Vegan options at Applebees: the honest order guide

Applebees is one of the harder national chains to navigate as a vegan. The menu leans heavy on dairy, butter, and cheese, the kitchen does not have a dedicated vegan protein on the line, and the famously shared fryer rules out a lot of the side options that would otherwise be safe. That said, every Applebees in the country can build a clean vegan plate if you know which three or four items the kitchen can put together without a workflow change. This guide is the honest order playbook for sit-down dinners, group meals, kids in tow, and the late-night happy-hour stop. We tell you what works, what to skip even though it sounds vegan, and the exact phrase that gets the right plate to the table.

Is anything actually vegan at Applebees?
Yes, but the safe core is shorter than at chains built around build-your-own bowls. The reliably vegan options at virtually every Applebees location: the Side House Salad with no cheese and no croutons (oil and vinegar dressing on the side), a plain baked potato with no butter and no sour cream and no cheese and no bacon, steamed broccoli without butter, and most of the fountain drinks. The Garden Salad as an entree-sized version of the Side House works the same way. Apple slices appear on the kids' menu at most locations.

The items that look vegan but are not: french fries (shared fryer with breaded chicken tenders, breaded shrimp, mozzarella sticks, and onion rings, so the oil itself carries dairy and egg traces from the breaded items), garlic mashed potatoes (made with butter and dairy), the rice pilaf (often cooked in chicken broth or with butter), the tortilla chip basket where offered (the salsa is usually fine; the chips themselves are usually fried in the same shared oil as the breaded items), the spinach-and-artichoke dip (dairy throughout), and the entire appetizer sampler.

Plant-based proteins at Applebees: there is no permanent vegan protein on the national menu. Beyond Burger had a brief regional rollout a few years back and was pulled. As of 2026, no Applebees franchise we have audited carries a vegan burger patty, vegan chicken, or vegan sausage on the standard line. A handful of regional franchises run limited-time vegan offerings, but treat that as the exception rather than the rule.

The shared-fryer problem nobody warns you about
Applebees does not run a dedicated vegan fryer at any location we have audited. That single fact rules out french fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, breaded chicken, breaded shrimp, and any side or appetizer that emerges from the fry station. The breaded items shed batter into the oil during cooking, so even something that looks like a plain potato carries trace dairy and egg from the surrounding fry workload.

If you follow a strict no-cross-contact standard (medical dairy allergy, religious observance, or strong personal preference) the safe move is to skip every fried item entirely and stay on the salad-and-baked-potato lane. If your standard is more practical (you avoid animal products as a rule but do not police trace cross-contact), the fries are technically not vegan in the strictest sense but are widely considered an acceptable compromise by ethical-vegan diners. Decide your own line before you sit down rather than at the table when the server is hovering.

The one workaround that occasionally works: at slow hours, some Applebees kitchens will run a fresh batch of fries first thing after a fryer-oil change. If you are eating right at open, ask whether the oil has been changed that day and whether the first batch could be timed before any breaded items go in. Most managers will accommodate a polite request when the kitchen is not under rush pressure.

Build-your-own modifications that work
The strongest vegan plate at most Applebees locations is built from three modified sides. Start with the side house salad (no cheese, no croutons, oil and vinegar). Add a plain baked potato (no butter, no sour cream, no cheese, no bacon bits). Add steamed broccoli without butter. The kitchen can build all three in under five minutes because none of them require a workflow change. The total often lands between $14 and $18 depending on whether you order them separately or as add-ons to a different entree.

The garden salad as an entree gives you a larger version of the same idea. Ask for it without cheese, without croutons, without bacon, and with oil and vinegar or a balsamic vinaigrette on the side (confirm the balsamic does not contain anchovy, which is rare but worth checking at sit-down chains).

Pasta builds work at some Applebees locations. The classic Three-Cheese Chicken Penne is obviously not adaptable. The Bourbon Street Steak comes with sides that are easier to vegan-modify than the steak itself. If you spot a pasta dish on the local menu that uses a tomato base (a marinara or arrabbiata), confirm the pasta is egg-free (most Applebees rotini and penne is) and ask for the sauce dish without the cheese, without the chicken, and with steamed vegetables instead.

Exact server script
Try this opener: 'Hi, I am vegan, which means no animal products including dairy, eggs, butter, or honey. Can you check with the kitchen on a few things?' Most Applebees servers handle this without fuss because dietary requests come through every shift.

Then list the asks: 'I would like the side house salad with no cheese, no croutons, and oil and vinegar on the side. A plain baked potato with no butter, no sour cream, no cheese, and no bacon. And steamed broccoli without butter.'

The follow-up question to ask: 'Does the kitchen use a shared fryer for fries and onion rings?' The answer at every Applebees we have surveyed is yes. That tells you whether to add fries to the order at all, depending on your personal standard for cross-contact.

If you want a drink: 'And a Long Island iced tea' (vegan at most Applebees), 'a beer (any major-brand domestic),' or 'a fountain Diet Coke' is all clean. Skip mudslides, white russians, and anything with cream of coconut.

Drinks, cocktails, and the one trap
Most fountain drinks at Applebees are vegan: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, lemonade, iced tea, sweet tea (the sugar is plant-based at every location we have surveyed). Coffee is vegan; the half-and-half and cream offered at the counter are not, so request a soy or oat milk if available, or skip the dairy add-on.

Cocktails: most Applebees cocktails are vegan as built. Long Island iced tea, gin and tonic, vodka soda, mojito, classic margarita, classic daiquiri, classic Bloody Mary (confirm the Bloody Mary mix at your specific location does not contain anchovy-based Worcestershire; some house mixes do, most premixed bottles do not). The famous Dollarita and the rotating Neighborhood Drink of the Month are usually vegan unless the month features a creamy variation. Foam-based cocktails (whisky sours with egg-white foam, classic Pisco sours) are not vegan and the egg white is the entire point of the foam, so skip them rather than asking for the foam to be removed.

The one trap: the mudslide, white russian, brandy alexander, banana mama, strawberry colada, and pina colada all contain dairy or cream-of-coconut blends that are not vegan even though some of those drinks sound dairy-free by name. The cream of coconut used in a pina colada is technically vegan (coconut cream and sugar) but the prepared pina colada mix at most casual-dining chains contains added dairy stabilizers. Confirm at the bar before ordering.

Beer is almost always vegan at Applebees. The handful of beers that use isinglass (a fish-derived fining agent) for clarification are mostly British real ales not on the Applebees list. Domestic and major-import lagers are reliably vegan.

Kid-friendly vegan orders at Applebees
The Applebees kids' menu is harder to vegan-adapt than the adult menu because the kids' default is built around chicken tenders, mac and cheese, and pasta with butter. The two paths that work: a Kids' Apple Slices side as the fruit choice, plus a small bowl of plain pasta (request marinara on the side, no butter, no cheese, no parmesan) and a side of steamed broccoli without butter. The pasta confirmation step matters because the rotini at most locations is egg-free but the kids' alphabet pasta sometimes contains egg.

The kids' baked potato (split into a smaller portion) is the easiest path for younger kids who do not want pasta. Ask for it cut and plated with apple slices on the side and a glass of apple juice or water (the kids' default drink is often milk, which is dairy). The vegan kids' meal at most Applebees locations comes in around $7 to $9, comparable to the omnivore kids' meal pricing.

What does not work as a vegan kids' meal: the kids' chicken tenders (no swap available at most locations), the kids' mac and cheese (cheese is the entire dish), the kids' grilled cheese (same), the kids' chicken alfredo, the kids' sliders (the buns at some locations contain milk and eggs in addition to the obvious meat). The kids' pizza is built on a non-vegan crust at most franchises. Stick with the pasta-and-fruit or potato-and-fruit builds and the order goes through cleanly.

Cross-contamination beyond the fryer
The fryer is the loudest cross-contamination concern at Applebees but not the only one. Three other points of failure are worth knowing about. First: the salad station shares prep surfaces with the protein station at smaller franchises during slow hours, so a lettuce pull during a steak prep can pick up trace meat residue. Asking the server to flag your salad as 'kitchen-clean prep' triggers a fresh-glove pull at most locations. Second: the croutons are stored in a bin near the cheese-and-bacon-bits caddy, so even when you order no croutons, a hurried prep cook can accidentally include them. The fix is to order the salad with no toppings and add the oil-and-vinegar yourself at the table.

Third: the steamed vegetables are sometimes prepped in a pan that previously held butter for an earlier order. Most Applebees kitchens swap to a clean pan when a vegan request comes through, but it is worth an explicit ask: 'Could the broccoli be steamed in a clean pan with no butter, please?' The kitchen will swap pans without comment because the request is reasonable and the workflow does not change.

If you have a documented dairy or egg allergy and not just a vegan diet, the manager-led allergen protocol at Applebees is more conservative than the casual vegan-modification flow. The line is paused for your order, fresh gloves and tools are used at every station, and the dish is hand-delivered by the manager rather than a runner. Ask for the allergen protocol explicitly when you sit down rather than mid-order; the flow takes about ten extra minutes but the assembly is allergen-grade.

When to skip Applebees
Applebees is not the right pick for a satisfying vegan main course on its own. If you are choosing the restaurant for the table, push for a chain with a real vegan protein on the line: Chipotle for sofritas, Olive Garden for the Create Your Own Pasta with marinara or olive-oil-and-garlic, Panera for the Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich, or any of the burger chains carrying Beyond or Impossible. Those chains all have a vegan main built into the standard menu rather than three modified sides.

The right time to commit to Applebees: you are with a group that picked it (the omnivore-vegan family dinner, the late-night happy-hour stop, the airport casual chain when you are tired) and you want a clean plate without making a scene. The side-house-salad-plus-baked-potato-plus-steamed-broccoli build covers that case in under ten minutes from order to plate. It is not exciting but it is real food, the kitchen handles it without complaint, and the bill stays reasonable.

The third path: scan ahead. Vegan Recon can pull the current Applebees menu (regional variants included) and flag every vegan-modifiable item plus the exact server-script wording for your closest location. The scan takes under a minute. If you are eating at an Applebees you have never been to before, the scan tells you whether the franchise carries a vegan LTO, whether the local fryer policy differs from the national default, and whether any items have been added since this guide was last reviewed.

Applebees is a chain that is easier to navigate than it looks if you commit to the side-and-baked-potato lane and harder than it looks if you try to vegan-adapt an entree. Skip the fried sides if you avoid cross-contact, lean on the salad and the plain potato and the steamed broccoli, and use the server script above so the order arrives the way you want it the first time. Cocktails are mostly vegan; pick the dairy-free ones. Kids' orders work with apple slices and pasta-with-marinara as the two reliable paths. If a future Applebees visit calls for more variety, paste the local menu URL into Vegan Recon and the scan will flag any new items, regional variants, and limited-time vegan offerings the national menu does not show.