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 so many times, salad that wouldn't feed a hamster for the main course and fruit salad for afters. Food fit for herbivores and so boring.

We were out with a group which included a veggie teenage relative from a rural area at Mildred’s in the west end, a lovely veggie restaurant, and she wept when she saw the menu, saying. ‘I can eat ANYTHING!’ She was so used to having to search for the one veggie dish at the bottom of the menu, hoping that it would be something she liked. Now we always try to find a veggie only place to eat out at when we’re out with friends who don’t eat meat.

Travelled with Virgin this summer, had explained my chocolate allergy when booking. The only dessert was a chocolate pudding, and breakfast a pain au chocolat. The kind steward found me a fruit salad from first class after everyone there had been served, but I was really disappointed that my requirements hadn't been taken as seriously as the gluten free or veggie customers whose meals were separate.

The fad thing is annoying with regards to gluten because it means that often the gluten free option has half the calories of everything else. (Even more so if the gluten free breakfast just involves removing half of it and not providing any sort of replacement.)

Was overjoyed when Itsu came to airports and I could order a breakfast pot, then really annoyed to find out they've changed them so they're now off limits.

In fact it's a repeated theme, company brings in gluten free options then removes them again. Pret, Costa, Starbucks, Sainsburys and Itsu have all done this. (I work away a lot so frequently have to grab lunch out)

gretchen I'm also allergic to chocolate, ie the cocoa bean. Another loss

I'm a veggie, and as such I'm thought of as "a fussy eater " by my family ! I have noticed a vast improvement in the last few years of choice in both shops and restaurants. For years I had very little choice so I'm happy to see the improvement ... the family are still pants about it though !!!

Looking on the bright side, I was on holiday at a hotel in Kenya in the early 90's and one of our group was vegetarian. The hotel staff were marvellous, and the chef came out and spoke to her, and asked for advice about how to cater for vegetarians - he was so keen to learn new recipes that my friend spent a few hours with him in the kitchens over the week we were there, giving him ideas so that he could put new dishes on the menu.

Many years ago I took a flight with Malaysian Airways. For some inexplicable reason they incorrectly had me down as vegan. The only food they served me for the whole 12 hours was melon balls. By the time I landed in Kuala Lumpur I was close to passing out (although the copious amount of red wine on a near empty stomach might have had something to do with that!)

Yes!! Long haul flight to Jamaica and my vegan option had been given to another passenger by accident! They offered me anything I wanted from the snack options for free - chocolate, crisps (why is milk in crisps!) and cheese crackers, absolutely awful TUI! In hindsight I should have formally complained, 9hours with only dry bread is disgraceful. Luckily on the way back they remembered my meal and cleverly labelled the bottled of water vegan

On holiday in Spain, only option is chips - or plain salad. Almost everything has cheese or meat in it. I had to snack on Oreos 😩

On a buffet surely all the non meat food is just food for everyone, not just vegetarians? Are meat eaters only supposed to eat meat and leave coleslaw, crudités, salad, bread and so forth for the vegetarians?

Also, I think if you choose to restrict your diet (and I don't mean intolerances) you need to take a little responsibility, rather than complaining about being left 'starving'. If it happens so much.

It makes sense to invite vegetarians to go to the buffet first so they can have what they can before everyone else eats it.

On a buffet surely all the non meat food is just food for everyone, not just vegetarians?

Of course. If only caterers understood that as well. What they do though is if they hear there are 100 omnivores and 2 vegetarians, is that they will provide 100 meat canapes and 2 veggie ones..

We had a catered buffet for a training day supplied by the venue. Told them there was 1 celiac and 2 wheat intolerance. They supplied sandwiches, pizzas and chips. There were mountains of pizza and sandwiches and one dessert bowl of chips. I asked where the gluten free options were and was informed that's what the chips were for. One tiny bowl of chips for three people?! I asked them to make more chips as we were starving and the manager got all shitty with me saying they would have to charge extra and if any were left I would be charged extra for them. I politely informed him that I would require a refund on the 3 lunches they had failed to provide and that we wouldn't use the venue again nor would the company I represent. I don't think he realised I was the boss.

I was still hungry after my chips. and I never have book another venue without checking what the menu is. If they mention chips as a suitable lunch alternative I run away!!

@P1nkHeartLovesCake interesting about the potato on the pizza. This is the traditional pizza of Rome and it's very delicious. Total odd but amazingly good to eat. I wonder the restaurant had served this to your friend?

Potato on pizza does sound grim when written down.

I was at a conference in Spain when I was vegetarian.
I was presented with a whole iceberg lettuce, chopped neatly in half

I wouldn't trust chips as an alternative in those circumstances, if they honestly think it's appropriate I would expect them to be fairly oblivious and to have cooked the chips in a fryer that also is used for breaded products

Christmas party at a close relative's house. They asked me why I only had crisps on my plate and looked shocked when I pointed out that all the other food on their buffet table contained the two things I have an intolerance to.

Good grief, some of these veggie options are clearly acts of passive aggression.

A little different, but still ended up with salad and fruit. The other day on a 9.5 hour flight with American Airlines I pre-ordered a vegetarian meal. I was given a tiny side salad, a slightly larger main salad which only had lettuce, shredded cabbage, pepper and mango, and then half a mango with some raspberries. The bread on the side was gluten-free.

So basically they'd catered to every dietary requirement on the flight with a single meal, leaving everyone who ordered one with a plate of leaves and some fruit. I was so hungry.

The irony was that their pasta choice was vegetarian.

@VirtualHamster Costa removing all the gluten free sandwiches they brought in is one of the most annoying things. I spoke to them about it and all they said is "well we still have the salad boxes". That's not a sandwich though, it is?

Yes, they made a big fanfare about it on Twitter and social media at the time then quietly removed them later on.

Do they still have the vegan wrap that's also gluten free?

Risotto....a plate of sick...shudder

@VirtualHamster I really didn't like the wrap so I haven't looked for it recently - but I can't think that I've seen anyone with one for a while.

@VirtualHamster although speaking of the wrap, I remember having this convo with them at the time:

Me: there's no gluten free food in the fridge. What happened to it?
Them: The wrap is vegan.
Me: that's... not at all what I asked.

I had a similar conversation recently

Do you have any gluten free pizzas?

The vegan ones are over there