All The Outback Steakhouse Vegan Menu Options
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We know, we know… it’s called “Outback Steakhouse” for a reason! Surely there isn’t anything vegan-friendly at this eating establishment… right?
Well, yes and no. Like most of the restaurants, Outback Steakhouse does have enough vegan ingredients or foods that you can make yourself a reasonably suitable vegan-friendly lunch or snack with a few customizations. That said, it’s also true that Outback Steakhouse doesn’t have any vegan-specific entrées or main menu items.
What if you need to eat at Outback Steakhouse because of a work party or because a family member really wants to try a flank steak? In either of those cases, you might be stuck at the Steakhouse and wonder what you can order. With that in mind, let’s break down all the vegan options on Outback Steakhouse’s menu in detail. But before we do here is a quick overview:
| Menu Item | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Baked Potato | Side | Order plain without butter or cheese |
| Blue Cheese Pecan Side Salad | Salad | Order without blue cheese crumbles, use vegan dressings |
| Broccoli | Side | Order without butter |
| Green Beans | Side | Order without butter |
| House Side Salad | Salad | Order without cheese or croutons |
| Sweet Potato | Side | Order without butter |
| Tangy Tomato | Dressing | – |
| Light Balsamic Vinaigrette | Dressing | – |
| Mustard Vinaigrette | Dressing | – |
What’s Vegan On the Outback Steakhouse Menu?
Not much. If you’re a vegan at this meat-focused restaurant, you basically have two different options not counting sides. These options are:
- The House Side Salad. This side salad, like most other American salad options, has to be ordered without any cheese or croutons for it to be vegan friendly. Luckily, it’s a pretty tasty salad anyway, as it is comprised of fresh mixed greens with tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions. There’s plenty of calories and vitamins in this meal that should fill you up for lunch
- The Blue Cheese Pecan Side Salad. This comes with chopped style mixed greens, red cabbage, cinnamon pecans, green onions, shredded carrots, and Aussie Crunch. Again, order it without any croutons and with no blue cheese crumbles. You can add one of the vegan dressings we will break down below for some additional flavor
That’s it. No vegan or plant-based steak, no other entrées, nothing. If you’re a vegan, you can eat a salad or one of the sides. Because of this, we definitely recommend avoiding Outback Steakhouse if you’re a vegan in favor of a different restaurant if at all possible.
You’d honestly be better off eating the vegan meals at Longhorn Steakhouse, which isn’t excellent, but which at least offers a few more options for vegans than Outback!
Outback Steakhouse Vegan Dressings, and Sides
If you aren’t really feeling a salad, you can order a few different types of sides:
- The baked potato. This comes plain by default, which is right up any vegan’s alley. However, you can also order a sweet potato, but you need to order it without butter to keep it 100% vegan.
- Your choice of green beans or broccoli. Perhaps because this is a steakhouse, Outback Steakhouse prepares both of these vegetables with butter. No one needs that much oil in their arteries, so order these fresh veggies without butter to give yourself a side suitable for vegans
- Fresh asparagus. This is grilled in-house, but order it without any butter to make sure it’s 100% vegan
- You can also order a side of mixed vegetables, which is made up of asparagus, broccoli, and a few other veggies
- Cut fresh fruit off the kids’ menu
- House bread. This is actually free so long as you order something else off the Outback Steakhouse menu, so order them without butter if you want some carbs or don’t want to be starving when you head out the door
As mentioned above, Outback Steakhouse does offer a handful of vegan dressings you can use to complement your salad. These include:
- Tangy Tomato
- Light balsamic vinaigrette
- Mustard vinaigrette
As you can see, Outback Steakhouse doesn’t have very many options for vegans overall. Its sides, “main” items, and dressings leave a lot to be desired in terms of variety.
Outback Steakhouse Vegan Options FAQs
Nope, which is a big bummer. Remember, all of the fried stuff at Outback Steakhouse is made with beef lard or tallow as the frying oil instead of vegetable oil like many other restaurants. As a result, French fries, fried onions, and any other fried foods are totally non-vegan. They won’t even be good for vegetarians since eating these items means eating some animal products!
Yes, absolutely. Outback Steakhouse doesn’t make any real efforts to provide safe meals for vegan diners, so you always have to consider the risk of cross-contamination, particularly when it comes to things like the baked potatoes.
However, some vegans aren’t super worried about cross-contamination and will still consider foods “vegan” so long as they aren’t explicitly made with animal products or byproducts. Keep in mind that all vegan or vegetarian items are made in kitchens with shared cooking surfaces and tools at Outback Steakhouse.
Surprisingly, yes. However, these options were already broken down above; they include the baked potato, sweet potato, broccoli, and green beans, and you have to order all of those without butter. Therefore, you can technically keep to a whole food plant-based diet at Outback Steakhouse only if you really stretch it.
You can also technically follow this diet by ordering a house side salad without any cheese or croutons. But all of the dressings mentioned above have oil, so you’re technically limited to either ketchup or mustard as a topping.
Is Outback Steakhouse a Good Restaurant for Vegans?
Overall, Outback Steakhouse is not a great place to eat if you’re a vegan or even a vegetarian. Your options are very limited, and even traditionally vegan-friendly foods like French fries are not vegan because of Outback Steakhouse’s dedication to its beef tallow frying process.
Instead, we’d highly recommend that you check out the variety of other restaurants with more vegan friendly menus. If you don’t know where to start your search, good news; we’ve already broken down the best vegan friendly restaurant menus on cookgem!
