Blake’s Lotaburger is known for many things — their assortment of burgers, burritos, limited-time shakes, and let’s not forget about their award-winning Green Chile Cheeseburgers. From the name alone you would not expect Blake’s to be a vegan destination, and it isn’t: the company publishes no vegan or vegetarian designation anywhere on its menu.
What Blake’s does publish is an allergen table, and it is worth reading before you order. It contradicts two things this page used to say — onion rings are declared to contain milk, and Blake’s Chili Con Carne is a meat chili. What survives is narrow: the natural and seasoned fries, black coffee, orange juice and bottled water.
If you’re vegan and you happen to find a Blake’s branch nearby, here is what their own data supports — and what it doesn’t.
The One Thing To Understand Before You Order
Blake’s publishes an allergen table listing each item against five categories only: Egg, Milk, Soy, Wheat and Nuts. There is no sesame, fish, shellfish or peanut column, and there are no ingredient lists anywhere. The table also does not cover the whole current menu — Oatmeal, LOTA Dogs, the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, Cold Brew Coffee and the energy drinks appear on the menu but have no row at all.
Its legend uses two markings: one meaning the item contains the allergen, and a second meaning the item “may be cooked in the same oil as an item containing the allergen”. That second marking matters here, because it is the one attached to Blake’s fries.
Two practical notes. First, Blake’s primary nutrition page currently embeds a third-party widget that is broken — loading it returns “Oops. It looks like the page you’re looking for doesn’t exist.” The usable table lives on the separate nutritional page. Second, treat single markings with a little care: the table marks “Diet Pepsi, Large” as containing nuts while “Diet Pepsi, Regular” is unmarked, which is plainly an error.
Blake’s is explicit about its kitchens:
“We do not have an allergen-free cooking environment in our restaurants. All of our products are prepared in the same kitchen area. Anyone with food allergies, sensitivities, or special dietary needs should consult their own medical professional regarding the selections of food products and ingredients.”
And it points out a gap in its own disclosure that is easy to miss: “According to Federal Regulations, highly refined oils derived from food allergens are exempted from allergen declaration.” An allergen table is not a vegan certification either way — it would never reveal beef tallow, lard or meat stock.
Seasoned And Regular Fries
The fries are the most defensible order on the menu. Blake’s table gives “French Fries – Original” (on the menu as Natural Fries) no egg, milk, wheat or nut markings; the only marking is the soy one meaning it may be cooked in the same oil as something containing soy. The seasoned version is the same except that the seasoning contains wheat.
The fryer is the caveat that this page previously left out. The same oil cooks Blake’s Fish Sandwich, Chicken Tenders and Onion Rings, and Blake’s does not publish a separate fryer statement beyond that same-oil marking. Highly refined frying oils are also exempt from allergen declaration, and beef tallow would not appear in an allergen table at all.
Fries come in a few varieties, and not all of them are equivalent. The chili cheese fries are declared to contain milk and wheat, and the current menu item is “Loaded Chili Cheese Fries – Fries topped with Blake’s Chile con Carne & Cheese”. Chili con carne is a meat chili. An earlier version of this page treated plain chili fries as a fine choice; that was wrong.
Correction: Onion Rings Contain Milk
This page used to describe Blake’s onion rings as “a little bit vegan” and said the website did not publish details. It does now, and the answer is no. Blake’s allergen table declares the Onion Rings as containing milk and wheat.
They also came out of that same shared fryer. Onion rings should not appear on any list of Blake’s vegan options, including the one that used to sit at the top of this page.
Drinks
Blake’s current drinks line-up is fountain drinks, cold brew coffee, energy drinks, hot coffee, orange juice, 1% milk and bottled water. The Pumpkin Spice Coffee this page used to discuss is no longer on it.
Three items carry no declared allergens in Blake’s table:
- Coffee, black. No allergens declared. Note the menu offers hot coffee “served Black or Flavored” and does not disclose what the flavorings are, so order it black.
- Orange juice. No allergens declared; the menu describes it as “Blake’s 100% orange juice. (yup, that’s it)”.
- Bottled water. No allergens declared.
The fountain sodas listed in the table also carry no declared allergens, and the fountain now includes unsweetened iced tea and sweet tea. Cold brew coffee and the energy drinks have no row in the table at all, so nothing about them can be checked. As before, “no declared egg or milk” is not the same as vegan — Blake’s publishes no ingredients for any of these.
Correction: The Add-Ons
The “Add to Anything” menu section this page was built around no longer exists, and one of the three items it listed was never vegan in the first place.
Blake’s Chili Con Carne is a meat chili. This page previously described it as 100% vegan. It is sold on Blake’s own menu as “Blake’s Chili con Carne Bowl” and as the topping on the LOTA Frito Pie. The allergen table additionally declares the chili-with-beans add-on for wheat and the chili bowl with shredded cheddar for milk. This was the most serious error on the page and it has been removed.
The green chile add-on splits into two different products in Blake’s table. The diced green chile carries no declared allergens; the green chile sauce declares soy. They are not interchangeable, so specify which one you want. Chopped jalapeño carries no declared allergens either, though the word jalapeño no longer appears on Blake’s published menu, so it may not be orderable.
None of this makes an add-on vegan — it makes it free of declared egg, milk, soy, wheat and nuts, which is a smaller claim. Other chains publish more; Blake’s publishes no ingredients at all.
Blake’s Lotaburger’s Signature Hatch Green Chile
Hatch Green Chile is a term used by New Mexico residents for a specific type of chile pepper grown in their region, and it is the signature ingredient behind Blake’s sauces.
That is exactly why the blanket claim this page used to make — that Blake’s green chile is vegan — does not hold. Blake’s describes its signature sauce on its own menu as “Blake’s sauce, our signature creamy green chile sauce”, and the green chile sauce add-on declares soy. The Green Chile Tartar Sauce this page cited as “entirely vegan” does not appear on Blake’s current menu or in its allergen table, and no Blake’s page makes that claim; tartar sauce is mayonnaise-based, and Blake’s mayonnaise add-on is declared to contain egg.
This page also used to say that Blake’s does not put non-vegan sauces on your order without your knowledge. Nothing published supports that. Blake’s discloses no ingredients, and its burgers and burritos come with sauce by default.
Three Things People Assume Are Safe At Blake’s
Refried beans. Blake’s declares its refried beans add-on for milk, soy and wheat. Lard would not show up in an allergen table either way, so it cannot be ruled out. Every bean burrito on the menu also contains eggs and cheese.
Hash browns. They appear only as a component inside breakfast burritos and have no standalone row in the allergen table, so there is no data on them at all.
Oatmeal. Newly on the breakfast menu — “Breakfast oatmeal served with brown sugar. (nuts can be provided upon request)” — but it is absent from the allergen table, so what it is cooked in is undisclosed. Its status cannot be determined.
Will Blake’s Lotaburger Ever Add A Vegan Option?
There are several reasons why restaurant owners are hesitant to add vegan options to their menu. Examples include:
- Hassle to add a new dish to the menu
- Company culture
- Perceived lack of demand
Demand was lower when Blake’s menu took shape than it is now. The Guardian reported in October 2021 on veganism’s move from fringe to mainstream in the UK; we have not found a more recent equivalent, so treat that as a 2021 snapshot rather than a current figure.
The moment restaurants realize this would also be when they consider adding vegan menu options. Some chains have moved further than Blake’s has — we cover the vegan options at Panda Express and Freshii on their own pages.
The Vegetarian Resource Group, which has run Vegan Journal’s Guide to Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants in the U.S. and Canada since 1993, puts it this way on that guide’s own page: “When we first started this project in 1993, there were about 55 vegan restaurants. Now we have over 970 completely vegan dining locations.” VRG does not date that “now”, and neither can we — the figure above is what the page said when we checked it in July 2026. An earlier version of this article attached the number to a specific year and to the wrong publication; both have been corrected.
You must also remember that Blake’s Lotaburger has been around since 1952. Since then, there have been several changes to their menu, and another change won’t hurt.
Is Blake’s Lotaburger An Excellent Option For Vegans?
No, and Blake’s says as much itself. Its own allergen page states that it does not have an allergen-free cooking environment and that all products are prepared in the same kitchen area, meaning the utensils used for burritos may also be used for the fries or onion rings.
So even for the handful of items with no declared egg or milk, there is no guarantee about what they have come into contact with — and no ingredient list to check in the first place.
Alternatives To Blake’s Lotaburgers For Vegans
PETA maintains a burger chain ranking that grades chains across the US and Canada on vegan-friendliness, from A for chains with a proper vegan burger down to F for chains with none. PETA does not date the page, but it does warn that “this ranking is dynamic, and information will change as we receive updates from restaurants or learn of new menu options.” The grades below are as PETA published them when we checked in July 2026, with PETA’s own wording rather than ours — check the live ranking, and the chain’s own menu, before you rely on either.
- A&W Canada — Grade A. PETA writes that it “offers the highly sought-after Beyond Burger at all its Canadian locations.”
- A&W U.S. — Grade C. The US arm sits two grades lower; PETA’s entry reads “we urge A&W U.S. to follow its Canadian counterpart by offering a Beyond Meat Burger.”
- MOOYAH — Grade A. PETA writes that it “offers The Vegan, featuring the Dr. Praeger’s black bean patty, fresh avocado, sauteed mushrooms.”
- Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard — Grade A. Per PETA, “you can order any sandwich with the Dr. Praeger’s black bean patty and make modifications.”
- Burger King — Grade A. PETA writes that it “has an animal-free Whopper, topped with tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pickles, and ketchup on a sesame seed bun.” We cover its menu in more detail on our own page.
- Ruby Tuesday — Grade B. PETA writes that its “animal-free burger can be made vegan if you swap out the brioche bun for a lettuce wrap.” Note that this is a downgrade in substance from what this page used to say: the Sweet Earth Awesome Burger it described as being tested is not what PETA lists today.
Four other chains in PETA’s current Grade A that we cover ourselves: Fuddruckers, Red Robin, TGI Fridays and Twin Peaks. Whataburger sits alongside A&W U.S. in Grade C.
Make sure you exclude mayo and cheese from your orders if you ever get to one of these chains to keep your diet dairy- and egg-free.
Final Thoughts
Blake’s Lotaburger’s customer base is people who came for the burgers, so it is no surprise that the plant-based end of the menu is thin. What is worth being clear about is how thin: the natural and seasoned fries, black coffee, orange juice, bottled water and the fountain drinks carry no declared egg or milk, and that is the entire list.
Everything else needs a caveat. The fries share oil with fish and chicken. The onion rings and the refried beans are declared for milk. The chili is a meat chili. The signature green chile sauce is described by Blake’s itself as creamy. And because Blake’s publishes no ingredients at all, even the short list above rests on a five-column allergen table that would never reveal beef tallow, lard or stock.
