Our Top 5 Vegan Fast Food Options

⏱️5 minute read

We appreciate it might seem off brand for a plant based, whole food meal prep business whose USP centres on healthy, clean eating to write a blog around fast food but, hey, even we have the occasional 'cheat' day.

As with anything we post on here, balance in your diet and a healthy relationship with food is the most important thing we advocate. It is okay to eat a little of what you fancy if you do so in moderation and with one eye on your health and the bigger picture of what you eat as a whole.

So if you’re after help with a hangover or just feel like a bit of junk for a change, then look no further than this blog where we rank and review some popular plant based fast food alternatives.

By way of an introduction it’s fair to say that fast food is huge in the UK and the big players have bought in to the increasing popularity of plant based food. In late 2024 the UK vegan fast food market was valued in the region of £1.27 billion and is projected to grow to £2.15 billion by 2032 showing strong consumer demand. 

But what are our favourites? Here are our top five…

5. KFC Original Recipe Vegan Burger

Retailing at a price point of £5.49 (unless you stumble upon a KFC at a motorway services so bear in mind these prices do vary by location) then this is a handy and readily available snack with KFC having a widespread footprint in over 1000 locations across the UK.

The burger itself features a plant-based Quorn fillet cooked in KFC's unique mix of 11 herbs and spices, served with vegan mayo and lettuce. It’s tasty and pretty much achieves its mission with over 1 million sold in just its first month on sale. Wow! Those are impressive numbers. It’s even in a green box so you know that you’re saving the planet with every bite.

In terms of macros it contains approximately 550 calories, 35g carbs, 32g fat, 19g protein. It contains a high amount of protein but be careful not too eat too many due to the calorific and fat content (bear in mind the RDA for a female is 78 grams per day so the KFC burger represents 41% of that allowance - used up in just a few bites).

The KFC burger is 5th on our list because we don’t quite feel that KFC has got its approach to vegan sides quite right yet. When the chips and gravy are available for plant based customers, then we’ll talk.

If that write up tickles your fancy then click here for KFC.

Coming in hot at 4 we have…

 4. Subway Plant Patty

Who doesn’t love a Subway? Subway has a genius angle of selling fast food that feels fresh and healthy and also puts you in control - no, I don’t want red onion, thank you very much.

Disregarding meal deal offers, you can buy a 6 inch plant based sub for £7.29 in most locations, and you do have the option of upsizing to a footlong if 6 inches doesn’t do it for you. The meal deals do offer some choice for vegans with Spicy Doritos and vegan cookies available. But on the downside the KFC burger is almost £2 cheaper and Subway have chosen to price this at a higher price point than some of their more mainstream options which, unlike the food, leaves a sour taste in our mouth.

Subway does score high for flexibility though. You pick the salad, the bread and the sauces and if you want fast food but without the carbs then you can have plant patties as part of a salad bowl and, surprisingly, Subway actually has even more locations than KFC with over 1600 outlets in the UK.

Macros will vary depending on what you have on your sub but expect it to be in the region of 375 calories, 11g of fat, 49g of carbs and 19g of protein. The sub ties with the KFC burger in terms of protein content, ahead on the calories, but roughly containing 20% of the RDA carbohydrate allowance for a female. 

Price aside, the worst thing about the plant patty is its look. It is certainly not hip to be square giving mashed up, smashed up and steamrolled vibes. Do better.

If that doesn’t put you off, you can get your tasty Subway here.

At 3, getting a ‘pizza’ the action it’s….

3. Dominos Plant Based Vegi Supreme

Tasty, moreish, great for sharing and ranking alongside Subway in the customization stakes, the Plant Based Vegi Supreme sites alongside a Plan Based Margherita giving Dominos customers a choice of 2 plant based mains.

Their pizzas contain their own plant based cheese alternative and its pretty good, comparing nicely to their mainstream range in terms of flavour and texture. The toppings are nicely balanced featuring mushrooms, mixed peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn and red onion.

They do not operate with any form of vegan tax with their plant based pizzas priced in line with their main menu. That price, however, is £22 for a medium pizza when there are no available offers. In fairness, Dominos does normally operate with a whole host of offers, encouraging bulk purchasing (now we know why they have a choice of 2 plant based pizzas on offer!) and this normally brings the price point down considerably. Some people might even share that medium pizza, bringing that price point down further.

Dominos gets bonus points for their plant based dip and it ranks highly on the convenience charts with 1300 locations nationwide and a particularly nifty app to help the online order process.

However, if you decide not to share that medium pizza then look away now as we hit the macros section of our review.

This pizza contains a whopping 1494 calories, 208g of Carbs, 48.5g of fat and 57.4g of protein. We’d recommend getting a Diet Coke with it.

Got some friends round? Stop reading our blog and click here for Dominos.

And next, a surprise at 2!

2. McDonald's McPlant

You might have heard of a little known fast food establishment called MacDonald’s, right?

Audible gasps as the mighty McPlant only comes in as our runner up.

Partnering with Beyond meat, McDonalds' McPlant offers a quality plant-based burger patty with vegan cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup, mustard, and mayo. It does come as part of a meal deal with sides and if you’re feeling particularly peckish then the Veggie Dippers support nicely along with their vegan friendly fries.

It’s tasty and where the KFC burger can sometimes be dry this is not the case with the McPlant, delivering consistently against the brief.

It has the best balance in terms of macros so far, coming in somewhere between the KFC burger and the plant patty Sub at 429 calories, 33g carbs, 23g fat, and a peak of 22g protein and is reasonably priced at £4.69 for the burger alone, putting this ahead of most of its peers as part of the wider Maccies menu.

You won’t have to go far to hit one of Macdonald’s 1400 UK locations and they bring the added benefit of having widespread drive thru coverage which means that if this fast food urge is driven by a hangover then you can minimise your interaction with other human beings when purchasing.

Negatives? It’s messy. If you get a trigger happy colleague assembling said burger then you may have a tricky few minutes trying to eat it without some sort of sauce spillage catastrophe, particularly if you’re sat in your car.

Not scared by a little sauce? Click here for McPlants a plenty.

And our winner?

1. Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll

Einstein’s principle of parsimony basically said that simplest is best.

Gregg’s vegan sausage roll might be simple but my goodness it hits the spot. And if it’s good enough for Einstein, well it’s good enough for me.

When you lie it side by side with a regular Greggs sausage roll then the vegan option does have a slightly anaemic appearance and placed together they look like before and after holiday snaps showcasing your new tan. 

But looks aside, Greggs is our winner because it does not hold back on taste or texture. All of the fast food options rated here do the job and are tasty but Greggs vegan sausage roll holds its own in terms of quality with anything on their main menu and at no stage seems inferior or on the menu as a token gesture.

Officially it comprises flaky pastry filled with seasoned plant-based sausage filling made from Quorn mycoprotein.

Unofficially, a lot of love has gone into that sausage roll and we like it!

It’s cheap too, retailing at a mega £1.45 and in terms of carbs it will not make too much of a dent in your daily allowances coming in at approximately 312 calories, 20g carbs, 22g fat, 9g protein.

Greggs has over 2300 sites in the UK and is introducing multi format sites such as drive through's so it’s never been easier to get your hands on one of their vegan sausage rolls. But if you do need any help then click here for their website.

So, we have a winner, and it’s worth noting that just a few years ago most of these giants of convenience food retail were not taking plant based food seriously. Things have changed and will continue to change and we believe wholeheartedly that this is for the good of society. Moreover, the message we will continue to push is about balance in your diet and a general love and enjoyment of food. 

If you do, however, want a break from processed food then our meals all come in at less than 500 calories, have a price point per meal of between £5.23 and £5.83 per meal depending on the meal plan, are delivered to your door, and are made of completely plant based whole food ingredients with no oils used in our cooking processes. And to put this in perspective, you could eat 3 Mell’s Kitchen meals for 3/4 of the price of a medium Dominos pizza and consume roughly the same amount of calories…What’s not to love?

To order your first box from Mell' Kitchen, just click here.