Grilled Cheese, and the rest of the meat-free options are sides, breakfast items without meat, desserts and drinks.

The Grilled Cheese is $1.99 (510 cal) on its own or $4.79 as a meal (830 cal). Details are on the Grilled Cheese page.

Vegetarian options

• Grilled Cheese: $1.99, 510 cal.
• Fries: $2.99 medium, 420 cal.
• Onion rings: $3.99 medium, 300 cal.
• Pancakes: $3.59, 630 cal.
• Egg Sandwich: $2.69, 310 cal.
• Biscuit, Cinnamon Roll and Hash Brown Sticks at breakfast.
• Desserts and shakes: the pie, cookie, brownie and shakes.

Whether an item suits you depends on how strict you are: our data does not say what the fryer oil is, whether fryers are shared with meat, or what is in the breading and pie crust beyond the listed allergens.

Vegan options

A strict vegan order is very limited. Items that list milk or egg are out, which removes the cheese, biscuits, shakes, mayonnaise and the Hot Apple Pie (it lists gluten, milk, wheat). Medium fries list soy only, with no milk or egg, and Hash Brown Sticks are listed free of milk and egg too.

That makes fries, Hash Brown Sticks, applesauce and drinks the closest to vegan on the menu, but the allergen chart only covers allergens, not every animal-derived ingredient. People who are strict about fryers or ingredients such as natural flavors should treat even these as uncertain.

Building a meat-free meal

The most filling meat-free meal is a Grilled Cheese Whatameal at $4.79. For less, a Grilled Cheese with a medium side of fries costs $4.98 by our math and comes to 930 calories.

At breakfast, pancakes and Hash Brown Sticks make a meat-free plate for $5.58. Breakfast prices are on the breakfast menu.

What is not vegetarian

Every burger, chicken item and wing is meat, and so are the breakfast sandwiches built around sausage, bacon or a chicken strip: the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit, the Breakfast Burger, the biscuit sandwiches with bacon or sausage and the sausage taquito. The Breakfast Platter and Pancake Platter come with bacon.

Biscuits and gravy is not vegetarian either: the cream gravy is made with sausage. If you want a breakfast plate without meat, the plain pancakes and the Egg Sandwich are already built that way, with no meat to remove.

Vegetarian at breakfast

Breakfast has the most meat-free choices. The Egg Sandwich ($2.69, 310 cal) is egg and cheese on a bun, the pancakes ($3.59) come without meat when ordered on their own, and the plain biscuit ($1.99) and Cinnamon Roll ($3.39) have no meat. Hash Brown Sticks round out the plate.

Meat-free on a budget

Our math, at the stores we checked: a Grilled Cheese alone is $1.99, the cheapest sandwich on the whole menu. Two of them with a medium fries come to $6.97. At breakfast, an Egg Sandwich and Hash Brown Sticks are $4.68 together and 500 calories.

More low-cost ideas are on the cheapest Whataburger items.

Allergens to check

Vegetarian items still carry allergens: the Grilled Cheese lists milk, the onion rings list egg and milk, and the pancakes and biscuits list wheat. The full chart is on the Whataburger allergen menu, and dairy-free planning on Whataburger dairy-free.