Waffle House Nutrition Facts: Healthy Menu Choices (2024)

Most Nutritious Option

If you're looking for the most nutritious option at Waffle House, look no further than the two-egg breakfast with scrambled eggs, which deliver healthy protein for relatively few calories.

Waffles

The most ordered option on the Waffle House menu is the humble waffle. You won't find a wide variety of waffle choices, however. You can choose from a classic waffle or order a waffle with different toppings, such as pecans, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips.

To stay low in calories when ordering waffles, avoid the syrup and toppings, and stick to a small pat of butter or jam.

✓ Classic Waffle

Classic waffles don't include any toppings; all other Waffle House waffle menu choices do. If you use just a little syrup and butter (or avoid them altogether), you can keep the calorie count relatively low. One order of plain classic waffles contains 410 calories, 18 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 55 g carbs, 15 g sugar, 8 g protein, and 870 mg sodium.

✗ Peanut Butter Chip Waffle

Peanut butter chips contain the most carbs and sugar of any of the waffle toppings. If you need something crunchy on your waffle, ordering the pecan topping can perhaps fulfill that craving. Although higher in fat than peanut butter chips, these nuts do offer healthy fat. For those who prefer a topping sweeter than pecans, the chocolate chip waffles have half the fat of peanut butter chip waffles and no sodium.

The peanut butter chips topping contains 150 calories, 8 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 17 g carbs, 16 g sugar, 3 g protein, and 95 mg sodium. These nutritional values include only the topping. You must add the classic waffle nutrition counts on top of these numbers for the dish's total: 560 calories, 26 g fat, 17 g saturated fat, 72 g carbohydrates, 31 g sugar, 11 g protein, 965 mg sodium.

Breakfast Hashbrown Bowls

The hashbrown bowls include a large order of hashbrowns, along with a protein of your choice, two scrambled eggs, and two slices of American cheese. Your choices for protein are sausage, ham, or bacon. If you leave out any of these ingredients, you can reduce the dish's total calories.

✓ Ham, Egg, & Cheese Hashbrown Bowl

The ham, egg, & cheese hashbrown bowl has 780 calories, 39 g fat, 14 g saturated fat, 66 g carbs, 6 g sugar, 40 g protein, and 2,110 mg sodium. The ham alone contains 1,000 mg sodium. To remove some of the sodium, skip the ham and order an egg & cheese hashbrown bowl (although you might still get charged the same).

✗ Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Hashbrown Bowl

The sausage, egg, & cheese hashbrown bowl has 920 calories, 60 g fat, 22 g saturated fat, 63 g carbs, 4 g sugar, 32 g protein, and 1,620 mg sodium. If you skip the two slices of cheese, you can reduce the sodium count by 500 mg.

Egg Breakfasts

Waffle House offers a number of egg breakfast choices. They include an egg-only or egg and cheese option, as well as protein offerings such as T-bone and sirloin steak with eggs.

All egg breakfasts come with your choice of toast (white, wheat, or raisin) and a side (grits, hashbrowns, or sliced tomatoes). To keep your order as nutritious as possible, stick to wheat toast and sliced tomatoes for your sides, or skip the sides altogether.

✓ 2 Egg Breakfast: 2 Eggs, Scrambled

The two-egg breakfast with two scrambled eggs contains 180 calories, 14 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 2 g carbs, 2 g sugar, 12 g protein, and 120 mg sodium. This option skips the toast and sides. If you order wheat toast and sliced tomatoes (the most nutritious sides), you'll add 220 calories for the toast and 10 calories for the tomatoes.

✗ T-Bone & Eggs: T-Bone Steak and 2 Eggs, Scrambled

The popular T-bone steak and two scrambled eggs has 1,230 calories, 73 g fat, 23 g saturated fat, 3 g carbs, 3 g sugar, 139 g protein, and 1,835 mg sodium. Low in carbs and high in protein, this option can fit a Keto-friendly diet if you eat a quarter of the steak. The healthiest side is sliced tomatoes with 10 calories. The grits and hashbrowns add 240 or 300 calories, respectively.

Hashbrowns

Alongside its breakfast hashbrown bowls, Waffle House offers hashbrowns sides, which come served regular, scattered, smothered, or covered. Customize your hashbrowns and eliminate the high-sodium and high-calorie toppings such as the chili, gravy, ham, and cheese to enjoy the potatoes with better nutrition.

✓Regular Hashbrowns

An order of the regular hashbrowns features grated potatoes fried until golden. One serving comes out to 190 calories, 7 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 29 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, and 240 mg sodium.

✗ Triple Hashbrowns All-the-Way

Waffle House also offers an "all-the-way" option for its famous hashbrowns, which features all the toppings piled on top of the fried potatoes. A triple serving with all of the fixings (grilled onion, American cheese, smoked ham, tomatoes, jalapenos, mushrooms, as well as chili and gravy) comes out to 900 calories, 34.5 g fat, 13 g saturated fat, 117 g carbohydrates, 29 g protein, and 3,490 mg sodium.

Toddle House Omelets

Waffle House offers four varieties of Toddle House omelets, including cheese, ham & cheese, fiesta, and cheesesteak, as well as a build-your-own option. Each omelet includes a side of toast with jelly, as well as a choice of grits, hashbrowns, or tomatoes.

✓Cheese Omelet

The cheese omelet is the most nutritious option out of this menu category and includes 500 calories, 46 g fat, 17 g saturated fat, 3 g carbohydrates, 17 g protein, and 620 mg sodium. These nutritional counts are for the omelet only; any additional sides will add to the overall nutrition of the meal.

To make an even more nutritious omelet, consider building your own with sautéed onions, grilled tomatoes, and grilled mushrooms for 440 calories, 38 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 10 g carbohydrates, 14 g protein, and 400 mg sodium.

✗Cheesesteak Omelet

The cheesesteak omelet is the highest-calorie and highest-fat option on the omelet menu. With cheesesteak meat and American cheese, it contains 630 calories, 53 g fat, 20 g saturated fat, 3 g carbohydrates, 33 g protein, and 920 mg sodium.

Breakfast Sides

Rather than order a large entrée, you can choose a few Waffle House breakfast sides to make a meal when you're not exceptionally hungry.

✓ Sliced Tomatoes

You can order the sliced tomatoes as a side, and get a strong dose of vitamin A and C at the same time. The tomatoes contain 10 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 2 g carbs, 1 g sugar, 1 g protein, and 0 mg sodium.

✗ Biscuit & Sausage Gravy

The biscuit and sausage gravy side has 470 calories, 30 g fat, 16 g saturated fat, 44g carbs, 3 g sugar, 6 g protein, and 1,810 mg sodium, which makes it more like an entree than a simple side in terms of calories. If you want a side are craving biscuit and gravy flavors, you may be better off ordering a grilled biscuit and a side of sausage.

Grilled Biscuits

As one of the most popular items after waffles, grilled biscuits are ordered more often than toast in a number of Waffle House locations.

✓ Grilled Biscuit

One grilled biscuit contains 380 calories, 25 g fat, 14 g saturated fat, 34 g carbs, 1 g sugar, 5 g protein, and 900 mg sodium. If you must add a condiment to the biscuit, consider skipping the butter and jam and opting for a little honey.

✗ Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit

The sausage, egg, & cheese biscuit has 650 calories, 48 g fat, 22 g saturated fat, 35 g carbs, 2 g sugar, 19 g protein, and 1,470 mg sodium. For meat lovers, ordering the bacon biscuit instead can stave off extra calories and fat.

Breakfast Sandwiches and Melts

If you want a grab-and-go option at the Waffle House, the breakfast sandwiches and melts work well. People with food allergies, however, should skip these sandwiches, as they contain wheat, egg, and soy.

✓ Egg Sandwich

The egg sandwich has 220 calories, 8.5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 27 g carbs, 4 g sugar, 10 g protein, and 320 mg sodium. This is also a good vegetarian option for breakfast.

✗ Texas Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Melt

The Texas bacon, egg, & cheese melt contains 730 calories, 51 g fat, 20 g saturated fat, 39 g carbs, 10g sugar, 26 g protein, and 1,680 mg sodium. If you want meat, switching to the grilled ham sandwich lessens your intake to 240 calories and only 4 grams of total fat (just 1 gram of saturated fat).

Kids Meals

Waffle House is kid-friendly, with a breakfast menu for children that includes kid-size bacon and sausage. The establishment also offers a kid-size cheeseburger and grilled cheese, and both come with a side of hashbrowns instead of the traditional fries.

✓ Kid's 1 Egg Breakfast

The kid's one scrambled egg contains only 90 calories, 7 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 1 g carbohydrate, 1 g sugar, 6 g protein, and 60 mg sodium.

If this isn't enough for your hungry child, this menu item also comes with toast (wheat, white, raisin, Texas, or a grilled biscuit) plus your choice of grits, hashbrowns, or sliced tomatoes, and your choice of kid's-size bacon or sausage. The healthiest choices are wheat toast, sliced tomatoes, and kid's-size bacon, which add another 320 calories, 20 g fat, 7.5 g saturated fat, 24 g carbohydrate, 4 g sugar, 14 g protein, and 680 mg sodium.

✗ Kid's Cheeseburger With Hashbrowns

The kid's cheeseburger contains 705 calories, 44 g fat, 17.5 g saturated fat, 59 g carbs, 5 g sugar, 17 g protein, and 1,010 mg sodium. Instead of fries, the meal comes with a side of hashbrowns. The healthier choice between the kid's burger and sandwich options, however, is a kid's grilled cheese instead with a side of hashbrowns.

Classic Dinners

You can find protein-based traditional dinners on the menu that come complete with greens and a carb side. The dinners include a choice of chicken, country ham, and pork chops.

✓ Chicken Dinner

The chicken dinner contains 565 calories, 21.5 g fat, 7.5 g saturated fat, 56 g carbs, 7 g sugar, 37 g protein, and 1,490 mg sodium. The dinner includes a garden salad, hashbrowns, grilled chicken, and Texas toast. If you skip the toast, you can reduce the carb content. If you want toast, consider asking to substitute the Texas toast for wheat toast, which is a more nutritious option.

✗ Meat Lovers Pork Chop Dinner

The meat lovers pork chop dinner has 1,295 calories, 64 g fat, 22 g saturated fat, 55 g carbs, 7 g sugar, 122 g protein, and 2,150 mg sodium. Although this dinner contains a high amount of protein, the calorie and sodium content make it the least nutritious option.

Hamburgers

With its diner-like environment, Waffle House is also a favored joint for late-night hangover eats, such as hamburgers and non-stop cups of coffee and Coca-Cola beverages. All the hamburgers contain 100% Angus beef.

✓ "Original" Angus Hamburger

The "Original" Angus hamburger contains 465 calories, 33 g fat, 12.5 g saturated fat, 30 g carbs, 5 g sugar, 11 g protein, and 520 mg sodium. This hamburger competes with the nutritional value of other fast-food burgers, but you do get a nice sit-down environment at Waffle House.

✗ Double "Original" Angus Cheeseburger

The double "Original" Angus cheeseburger contains 625 calories, 46 g fat, 18.5 g saturated fat, 30 g carbs, 5 g sugar, 21 g protein, and 800 mg sodium. If you must have meat, but want to reduce calories, stick with the single original and skip the cheese.

Sandwiches

The ingredients on several sandwiches include a mix of grilled cheese, chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and/or country ham. Waffle House also offers its own Waffle Sandwich with ham and cheese. Although it's not the most nutritious sandwich option, you will get a filling 26 grams of protein.

✓ BLT Sandwich

Waffle House's BLT sandwich has 275 calories, 13.5 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 27 g carbs, 4 g sugar, 12 g protein, and 780 mg sodium. For anyone following a vegetarian diet, the next healthiest option is the grilled cheese sandwich.

✗ Texas Bacon Lover's BLT Sandwich

The Texas Bacon Lover's BLT Sandwich adds extra bacon to the dish, as the name suggests. This sandwich contains 635 calories, 44 g fat, 16 g saturated fat, 39 g carbs, 5 g sugar, 19 g protein, and 1,470 mg sodium. Stick to the classic BLT if you want to save calories and fat.

Texas Melts

The Texas melts on the Waffle House menu are grilled cheese and meat sandwiches served on Texas toast. All of the options contain a meat so there is no vegetarian choice here, but you can choose the most nutritious protein for you depending on flavor and preference.

✓Texas Cheesesteak Melt

While the cheesesteak is not the most nutritious protein, the Texas cheesesteak melt comes out to the most nutritious option in this category—even more so than the Texas grilled chicken melt. The cheesesteak option has 650 calories, 40 g fat, 17 g saturated fat, 42 g carbohydrates, 28 g protein, and 1,400 mg sodium.

The Texas grilled chicken melt, which may seem like a lean and nutritious option, is actually quite sodium-packed. With 660 calories, it also has 2,040 mg sodium.

✗Texas Angus Patty Melt

With a quarter-pound Angus beef hamburger, melted cheese, and grilled onions, the Texas Angus patty melt is the highest-calorie and highest-fat melt on the menu. It includes 730 calories, 50 g fat, 21 g saturated fat, 42 g carbohydrates, 26 g protein, and 1,160 mg sodium.

Lunch & Dinner Hashbrown Bowls

Waffle House offers only two specialty options in its lunch and dinner hashbrown bowls category. Diners can choose between the cheesesteak melt and chicken melt bowls, or you can create your own with a variety of toppings.

To better control the contents of your hashbrown bowl, consider customizing it using the build-your-own hashbrown bowl option. Add vegetables, including grilled onions, grilled tomatoes, and grilled mushrooms to increase the fiber content of the meal.

✓Cheesesteak Melt Hashbrown Bowl

While the chicken option may seem more nutritious, it is in fact higher in calories and sodium than the cheesesteak. The cheesesteak melt hashbrown bowl comes out to 625 calories, 29 g fat, 13 g saturated fat, 63 g carbohydrates, 16 g protein, and 1,290 mg sodium.

✗Chicken Melt Hashbrown Bowl

The chicken melt hashbrown bowl delivers 635 calories, 24.5 g fat, 10.5 g saturated fat, 64 g carbohydrates, 39 g protein, and 1,920 mg sodium.

Pies

Waffle House offers more than breakfast foods and sandwiches; you can order a classic Southern slice of pie as dessert. Options include the popular pecan pie and triple chocolate pie. The restaurant has two serving sizes: small and regular. You will eat half the calories in the small size.

✓ Southern Pecan Pie

A small slice of Southern pecan pie contains 260 calories, 13 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 32 g carbs, 23 g sugar, 2 g protein, and 140 mg sodium. Anyone with food allergens should skip this pie, as it contains soy, wheat, egg, milk, and tree nuts.

✗ Triple Chocolate Pie

If you're craving the chocolate pie, order a small slice. A "regular" slice of triple chocolate pie has 880 calories, 42 g fat, 14 g saturated fat, 120 g carbs, 69 g sugar, 8 g protein, and 660 mg sodium.

Salads

The healthiest option on the Waffle House menu is the salad. The restaurant only offers two choices: the garden salad and grilled chicken salad. You can ask for the salad dressing on the side and no croutons for a lower fat and carb content.

✓ Garden Salad

The garden salad doesn't contain any of the eight most common allergens, and it only contains 35 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 7 g carbs, 5 g sugar, 2 g protein, and 20 mg sodium. If a garden salad won't fill you up, ordering a side of sliced tomatoes and a side sausage can create a heartier meal.

✗ Grilled Chicken Salad

The grilled chicken salad is still a healthy option and even adds extra healthy protein to your meal, although this option comes with a hefty amount of cholesterol and sodium. The salad provides 175 calories, 2.5 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 8 g carbs, 31 g protein, 5 g sugar, and 950 mg sodium.

Beverages

Waffle House offers beverages for every meal from milk and coffee for breakfast to soda and iced tea for lunch and dinner. Diners can choose from any number of Coca-Cola sodas, as well as other juices.

✓ Alice's Iced Tea, Unsweet

If you'd like a beverage with a bit of flavor, order Alice's unsweet iced tea. While water will always be the most nutritious and hydrating option, this iced tea delivers 0 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g carbohydrates, 0 g protein, and 0 mg sodium.

✗Large Chocolate Milk

While high in healthy proteins, the large chocolate milk is also high in sugar, calories, and sodium. One serving provides 440 calories, 16 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 58 g carbohydrates, 16 g protein, and 360 mg sodium. Order the regular chocolate milk for a smaller portion, or consider ordering the regular milk instead.

Diet-Specific Options

Waffle House offers some choices for low-fat, low-carb, and vegetarian diets, but doesn’t have many gluten-free, diabetes-friendly, or low-sodium menu items.

Low-Carb

The majority of the items at Waffle House contain carbs, such as the waffles, hashbrown bowls, and breakfast specials that come with your choice of toast or grilled biscuit. To keep your meal low-carb, the following are compliant with this specific diet:

• 2 egg breakfast with a side of sliced tomatoes, skip the toast
• T-bone & eggs with a side of sliced tomatoes, skip the toast
• Country ham & eggs with a side of sliced tomatoes, skip the toast
• 2 egg fiesta omelet
• Grilled chicken salad
• Garden salad

Low-FODMAP

The low-FODMAP diet removes foods that can trigger certain digestive symptoms. Foods with high FODMAP are avoided, which makes eating out challenging. To stay with low-FODMAP foods, especially for anyone with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you can order the following at the Waffle House:

• Grilled chicken salad
• Garden salad
• Hashbrowns
• Hashbrown bowls

Low-Fat

Although Waffle House entrees come with a number of sides, including toast, grits, and hashbrowns, you can follow a low-fat diet if you order strategically and skip the sides (with the exception of sliced tomatoes). The following items could be suitable for a low-fat diet:

• Grilled chicken salad
• Garden salad
• Sliced tomatoes
• 2 egg breakfast with sliced tomatoes
• Country ham

Low-Sodium

Staying away from sodium can feel quite challenging with breakfast, as most items come loaded with salt to add flavor to batter and eggs. But to keep your sodium intake down, consider the following Waffle House items:

• Grilled chicken salad
• Garden salad
• 2 eggs scrambled with sliced tomatoes
• Hashbrowns with sautéed onions and grilled tomatoes (regular)

Vegetarian

With the amount of egg and dairy on the menu, you will find following a vegan diet almost impossible at the Waffle House (with the exception of the two salad options).

But you can keep to a vegetarian diet. The egg choices don't have to include meat and the only allergen in hashbrowns is soy. For vegetarians, Waffle House offers a number of choices, such as the following:

• Garden salad
• 2 egg breakfast (skip the meat sides)
• Fiesta omelet breakfast
• Hashbrowns (with any of the non-meat toppings)

Food Allergies and Safety

The Waffle House menu includes the following common allergens: milk, gluten, tree nuts, soy, egg, and wheat. The waffles, pies, beverages, sandwich melts, and hashbrown bowls could have more than one allergen in an item.

Non-allergen items are protein-based, such as bacon, sausage, and grilled chicken. The best entrée option for anyone with a food allergy is the garden salad, which doesn't include milk products.

Anyone with severe food allergies might want to avoid Waffle House, as the restaurant can't guarantee that its cooking environment is free from any specific allergen. People with strict food allergies should be aware of any cross-contamination.

This is especially true for those with eggs, dairy, and gluten allergies as most popular breakfast foods include these ingredients in some form.

A Word From Verywell

Waffle House is an enjoyable place to eat when craving breakfast foods and a lively environment when dining out with friends and family.

Because Waffle House is named after its most popular food, you will not be surprised that the majority of menu items contain a high number of carbs, calories, and sugar. Anyone watching their carb intake, staying away from gluten, or avoiding added sugar will struggle to find menu items to eat.

If you have food allergies, read the menu and nutrition facts ahead of time. You can find this information online in Waffle House's full nutrition information. If you have any concerns, stick with ordering a salad or only make a trip to the Waffle House on special occasions to get your fill of waffles and maple syrup.