Vegan Options at Denny’s
Denny’s is one of the largest restaurant chains, with over 1700 outlets in the US, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, and other big countries. Founded in 1953, Denny’s started as a coffee shop but later became a dining restaurant.
The best thing about Denny’s is that vegans have enough variety. Their vegan menu contains build-your-own veggie burgers, veggie skillets, oatmeal, fries, etc.
So, if you ever step into one of their branches, make sure you order the following vegan items:
Skillets
All you have to do is request them to cook your skillet without margarine or butter. Also, Denny’s adds tortillas for only 99 cents. Add it to your skillet and make it a proper vegetarian meal.
Here are a few skillets that Denny’s offers:
Fit Fare Veggie Sizzlin’ Skillet
This original dish comprises red-skinned potatoes, fire-roasted onions & bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli. They add two scrambled egg whites mixed with grape tomatoes and spinach to embellish the food item. A side of salad is complimentary with this skillet.
If you ask them to remove the egg whites, the Fit Fare Veggie Sizzlin’ Skillet becomes all vegan. It contains 330 calories with 22 grams of protein, making it a healthy and tasty dish.
Hearty Breakfast Skillet
Hearty Breakfast Skillet is a blend of seasoned red-skinned potatoes, fire-roasted bell peppers & onions, and sautéed mushrooms. Its toppings include two fried eggs on top, along with shredded cheddar cheese. The hot sizzlin’ skillet makes it the perfect breakfast dish from Denny’s menu.
Request them to omit sausages, eggs, or cheese and get one of the best vegan dishes from Denny’s kitchen. Hearty breakfast skillet is a customer’s favorite dish, whether vegan or non-vegetarian.
Santa Fe Sizzlin’ Skillet
Santa Fe Sizzlin”s skillet has fire-roasted onions & bell peppers and seasoned red-skinned potatoes. The crumbled chorizo sausage is the special inclusion, topped with eggs and cheddar cheese.
The chef can make it a vegan skillet by taking out the sausage, cheese, and eggs.
Supreme Skillet
The supreme skillet encompasses sausages, fire-roasted bell peppers & onions with other veggies, including grape tomatoes, red-skinned potatoes, and mushrooms. The toppings, eggs, and cheddar cheese add the perfect flavor to this delicious blend.
You can get it vegan style by removing the eggs, cheese, and sausages. Ask the chef to replace them with some extra veggies.
Sides
- Broccoli
- Seasoned fries
- Fresh sautéed zucchini and squash
- French fries
- Seasonal fruit
- Garden salad (with balsamic vinaigrette, French dressing, or Italian dressing)
- Sweet petite corn
Breakfast
- Hash browns: Add onions, bell peppers, avocado, and mushrooms, for an extra tasty breakfast.
- Grits or oatmeal: It usually contains milk, but you can ask them to make it in water to have a vegan-style morning meal.
- Regular English muffin: Ignore the gluten-free muffin as it contains dairy ingredients. Replace butter with jelly or jam.
- Red-skinned potatoes: This is a purely vegan breakfast dish at Denny’s.
- Toast: It usually comes with butter, but you can use jelly or jam and potato for the filling. Also, remember to order seven-grain or multigrain bread.
Beyond Burger at Denny’s With Seasoned Fries
The Beyond Burger is the latest in Denny’s diverse menu. Denny’s took this action after working with People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
The burger contains onions, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and classic diner sauce on a multigrain bun. To make it a vegan burger, order it without the dinner sauce and cheese. It is a customizable burger. So, mustard, ketchup, avocado, barbecue sauce, and other vegan sauces work as a great topping.
Build Your Own Burger
Denny’s brioche bun, whole-wheat bun, and even the veggie patty are 100% vegan. Make a double patty burger that costs you $1.50 more. You can choose from various toppings, including sauteed mushrooms, sliced jalapeños, avocado, bourbon sauce, barbeque sauce, grilled onions, and many more.
Tortillas
Denny’s tortillas are vegan and go well with skillets and burritos.
Sauces
Bourbon, BBQ, Five Pepper, and Mango Habanero sauce at Denny’s are all vegan. However, others, like All-American sauce, might contain eggs or dairy products.
Denny’s-PETA Controversy
Denny may have been serving vegan items at their restaurants, but their partnership with Ringling Brothers didn’t go well with PETA. Ringling Brothers was a circus company that used animals in its acts. PETA surely did not like it and protested against the company for years.
In 2007, PETA and its supporters went berserk when Denny’s partnered with Ringling Bros.
PETA tried talking with Nelson Marchioli, Denny’s CEO, who refused to even get on a call. The animal rights group didn’t back and kept calling them stubbornly. PETA wanted them to follow big companies, including Burger King, MasterCard, Ford Motors, and Visa, which ended their partnerships with circuses that used animals.
Denny’s did not react, so PETA launched a website by the name of DeadlyDennys.com. The support continuously mailed and called Denny’s office to contact them.
In November 2007, PETA’s supporters protested at Denny’s headquarters in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Did Denny’s End Their Partnership With Ringling?
In January 2008, Denny’s representatives told PETA that they ended their partnership with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
After thousands of letters, emails, and calls to Denny’s, the franchise gave up its sponsorship, and Ringling had no national sponsors left.
Denny’s Animal Welfare Acts
It works with the Humane Society of the United States, whose key focus is the safety and welfare of animals.
Here are a few animal welfare acts by Denny’s:
Cage-Free Eggs
In 2016, Denny’s pledged to use 100% cage-free eggs at all their branches in all 50 states of the USA by 2026. Eggs that come from hens that can walk around freely are known as cage-free eggs.
These eggs have low chemical residue that comes from insecticides. Moreover, cage-free eggs are healthier than regular ones as they have a considerably high amount of vitamins A and E.
So, Denny’s decision is right for animals and people who eat these eggs too.
Controlled Atmosphere Killing
In 2011, they started buying turkeys from a slaughterhouse, using Controlled Atmosphere Killing (CAK), the least painful method of slaughtering animals. This action came into effect after PETA talked to them.
PETA explained that poultry animals slaughtered under CAK are safer than any other method. Denny’s then joined Starbucks, Winn-Dixie, Subway, Ruby Tuesday, Harris Teeter, and Quiznos, which use CAK poultry.
Outsourcing
Denny’s started dealing with pig suppliers as they did not want to keep them in gestation crates. These metal crates are so small that pigs cannot even turn around. Most farmers use them for the mass production of these animals.
Broiler Chicken
Broiler chickens are those that an individual raises only for meat production. Denny’s has been practicing the kind treatment of agricultural animals, including chickens, for a long time. They set out goals for their supply chain that they will achieve in the upcoming few years:
- Reducing the stocking density to a maximum of 6 pounds per square foot.
- Prohibit broiler chicken
- Provide an environment that suits the birds and meets GAP’s new standards.
- They will use a controlled atmosphere system to process chickens to induce an irreversible stun.
Other Restaurants With Vegan Options
Below are some renowned restaurants with great vegan options available:
- BurgerFi: Their beyond burger is 100% vegan and available at every branch.
- CiCi’s Pizza: The pizza sauces and crusts are vegan. Add veggies on top to make it purely vegan.
- Habit Burger Grill: Their burger patty is vegan. You can top it with onions, cucumbers, avocados, and many more.
- Smoothie King: The vegan Lemon Ginger Spinach and Pineapple spinach smoothies feature Plant-Based Protein and a stevia-based sweetener.
- Twin Peaks: They have beyond burger that comes with sweet potato fries on the side.
- Tubby’s Grilled Submarines: Hot veggie and Cold veggie specialty subs are entirely vegan.
- Cheeseburger Cheeseburger: The grilled portobello mushroom wrap, sandwich, and salads are vegan.
- Bareburger: Replace meat with any of their plant-based patties, including Beyond Burger, Farmers Quinuo, Sweet potato & wild rice patty, etc.
- Chipotle: They have Sofritas, organic tofu fried with spices, which you can order separately in a bowl, Taco, or salad.
- Claim Jumper: Their pizzas without cheese are 100% vegan. They also have a Chinese salad on the menu.
- The Daily Grill: The starters include sweet potato fries, brown rice with almonds, and gazpacho soup. Moreover, they have vegan pasta and grilled vegetable plate.
To Sum Up
Now, vegans can enjoy eating at Denny’s as much as non-vegetarians. Given their animal welfare acts, they will not get in any trouble with PETA for now.
Denny’s food is safe; dining is fine and reasonable prices. So, it makes it an even better restaurant than others for vegans and non-vegetarians.