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?

I don’t get the fake meat thing. I’ve been vegetarian for over 50 years, why would I want to eat something that is made to look or taste like the thing I specifically don’t want to eat?

Then that is different, and you have my sympathy. Still, the consequences of getting the gluten wrong are the more serious.

On the positive side, may I suggest your future holiday destinations include Spain and all of its islands and Portugal, both are extremely good on dietary labelling. 😊

It’s really not that niche!

Still, the consequences of getting the gluten wrong are the more serious

are they?

have you ever heard of anaphylaxis?

I disagree. If you get gluten wrong you may have a problem, but you are unlikely to die. That is a consequence of getting dairy wrong.

so no, I wouldn’t say getting a coeliac getting gluten wrong is the more serious.

Those choices sound a bit rubbish OP. In general I find restaurants in the UK really inflexible. In Italian restaurants in Italy I have never had a problem asking for adjustments- and pizzas cost about £7. Sorry, not very helpful but it just doesn't sound like a very good restaurant despite what your friends say!

I take it you live quite a sheltered life?

Do you not think?

I was vegetarian for over 20 years and it wasn't that common in my circles. Maybe things are different now but I just accepted that I'd be having a veggie lasagne every time I ate out. Any other options were always a bonus.

No I don't.

Greek food is brilliant for vegetarians- gigantes, fasolakia, gemista, spanakopitta, loads of veggie dishes in meze....but I know what you mean. Tourist restaurants- at least back in the day- used to serve almost exclusively meat and fish menus, presumably either because they were catering to the majority, or because there's a higher mark up on meat and fish.

If I go out to eat with friends I tend to suggest things like Indian, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern. That way there's plenty of choice for both meat eaters and veggies.
If I do end up in an Italian, I'm not adverse once in awhile to a margherita pizza or the like and don't tend to mind too much about the menu.
Recently for work I ended up in a steak restaurant with 15 other men being the only female and that certainly wasn't an experience that I'd wish to repeat!

Like PP I get v irritated at substituting vegetarian options with vegan!

It was better a few years ago.

Vegetarian and allergic to tomatoes/nightshades. It’s a nightmare. Sick of pointing out to places that vegan is not “inclusive” for those of us that want eggs, cheese, butter and cream in our food.

We went to a favourite award winning gastropub last night - they’ve done an amazing homemade bean burger for years. It’s now a fucking Beyond Meat monstrosity. Luckily, they had a “broccoli steak” special as part of a £25 3 course deal which was actually delicious.

Was.just going to say this, now half the supermarket offerings for free from are vegan but guess what contain gluten. I spent 10.mons in our local posh supermarket filling in a form about this afternoon a staff member told the free from meals now covered more people and the vegan pies were fine for coeliac. They defo weren't . Shall we ban vegans! (,joke)

What changed? I haven't been vegetarian in over a decade now.

It’s for the meat eaters that want to cut down.

I’ve been veggie nearly 40 years and fucked off that even veggie food is now being made for meat eaters.

Vegan cheese.

Seriously?!

OK, as a vegetarian who lived in Italy for 3 years:

Melanzane parmigiana
Grilled polenta with wild mushrooms and cheese
Any number of risottos: with pumpkin, with peas, with mushrooms....
Lasagne al pesto (had this last year in Genova and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten), or any one of a vast number of other lasagne variations
Carciofi alla Romana
Ravioli or other pasta stuffed with spinach, or pumpkin, or wild mushrooms...
Gnocchi
Any of a million pasta dishes: you could have pasta with borlotti beans, capers, aubergines, pumpkin, pesto, peas and cream, of course tomatoes....
Crespolini
Torta verde
Ribollita
Pizza: any Italian pizzeria worth its salt usually has a dozen different meat- free pizzas (my favourite is with artichokes), or they're normally happy to take the meat off any number of others

Etcetera etcetera

Italian food can be absolutely great for veggies (just don't be gluten intolerant as well 😬) and I'm sorry, but if all this restaurant offers is chicken, steak and a £22 margherita, it sounds absolutely shite.

It’s for the meat eaters that want to cut down.

I’m a meat eater who wants to cut down, but I refuse to eat fake food, so often find I have to choose a meat dish.

Even when there are vegetable based dishes it’s often a really limited selection of veggies. Butternut squash, often pared with sweet potato, so sweetness overload. Or avocado. All on my no list.

Do they think there was some grand convention where vegetarians decided they would eat these limited number of vegetables and no more? I really feel for you all.

Same here, vegetarian for over 40years. We no longer eat out at all as there’s never anything on the menu bar something overpriced and tasteless. A few years ago lots of lovely choices but now it’s terrible.

And to echo an earlier poster, the place I have been able to eat a range of veggie dishes is Zizzi’s.

I'm from a whole veggie family; we almost never eat out as as a family as most restaurants only have one or two veggie options so there not much fun or point to it, if we all have to eat the same. I am always particularly turned off if the one option is Quorn or some other fake meat. So unimaginative.

However I'm not fussy outside of no meat / no fish so if I'm going out with friends, I figure it's about the company, not the meal, and I would just go with what the others want.

By the way, to be annoyingly pedantic:

Margherita is a tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza
Margarita is a tequila based cocktail.

Goats cheese. Sweet potato. Risotto. Standard veggie choices. Yawn.

Still prefer that to the current trend of beyond meat burgers, chk’n fajita’s, quorn chilli etc.