Moving the menu
Ranking the top restaurant chains on meat reduction policies and plant-based offerings
Moving the menu assesses the top chain restaurants across six different cuisine categories in Canada on their inclusion of plant-based product offerings and efforts toward reducing animal-based foods in their businesses—critical steps to protecting our planet and building an equitable, sustainable and humane food system.
As consumer demand for plant-based options grows, restaurants play a key role in expanding access to plant-based choices and promoting sustainable eating. However, disappointingly, many chains have discontinued successful plant-based trials, demonstrating a lack of commitment to long-term menu changes and missing the opportunity to meet growing consumer demand.
This report ranks the top Canadian restaurant chains on their efforts to offer sustainable, animal-free menu options to help drive meaningful change.
Categories
Burger breakdown
The burger restaurant sector has substantial room for growth in increasing plant-based options and reducing meat purchasing.
McDonald’s shows no progress in plant-based options and meat reduction commitments, reflecting very poor efforts in this area.
McDonald's
Grade: F
Burger King offers the Impossible Whopper. While the company acknowledges the benefits of plant-based options, it needs to improve the variety and number of items and commit more to meat reduction.
Burger King
Grade: C
Wendy’s has a lack of plant-based options and meat reduction initiatives, indicating very poor progress overall.
Wendy's
Grade: F
A&W offers a Beyond Meat burger but lacks a formal commitment to increasing plant-based options and reducing meat in its supply chain.
A&W
Grade: F
Harvey’s provides plant-based offerings but has significant room for improvement. The restaurant should expand its plant-based menu and commit to reducing meat in its supply chain.
Harvey's
Grade: C
Chicken Choices
All chicken restaurants received an F (very poor progress), showing little to no action in promoting plant-based options or committing to meat reduction.
KFC offers a plant-based chicken sandwich but lacks meaningful commitments to meat reduction and increasing plant-based items in its supply chain.
KFC
Grade: F
Popeyes shows little to no action in promoting plant-based options or committing to meat reduction.
Popeyes
Grade: F
Mary Brown’s Chicken shows little to no action in promoting plant-based options or committing to meat reduction.
Mary Brown's Chicken
Grade: F
Coffee critique
The coffee restaurant sector has much room for improvement in its commitment to offering plant-based food options to consumers.
While Starbucks offers a variety of plant-based by default beverages, it lacks plant-based food options and must adopt a meat reduction policy.
Starbucks
Grade: C
Tim Hortons offers some food and drink options which can be made fully plant-based, but they lack a meat reduction policy.
Tim Horton's
Grade: C
Second Cup offers limited plant-based by default food options and lacks a commitment towards more plant-based eating.
Second Cup
Grade: D
Coffee Time fails to demonstrate meaningful progress in integrating plant-based options into their menus and has not adopted policies that advocate for plant-based diets.
Coffee Time
Grade: F
Sandwich selections
No restaurant in this category earned above a C.
Subway is making little progress as it has not advocated for plant-based options in its reporting, lacks commitments to increase plant-based options, and does not it promote plant-based products.
Subway
Grade: D
Mr. Sub is making progress by promoting their plant-based sandwich options, but they made little to no progress in making sustainability commitments.
Mr Sub
Grade: C
Latin/Mexican-inspired matchup
No restaurants in this category earned an A grade.
Taco Bell has many items that can be easily modified to be plant-based, but they lack commitment towards increasing their fully plant-based offerings.
Taco Bell
Grade: D
Chipotle stands out with a large selection of plant-based options by default and extensive advocacy for the benefits of plant-based eating in their reporting.
Chipotle
Grade: B
Family restaurant round-up
There is significant room for improvement in this category, with no restaurant scoring above a C.
Swiss Chalet offers limited plant-based options and do not have commitments to increasing plant-based menu items.
Swiss Chalet
Grade: D
St-Hubert offers plant-based options and acknowledge the interest in plant-based options in reporting but lacks commitment to meat reduction.
St-Hubert
Grade: C
The Keg offers plant-based options and acknowledge the interest in plant-based options in reporting but lacks commitment to meat reduction.
The Keg
Grade: C
Kelsey's offers plant-based options and acknowledge the interest in plant-based options in reporting but lacks commitment to meat reduction.
Kelsey's
Grade: C
Milestones offers plant-based options but lacks commitment to meat reduction and decreasing animal protein purchasing.
Milestones
Grade: C
Cora offers limited plant-based options and do not have commitments to increasing plant-based menu items.
Cora
Grade: D
Sunset Grill has made no progress in offering plant-based food options or meaningful commitments to decreasing animal protein.
Sunset Grill
Grade: F
Get involved
You can do your part by:
- Choosing plant-based options when dining out.
- Supporting restaurants that prioritize plant-based menus.
- Advocating for more plant-based by default options via feedback forms and social media.
- Encourage your family and friends to do the same!
About the report
Explore our full report to view detailed restaurant ranking information and to view our scoring approach and methodology.
