Buffalo Wild Wings may be loved by many, but its name says it all about how vegan-friendly you can expect it to be.
Even though Buffalo Wild Wings is clearly a not-so-vegan-friendly place, many non-meat eaters often end up at the restaurant to watch a game with their friends.
For those who may not know, Buffalo Wild Wings features a sports bar and claims to offer the ultimate game-watching experience.
If you’re a sports fan, it’s best to be prepared for any such situation when your friends insist that you join them at the restaurant to see a game and learn about Buffalo Wild Wings vegan options. I am sure you wouldn’t want to watch the game without having any food at hand to munch on.
So, let’s dig into Buffalo Wild Wings vegan menu and find out if the American casual dining restaurant and sports bar has anything for its vegan customers.
Does Buffalo Wild Wings Have Vegan Options?
Buffalo Wild Wings, also often referred to as BWW or B-Dubs, doesn’t have vegan options listed on its menu. In fact, its allergen menu clearly states that the restaurant doesn’t offer any certified vegan or even vegetarian food options.
However, if you look closely and know how to make your way through a non-vegan friendly menu, you can order a few things at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Read on to find out what those options are, but don’t get your hopes too high; the options aren’t too exciting.
What Can Vegans at Buffalo Wild Wings?
Ordering vegan food at Buffalo Wild Wings requires giving specific instructions for most items. A few can be ordered right off the menu. The list below includes both the options, so you know what all vegans can eat at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Vegan options at Buffalo Wild Wings include:
- Everything Pretzel Knots
- Garden Side Salad – requires customization
- Southwestern Black Bean Burger – requires customization
- Slaw
- Carrots & Celery
- Rice
- Mandarin Oranges – from the kids menu
- Vegan Sauces
- Beverages
Buffalo Wild Wings’ vegan menu isn’t great. But, there’s a meatless burger option that you can get made vegan by placing a custom order. Keep reading to find out how to order a vegan burger at Buffalo Wild Wings, what ingredients other items in the list contain, vegan sauces available at Buffalo Wild Wings, and what vegan beverages you can pair up your meal with.
In the last section of the article, I will also answer some common questions about the vegan status of different items on the Buffalo Wild Wings menu.
Please note that this list of vegan items at Buffalo Wild Wings is prepared using the restaurant’s allergen menu as the primary source. However, I also referred to a few reliable online sources for certain bits of information and to make sure I am covering everything one may need to know when eating vegan at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Buffalo Wild Wings Vegan Options – A Detailed Breakdown
Here’s everything that vegans can eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, what they contain, and how to order them:
▪ Everything Pretzel Knots
These are comparatively newer additions to the Buffalo Wild Wings’ menu and have replaced the restaurant’s popular Big Twist Pretzel. Topped with everything seasoning, these delicious, soft, fluffy pretzel knots are vegan on their own. But, the dipping sauces it comes with – Beer Cheese and Honey Mustard – are not.
When ordering vegan at Buffalo Wild Wings, get the Everything Pretzel Knots without sauces, or request them to be replaced with a couple of vegan sauces (listed below). These pretzel knots make a good vegan appetizer option at Buffalo Wild Wings as well as a great snack choice while watching the game.
▪ Garden Side Salad
Can’t have pretzel knots because of their higher calorie content? Buffalo Wild Wings has a healthier vegan food option as well. But, beware, it’s not as exciting or delicious as the pretzel knots. If you still want to order a salad, go for the Garden Side Salad at Buffalo Wild Wings.
It comes standard with romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, tomatoes, green onion, cheddar-jack cheese, and your choice of dressing. When ordering vegan at Buffalo Wild Wings, get it without the cheese and with a vegan dressing.
While Buffalo Wild Wings’ website doesn’t mention it, online sources say that the salad also comes with croutons. Confirm with your server at the time of order, and if it does come with croutons, ask to hold them too. I warned you, it’s not going to be an exciting food choice, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Salad is indeed the best option for health-conscious vegans, especially when dining out.
Tip
You can make the Garden Side Salad a little more fun and fill by adding avocado smash, celery, and perhaps, some more carrots in it. All these items are offered separately at Buffalo Wild Wings. You may also add pico, salsa, or house-made guac for some flavor.
▪ Southwestern Black Bean Burger
Buffalo Wild Wings’ Southwestern Black Bean Burger doesn’t appear as a vegan-friendly item on the restaurant’s allergen menu. It comes with an allergen warning for milk and eggs. However, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find out that the Black Bean Burger Patty doesn’t contain any of these non-vegan allergens. This means they come from the bun and/or the sauce.
A little more investigation revealed that the sauce and cheese are the culprits. The burger comes with the Southwestern Ranch Dressing, which contains both milk and eggs, and dairy cheese. But, hey, the patty and the Challah bun it comes in are both vegan-friendly, which means you can order a customized vegan burger at Buffalo Wild Wings.
To order a vegan burger at Buffalo Wild Wings, all you have to do is to skip the cheese, swap the Southwestern Ranch Dressing with a vegan-friendly sauce, and there you have it – a Buffalo Wild Wings vegan burger.
You’ll get a black bean patty in a challan bun with shredded iceberg lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pickles, house-made guacamole, and your choice of vegan sauce.
▪ Slaw
Pair up your burger with the veggie slaw to get your daily dose of vegetable nutrients and enjoy a complete vegan meal at Buffalo Wild Wings. This is the standard slaw and appears to be vegan-friendly, as per Buffalo Wild Wings’ allergen menu. However, I would recommend confirming it with your server before ordering, as things may vary across different restaurant locations.
▪ Carrots & Celery
This is another vegetable side option available for vegans at Buffalo Wild Wings. It’s just simple carrot and celery pieces with ranch dressing, which is not vegan, so you’ll have to get it replaced with a vegan sauce.
If you don’t like carrots or celery, you can also get any one of these vegetables separately at Buffalo Wild Wings.
▪ Rice
If you happen to live in Hawaii, you can also find white rice at Buffalo Wild Wings. The restaurant’s allergen menu clearly highlights that the rice are only available in Hawaii, so you won’t get them anywhere else.
For those living or visiting Hawaii, you can use these plain white rice as the base to build your own burrito bowl. Get some veggies, slaw, pico or salsa, guacamole, and perhaps a vegan sauce too; top it all on the rice and enjoy your DIY vegan burrito bowl at Buffalo Wild Wings.
▪ Mandarin Oranges
Appearing on the kids menu, these make a good, healthy snack option. You can also add mandarin oranges to your salad or slaw for a little zing.
▪ Vegan Sauces, Seasonings, and Toppings at Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings offer a good range of sauces, dry seasonings, and toppings to make your meals more flavorful and exciting. Not all of them are, obviously, vegan. To make sure you do not end up consuming a non-vegan sauce or seasoning mistakenly, here I am listing all the Buffalo Wild Wings vegan sauces, seasonings, and toppings, so you know your options.
Vegan Sauces at Buffalo Wild Wings
- Asian Zing Sauce
- Blazin Carolina Reaper Sauce
- Caribbean Jerk Sauce
- Hot Sauce
- Jammin’ Jalapeno Sauce
- Mango Habanero Sauce
- Nashville Hot Sauce
- Smoky Adobo Sauce
- Sweet BBQ Sauce
- Teriyaki Sauce
- Wild Sauce
- Orange Chicken Sauce
- Ketchup
- Yellow Mustard
Buffalo Wild Wings Vegan Seasonings
Vegan dry seasoning options at Buffalo Wild Wings include the following:
- Chipotle BBQ Seasoning
- Lemon Pepper Seasoning
- Desert Heat Seasoning
- Salt and Vinegar Seasoning
- Desert Heat Seasoning
Buffalo Wild Wings Vegan Toppings
There are only a couple of vegan toppings available at Buffalo Wild Wings. These include:
- Avocado Smash
- Sautéed White Onions
Vegan Salad Dressings at Buffalo Wild Wings
There is only one vegan-friendly salad dressing available at Buffalo Wild Wings, and that is the White Wine Vinaigrette.
If you choose to order a salad when eating vegan at Buffalo Wild Wings, make sure you get that only.
▪ Vegan Beverages at Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings has a pretty good and large beverages menu, including both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options. The majority of them are vegan-friendly, which means you’ll have plenty of options to choose from when dining or enjoying the game at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Here’s the list of all the Buffalo Wild Wings vegan drinks options:
- Pepsi
- Diet Pepsi
- Mountain Dew
- Dr. Pepper
- Sierra Mist
- Tropicana Lemonade
- Tropicana Pink Lemonade
- Strawberry Lemonade
- Izze Sparkling Juice – Clementine
- Izze Sparkling Juice – Blackberry
- Hibiscus Spritz
- Strawberry Fizz
- Passionfruit Nojito
- Sweet Tea
- Lipton Brisk Iced Tea
- Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea
- Unsweetened Iced Tea
- Coffee
- Mug Root Beer
- Red Bull
- Red Bull – Sugar Free
- Red Bull Sunrise
- Q Club Soda
- Q Ginger Ale
- Q Ginger Beer
- Q Tonic
- B-Dubs Bloody Mary
- B-Dubs Make It Wild Bloody Mary
- Hundo Rita
- Classic Mojito
- Pineapple Mojito
- House Margarita
- Mezcal Margarita
- Platinum Margarita
- Spicy Passionfruit Margarita
- Henny Habanero
- Hendrick’s G+T
- Deep Eddy Crush
- Blue Hawaiian
- Berry Bash
- Lucky Goose
- Old No. 7 Lemonade
- Old Fashioned
- Red Sangria
- Pasmosa Sangria
- Ranch Water
- Tito’s Mule
- Chateau St. Michelle – Chardonnay
- Ecco Domani – Pinot Grigio
- Darkhorse – Rose
- Josh Cellars – Cabernet Sauvignon
- Mark West – Pinot Noir
- La Marca – Prosecco
- Beer – rotating
- Cider – rotating
- Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned – only available at selected locations
- Longbranch Cream Soda – contrary to what the name suggests, it doesn’t contain milk or cream, as per the Buffalo Wild Wings’ allergen menu.
Buffalo Wild Wings Menu Items That May Look Vegan, But are Not
There are quite a few items on Buffalo Wild Wings’ menu that may appear to be vegan-friendly, but they are not suitable for non-meat eaters. Here, I am listing all of them and what makes them unsuitable for vegans to make sure you have a clear idea of what vegans can and cannot eat at Buffalo Wild Wings.
- Fried Items – According to the Buffalo Wild Wings’ allergen menu, all their fried items are cooked in beef shortening. These include the good ol’ French fries, wedges, pickles, onion rings, tater tots, and even tortilla chips that are almost always vegan.
- Medium Sauce – contains egg
- Mild Sauce – contains egg
- Original Buffalo Sauce – contains milk
- Spicy Garlic Sauce – contains egg
- Thai Curry Sauce – contains both egg and milk
- Lemon Pepper Sauce – contains egg. This is different from Lemon Pepper seasoning, which is vegan-friendly.
- Hatch Queso – contains milk
- Buffalo Seasoning – contains milk
Buffalo Wild Wings Vegan Food Options FAQs
Here are some common questions people ask about the vegan status of various food options available at Buffalo Wild Wings. Take a look to clear all your confusion and misconceptions.
▪ Is BWW black bean burger vegan?
The black bean burger at Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t come standard as vegan-friendly. But, it can be made vegan with a custom order. Read the article to find out how to order a vegan black bean burger at Buffalo Wild Wings.
It’s important to mention here that some online sources list the Buffalo Wild Wings’ Black Bean Burger as non-vegan, asserting that its patty contains egg. While this was true in the past, B-Dubs seems to have revised its recipe for the black bean patty.
The restaurant’s latest allergen menu doesn’t highlight the presence of eggs (or any other non-vegan ingredient) in the black bean patty. This means the burger can be ordered vegan.
▪ Are the cauliflower wings at Buffalo Wild Wings vegan?
BWW’s cauliflower wings are the most commonly misunderstood items by the vegans, as they appear to be vegan-friendly. While they do not contain any non-vegan ingredients, they are cooked in beef shortening, which makes them unsuitable for vegans. Moreover, they are seasoned in the same bowls that are used for actual wings.
Craving for some vegan wings? Make your own cauliflower wings at home! Check out the following video for a simple vegan wings recipe…
Conclusion – Is Buffalo Wild Wings Vegan-Friendly?
Buffalo Wild Wings isn’t too vegan-friendly. And honestly, you shouldn’t even expect it to be. The restaurant specializes in chicken wings, and it’s clearly evident from its name. So, its non-vegan friendliness doesn’t come a surprise to me; it shouldn’t be for you too.
Having said that, Buffalo Wild Wings is better than many other restaurants. You don’t have to rely on just salad or fries here. They offer a meatless burger that can easily be customized for a vegan. There is also a huge variety of drinks, ensuring that you have a great and fun-filled game watching experience.
Buffalo Wild Wings is different from most other non-vegan restaurants. While at most places, vegans have to make do with fries, wedges, and tortilla chips, you can’t have these food items at BWW because they are cooked in beef shortening. You can, however, enjoy a vegan burger, which is even lacking on most leading burger chains’ menus.
If you’re in the mood for a burger, you can put together a decent vegan meal at Buffalo Wild Wings. If not, you’ll have to rely on just a few sides and drinks.
Did you find this article helpful? Interested to learn about the vegan options available at other popular restaurants too? Check out my article The Cheesecake Factory Vegan Options to find what the leading restaurant company has for vegans on its extensive menu.
