What Are the Vegan Options at Cook Out? (Updated Guide)

Burgers, BBQ, and fresh shakes! Let’s talk about Cook Out, one of the most popular spots in the South of the United States, now that I have your attention toward vegan option at cookout. Since its founding in 1989, Cook Out has filled countless bellies, flipped an uncountable number of burger patties, made an uncountable amount of milkshakes, and fried zillions of French fries. However, does Cook Out provide vegan options?

Morris Reaves created Cook Out with the goal of providing the greatest hamburgers at a reasonable price to the good people of North Carolina. He couldn’t have imagined being so successful, even if he had faith in his idea. Reaves is now in charge of an empire that spans ten states and more than 250 locations in 100 cities.

You’re probably wondering what Cook Out is all about if you haven’t been. Simply described, it’s a fast-food establishment that wants to provide its patrons with a satisfying, good meal at a reasonable price.

Are There Vegan Options at Cook Out?

It’s like trying to find a fish in a mud pond when it comes to vegan alternatives at Cook Out. Your alternatives will be severely limited if you wind up at Cook Out. Yes, there are animal products on the entire menu. However, if you are a flexible vegan and can tolerate the scent of cooking beef, chicken, pig, hot dogs, and other BBQ foods, you might be able to find something to eat during Cook Out.

What About the Experience?

Over the years, new sit-in locations have popped up at Cook Out, which was primarily a drive-through burger joint. Most of the sites include picnic-style tables and resemble a rustic log home. Local teams’ jerseys or well-known albums by former local performers are displayed on the walls.

Your ordering experience is similar to what you would get at Burger King or McDonald’s. You wait for your name or number to be called after placing your order and paying at the counter. But unlike the other fast-food restaurants listed, Cook Out lets you personalize every aspect of your burger.

When you enter Cook Out, don’t expect a calm atmosphere; instead, expect a fast-paced setting during peak hours.

Fun Facts

Even though there aren’t many vegan options available on Cook Out, it’s still worth learning something new. Your pals might be impressed by these interesting facts:

• Cook Out offers more than 40 varieties of milkshakes.
• All you need to do is follow their Twitter feed and take a plane to the place where they are giving away free items.
• It hardly sleeps! You have a spot for late-night nibbles; it’s open till three in the morning.
• Please add a little bit of Christian flavor. Every one of their milkshake glasses has a verse from the Bible. A cup at a time, is Cook Out changing the world?
• Keep an eye on yourself. There are a thousand calories on the BBQ dish!

What Are People Saying About Cook Out?

Fast-food restaurants are frequently difficult to evaluate. However, reading reviews can frequently offer you a decent indication of what to anticipate from a location. Large restaurant franchises, however, make things a little more difficult. Certain places are more recent than others. Compared to others, some are handled more effectively. Finally, the customer service attitude of the employees throughout the day has a significant impact on your experience.

We also need to recognize that when customers are unhappy, they are more likely to write a review than when they are happy. In light of that, this is my interpretation of the 400+ Yelp reviews I looked at:

Positives

• Cheap
• Flavorful
• Good burgers
• Open late

Negatives

• Greasy
• Inconsistent servings (patty size)
• Outdated decor
• Slow service

When it comes to food, the advantages appear to exceed the disadvantages. People are looking for a tasty, affordable, and high-quality burger.

The Cook Out Menu

Cook Out offers a broad and quite intense menu. Additionally, the sight of it can be a little intimidating. Vegans, take note: spending too much time looking at the menu can make you sad. The abundance of animal items on the menu would make a restaurant appear vegan. A truly vegan alternative isn’t available in any of the sections. To understand what I mean, let’s have a look at the menu. Each segment is as follows:

• Trays (combine items from the menu to build a super-sized meal)
• Char-grilled hamburgers
• Barbeque
• Char-grilled chicken breast
• Crispy spicy breast fillet
• Homemade style chicken strips
• Crispy chicken wraps
• Sides (massive number of them, no salads)
• Creamery (milkshakes)
• Floats & cheesecakes
• Drinks

There are three to six alternatives in each of the above sections. Have milk? Check out the more than 40 milkshake alternatives listed in the creamery section.

Imagine what the kitchen might look like after looking over the menu.

Imagine sizzling bacon and chicken breasts around beef patties on a greased grill, the combined fat slowly moving down the fat catchers. Imagine friers hoisting onion rings, French fries, and chicken tenders. Imagine those discarded on a cooling surface, anticipating a shower of salt and Cajun spices. Condiments for adorning sandwiches, hotdogs, and burgers are available nearby this gory scene. Then, close by, you’ll see tubs of ice cream and gallons of milk waiting for the next order to be combined into a thick, overly sweetened milkshake. It’s a horrifying sight when you add the noise of everything. At Cook Out, it comes down to that, notwithstanding the graphic nature of the situation.

Your Vegan Menu

You can tell that Cook Out isn’t vegan-friendly and doesn’t have any vegan options just by looking at the menu and imagining what goes on behind the counter. I think the entire kitchen isn’t vegan-friendly because of the potential for cross-contamination. If you’re an extremely flexible vegan, though, you might not mind and still find something to order. French fries might be the only semi-vegan item on the menu.

For vegans on a diet, french fries are always a good option. Made with just one ingredient, the potato chips are delicious. Well, two if you include the oil.

In a day, Cook Out must do a lot of frying. It’s unclear if the oil used for chicken tenders isn’t also used for French fries. Furthermore, I doubt that the French fries have a separate space, and since it’s likely that all of the friers are in the same location, cross-contamination is definitely inevitable.

To put it briefly, if you are semi-vegan, you can order French fries, but if you are a complete vegan, avoid them.

Is It Worth It?

No. It’s only worthwhile if it’s pouring or snowing, you have nowhere else to stay, and you’ve left your phone and keys in your car. There are no vegan alternatives available at Cook Out. The closest thing to a vegan choice are the French fries, but I wouldn’t suggest it. Although it’s become easier to find vegan options at fast-food restaurants, Cook Out will never offer vegan meals.

Final Thoughts

When I was getting ready to write this piece, I enjoyed learning about the restaurant’s past. It’s always fascinating to learn how a location can be adored by a large number of people from different states, ethnicities, and demographic groups.

It’s interesting and enlightening to read Yelp reviews. The number of people who adore the location and return time and time again astounded me. Before stating that they would not return to that site, some commenters stated that they had tried the venue multiple times, but they did not rule out trying somewhere else. That’s really amazing, and it indicates that Cook Out has a recurring feature. However, vegan dieters will never be drawn to this place, regardless of what makes it popular.

A vegan will quickly feel out of place after perusing the menu for a full minute. For meat lovers, Cook Out might be a great, reasonably priced event, but vegans should only visit from a distance.