Denny’s Vegan Burger – Pretty Darn Good
While on vacation, my wife, Alex, and I popped into a Denny’s we were staying near and tried the veggie burger which is now vegan (if you hold the cheese). We were so impressed we went back two more times! Topping the burger were fresh mushrooms, spinach, and tomato, and you can get it with a side of broccoli or corn. You might think that broccoli from a chain restaurant would be pretty bad, but it tasted fresh and cooked just right.
February 7th, 2012 at 5:36 am
Hi Jack, thanks for the update! I noticed on Denny’s website that they are serving Amy’s veggie burgers which accounts for the goodness. One question: were Denny’s staff willing to cook the veggie burgers in a separate pan for you, rather than on the grill? That is always my concern when eating a meatless burger in a conventional restaurant.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:07 am
I didn’t ask them to cook it in a separate pan and I haven’t checked on the bun.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:03 am
Sounds great! The bun is vegan, too?
February 7th, 2012 at 8:11 am
The bun is vegan. Here is a more detailed article on Denny’s vegan burger (from vrg.org)
http://www.vrg.org/blog/2010/10/07/dennys-offers-amys-kitchen-vegan-burger-on-a-vegan-bun/comment-page-1/#comment-46035
February 7th, 2012 at 8:12 am
Here is the correct link:
http://www.vrg.org/blog/2010/10/07/dennys-offers-amys-kitchen-vegan-burger-on-a-vegan-bun/
February 7th, 2012 at 10:21 am
Dazzle59,
Do you have a food alergy? I wouldn’t ask them to cook it in a special pan unless I had a food alergy. Why make enemies of meat eater’s? Let them come around on their own. You can’t force morality.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Jerry,
I don’t have a food allergy, but it literally grosses me out if my food touches meat (the times I’m aware of it, anyway!) – so I always ask the restaurant how they prepare the veggie burgers. I’ve had answers from microwaving to using a piece of aluminum foil underneath it on the grill (which I pleasantly ask for if they don’t separate the food, and they’ve always been very forthcoming).
Otherwise, if I knew my food would be roasting in meat juices, I would lose my cookies before I would be able to eat it. 🙂 I’m guessing Dazzle59 feels the same way.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
I’m pleased that they’re making the effort.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:14 am
I love that “vegan” is getting more and more into the mainstream. When a mainstream business makes the effort to accommodate the vegan lifestyle, I try to make sure I support it by visiting it as often as I can (even if everything else they sell is distasteful.) Let’s face it, if they don’t sell the product they will discontinue doing it.
February 8th, 2012 at 11:20 am
I’ve come to really dislike the food at Denny’s and hearing about a vegan burger doesn’t really excite me, but after hearing its a veggie burger from Amy’s actually perks my interest.
I am also curious if they would cook it in the same grill as the other meat patties.
February 8th, 2012 at 11:27 am
Roxanne, they would normally just cook it with the beef burgers, but if you ask, they’ll microwave it and then cook it in a pan that is cleaned/sanitized, but normally used to cook eggs.
February 9th, 2012 at 6:26 am
Well. We have one Denny’s left in my city, so I’ll have to go there. I’d been avoiding Denny’s but now, it would be worth a try. WITH FRIES!!!
February 9th, 2012 at 7:45 am
The Denny’s that I had it at last year offered the option of cooking it on the grill using their liquid margarine (which I assume may have hydrogenated vegetable oil), or in a skillet using Pam spray.
Also:
Burger King has long had a vegan burger (hold the mayo). It is less costly than Denny’s (but more expensive than their cowburgers); I like the one at Denny’s better.
Chipotle Mexican Grill is test marketing at a few locations “Garden Blend Grill” Gardein chicken at its DuPont Circle (DC), Chelsea (NYC) and a couple California stores. I haven’t tried it.
Subway is test marketing at some of its Canada locations a vegan patty. I haven’t tried it. There is a push in the US from some groups for them to offer Tofurkey deli meats; it might make better sense for us to instead push for them to offer the same product they are already using in Canada. They already offer a veggie patty in many, but not most, of their stores in the USA.
Moaz is an all-vegetarian chain restaurant in NYC and other cities in the USA and Europe; they serve primarily falafel and most of their items are vegan. I ate there twice and it was great! http://www.maozusa.com/restaurants
McDonald’s test marketed a veggie burger at several of its locations several years ago. I think it was vegan but I can’t remember for sure. The test failed. I attribute this in part to the product, 7Soy, which I didn’t care for.
February 9th, 2012 at 9:23 am
> Chipotle Mexican Grill is test marketing at a few locations “Garden Blend Grill” Gardein chicken at its DuPont Circle (DC), Chelsea (NYC) and a couple California stores. I haven’t tried it.
I thought this experiment ended, at least in California. I had it a few times (over a year ago). It was pretty good, but they did absolutely NO advertising for it. It wasn’t even on the menu or anywhere mentioned in the store, so you had to know about it before going in.
February 9th, 2012 at 9:47 am
The BK veggie burger is vegan in Canada, vegetarian in the United States.
February 9th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Ivy,
I believe BK veggie burger is vegan in the US as long as they don’t put the mayo on, and it does come with mayo unless you ask them to hold the mayo.
February 10th, 2012 at 5:26 am
Burger King uses the Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patty for its veggie burger. It contains, both milk and eggs, so it is vegetarian rather than vegan.
February 11th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Thanks, Ivy; it looks like you are probably right.
Although BK doesn’t seem to list the ingredients on the internet, other web sources indicate that my info was outdated. Apparently, BK switched from their original vegan burger after a few years to the current non-vegan burger, and I had not been aware of this change.
February 15th, 2012 at 11:12 am
The veggie burger at Denny’s is good! I had it for the first time this past Sept driving up the East Coast. One thing to note – they will coat the bun with butter when they heat it up so make sure to ask them to use no butter. You can also add avocado to it. yum!
February 16th, 2012 at 5:08 am
We have a Denny’s Fresh Express on campus, and I was surprised to see the Amy’s burger on the menu since it is a limited menu to begin with! They don’t actually grill the burgers as they have a separate toaster oven appliance that heats them through on both sides without leaving it soggy or charred. The downside is that it takes way too long – between 10 and 12 minutes, but the good side is that it is “fresh” and hasn’t been sitting out under a heat lamp or something like that.
They also serve sweet potato fries as well, although I didn’t email the company to find out if they were truly vegan. I am not certain, either, but the fries seemed baked as they were not greasy at all. The meal was definitely good, and I will go there if there are days that I don’t feel like packing my lunch, etc. It’s also good to know when I am traveling since I get tired of the usual vegan fast food options. I am glad to know their broccoli is good, too, as I don’t always get those quality greens on my travels!
As much as I don’t like spending money to go out to eat, anywhere, vegan or vegan-friendly with limited options, I know that it is important to step outside the box at least once a week or a couple times a month to try to support the vegan options since the supply and demand issues can easily destroy vegan options and even shutdown vegan cafes/restaurants. Although I won’t change much, even if I do one day have disposable income, I am thankful a lot of people are not like me and support these places like crazy!
February 16th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Culvers has a yummy veggie burger. Red robin has one too, but Culvers’ is better.
August 28th, 2013 at 8:39 am
I have had the Amy’s burger at Dennys a number of times with grilled onions, mushrooms and I use the balsamic dressing to add moisture because catsup is filled with sugar, but when they switched to “Build your own burger” they have given me ground cow and cheese three times. There used to be a separate menu item and then I didn’t have any errors. I have not been back since them messing up my order twice in a row.