Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal. And if you’re vegan, you may have limited options, especially following a strictly plant-based diet.
But sometimes, you just want to sit and eat without bothering yourself to prepare what you like. The answer would be a restaurant like Keke’s Breakfast Cafe, but do they have something for vegans?
Far less than an earlier version of this guide suggested. Keke’s publishes a current allergen guide, and that document rules out almost every sweet breakfast item on the menu. This page has been rewritten against it.
Below is what Keke’s own data actually says, and just as importantly, what it doesn’t. We also cover vegan breakfast options from other food chains and brands.
Keke’s Breakfast Cafe, Your Hometown Diner
Founded in 2006 by brothers Keith and Kevin Mahen in Orlando, Florida, Keke’s Breakfast Cafe takes its name from the first syllable of each brother’s name — Ke for Keith and Ke for Kevin. This local eatery quickly gained a reputation for its omelets, pancakes and waffles at breakfast, along with a lunch menu of paninis, sandwiches, burgers, wraps and salads.
The Mahens describe the guest experience at Keke’s Breakfast Cafe as good food, great energy, and friendly staff. They are dedicated to preparing breakfast meals, which delivers 93% of their revenue.
With over 50 locations in the U.S. through franchising, Keke’s Breakfast Cafe has been rapidly growing since its inception in 2006. Everything is made to order. What they have never done, at any point, is designate a single menu item as vegan.
The One Thing To Understand Before You Order
Keke’s publishes an Allergen Guide as a PDF, last updated 18 June 2026, so it is genuinely current. It covers nine allergens: eggs, milk, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, wheat and soy. Its key reads: “X = Contains this allergen S = Indicates shared surface or equipment with allergen”.
Two limits shape this whole page. First, an allergen guide is not a vegan certification. It says nothing about honey, gelatin, carmine, lard or meat stock, so “no eggs or milk marked” is a much weaker statement than “vegan”. Second, Keke’s publishes no ingredient lists at all, and no vegan designation anywhere. The menu filters on its own site are “Vegetarian”, “Dairy Free” and “Soy Free”. There is no vegan filter.
Keke’s is also blunt about its kitchens:
“Please note that cafes are not set up as a strictly gluten-free or allergen-free environment.”
“Due to share preparation and cooking areas in our kitchen and the risk of cross-contact, we cannot guarantee that any items is free of any allergen.”
“A soy-based oil is used for all griddled items. We do not maintain halal or kosher kitchens. Please inform server of any allergies.”
(The typos are in the original.) The soy-oil line is the closest thing Keke’s gives to a griddle disclosure, and note what it does not say: it does not say the griddle is free of butter or of meat contact.
Correction: The Waffles, Pancakes And French Toast Are Not Vegan
An earlier version of this guide told readers that Keke’s waffles and pancakes might contain eggs but that “it’s always worth asking”, then listed flavours to order. That was wrong, and there is no version of asking that fixes it.
In Keke’s allergen guide, every waffle variant is marked for both eggs and milk: Apple Cinnamon, Banana Caramel Pecan, Banana Chocolate Chip, Banana Pecan, Blueberry, Chicken & Waffles, Chocolate Chip, Classic Belgian, Florida, Granola Chocolate Chip, Pecan and Strawberry. All of them also carry wheat and soy.
Every pancake variant is marked for both eggs and milk as well: Apple Cinnamon, Banana Caramel Pecan, Banana Chocolate Chip, Banana Pecan, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, Florida, Granola Chocolate Chip, Original Buttermilk, Pecan and Strawberry.
So is every French toast — Classic, Apple Cinnamon, Banana Caramel Pecan and Fresh Fruit — along with every stuffed French toast and the kids’ French Toast Sticks. Keke’s offers no egg-free or dairy-free batter anywhere on the menu, and publishes no plant-based cream cheese, so the old suggestion to ask whether the stuffed French toast used vegan cream cheese had nothing behind it.
Several flavours the old guide named have also disappeared outright: the Banana Nut Waffle and Banana Nut Pancakes (the closest current items are Banana Pecan and Banana Caramel Pecan), the Granola Crunch Waffle and Pancakes (now Granola Chocolate Chip), the Banana Split Waffle, and the Piña Colada Stuffed French Toast. Every one of the replacements is marked for eggs and milk too.
Omelets are egg by definition and are marked as such. Keke’s publishes no egg substitute, so there is no plant-based omelet to ask for.
Keke’s Breakfast Cafe Vegan Options
What honestly remains is short, and Keke’s certifies none of it as vegan. Each item below simply carries no eggs or milk mark in the allergen guide. Because there are no published ingredients, that is where the evidence stops.
- Fresh fruit cup or bowl. No allergen marks at all in the guide. The most straightforward thing on the menu.
- Quaker Hot Oats with fruit. No eggs or milk mark. Ask what the oats are cooked in and whether anything is stirred through them — and note the menu serves them with an English muffin.
- Toast. Carries a wheat mark only. Keke’s does not publish whether its toast is buttered by default, which is exactly the question to ask.
- English muffin. Wheat and soy marks, no eggs or milk. With no ingredient list published, dough conditioners and whey cannot be ruled out.
- Balsamic vinaigrette. No allergen marks. Vinaigrettes commonly contain honey and Keke’s does not publish the recipe, so ask before you dress a salad with it.
- Soft drinks, juices and teas. Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Root Beer, Fruit Punch, Lemonade, Iced Tea, Hot Tea, orange, apple, cranberry and tomato juice, Dasani and Acqua Panna all appear in the guide with no allergen marks.
French fries sit in their own category. The only mark against them in the guide is an “S”, meaning shared surface or equipment, and Keke’s does not publish whether the fryer is shared with meat. Treat them as unverifiable and ask about the fryer specifically.
What This Guide Used To Recommend That You Can No Longer Order
The three savoury fallbacks this page was built around are gone. The Garden Burger on ciabatta, the Vegetable Wrap and the Garden Salad no longer appear on Keke’s lunch menu or in its allergen guide. The current handhelds are the B.L.T., Buffalo Chicken Wrap, Carolina Chicken Wrap, Cheeseburger, Bacon Cheeseburger, Chicken Caesar Wrap, Tuna Melt and Turkey Club — all meat or fish. The current salads are Chicken Caesar, Carolina Chicken, and Tuna Salad & Fresh Fruit. Other chains have more plant-based options at lunch; Keke’s effectively has none.
What sits in the Garden Salad’s place is a Side Salad — iceberg or romaine with shredded cheese, croutons and a choice of vegetable — and the allergen guide marks it for milk. You can ask for it without the cheese and croutons, but the dressing is still undisclosed and Keke’s makes no vegan claim for the result.
A few other items look plant-based and are not. Avocado Toast is marked for milk, wheat and soy. The Smashed Avocado side is marked for eggs and milk. Onion Rings are served with Texas petal sauce, and the petal sauce is marked for eggs and milk. The Portabella Panini is tagged vegetarian on Keke’s own site, but it contains provolone and pesto aioli, so it is vegetarian and not vegan. Sweet potato fries, which this guide used to list, are no longer on the lunch sides menu.
The Bottom Line
Keke’s Breakfast Cafe is not a vegan-friendly spot, and the company’s own allergen guide is why we can say that plainly rather than hedge. Every waffle, pancake and French toast on the menu contains eggs and milk. The plant-based lunch items this page once recommended have been discontinued. What is left is fruit, oats, plain toast, an English muffin and drinks — none of it certified vegan, all of it out of a kitchen the company says it cannot guarantee is free of any allergen.
If you are eating there anyway, two specific questions are worth more than a general one: is the toast buttered, and what is in the dressing.
