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?

Oh I’ve gone round the room before to find out who eaten my CLEARLY LABELLED vegan dinner and asked them wtf they were doing.

Christmas work parties are always fun!

Rarely suffie t overall anyway but the veg canapés always seem hugely more popular than anything else

I hate buffets/finger food events for this reason. Even if they do cater for veggies, it doesn't occur to caterers that while veggies can only eat the veggie option, the meat eaters will eat both meat and veggie. So they need to double the amount of veggie stuff so there is enough to go round everyone.

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

Planes are the worst. This has happened to me loads of times. They know they have 5 vegetarians they bring 5 vegetarian sandwiches - then just give them to anyone that wants them. Buffets are bad for that too.

All the time. Most memorable was when I went to a posh London restaurant for a friend's birthday and they had ordered a set menu. There was nothing vegetarian so they gave me a plate of chopped tomatoes with a sprig of basil on top as a starter, and the main course was Baklava which is a really sweet dessert but they tried to pretend it was a main, and served it with boiled potatoes. It was really grim, especially as everyone else had amazing food.

Pretty much all of the above examples. And yes professional caterers who are trained who dont seem to know what vegetarian even is.

On a flight thirty years ago with a booked vegetarian meal.

"So sorry we've run out, the only main is Toad in the hole but we could take the Toads out?"

Ummmm just batter then
Ended up with lots of starters and desserts.

Lactose intolerant here.

Arrived early for my flight from Dubai airport. Got to the gate and all there was nearby was a Costa Coffee. All I could have to eat was a banana. Luckily I got fed well on the plane. (Well done to Emirates for nice lactose free meals . Am not in any way related to Emirates, just appreciative that the advance booking for special meals worked and the food was good.)

Yes!!

I've eaten the garnish from the sandwich display more times than I care to remember!!

Not catered events so much, but my own bloody family. I have a fish allergy.

Xmas day invited to my uncle and aunt's for dinner. Lots of effort, beautiful presentation. Unfortunately I couldn't eat the salmon and avocado starter - when I awkwardly pointed it out I got an avocado cut in half.

My cousin had a bbq for her baby shower. I had one sausage before they chucked a load of whole sardines on the bbq and then put them on the plate with all the cooked meat. And everyone was using the same tongs to pick up the fish and the salad. I'd driven nearly 3 hours to attend and was starving.

Both lots of relatives had known me for 30 yrs.

Yes at a wedding once, I had said I was vegetarian (as was the bride and a lot of her family) but they hadn't catered enough . So I had melon to start, a plate of dry peas carrots and broccoli as everything else had been cooked in animal fats, and fruit salad (mostly melon) for dessert. The worst part was that we were there all day and as I'm diabetic, I felt really light headed and poorly by the time they served up the buffet at 9pm. I've since learned to always carry a bag of nuts in my bag, some cubes of cheese and some dry crackers just in case.

When I was on a school trip to france when I was about 14, the main meal at the youth place we were staying was fish, I was allergic to fish at the time so they brought me a plate of tomatoes! Not even a salad, just tomatoes

I stayed at a hotel which had tinned mixed fruit on the breakfast buffet, and was given a dish of that same mixed fruit as both starter and dessert at a £70 a head evening meal. So not even decent fresh fruit, just the scrapings from breakfast. They couldn’t even be bothered to put a squirt of cream on top! They apologised when I complained but refused to refund me.

I have numerous allergies, gluten, dairy, most vegetables and fruit. Seasoning is a problem too. Several times I have been presented with a plain piece of meat, minus sauce or gravy, but covered in black pepper. The worst was at a wedding, I'd checked in advance, too. I couldn't eat any of the other stuff, and sat miserably not daring to make a fuss. Oh and I can't drink!

Now I always take my own food to weddings, even as the mother of the bride!

Not fruit salad, but I once chose the only veggie option in a Chinese restaurant work night out. It was described as 'seasonal vegetables'. I got a plate of lettuce!

I hate buffets/finger food events for this reason. Even if they do cater for veggies, it doesn't occur to caterers that while veggies can only eat the veggie option, the meat eaters will eat both meat and veggie. So they need to double the amount of veggie stuff so there is enough to go round everyone.

And they need to put all the veggie options at the very end of the buffet queue, not the beginning, otherwise the meat eaters will fill their plates and leave nothing for the real actual vegetarians. (Bitter experience).

Yep but at buffets not a catered event. I'm vegetarian but don't eat egg so it happens quite a lot.

I once had a cream tea where I ended up having to just drink the tea because all of the cakes that came with it had tropical fruits of some kind in them, and I'm allergic to them. It was bizarre - they'd even managed to get dried pineapple into the scones. I didn't think to mention it beforehand because it didn't occur to me that scones wouldn't be safe, so I didn't feel that I could complain...

This didn't happen to me, but a vegetarian friend of mine went on a school trip to France (not famous then for catering to non meat eaters) and the hotel they were staying at made them a packed lunch for a day trip they were going on. They were told that there was a vegetarian in the group, and sure enough, in the picnic box there was a sandwich labelled "vegeterienne". It turned out to be ham, like all the others, but they thought that putting a vegetarian label on it would, in fact, make it suitable for a vegetarian to eat.

Why was my post deleted about Lottie?

I've had to think on my feet a few times when dietary requirements weren't passed on, but I wasn't on a train. Still don't understand why the risotto wasn't gluten free though, it's my go to gf dish (you have to use gf stock of course) and how did that food cost £30 a head, they have been had, the nice pies from Aldi are £1.50, with all the trimmings I could do it for under £5, after all the catering company weren't providing labour

Frequently have this issue. I can't eat cheese. You would not believe how many meals contain cheese. Cheese cheese cheese!

And yes, shockingly, there is cheese in cheesecake. Which I actually had to explain to someone once!

And they need to put all the veggie options at the very end of the buffet queue, not the beginning, otherwise the meat eaters will fill their plates and leave nothing for the real actual vegetarians. (Bitter experience).

I've overheard people taking the vegan and vegetarian options before (which were clearly labelled as such), saying how nice they looked and it's not fair that only some people are allowed to eat them. I challenged them, but they ignored me. Beggars belief!

@EoinMcLovesCakeJumper

France is still really bad, my (French) friend had a blazing row with the cafe owner who refused to make my dd a cheese baguette because the menu was ham and cheese, they were being made to order and we wanted to buy 8 meals, the cafe ended up with missing out on a €50+ order because of rigidity. Later that day at the restaurant he had rung ahead to warn them she was veggie we arrived to find out there was no veggie mains, they thought she would eat fish but the chef did whip her up a tart which he put on her favourite things and named it after her!

I was at a work do and they had asked dietry requirements beforehand.

I am gluten free.

The starter had bread in it and I had to send it back - I got a risotto for my main which was okay.

For pudding everyone got a chocolate brownie with caramel ice cream and a few chocolate covered strawberries....

... except me - fruit salad - not even nice it was mainly chopped apple in apple juice.

I asked the caterer why they couldn't have given me some of the chocolate covered strawberries and ice cream with my fruit salad?

I wanted to cry - seriously, I LOVE pudding and was really looking forward to it - I mean it's not exactly hard to get gluten free chocolate brownies! :(

My mum is vegan. We went for a family meal and she rang ahead to inform them, they said no worries. Got there and they presented her with a plate of steamed veg!