Even vegans and vegetarians can find something to enjoy on their menu. The entire family will enjoy eating there for brunch or lunch.
While IHOP doesn’t have many main meal options for those on a plant-based diet, you can still make a delicious meal from the sides, syrups, sauces, and toppings that they provide.
This guide will help you craft the perfect vegan meal for your next visit to IHOP.
Vegan Menu Items
Vegan Breakfast
Crispy potato pancakes
English muffin without butter
Fresh fruit cup
Grits
Hash browns without butter
Oatmeal with non-dairy milk
Red potato, pepper & onion hash
Vegan Salads And Soups
House salad without croutons and with any vegan salad dressing.
While you can make a vegan meal out of any of the dishes, dressings, syrups, and beverages listed above, it’s always helpful to know which options are the best!
Baked Potato
A tasty side option is a baked potato.
Try serving a baked potato that has been seasoned with salt and pepper in place of fries to pair with your sautéed vegetables.
Hash Browns
These frozen, shredded potatoes are cooked at 350 degrees on a flat griddle. Due to the excessive amounts of oil used, they are not the healthiest option, but they are delicious!
You can remove the two slices of bacon and the eggs that are often included with hash browns and replace them with a vegan alternative.
Ask your waitress if the hash browns are made with 100% vegetable oil. This is important as some IHOP kitchens use animal-based butter mixed with oil, which, of course, is not vegan-friendly.
Fruit Cup
It’s not much, but IHOP does offer a fruit cup for its plant-based patrons.
You can ask for avocado, grapes, pineapple, watermelon, and oranges, among other fruity options. However, be aware that the fruit is not always as fresh as you would find at a smaller restaurant.
Crispy Potato Pancakes
These are somewhat comparable to hash browns but are shaped like pancakes and have a much crispier outside. Try these crispy potato pancakes if you’re craving fried potatoes but aren’t in the mood for regular hash browns.
For a satisfying vegan lunch at IHOP, you can also have some vegetables on the side with these pancakes, or order them as a side with soup or salad.
English Muffins With Jam
Grab the 100% vegan English muffins from IHOP if you want a vegan lunch that is filled with flavor.
On a cheat day, they make a great breakfast. Otherwise, you can always combine them with strawberries, bananas, or avocados to make them a little bit healthier.
Minestrone Soup
Minestrone soup is also available at IHOP.
A traditional minestrone soup bowl is loaded with seasonal vegetables like potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, or peas, diced tomatoes, and vegetable stock. In rare situations, parmesan cheese may also be sprinkled on top.
Make sure the IHOP staff doesn’t add cheese to the order if you want to keep it vegan.
Avocado Toast
Although avocado toast is nothing new, it is currently one of the most popular foods. If you enjoy this simple yet tasty toast, IHOP offers it with a small alteration.
IHOP’s avocado toast uses buttery sourdough bread. You only need to ask them to hold the butter.
If you’ve never had avocado toast from IHOP, it consists of avocado, tomatoes, and sourdough bread with spice on top and a lemon wedge on the side.
Oatmeal
While some people and establishments prepare oatmeal by soaking the oats in cow’s milk, IHOP’s serves vegan oatmeal.
Additionally, you can include things like brown sugar, strawberries, bananas, almonds, vegan-friendly syrups, or other ingredients that are close to your preferences.
Sauteed Vegetables
Usually served with an omelet, this dish can be ordered without the eggs and dairy and only be served with sautéed vegetables.
You can choose different sides to complete the meal instead of the omelet.
Fries
Without fries, a restaurant isn’t a restaurant. If none of the other choices satisfy you, you can always relax, get some fries, and eat them with ketchup.
Coffee
The veganism of coffee is undeniable. However, you can use one of the several syrups IHOP offers if you want to add a flavor other than pure sugar.
In actuality, all of IHOP’s syrups—butter pecan syrup being the lone exception—are vegan.
Salad
Another common vegan dish is this one, and the flavor will vary depending on the dressing you choose.
The house salad and the citrus chicken pecan salad are both available at IHOP. If you choose not to include the chicken, both are vegan.
A salad is a salad, but IHOP is convenient in that they offer a variety of great vegan salad dressings to up the flavor of your salad while keeping it plant-based.
Grits
IHOP sells grits, a type of cornmeal porridge. Surprisingly, they are made with water and don’t have any dairy.
Enjoy a hearty dish of grits, seasoned with salt and pepper, then topped with steamed broccoli, avocado, and sauteed vegetables.
You may also add maple syrup and brown sugar to it to make it sweeter, and you can garnish it with glazed strawberries or banana slices.
DIY Vegan Options
You don’t have to create your own main meal made up of side dishes. You can also make your own DIY dish by changing a few ingredients in one of IHOP’s main meal menu items.
DIY Loaded Fries
Get some fries and top them with salsa or dill pickle spears, sautéed vegetables, and avocado. We promise you’ll adore it!
To finish the meal, serve it with a bubbly beverage.
DIY Salad Sandwich
Get some avocado, house salad, and sourdough toast without butter. Add avocado and fresh house salad to your sourdough toast, then top with creamy Italian dressing. If you want to, you can add ketchup as well!
This sandwich of fresh salad will go extremely well with orange juice.
DIY Breakfast Burrito
You can also request a flour tortilla, some hash browns, or crispy potato cakes to make a vegetarian breakfast burrito.
Hash browns can be topped with anything you choose, including avocado, fresh vegetables, dill pickles, cooked vegetables, and/or steamed broccoli.
Consider ordering some French fries as a side dish and a carbonated beverage to go with your meal.
IHOP Menu Items That Look Vegan But Aren’t
The following IHOP menu items can be mistaken by some customers as vegan-friendly, but they actually contain dairy and/or eggs, which are not vegan.
Make sure to exercise caution so as not to unintentionally order any of them.
You’re best off putting together a few of IHOP’s vegan sides, going with oatmeal prepared with water, sautéed vegetables, or a side of potatoes.
Are All IHOP Syrups Vegan?
All syrups are vegan except for the butter pecan syrup, which contains spray-dried butter.
Some of the syrups available at IHOP include maple, strawberry, and boysenberry.
Are IHOP Waffles Vegan?
IHOP waffles are not vegan. This is because they contain milk and dairy products just like their pancakes do.
Are IHOP’s Crispy Potato Pancakes Vegan?
Crispy potato pancakes are the only vegan pancake option available at IHOP. However, they are savory, so we don’t class them as a traditional pancake.
Does IHOP Have Almond Milk?
Unfortunately, IHOP does not have any non-dairy milk substitutes, and this includes almond milk.
Any hot drink you have will have to be without milk, unless you bring your own.
Does IHOP Have A Vegan Burger?
Right now, IHOP does not have a vegan burger on its menu, but hopefully this will change in the future to suit more dietary requirements.
Final Thoughts
IHOP is not among the top restaurants in the US for vegans to eat out. However, there are a lot of vegan-friendly options on the menu, so you won’t have to go without food or stick to coffee, soda, or French fries while your buddies eat filling meals.
You can still put together a great vegan dinner for yourself even though IHOP doesn’t offer any vegan entrées.
Hi, my name is Brett White, and I have a passion for cooking, and following a raw diet. Eating raw has completely changed how I view food, and has led me down a much healthier and happier path in life over the last three years.
Through Addicted To Veggies, I want to share with you my favorite raw recipes. From brownie recipes, to recipes containing pumpkin, my site is full of delicious and wonderful options to consider.
