Being vegetarian is so tiresome.

[Brandnewskytohangyourstarsupon]

I’ve been vegetarian for over 25 years.

Just arranging dinner with friends who are raving about a particular restaurant. It’s a m at eaters dream of a place I’m sure gorgeous food is sold.
It’s Italian so there’s the usual vegetarian offerings of over priced margarita pizza available and it really pisses me off.
There are also some overpriced sides available but it boils my piss to pay £14-16 for a bit of cauliflower.

It’s the majority vote to go to this place.

I don’t want to bring it all down because there’s very little choice for vegetarians so I’ll do as I always do, eat before I go, order a drink and order the cheaper side to just be sociable.

Its always the same I find, always the same.

If you are vegetarian, how do you navigate this?

Are there really no main course salads? Or suitable pasta dishes (there are loads of vegetarian pasta dishes), or anything with aubergine, like Parmigiana? Italian restaurants are usually, actually, pretty good for vegetarians.

Assuming you're not going to crack and order a bloody fillet steak then I'd definitely try getting in touch with them.

I’m a veggie and I struggle to find something I can eat at restaurants. The veggie options seem to consist only of tomato, spinach, goat’s cheese and butternut squash. Am I the only veggie who doesn’t like any of them?

That sounds like a particularly disappointing restaurant, OP.

I quite like pizza and in (say) Newcastle there are a whole heap of vegetarian options in the Italian restaurants. In fact it's in Newcastle that I had my first artichoke heart and capers pizza, with black olives. And there's pizzas with lots of various cheeses, rocket, spinach, mushroom, red, green and yellow peppers, soft eggs, sweetcorn, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, extra chillies, extra garlic, extra red onion, and Mediterranean vegetables (including zucchini, aubergine).

They're not overpriced either compared to the ones with meat on - in fact they're a couple of pounds cheaper.

Or I'd ask for one of the pizza or pasta dishes without the meat and ask to have an extra vegetable instead of the meat.

Everyone in the group would eat bread, olive oil, olives, tomato and other salad vegetables to start anyway.

They also all let you have corn on the cob for starter, main or pudding (yes, I'm a heathen.) The same with pancakes. Banana or other fruit split for dessert when I could pack food away all night.

I'm not sure I could be bothered going to somewhere that only sold pizza margherita or overpriced cauliflower, and couldn't swap out a bit of meat for extra vegetables.

I have an ileostomy since last October, it’s so difficult to find anything suitable on any menu.

It sounds like the meat options would be more expensive though?

No pasta dishes at all? No salads?

I would be surprised if they couldn't stretch to customising toppings on a pizza for you.

At am Italian I would happily eat a vegetarian fresh pasta dish because I don't make our own pasta or tend to buy fresh pasta but it's lovely perfectly done with flavoured oil and cheese shavings

So I do something like that or ask on the day for a vegetarian pasta whatever they recommend, it's the company that's important surely?

I usually eat before I go and have an order of fries or something small. Or a salad, but I actually do like salad.

i have been vegetarian for a long time, and am finding it increasingly harder to eat out as most vegetarian dishes are now vegan, which can be fine, but is often a faked version of meat, and covers every dietary option so is also gluten free and nut free.

This. I was so sick of the usual, samey overpriced veggie options when eating out. If I saw another baked cauliflower dish I was going to scream! On reflection pescatarian is definitely the better option for me so to be truthful it’s not a bad thing that I’ve been pushed to switch. It’s nice to have more choice: re protein and as a result I’m eating far less UPF Quorn etc meat alternatives. Cooking at home is so much easier now - no regrets

I'm not vegetarian but do not like meat heavy dishes. In your shoes I'd order 2 starters or a starter plus chips or a starter plus a side salad etc.

Or call the restaurant and ask them if they could rustle up a risotto Primavera or similarly simple vegetarian dish.

It sounds like the main issue with this restaurant is that it's ridiculously overpriced. £22 for a margarita pizza .

Can you sit this one out or join them for coffee at the end ? Just say there's not much for veggies and you'll see them at the next outing.

Could you find a restaurant that isn't entirely veggie but has a couple of decent veggie options you'd be happy to eat + suggest that next time?
Think you'll have to be ahead of the game x

What vegetables do the steak, chicken dishes come with? Surely some of those could be requested in a tomato sauce with pasta or put on pizza?

Indian, Turkish and Levantine foods are good for vegetarians.

My gripe is the fact restaurants have now made vegetarian meals vegan, I want cheese and eggs please! I hate fake meat.

Your solution to eat beforehand and order something small in order to be sociable is fine so long as everyone knows that's the plan in advance. It really spoils an evening if there's quibbling about the bill at the end.

This has little to do with being veggie and more to do with it being an expensive restaurant.

It’s weird but no!
No pasta! It’s pizza or chicken wings! Weird!

I went to a vegan restaurant in Chester last week as my daughter is vegan. It was AMAZING!!! Absolutely delicious food.
Shrub in Chester.

Yeah I get it. I eat out a lot when travelling with work and it’s often booked by whoever is hosting the meeting. I don’t get a lot of say.

one VERY highly rated gastropub in Edinburgh - this was my choice:
starter: mushrooms on toast (vegan, ticking that box I assume)
main: lentil and mushroom cottage pie or
vegan mushroom risotto

you better like mushrooms then, eh?

and yes, the same price as meat dishes

and yes, I both emailed and called ahead and asked for some further options but I was told it was not possible!

My nightmare, mushrooms are my most hated food, can't even force them down in any shape or form.

I just don't eat out regularly anymore. I certainly don't agree to anything until I've seen the menu as I can guarantee the vast majority are vegan options, rather than vegetarian. I'd rather not go out than waste money on crap food, or vegetarian hungry.
The last time I eat out was about 6 months ago, and that was because it was an Italian that had pasta dishes. I have found only Chinese and Italian cater properly for veggies these days. Shit that your Italian doesn't appear to do so though. I never ever had a problem eating out until about 5/6years ago. After covid it got far, far worse with options being limited to pretty much vegan and gluten free!

I love the people suggest that you stop being vegetarian! Honestly, would you say the same if the op was muslim and nothing was Halal or if she was Jewish and everything was pork? Yes being vegetarian is a choice but it’s one that many people make for moral reasons.

I very rarely would choose to do this but in this case I think I would. If there's nothing you can eat that isn't overpriced for what it is, and isn't something you'd actually enjoy just tell them why and sit it out-meet for drinks afterwards.

I am vegan and have been for over twenty years.

Obviously things have improved a LOT recently however there are some places I always have down as the ones to avoid. These include independent Italian restaurants, very rural country pubs (that aren't also hotels), and 'greasy spoon' cafes. Those three types of places are usually crap for me and like you, I resent paying for a crap pizza (and I'd usually have to have it just without cheese), a pasta dish with tomato sauce that would cost me about 50p to make at home, or a baked potato with beans and side salad that I could make a delicious version of at home.
It's really annoying actually. I do not want to give my money to chain restaurants but if I went to my nearest family-ran Italian it would cost me £14 for a very basic veggie pasta dish, same for a pizza without cheese.
Drive to the nearest shopping complex and there's Zizzi's-the Italian chain, where I can pay roughly £4 more for a main with loads of choice, vegan cheese available, vegan sides and starters.

I am just not going to have a crap meal when I don't have to.

And the problem is it becomes self perpetuating. Restaurants say that they don’t get many vegetarian customers but they don’t realise how many don’t go because they look the menu and just see the afterthought mushroom risotto.

I can't believe a restaurants only veggie option is pizza these days.it was hard to buy vegan in restaurants 20 years ago but even then would be a few good veggie options,now there's too many to choose from.you need to change your restaurant or ask them for their veggie specials or maybe they have a separate vegetarian menu?many do.