Answer: nothing at Houlihan’s can be confirmed vegan. The only allergen information Houlihan’s publishes is a peanut and tree-nut icon on its menus — there is nothing at all about dairy, egg or vegan status, and no ingredient statements. The (V) mark on those menus means “meat free”, not vegan and not dairy-free.
A correction, up front
An earlier version of this page profiled four dishes in detail — Avocado Toast, Margherita Flatbread, Spinach Salad With Kale and an Impossible Burger — and printed nutrition tables for two of them. All four are gone from Houlihan’s current menus, at both locations we checked in two different regions. One of those tables listed 40 mg of cholesterol under a heading about vegan food.
The same page carried a 14-item “More Vegan Options” list. Nine of those items do not exist on the current menu, and three of the survivors are described by Houlihan’s itself as containing cheese. It also claimed Houlihan’s has “a gluten-free and vegan menu” and a “nutrition menu online.” Neither exists.
We removed all of it, plus roughly 350 words about Back Yard Burgers, Burger King, Wahlburgers and Dickey’s BBQ Pit. That block had nothing to do with Houlihan’s and nothing behind it.
What Houlihan’s publishes — and what it doesn’t
Checked on 31 July 2026: the homepage, the store locator, the FAQ, and every menu tab at the Overland Park (Kansas) and Paramus (New Jersey) locations, which were chosen to cross-check two regions against each other.
- A peanut and tree-nut marker — published, per item. Houlihan’s menus carry a nut icon on individual dishes, governed by the “(+)” legend quoted below. On the menus we checked it is applied to eight items, every one of them a meat or fish dish. That means it has no bearing on the vegan question — but it is real published allergen information, and this page should not pretend it doesn’t exist.
- Nothing about dairy or egg. No allergen matrix, no dairy or egg marker, no ingredient statement for any dish. The nut icon is the entire allergen system.
- “vegan” — 0 occurrences on the menus, the FAQ or the homepage
- No nutrition page and no nutrition PDF.
/nutrition/and/allergen/both return 404 - Calorie counts — published, per item
- A “(V)” mark and a “Gluten Sensitive” mark — published, per item
Menus are per-location and lazy-loaded; there is no national menu. Houlihan’s parent company, Landry’s, publishes no allergen matrix or nutrition data either — landrysinc.com/allergen and landrysinc.com/nutrition both 404.
What (V) actually means, in Houlihan’s own words
From the footer of the Overland Park All Day Dinner Menu, verbatim:
“2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary. | (GS) We offer gluten-sensitive menu items but we are not a gluten-free environment. (V) Meatless items | (+) We use nuts and nut-based oils in these menu items. If you are allergic to nuts or any other foods, please let us know.”
The Paramus menu independently confirms it: “(V) Meatless items.” A third variant on the same Overland Park page reads “(V) Meat free items.” No vegan definition exists anywhere on the site.
The “(+)” line in that same footer is worth reading separately, because it is Houlihan’s allergen system in its entirety: “(+) We use nuts and nut-based oils in these menu items. If you are allergic to nuts or any other foods, please let us know.” It defines a nut marker that Houlihan’s applies to specific dishes on the menu. It covers peanuts and tree nuts, and nothing else — not milk, not egg, not soy, not wheat. Useful if you have a nut allergy; no help at all if you are trying to avoid dairy.
And the FAQ, where Houlihan’s is asked the question directly and answers it without using the word:
“DOES HOULIHAN’S OFFER VEGETARIAN, VEGAN, OR GLUTEN-FREE OPTIONS? Yes. Houlihan’s offers a variety of meat free / vegetarian items. Houlihan’s also offers Gluten Sensitive options however we are not a gluten-free environment.”
Houlihan’s contradicts its own (V) legend on the same page
This is the clearest evidence available that the (V) mark cannot support a dietary decision, and we are publishing it as we found it rather than trying to resolve it.
On the Overland Park menu, in the same block as the legend “(V) Meat free items.”, sits this item, verbatim:
“Summer Berry Salad (V) — shaved grilled chicken, spinach & field greens, mixed berries, honey crisp apples, cucumber, goat cheese, balsamic glaze, toasted almonds, orange poppyseed vinaigrette”
A (V)-marked item whose first listed ingredient is chicken, printed beside a legend saying (V) means meat free. We are not going to guess which of the two is the mistake. What it settles is that the glyph is not a reliable guide to anything.
The (V) items, and what Houlihan’s says is in them
Every item marked (V) on the current Overland Park dinner menu, with Houlihan’s own description:
- Houlihan’s Famous ‘Shrooms — “Stuffed with garlic-herb cream cheese” — dairy, by Houlihan’s own words
- NEW Bruschetta — “Crostini, diced tomato basil cruda, garlic-herb cream cheese, balsamic glaze, parmesan” — dairy
- Tuscan White Bean Salad — “Goat cheese, tomatoes, balsamic, Tuscan toast” — dairy
- Roasted Tomato Bisque — “Topped with grilled cheese fritters” — dairy
- Crunchy Spicy Cauliflower (Paramus: “Firecracker Cauliflower”) — “Panko breaded cauli in chile aioli” — aioli is conventionally egg-based; Houlihan’s publishes nothing
- Whole Grain Veggie Burger — “Brown rice, quinoa, bulgur, roasted corn & red peppers, black beans, mushrooms, green bell peppers, garlic ranch-dressed greens, tomato”, 577 cal
- Garlic Green Beans — no description published
- French Fries — no description published
- Grilled Asparagus — no description published, 60 cal
- Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes — no description published
- Twice Baked Potato Soufflé — no description published
- Seasonal Vegetable (Paramus: “Maple Glazed Carrots”) — no description published
Five of the twelve name a dairy ingredient in Houlihan’s own description. The brand is demonstrating its own footnote: (V) means meatless and nothing more.
The plainest sides — and the specific things to ask
The undescribed (V) sides are the only plausible candidates on the menu, and Houlihan’s publishes nothing about any of them. That makes every one of them unverifiable, not vegan. What is worth asking about is specific:
- Grilled Asparagus, Garlic Green Beans, Seasonal Vegetable — ask whether they are finished in butter. Houlihan’s does not say.
- Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes — ask about butter and cream. Houlihan’s does not say. (The Twice Baked Potato Soufflé is very unlikely to be dairy-free, but Houlihan’s does not say that either.)
- French Fries — ask what the fryer oil is and what else goes in it. Houlihan’s publishes no fryer statement at all. This is one thing the old version of this page got right when it flagged “ask first if they use vegan oil.”
- Whole Grain Veggie Burger — ask about the patty binder, the bun, and whether it is cooked on the same flat-top as the beef. Houlihan’s answers none of those. Note also that the greens on it are garlic ranch-dressed, so ranch is something to remove, not something to keep.
Item-by-item: what happened to the old list
- Original Baked Potato Soup “with no bacon” — Houlihan’s describes it as “Loaded up with bacon, scallions, cheddar“, and does not mark it (V). Removing the bacon leaves the cheddar. Off the list.
- Roasted Tomato Bisque — “Topped with grilled cheese fritters.” Off the list.
- The Famous Stuffed Mushrooms — “Stuffed with garlic-herb cream cheese.” Off the list.
- House Salad — Houlihan’s describes it as “Bacon, corn, croutons, choice of blue cheese crumbles or white cheddar and choice of dressing”, and does not mark it (V). The old page’s modification list omitted the bacon entirely. There is no “Italian vinaigrette” on the menu and no dressing ingredients are published. Unverifiable even fully modified.
- “American Fries” — the item is French Fries. Renamed.
- “Housemade Veggie Burger” — the item is the Whole Grain Veggie Burger, with a different composition (no sweet potato, no jalapeños, no “Tuscan beans”; it adds quinoa, bulgur, corn and mushrooms) and a different calorie count: 577, not 825.
- Gone entirely, with zero occurrences on either location’s menus: Basil Pesto Brussel Sprouts, Loaded Guacamole, Zucchini Marinara, Veggie Chop Chop Salad, Low Carb Vegetable Fajita With Lettuce Cups, Vegetable Stir Fry, Fruit Sorbet, White Bean And Artichoke Hummus, House Salsa And Tortilla Chips.
- “The Impossible Burger is prepared on a meatless flat-top grill” — Houlihan’s publishes no such statement, and the Impossible Burger is no longer on the menu. A confident claim about kitchen practice with nothing behind it. Removed.
Other corrections
- The old page said 21 locations across nine states. The store locator on 31 July 2026 lists 19 locations across ten states: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia.
- The old page said Houlihan’s can be found in Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado and California, with franchises in Canada. None of those four states appears in the store locator, and there is no Canadian location.
- The old page said Houlihan’s has introduced “a gluten-free and vegan menu.” “Vegan” appears zero times on houlihans.com, and Houlihan’s own wording on gluten is: “We offer gluten-sensitive menu items but we are not a gluten-free environment.” Both claims corrected.
- The old page pointed readers to Houlihan’s “nutrition menu online.” There is no nutrition page and no nutrition PDF on the site.
- The old page’s regional examples — “Salsa Cruda Bruschetta” in the northeast and “Parmesan Frites” in the midwest — appear on neither menu we checked. The underlying point is right, though: the menus genuinely do differ between regions, and even the (V) legend is worded three different ways.
Conclusion
Houlihan’s asks you to speak to your server, and prints it on the menu: “For dietary restrictions or special needs please speak with your server.” Given that the chain’s only allergen marker covers peanuts and tree nuts, and that it publishes no ingredient statements and no vegan designation, that is the only honest instruction available — and it is what this page is reduced to as well.
You can eat meat-free at Houlihan’s. Whether you can eat vegan there is something Houlihan’s does not tell you, and this page is not going to fill that gap with a guess. Menus vary by location, so check the one for the restaurant you are going to, and take the specific questions above with you.
