To be annoyed that vegan options have replaced vegetarian?

Vegan cheese is awful!

Some friends and I went to a bottomless brunch where they served pizzas, 1 of our party was vegan and after a mix up in the kitchen in which we asked for 1 vegan pizza the rest normal we ended up with 3 vegan cheese pizzas. We all decided to try a slice and only the vegan could swallow it 😅

YANBU. I’m vegetarian when eating out, and only eat meat at home when I (or DH) have chosen it ourselves. Vegan options in restaurants are often shit unless they’re prepared by someone with passion and flair.

The thing is, vegan food IS suitable for vegetarians, whereas the reverse isn't true. The hospitality sector is really struggling, so it's just economies of scale. If you offer a vegan curry, then it's also able to be eaten by vegetarians. If you decide to make that curry with ghee and paneer then you're cutting down the market for who can eat it. If you have to offer the same curry made with ghee and without, it's going to add to the overheads of the restaurant and cut into the already tight margins. Not to mention the vegan meal also covers for common allergies (dairy and eggs), which again increases the base that it's suitable for and who the restaurant can get profit from.

I noticed National Trust scones are now vegan. This means everyone can order them. They do have cream and butter, but the basic scone is vegan. Perfect for everyone!

The percentage of vegetarians is about 5% of the population and vegans 3%, so for a restaurant, if they have 10 main meals, it's not worth 1 of them being veggie and 1 vegan, when 1 vegan meal covers both bases. The alternative is just having a veggie meal and excluding potential vegan customers (and the omnis dining with them)
If you go somewhere with a really extensive menu, then it's much more likely that they might add in a veggie meal.

But in reality I don't see what you're describing. I still see tonnes of eggs on veggie breakfasts, halloumi as the default on veggie burgers, burger buns made from brioche, pasta bakes with loads of cheese, baked camembert as the default starter, etc. There's definitely more places doing vegan options than 10/20 years ago, but it's by no means the default in the majority of places

Why are vegans presumed to eat fake meat? Gross UPF fake food bleurgh….

Yes, as an Indian veggie, I have also been almost vegan without trying. I cook food similar to food from Kerala.

I agree. More than 20 years as a vegetarian and SO much crap fake meat around now. I want vegetables, beans and pulses and also pastry made with butter.

Yes exactly. Just no need for fake meat.

I'm not vegan but the vegan food I do like is 'naturally' vegan; Indian food has fantastic vegan options. When I stayed in Kerala a while ago we ate vegan for a week and it was some of the best food I've ever had.

I went to a wedding recently where the veggie option was a HUGE celeriac. The sauce was nice and it came with some leaves, but the meal was basically a whole celeriac.

Baffling, and we were both stomach crampy and hungry a couple of hours later.

I'm not vegetarian but I'd sometimes opt for a vegetarian meal out if it was something like a cheesy pasta or mushroom stroganoff.

I don't want just vegetables and I don't want vegan cheese so I don't pick vegan options.

I agree with you OP. There's a big difference between vegetarian and vegan food and I believe there are still many more vegetarians than vegans.

Most people at variety of meat. This all started when there was some temporary vegan uptake like 5 years ago iirc and just stayed that way.

Nearly ten percent of people are vegetarian or vegan and I actually know loads of meat eaters who go for vegetarian options when out. There should be good options for people who don't want to eat meat, not just one vegan dish.

But you're deriding anyone who says their vegetarian because they still consume animal products.

Surely being vegetarian is better than eating meat (for animals, the planet and so on) so it's a massive step forward . So why wouldn't you encourage that instead of getting massively sanctimonious and judgemental.

I'm convinced many vegans are vegans because it makes them feel special. The worst thing for people like you would be for everyone to go vegan, as you'd no longer have something to feel superior about.

You don't do the 'cause' any good. Any reduction in the amount of meat people eat should be encouraged.

I also think this is worse for meat eaters. I eat meat but I also really like vegetarian food. If the vegetarian option is vegan then I am less likely to choose it, which will mean I will have a meat or a fish option instead. I definitely eat fewer vegetarian options in restaurants now that they are often vegan.

I completely agree. I have been a vegetarian since I was a teenager. It's fairly depressing to now be presented with a vegan burger as the only veggie choice. I don't like the artificial ingredients or the awful 'cheese'. When we were looking to book our work Christmas meal it was awful how many menus in various places had vegan fake meat in various forms as the only non-meat choice.

I totally agree with you! Completely fed up with the vegan choices. Which is often a vegan burger. And they all have the same weird taste. Or that bloody cauliflower ‘steak’ thing. It’s not a steak! It’s just a bit of bloody cauliflower that leaves me starving after it!

Vegan choices also seem to often be loaded with garlic, which I don’t like

I mean they could just have one 'meat' option instead of offering different beef, lamb, chicken and fish dishes if they were really serious on cost and practicality.

(Judgy) Vegans are more annoying than TRAs.

Yes I agree, but some vegans need to stop militantly attacking vegetarians and other vegans who want to improve the food options. On this thread the pundits arrived on page 1 to tell us how dairy is terrible etc etc it doesn't move anyone forward.

Decent vegan food doesn't involve fake meat. I cook a lot of vegan meals that just use ingredients like pulses. I never use vegan meat, butter or cheese. There's no need. I'm not vegan by the way. Just like vegan food.

Yeah. I'm an omnivore but very rarely actually ate meat until recently. I'm allergic to nuts and I don't know what's in fake vegan meat and cheese but it gives me stomach cramps and diarrhoea (which is how I know that my local pizza takeaway adulterates it's mozzarella). It's now relatively rare for me to find a meat-free option that I can safely eat.

I mean people like you who think that vegetarian options should all be veganised, so that will mean in the end that people like OP will give up and go back to being an omnivore. I used to be a vegetarian, though more for health than for ethics. I discovered that it is healthier for me to be omnivorous. Hardline vegans who want to lecture everyone and be right will put people off.

We have the same gripe with having to have the vegetarian option endlessly because we don’t eat pork. It’s annoying but it is what it is.