Have you ever just had the equivalent of a 'fruit salad' as a meal because the caterers forgot to ask about dietery requirements?

[chomalungma]

Watching the Apprentice last night.

Ooops.

A fruit salad - on the bright side, she got a bottle of wine.
Has that happened to you?

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

At a Christmas lunch for a group, the vegan member had melon as a starter and melon as a dessert. Lack of thought.

[MustardScreams]

All the damn time! Mushroom soup to start, mushroom risotto main.

Or a salad of literally iceberg, cucumber & tomato for main.

Plain warm tofu with a tinned tomato dipping sauce 🤮

[Gallivespian]

Yes, on more than one occasion. I also once took a long haul flight fuelled only by fruit from the cabin crew’s own meals, as no one had loaded any vegetarian meals.

[JacquesHammer]

Went to a wedding, had noted my dietary requirement (onion allergy).

Every option contained onion. I had bread and the pudding

[RufusthebewiIderedreindeer]

Similar to foxys friend

Goats cheese tart for a starter...and the only veggie main

It was nice...but not nice enough to have twice

Though first time dad cane for Christmas lunch with his new wife she used my beautiful new gravy jug to ruin my (bisto) gravy by adding meat juice so i couldnt eat it AND they were so busy cooking the meat they had brought with them that they didnt pop my main in the oven

[nespressowoo]

Went to a wedding and they forgot my veggie option. I had a salad. It was awful.

[Lessthanzero]

I went to a wedding and the main was roast dinner. I was given roast dinner minus the meat, gray puddings and potatoes as they had all been cooked in animal fats.

So I had peas, carrots broccoli I think. We got pizza on the way home.

On the flip side, I worked in catering and I dropped the vegatarian bake. I can't remebr what we gave the vegetarian mother and daughter instead but it was shit and they weren't happy. If I hadn't of burned my face and hand in the accident I think they should have been more cross with me.

[MIdgebabe]

I was given a bowl of green salad for lunch. I had, as requested, informed in advance that I needed a no diary option

[FoamingAtTheUterus]

There's no excuse really.........I had this at a vegan place just the other day. It's a mushroom burger coated in seasoned flour and fried so hardly rocket science.

[newname12]

A fruit salad - on the bright side, she got a bottle of wine

I'm a teetotal vegetarian- that wouldn't be a bright side!

I've been brought fish before at weddings as the "vegetarian" option. Even worse at one there was a mushroom dish as a choice which was veggie, but I was brought the fish as I'd requested vegetarian.

I went for a christmas meal at a fairly high end restaurant and the only veggie options were mushroom and squash tart followed by mushroom and squash pasta. Fortunately chocolate is veggie or I think I'd have had mushroom and squash ice cream!

I've quite often been out for meals and had two starters as a main as no vegetarian options. Especially abroad.

Not so much "forgot", more not catered for.

[underthebridgedowntown]

Coeliac here - it's much better than it used to be, but salad for main and fruit salad for dessert was a frequent occurrence five years ago. Went to a wedding last month - had to have fruit salad for dessert, despite it being meringue based - I couldn't see what was in the dessert that had gluten in it, but obviously couldn't risk it. Was very disappointed, massive lack of imagination on the caterers part.

(Oh, and they just didn't bother to make gravy for the main either. Because obviously it's so hard to use cornflour instead of wheat flour )

[Claphands]

My first ever long flight (10 hours) I had requested the vegetarian option, I was given a ham sandwich, when I asked if they had any sandwiches without meat the air steward said ‘take the ham off?!’

This was early 90’s though

[RagamuffinCat]

As a coeliac, once I had a banana for lunch because that was the only gluten free option!

[Veterinari]

Yes regular catered meals of green salad followed by fruit only ever at professionally catered events though. It seems professional chefs are utterly incapable of applying common sense or imagination when catering

[DuesToTheDirt]

Xmas works lunch, all orders booked in advance. For some reason, after keeping us waiting an hour, they didn't have my veggie pie and rustled me up a stir fry . Not as bad as fruit salad, but pretty rubbish service.

[Jins]

I’ve had melon starter, plain lettuce and tomato main and fruit salad dessert as the gluten free option before now. I’m actually on low fibre and fruit is limited so I didn’t eat much (and got a refund easily)

[Binting]

I was offered a piece of fruit on a flight as my pre booked veggie sandwich had been given to some kid who decided he wanted a cheese sandwich. I wasn't happy. Also had the plate of carrots and peas meal without gravy on a skiing holiday Christmas meal. And the classic "you'll have a bit of ham?" In Ireland, but at least my Irish hosts were very hospitable and generous with the homemade soda bread and cheese

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

Oh yeah, years ago 'pass your bread roll to Wilson cos there's nothing veggie to eat' was quite common, luckily I don't have gluten issues too! I thought things were getting a lot better but going by this thread maybe not.

[Sportsnight]

I’ve had melon for starter, melon for pudding (nut and seed allergy).

[HeronLanyon]

Yes often. Vegetarian all my adult life and on occasions it has been hit and miss. At the Bar. formal required dinners at my Inn used to be a nightmare decades ago. I most often find events with canapés difficult. Rarely suffie t overall anyway but the veg canapés always seem hugely more popular than anything else. Frequently end up eating nothing at all in those circs.

[Crazzzycat]

My manager once invited me for a meal at his place. He’d forgotten I’m vegetarian so improvised a meal on the spot and came up with...a huge mountain of undercooked, plain rice with big chunks of raw carrot on the top 😒

Still, that was a lot better than the food poising he managed to give his other guests by not properly defrosting and cooking the meat option 🙃

[CostcoFan]

My coeliac son was given a school packed lunch on a year 7 ‘activity' day and his was carrot sticks and an apple. Everyone else had sandwiches, crisps, biscuits, fruit etc. Unsurprisingly he was starving by the time he got home. It was the first school packed lunch, everyone paid termly for lunch so school always supplied for days out and I had believed them that they could cater to him. After that I never believed they would cater for him on the days out and sent a packed lunch from home. Should have realised really as he ate a lot of jacket potato and cheese for cooked lunch.

[Preggosaurus9]

Agree caterers are the worst. Gluten free lunch was salad leaves and 2 rice cakes. Then there should have been a gluten free brownie but some CF had nicked it off the clearly labelled GF plate by the time I got there!

I complained but no more food was forthcoming. Thankfully at that time I still took snacks with me everywhere as GF was so hard to find. Lunch is the hardest meal to GF if there's no jacket potatoes on offer.