Every Vegetarian Option at McDonald’s, Ranked

McDonald’s runs 40,000 locations across 100 countries, and the vegetarian menu in the US wouldn’t fill a napkin. I went through every meat-free thing you can grab at the Golden Arches, and the tally is so pathetic it borders on comedy. Borders.

Here’s what nobody warns you about. McDonald’s refuses to label a single item on its domestic menu as vegetarian or vegan. Their exact words? They “do not promote any US menu items as vegetarian or vegan.” That’s the corporation, in ink, telling you to figure it out yourself.

The fries run through the same filtration rig as the chicken. The buns might pack duck feather derivatives in the dough. And that “Natural Beef Flavor” coating the potatoes? Made with milk.

You can survive here, though. You just gotta know the playbook.

Here are 10 vegetarian picks at McDonald’s, stacked from winner to waste of time.

1. Fruit & Maple Oatmeal

This is the lone item on the whole menu that feels like somebody built it for a person who skips meat. Whole grain oats, cranberries, raisins, and diced Gala apples for $3.39 to $3.89.

Tell them to hold the cream and it’s vegan. 320 calories of slow-burning carbs that’ll carry you past noon, which is more than I can say for anything else under these arches.

2. Egg McMuffin (No Meat)

Ditch the Canadian bacon and you’re left with a fresh-cracked round egg on a toasted English muffin with American cheese. That round egg is no joke. Cracked from an actual shell, cooked inside a metal ring on the flat-top.

I know most people blow right past this one because it looks boring on the kiosk screen. But not gonna lie, the round egg at McDonald’s puts the eggs at most sit-down brunch spots to shame.

3. The Veggie Big Mac Hack

Walk up and order a Big Mac, no patties. You walk away with the triple-decker bun, the Mac sauce, pickles, onions, cheese, and shredded lettuce.

Does eating a Big Mac with zero beef feel strange? Sure. Does the thing still taste like a Big Mac? Without question. The sauce carries every bit of that flavor on its back. Runs $4.50 to $5.50, and tacking on extra lettuce fills the void where the meat used to sit.

4. Baked Apple Pie

Two bucks buys you a warm pastry stuffed with cinnamon apples in a lattice crust. It’s the nearest thing to a vegan dessert on the board.

Now here’s the wrinkle (and I could be off on this one). The L-cysteine baked into the crust might originate from duck feathers. If that wrecks it for you, walk away. If not, it’s one of the top $2 scores in all of fast food.

5. The McGrilled Cheese

You won’t spot this on any menu screen. Ask the crew to grill a plain bun with two slices of American cheese. Some stores ring it up at a dollar, others at two.

Not every worker behind the counter recognizes the name, so I’ve had way better luck punching it into the kiosk as a cheeseburger with no patty. Identical outcome, zero blank stares.

6. Egg & Cheese Biscuit (Round Egg Sub)

The stock biscuit sandwich ships with a folded egg, which is a frozen, pre-cooked rectangle that eats like a sponge wrapped in cellophane. Nope.

Request the round egg swap instead. It’s free at most franchises and transforms a throwaway sandwich into something you’d reorder. The buttermilk biscuit pulls its weight, too.

7. Hotcakes

Three wheat-based pancakes with butter and syrup. They won’t rewire your brain, but they’ll plug the hunger gap at breakfast for around $4.29.

A few years back, I grabbed these expecting garbage and caught myself nodding. They’re fluffy. Not IHOP-tier, but for a machine that feeds 69 million people a day, the hotcakes hold up.

8. Apple Slices

A sealed pouch of pre-cut Gala apples. Nothing else. $0.99 to $1.49.

This is the lone menu item with one ingredient. It’s also the most depressing solo order you’ll ever mumble at a fast food register. Treat it as a sidekick to something else on this list.

9. Side Salad

Baby kale, lettuce, and tomato with a balsamic vinaigrette. Sounds workable until you discover that roughly half of all McDonald’s locations scrapped it from the lineup.

If your store stocks it, snag it. If not, don’t waste your breath. The crew won’t know what you’re referencing either.

10. McCafé Americano

Espresso and hot water. Vegan out of the gate. $2.39 to $2.89.

Look. McDonald’s USA still hasn’t added oat milk, almond milk, or soy milk as of 2026. So if you’re craving a latte or cappuccino, cow’s milk is your only lane. The Americano remains the sole clean coffee play. Taste preference > milk politics.

The Golden Arches Blind Spot

McDonald’s India runs a vegetarian menu the length of a short novel. The UK hawks a vegan McPlant burger with plant-based cheese on it. Germany rolled out McPlant Nuggets crafted from pea protein.

Us? We get apple slices and a polite request to “remove the patty.”

I’m not arguing McDonald’s owes vegetarians a sprawling menu. But when Taco Bell can stamp an entire certified vegetarian section and Burger King keeps the Impossible Whopper on the permanent roster, the planet’s biggest fast food chain ducking this fight reads like a decision. Not a constraint.

(Well, actually, it was a decision. They piloted the McPlant in 600 stores back in 2022. It tanked. So they pivoted to chicken sandwiches and acted like the whole experiment never existed.)

Your playbook is dead simple. Camp out at breakfast. Demand the round egg. Lean on the oatmeal as your anchor. And quit pretending the fries are vegetarian.

They aren’t.