With the slogan “Wings. Beer. Sports.” it is not expected that Buffalo Wild Wings would have many vegan options. Buffalo Wild Wings caters to sports fans who want to eat finger foods and watch the game, definitely not the stereotypical vegan.
At first glace Buffalo Wild Wings’ menu would appear to quite a few vegan friendly fried dishes, but not so fast. Unfortunately, Buffalo Wild Wings fries all of its foods in beef shortening and cross contamination can occur due to shared fryers. This means that all of the possible veg friendly fried options (Onion Rings, Buffalo Chips, French Fries, Fried Pickles, and Potato Wedges) are not even vegetarian friendly! Even the tortilla chips for chips and salsa are fried in beef shortening!
Buffalo Wild Wings does feature a Southwest Black Bean Burger on their menu, but it includes milk and egg products so it is not vegan friendly. In addition, the black bean burger is cooked on the same grill as meat products so cross contamination is likely to occur.
With that said, a few vegan friendly options can be found on B-dubs menu. Read on for full details.
Menu information was gathered from Buffalo Wild Wings’ allergen information guide from September 2020.
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Side Salad (without Cheese or Croutons)
While a side salad is not a very exciting option, almost all restaurants have a side salad that can be made vegan and Buffalo Wild Wings is no exception. The ingredients of the Side Salad at Buffalo Wild Wings are house greens, tomato, cucumber, red pepper, pickled red onions, shaved Parmesan, croutons, lemon vinaigrette, and garlic toast. In order to make this salad vegan make sure to remove the the cheese and croutons. Allergy or nutrition information couldn’t be found for the garlic toast, so it’s best to avoid that as well. The side salad comes with lemon vinaigrette which is vegan, but it can be substituted for the vegan light french dressing.
Big Twist Pretzel (without Queso)
The “Big Twist Pretzel” is probably the most filling vegan option on the Buffalo Wild Wings menu. As listed, the pretzel comes with Queso (contains cheese) but this can be substituted for one of the many vegan B-dubs sauces. The pretzel is baked, so cross contamination or frying in beef shortening is not a concern.
Veggie Boat
Order a side veggie boat and you will get some carrot sticks and celery. Obviously, this isn’t the most exciting option but options are extremely limited at Buffalo Wild Wings so we have to take what we can get. The veggie boat usually comes with non-vegan fat free ranch, but this can be substituted for any of their vegan sauces listed below.
Get Creative with a Wrap or Buffalito
According to Cruelty Free Reviews, Buffalo Wild Wings’ flour tortillas are vegan. All of the wrap and Buffalito options contain meat and cheese, so your best option here is to order the Chicken Buffalito without chicken, cheese, and sour cream but add avocado and a vegan-friendly sauce or dry seasoning. You could even throw on some carrot or celery sticks to give your Buffalitos a nice crunch.
Sauces
One of Buffalo Wild Wings’ claims to fame are their sauces and lots of them are accidentally vegan! It should be noted that Buffalo Wild Wings does not list the ingredients of their sauces, so they following sauces are primarily based off their allergen guide. A list of ingredients can be found for Buffalo Wild Wings products from 2011, but many of the allergens have changed so these ingredients are likely outdated. The sauces listed below are those that are known to not contain milk or eggs, but they may include honey. We have made note on the ones most likely to include honey in the ingredients.
Sauces
- Asian Zing Sauce
- Blazin’ Sauce
- Bourbon Honey Mustard*
- Caribbean Jerk Sauce
- Honey BBQ Sauce*
- Hot Sauce
- Jammin’ Jalapeno
- Ketchup
- Mango Habanero Sauce
- Sweet BBQ Sauce
- Teriyaki Sauce
- Yellow Mustard
- Wild Sauce
*High likelihood this sauce contains honey.
Dry Seasoning
- Chipotle BBQ Seasoning
- Desert Heat Seasoning
- Lemon Pepper Seasoning
- Salt and Vinegar Seasoning
Salad Dressings
- Lemon Vinaigrette
- Light French
Other
- Salsa
- Pico
Drinks
The largest selection of vegan options at Buffalo Wild Wings is easily its drink menu. From specialty lemonades and sodas to beer and cocktails, almost all of the options are vegan friendly. However as we pointed out in our “Can Vegetarians and Vegans Drink Beer?” article, it is always best to check your alcoholic beverages are veg friendly before ordering. A full list of Buffalo Wild Wings vegan drink options is below.
Lemonade and Limeades
- Blueberry Mint Lemonade
- Strawberry Lemonade
- Black Cherry Lemonade
Sodas & More
- Diet Pepsi
- Dr. Pepper
- Lemonade
- Mountain Dew
- Mug Root Beer
- Pepsi
- Sierra Mist
- Iced Tea
- Coffee
- Izze Sparkling Juice, Blackberry
- Izze Sparkling Juice, Clementine
- Aquafina Bottled Water
Cocktails
- B-Dubs Bloody Mary
- Black Cherry Bourbon Smash
- Buffalo Zoo
- Hendrick’s Gin and Tonic
- House Margarita
- Hurricane
- Knockout Punch
- Mojito
- Moscow Mule
- Old Fashioned
- Platinum Margarita
- Red Sangria
- Scorpion
- Spicy Passion Fruit Margarita
- Strawberry Kick Coronarita
- Tee Time
- Top Shelf Long Island Ice Tea
- Twisted Margarita
- Prosecco
- Chatequ St. Michelle, Chardonnay
- Clos Du Bois, Merlot
- Darkhorse, Rose
- Mark West, Pinot Nior
- Robert Mondavi, Cabernet Sauvignon
- Ecco Domani, Pinot Grigio
- Beer (rotating)
- Cider (rotating)
White Rice (Hawaii Only)
If you are lucky enough to live in Hawaii, white rice is available as a side option. Pair it with one of the vegan-friendly sauces and some veggie sticks and you could have yourself a veggie rice bowl.
Kid's Mandarin Orange
Last of all the vegan options on Buffalo Wild Wings menu is the Mandarin orange on the kids menu. While this definitely won’t fill you up, it could fill in as dessert since none of Buffalo Wild Wings’ desserts are vegan.
Summary
As you can see from this article, Buffalo Wild Wings is not a very vegan friendly establishment but if you happen to find yourself here there are some decent options to choose from. If it was us we would stick with the pretzel and dipping sauces or the creative Buffalito option.
If you liked this article, take a look at at our other “Eating Out” vegan guides here.
