Vegan
Vegan at a American restaurant: what to ask about
Most of what determines whether a American dish works for vegans is not printed on the menu. Here is what is usually in there, and how to ask about it without an interrogation.
What catches people out
- Butter applied at the end
- The most common problem by a wide margin, and the hardest to spot, because it happens after the dish was described.
- Buttermilk
- Ranch dressing, pancakes, biscuits, cornbread and fried coatings. It is dairy in items that read as bread or as batter.
- Egg in the bun
- Brioche buns are egg-enriched; a plain sesame bun usually is not. Since the bun is rarely described, it is worth asking which one the burger comes on.
- Honey
- In cornbread, in honey mustard, in glazes and in some barbecue sauces, where the menu just says 'sweet'.
- The griddle itself
- A veggie patty is frequently cooked on the same flat-top as the beef, which is a separate question from what the patty is made of.
Usually a good starting point
Usually built on tomato, beans and spice rather than on stock or dairy — though the cheese and sour cream normally arrive on top unless you ask.
Widely available and easy to order, with the bun and the griddle as the two things worth asking about.
Two of the very few things on an American menu that are not finished with butter or dressed with something creamy.
What to actually say
One specific question is easier for everyone than three vague ones — for you and for the person answering.
- “Is there butter on this?”
- “Is the bun made with egg or milk?”
- “Is the veggie patty cooked on the same griddle as the meat?”
What American menus don’t print
Nobody is hiding anything. These are foundational ingredients that a American kitchen treats the way you treat salt — not an ingredient, a medium. That is exactly why they never appear in a description.
Soft drinks, obviously, but also barbecue sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, burger buns, breakfast cereals and cured meats. It is the reason so many savoury American dishes read as faintly sweet to visitors who were not expecting it.
The marinade under fried chicken, the ranch dressing on everything, and the biscuits, pancakes and cornbread. Dairy in a great many places where the menu describes no dairy at all.
Southern vegetable sides in particular — collard greens, green beans, baked beans, cornbread and hash browns are frequently started in it, or cooked with a ham hock. The vegetables are often the least vegetarian thing on the plate.
In the classic Caesar dressing, and in Worcestershire sauce — which then turns up in meatloaf, burger seasoning, gravies, barbecue sauces, cocktail sauce and a great many marinades. One ingredient, an enormous footprint, and it is essentially never printed.
Steaks basted or finished with it, vegetables tossed in it, toast and buns griddled in it, mashed potato built on it. It is applied after the dish description was written.
Recipes vary between restaurants and change without notice, so treat all of this as what to raise with the kitchen rather than a guarantee about any particular dish. The staff always have the final word.
TableSage reads menus using an AI language model, which gets things wrong sometimes.
Know which dishes to ask about.
Photograph the menu and it flags what is worth raising — including the ingredients that are never printed.