AIBU to hate the veggie option?

[BabooshkaKate]

It's always halumi.

Why? Why must it always be halumi?

How many different ways can you do halumi?

Why do restaurants never think outside the box?

[PurpleDaisies]

How can you hate halloumi?! It's the food of the gods.

At least the veggie option isn't
A) stuffed mushrooms
B) fish

[LordEmsworth]

Really?

(1) Halloumi is delicious
(2) It's rarely a veggie option in places I go to... wish it were!

[BarbaraofSeville]

YANBU.

It's shameful how so many places do a single 'fuck it that'll do' vegetarian option that's nowhere near the standard of their meat meals in terms of quality, variety, effort etc.

I suspect you're choosing from a Christmas menu where you have had no choice in the venue. Is it worth contacting them and telling them you really hate halloumi (or are dairy allergic ) and do they have anything else.

I think restaurants should have to have at a similar amount of meals without meat, not just one or two. So if they do 10 mains with meat/fish, they also have to do 5 that are vegetarian and two of them must be vegan.

Obviously when you can choose where you are going, pick somewhere that does a better selection of vegetarian food, such as Indian, Italian and others.

[PickAChew]

At least it's not a frozen lasagna.

[YelloDraw]

It is normally mushroom risotto!

[Shockers]

I find it's usually goats cheese.

I'm not keen on goats cheese.

[Sparlklesilverglitter]

But halloumi is wonderful, there really is so many different ways you can cook it

[Greengager]

I'd take that over bloody goat's cheese which alway seems to be the choice I'm offered. I thought veggie options were improving over the last few years but I noticed that trend seems to have reversed now and menus are much more meat focused.

[Secretspillernamechange]

Yes it frustrates me too. I'm a City worker and fairly frequently go to naice lunch venues to entertain clients. The last 2 have had only 1 veggie main course and in both the base ingredient was blue cheese - bleurgh. I really had to choke it down it was vile.

[NannyHJ]

Where do you eat out? I'd bloody love the option of halloumi. Veggie lasagne; sodding veggie lasagne wherever I go (usually with the offer of parmesan which isn't even vegetarian. Or, worse still - vegetarian stroganoff, which I really don't like. Just because I'm vegetarian doesn't mean I wouldn't like to be able to choose something rather than pretending I like the single offering.

I spend altogether too much time trying to explain that food that is suitable for vegetarians can, and will, be eaten by everyone, so having more veggie friendly entries on a menu just opens up the choices for all diners. All too often I feel that my only option is to be a vegetarian or not, rather than to enjoy the experience of selecting a meal I'll enjoy.

Mind you, I quite enjoyed flouncing out of a restaurant once when I was told they didn't serve vegetarian food as there was "no call for it".

[Secretspillernamechange]

And the veggie main course for work's Xmas dinner is lentil tart. Who the hell looks at a lentil and thinks 'you know what that needs - pastry'!

[GiddyOnZackHunt]

Yes where are all these Haloumi focussed restaurants?

[PurpleDaisies]

Wow secret that sounds truly horrible (unless it's more of a filo pastry samosa esque thing as part of an indian type meal).

Saying that, Scottish macaroni cheese pie is one of my favourite things ever.

[ChuckGravestones]

Totally agree. Any chef worth their hat should be able to use veggie flavours and textures to make something that is actualyl palatable.

In the old days, when I was newly veggie, there was one shop in the whole of the county that sold Halloumi and I'd go there once a month on pay day and make that one packet last as long as I could. It was like gold dust and my treat of the month. Now you can't move for it and they don't always cook it properly either.

[80sMum]

YANBU. I agree that the "token veggie meal" on many menus is rarely of the same quality as the meat/fish based meals, yet is usually a very similar price. I get very pissed off when I have to pay upwards of £15 for, for example, a plate of pasta with a vegetable-based sauce (which I don't even like but have to choose as it's the only meat free meal on the menu).

[GinAndTunic]

It beats the dreaded nut roast. Blech.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I sent back a lentil pie last Christmas. I'm not vegetarian but I'm not that keen on turkey and didn't fancy any of the meat options on the Christmas lunch at work so I chose a delicious sounding chestnut and mushroom wellington with all the trimmings .

When it came it was a pie stuffed full of lentils and a single solitary chestnut and no mushrooms as far as I could see and they hadn't bothered to make vegetarian alternatives to the sides so there were no roast potatoes, gravy, stuffing or alternative to pigs in blankets, just a few sprouts, carrots and parsnips. Luckily the starter and pudding were generously sized and I managed to get some roast potatoes and gravy so I was full anyway, and they refunded the cost of my meal.

Very disappointing from an otherwise excellent pub/restaurant.

[RufusTheSpartacusReindeer]

Nope you are wrong

Its always butternut squash

Whhhhhyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

[MaidOfStars]

On the list of overdone and cliched veggie meals (roasted veg lasagne, mushroom risotto, goat's cheese and caramelised red onion tart.....), I'd be delighted to have a halloumi option.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I've just looked at the vegetarian choices on the menus for the various work Christmas events.

One is a fancied up nut roast that includes blue cheese and the other two are tortellini with artichokes or goats cheese and a few other bits. These are all at good quality gastropubs. For balance, we've just had another gathering at a restaurant that was part of a small chain and about a third of the menu was vegetarian, so several choices.

I think the gastropubs have covered all bases to ensure as many vegetarians as possible will hate their offering and not feel valued with the effort made. Tortellini . Anyone who likes tortellini probably buys it when on offer in the supermarket for a quick no effort evening meal. It's not the sort of thing that they would look forward to at one of the culinary highlights of the year.

The meat eaters get a choice of the usual beef, salmon or turkey and much better sides.

[ManonLescaut]

This is one reason why I can't be veggie. The veggie options are always grim.

[Cocklodger]

stuffed mushrooms.
Frozen lasagna or cottage pie.
Goats cheese.
Red onion tart.
ALWAYS.
ALWAYS.
JUST WHY WHY.
And if I go to a pizza place 100 percent of the time the ''veggie supreme'' or ''vegetarian hot'' or just ''vegetarian'' pizza has fucking mushrooms on.
I always have to order a cheese and tomato and then add on toppings if I order via just eat (If I don't and I put a note in to have the vegetarian pizza without the mushrooms, It always comes with mushrooms. they don't appear to read the notes...) so that costs me about 90p per extra topping.. grrrr..

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

I think restaurants should have to have at a similar amount of meals without meat, not just one or two. So if they do 10 mains with meat/fish, they also have to do 5 that are vegetarian and two of them must be vegan.

They don't tend to be profitable. I'm not sure if it's quantity of sales to vegetarians/vegans, or just that there's a bigger possible mark-up on meat dishes, but vegetarian/vegan dishes just don't make as much money, so they aren't a priority. Restaurants tend to make really small margins anyway, a really shocking number don't make their third year.

I hate halloumi and my attempts to reduce meat consumption have failed miserably because I'm not a big veg/cheese eater. It's a shame there's not more genuinely tasty common vegetarian choices.

[Joinourclub]

Halloumi I wish! Overpriced pasta or risotto I find. When I go out I want something I wouldn't cook at home mid week!

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

Yep... Stodgy risotto, usually with mushrooms, in this neck of the woods. Or a burger that has been hung out to dry and atrophy for a week or two.