Everything Vegan at A&W Canada

Jan 18

A not so subtle plea to bring back Beyond breakfast & nuggets

*originally published August 21, 2024*

I love A&W. I have always loved A&W.

In our family we have a running joke that going out to A&W for breakfast is called “breakfast on real plates”. It’s one of my favourite things about them, they use real cutlery, plates, and mugs when you eat there. It cuts down on waste and makes you feel like you’re not eating “fast food”. I also love that they have composting set up when you return your real plates.

When I was younger I worked at a skateboard shop in the mall next to an A&W location. Each morning when I came to open the store there was always a group of senior citizens sitting out front with their toast and coffee. Most of them were part of the mall walkers club, but the rest just loved that you could get coffee with free refills for a dollar. It gave them a place to go and have a bit of community each morning.

Speaking of community, they’re also part of Second Harvest. Since 2019 over 270,000 meals have been donated. “Through our partnership with Second Harvest, we donate surplus food items like unused produce and protein to communities in need across Canada. That surplus food is then turned into nutritious meals like soups, salads, wraps and more to help fight food insecurity.”

While I always loved A&W it wasn’t until going vegan that I really appreciated them. They have become my “safe place” to eat. If I’m not in an area I know well, or a place that doesn’t have any vegan restaurants (hello I live in farm country) there’s always an A&W around I can stop at. My usual order is a Beyond Meat burger hold the mayo, onion rings, and lemonade.

There are a few places where I think they could improve and become an even better vegan option in Canada. For starters they need to bring back Beyond Nuggets. That was such a glorious summer. Even better would be Beyond Nuggets with some vegan dipping sauces. It would also be great if they had any vegan options for kids (hey, you know what they’d probably love? Beyond Nuggets.) And while we’re on the topic of definitely needing to bring back Beyond Nuggets, please please please bring back the Beyond Breakfast Sausage. I’ll take it in links or a patty. Just give me something other than hash browns in the morning.

Oh and as a final note, I think Burgers to Beat MS should expand to include $2 from every Teen Burger or Beyond Burger. I used to go there every year on August 22nd just for that reason.

To help you navigate all the options at A&W including the new(ish) Brew Bar I’ve gone through all the allergen information and ingredient lists for everything on their site and summarised it all below. They do have an allergen guide you can download but it hasn’t been updated since 2022, the safer option is to go directly to their website.

The best ever onion rings are vegan

Yes, the famous A&W onion rings made with breadcrumbs instead of thick batter are vegan. They do note in their allergy guide that they are made in a facility that contains milk, eggs, fish, and shellfish… but the ingredients themselves are vegan.
I have had a few people over the years every time I post a picture to Instagram say “oh no, but the onion rings aren’t vegan”. To my knowledge the recipe hasn’t changed since my Dad worked there in the 60s, but at the very least since I went vegan in 2019 (it was the first thing I checked).
For full transparency here are the ingredients:
**Onions** - Spanish style
**Batter** - Wheat flour, Corn starch, Yellow corn flour, Sugars (corn maltodextrin), Defatted soy flour, Modified palm oil, Soy protein isolate, Salt, Baking powder, Sodium aluminum phosphate, Modified corn starch, Natural flavor, Silicon dioxide. All deep fried products are cooked in a non-hydrogenated, high stability canola oil that has zero trans fats.
**Breadcrumbs** - Wheat flour, salt, vegetable oil (canola and/or sunflower), baking powder, spice extract
**Seasoning** - Salt, Spices, Sugars (sugar, dextrose), Corn starch, Dehydrated garlic, Dehydrated onion, Yeast extract, High oleic sunflower oil, Caramel, Paprika extractives, Citric acid, Silicon dioxide
**Frying Oil** - Canola Oil, Modified Palm Oil, Dimethylploysiloxane

Other Sides…

Let me immediately get this out of the way, no you cannot have the poutine. Yes, I know that’s sad. But the gravy has chicken fat, and the cheese curds are still dairy. So Canadian vegans I’m sorry but we still don’t have a fast food vegan poutine option.

You also can’t have the apple or raspberry turnovers, they have milk in them. But knock yourself out with the root beer lollipops.

In addition to the best ever onion rings you can have the Russet Thick-Cut Fries or Sweet Potato Fries. Just don’t eat the chipotle mayo that comes with the sweet potato fries because that has eggs in it. In fact the Sweet Potato Fries aren’t even made in a facility that has milk, eggs, fish, or shellfish, so they’re a good option for those with allergies.

The Beyond Meat Burger

*A Beyond Meat patty made from plants, topped with crisp lettuce, red onion, tomato, pickles, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, served on a freshly toasted sesame seed bun.*
They really were so close to perfection on this one I can’t be mad at it. The only thing you have to tell them is to hold the mayo. And no, you don’t want cheese. All of the seeded & unseeded buns come from plant sources so that’s safe as well.
In a world of restaurants including animal products on their “plant based” menus and serving Beyond Meat burgers on brioche buns with cheese & mayo this is by far my preferred burger.
If you’re looking for a different sauce you’re a bit out of luck there. The obvious ones that are mayo based are out, but also be aware that the Honey Mustard contains eggs.
I will of course mention for the purists out there it’s still cooked on the same grill. That really doesn’t bother me, I do share a BBQ at home with non-vegans, but I understand that it might be a deal breaker for some people.

New vegan burger at A&W Canada is a Spicy Piri-Piri Potato Buddy pictured here half-eaten — *NEW* **Spicy Piri-Piri Potato Buddy**

There’s a new vegan option at A&W! As of writing this update (January 2025) it is only available in BC, Manitoba, and Ontario.
*A perfectly crispy potato hash brown, topped with spicy piri-piri sauce, layers of crisp whole-leaf lettuce, sliced tomato and red onion, all sandwiched between a freshly toasted bun.*
If you’ve been looking for an alternative to a Beyond Burger this is it. First of all it’s much cheaper only about $4 (though prices may vary). Secondly, it’s surprisingly light and delicious. And SPICY. I love spicy food but this kind of took me by surprise, so be prepared.
I checked out their website (as always) and the sauce is labelled as “Vegan Masala Aioli”. I’m not sure if that’s something you can ask for on the side but I’m hoping that they’ll make it available as a dip, I imagine it would be awesome on fries.
**Note: Do not confuse this with the sometimes available feature “Masala Veggie Burger” which is made with paneer (cheese).**

Breakfast… kinda

If there is any way that A&W could improve it would be with their vegan breakfast options. As someone who has often been stranded after a 2 hour work commute, I would love to see them step up their game. The other places on my typical route (Starbucks, Tim Hortons) don’t have any vegan options at all. There is almost nowhere to go unless you’re closer to a major city centre or a trendy cafe.
They used to have a Beyond Meat breakfast option, but they paired it with egg and cheese. Then we got this update “In October 2020, we made the tough decision to permanently remove the Beyond Meat Sausage & Egger from our menu. We continue to partner with our friends at Beyond Meat to serve the Beyond Meat Burger all across Canada.”
If they would just lean into the vegan audience they’ve already captured they could make so much more money and we would have some place to eat. Personally I would love to see a vegan version of the “All Canadian” with tomato, Beyond breakfast sausage, toast & hash browns.

As the current menu stands, here are your vegan options: hash browns, English muffin, white or wheat toast.

The good news is all the Kraft spreads are vegan as is the margarine (I was pretty shocked at that one). You could also have the flour tortilla, though what you would put in it I don’t know.

And no, the pancakes are not vegan. I keep checking just in case miraculously one day they will be but alas they have milk & eggs.

Navigating the Brew Bar

In 2019 A&W started testing a new concept called “Brew Bar” in A&W restaurants in Victoria, Montreal and Ottawa. In 2021 they launched nationally and at last check had over 500 locations.
As a coffee lover this sounded like a great idea, but I soon found out much like any cafe menu it was a little more complicated. Below I’ve listed the current vegan & non-vegan items (as of August 2024).

Not Vegan (contains milk)

Mango Passionfruit Shake / Icer
Mixed Berry Sweet Cream Shake with Acai
Strawberry Sweet Cream Shake
Chocolate Sweet Cream Shake
Frozen Root Beer with Sweet Cream / Cold Brew
Frozen Cold Brew with Caramel / Sweet Cream / Dark Chocolate
Iced Cold Brew with Caramel / Sweet Cream / Dark Chocolate
Iced or Hot Mocha (the Hot Chocolate mix contains milk)
Chai Latte (the Chai Tea mix contains milk)
Hot Chocolate (milk)

Vegan

Lemonade - Water, Cane sugar, Lemon juice concentrate, Lemon pulp, Natural flavor
Frozen A&W Root Beer - Water, Cane Sugar, Natural flavour, Colour, Sodium benzoate, Quillaia extract.
Mixed Berry Smoothie with Acai - Water and Ice, Sugar, Strawberry Puree, Blueberry Puree, Raspberry Puree, Natural flavours, Citric Acid (Acidulant), Citrus Pectin (Stabilizer), Black Carrot and Blackcurrant Juice Concentrate (colour).
Strawberry Smoothie - Water and Ice, Strawberry Puree, Sugar, Natural flavours, Citrus Pectin (Stabilizer), Citric Acid (Acidulant), Black Carrot and Blackcurrant Juice Concentrate (colour), Lemon Juice Concentrate.

Some notes on the hot beverages at the Brew Bar.

Both the Vanilla and Caramel syrups are vegan. Last week when I was at my local A&W the bottles were from Monin, which has vegan friendly syrups.

Lattes can be made with oat beverage. The americano, espresso, and teas are vegan as you’d expect in any cafe. Additionally the Iced Cold Brew is also vegan.

However I can’t confirm if the macchiato (hot & iced) or cappuccino is available with oat beverage. The website doesn’t list milk options the way it does with lattes. This could be an oversight on their end, but I’m not sure.

When the Blue Jays win, you win.

It’s all there in the title. If you’re a baseball fan like me you probably already know, but the morning after the Blue Jays win the A&W app will give you a one-day offer. At the time of writing they won last night and the offer is free fries with the purchase of any other regular priced item.

What’s not to like about free food?