Here’s Every Vegan Option at Marco’s Pizza

Marco’s Pizza doesn’t have vegan cheese at this point. But they actually have quite a few options anyway. They have a vegan cinnamon dessert, vegan smoothies, and more. As a vegan with 14 years of dining experience, I can be your guide through these options.

Vegan options at Marco’s Pizza:

• Crust: Lite Crust, Original Crust, Thick Crust, Thin Crust, Big Square Deal Crust, Deep Pan Crust, Cauliflower Crust (Select Locations).
• Sauce: Signature Pizza Sauce
• Veggie toppings: Banana Peppers, Black Olives, Fresh Spinach, Garlic Sauce, Green Chilies, Green Olives, Green Peppers, Jalapenos, Mushrooms, Onions, Pineapple, Red Onions, Tomato Slices.
• Crust Topper: Garlic Sauce / “Garlic Butter”
• Garden Salad (Without Cheese, Without Croutons, With Fat-Free Italian Dressing)
• CinnaSquares
• Chips: Fritos Original, Lay’s BBQ, Lay’s Classic, Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original.
• Bagel
• Soft Pretzel with Pizza Sauce (Select Locations)
• Strawberry Banana Smoothie
• Strawberry Smoothie
• Beverages

Below, I’ll share more about how to order these items vegan, and some other menu items that are surprisingly NOT vegan. I’ll answer your questions about the breadsticks, and I’ll end with a look at the whole-food plant-based options.

Marco’s Pizza Vegan Menu

The following vegan menu was compiled with the help of the menu, nutrition, and allergen information on the Marco’s Pizza website.

Restaurant menus change and often vary by location. I recommend double checking any important information with staff at your local Marco’s Pizza.

1. Build Your Own Vegan Pizza

It’s not hard to build a vegan, cheeseless pizza at Marco’s.

Choose your crust:

• Lite Crust
• Original Crust
• Thick Crust
• Thin Crust
• Big Square Deal Crust
• Deep Pan Crust
• Cauliflower Crust (Select Locations Only)

Sauce:

• Signature Pizza Sauce

Veggie toppings:

• Banana Peppers
• Black Olives
• Fresh Spinach
• Garlic Sauce
• Green Chilies
• Green Olives
• Green Peppers
• Jalapenos
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Pineapple
• Red Onions
• Tomato Slices

Other extras:

• The “Garlic Sauce” or “Garlic Butter” Crust Topper option is dairy-free.
• Crushed Red Pepper Packets

Note: If you’d like to Build Your Own Vegan Pizza Bowl instead, that’s also an option. A “Pizza Bowl” is a pizza without crust, in a bowl. As a vegan, this would just be a bowl of veggies and pizza sauce. I think most of us would prefer keeping our crust!

2. Garden Salad (Customized)

To vegan-ize the Garden Salad, you want to get it:

1. Without Cheese
2. Without Croutons
3. With Fat Free Italian Dressing (not the Greek Dressing)

Along with salad greens, it comes standard with green peppers, red onion, tomato, and black olives. (You can optionally add mushrooms, spinach, pineapple, jalapenos, banana peppers, or onions.)

3. CinnaSquares

This is easily the most interesting item on Marco’s menu from a vegan perspective. They are cinnamon-sugar desserts squares with icing and everything.

Be aware: The ingredients list says it contains “butter,” but then it clarifies that the “butter” is made of soybean oil, not actual dairy butter.

So, if you have a severe milk allergy, you may want to double-check this… but I (and the other vegans I know) consider the CinnaSquares vegan.

4. Chips

Typically the following chips will be available:

• Fritos Original
• Lay’s BBQ
• Lay’s Classic
• Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original

5. Bagel

The bagel may not be available at all locations at all times. But it was listed on the website as a “breakfast” option. And it’s vegan.

Note: The English Muffins are not vegan, as they contain whey (milk).

6. Soft Pretzel with Pizza Sauce

Again, this is only at select locations. But if your location has the Soft Pretzel, I definitely recommend getting it with the Pizza Sauce to dip it in.

7. Smoothies

Both of these smoothie favors are confirmed vegan on the Marco’s website. However, you may want to double-check to make sure milk or yogurt are not included at your specific location:

• Strawberry Banana Smoothie
• Strawberry Smoothie

Strawberry Banana Smoothie Ingredients: “Purified Water, Strawberry Banana Smoothie: Fruit (strawberry and banana puree) White grape juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate, natural flavours and colour: fruit and vegetable juice, Thickeners: locust bean gum guar gum”

8. Beverages

As far as soft drinks, Marco’s has Pepsi products:

• Pepsi
• Diet Pepsi
• Mist Twist
• Sierra Mist
• Mountain Dew
• Mug Root Beer
• Cherry Pepsi
• Aquafina
• Mtn Dew Zero Sugar
• Pepsi Zero Sugar
• Orange Crush
• Dole Lemonade

Some locations also offer the following:

• Coffee
• Latte with Almond Milk, Soy Milk, or Coconut Milk.

Vegan latte add-ons:

• Dark Chocolate Sauce
• Hazelnut Syrup
• Sugar Free Hazelnut Syrup
• Vanilla Syrup
• Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup

But What About…

Now let’s answer some common questions about eating vegan at Marco’s vegan.

Does Marco’s Pizza Have Vegan Cheese?

Marco’s Pizza does not have vegan cheese. However, you can order your pizza without cheese. And if you’re committed, you can always add your own vegan cheese at home.

Is Marco’s Pizza Sauce Vegan?

Marco’s Pizza Sauce is confirmed vegan. Here is the full ingredients list:

Marco’s Signature Pizza Sauce Ingredients: “Pizza Sauce concentrate (vine-ripened fresh tomatoes, salt, citric or ascorbic acid, and basil), Water, Spices for sauce (salt, sugar, fructose, spices, garlic powder, and silicon dioxide added to prevent caking.).”

Is Marco’s Pizza Dough Vegan?

All of the following Marco’s pizza doughs are vegan: Thin Crust, Thick Crust, Original Crust, Lite Crust, Big Square Deal Crust, Deep Pan Crust, and Cauliflower Crust (only available at select locations).

The only crust option that’s questionable is the Gluten-Free Crust (only at select locations). It appears to be vegan, too—but the allergen info listed it as “May contain egg and cheese.” I didn’t see any dairy or egg ingredients listed, but you may want to check that with staff at your location.

Here are the full ingredients for Marco’s Original Crust:

Ingredients: “Classic Dough: Flour, classic (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour.), Water, Dough Pack (sugar, salt, and yeast.), corn oil blend corn oil, olive oil, Corn Meal (degerminated white corn meal, niacin, iron(reduced), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid)), Oil: corn oil, olive oil, Cornmeal: (Degerminated white corn meal, niacin, iron (reduced), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid.)”

Does Marco’s Have Vegan Breadsticks?

Marco’s Pizza does not have vegan breadsticks. They come topped with parmesan cheese and “Roma Seasoning,” which also contains cheese.

That said, you may be able to get Marco’s breadsticks custom ordered vegan. Many pizza places are willing to make you “dry breadsticks” that are vegan. (This is the case with Pizza Hut’s breadsticks, for instance.) Ask at your location to see if they’d be willing to do this for you.

Does Marco’s Have Vegan Pizza?

Marco’s doesn’t have any pre-made vegan pizza options, but you can build your own vegan pizza. Just remove the cheese and only select veggie toppings. All the crust options are vegan.

Whole-Food Plant-Based Options

What if you’re not just vegan but also trying to avoid processed foods? Can you get a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) meal at Marco’s Pizza? Actually, yes, kind of.

A WFPB meal at Macro’s is almost definitely going to include a salad. However, if you’re fully strict about eating WFPB, then you’d have to forego dressing, as even the Fat-Free Italian Dressing has a bit of sugar. Remember you can have them add extra veggies.

You can also get a smoothie, as long as your location doesn’t add dairy to their smoothies. (Even if they routinely do, you should be able to ask for a dairy-free one.)

Two More Recommendations for Your Plant-Based Journey

1. This is the best free video training I’ve found on plant-based nutrition. You’ll learn how to reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and obesity—all with plant-based food. Watch the free “Food for Health Masterclass” here.

2. This is the best vegan multivitamin I’ve found in my 14 years of being vegan. It has vitamin B12, vitamin D, omega-3—and nothing else. Translation: It only has the nutrients vegans are actually low in. Read my full review of Future Kind’s multivitamin here (with 10% discount).