Work trip restaurants have no vegetarian options and I hate fuss

[Clockinginat2pm]

Away abroad with work.
We have clients with us, there’s a few of us flown over.
Activities all organised by head office, lovely, it’s really well organised day & evening.
Restaurants booked for each evening… Smash burger place and steak & fish place x2. Checked out menus and there is zero, and I mean zero vegetarian option on any of the menus at all. Starters/mains ALL meat or fish pf some form. There’s not even any sides (which would usually be more go to)

I do not want to draw ANY attention to myself at all as I am excruciatingly dreading these events as I am introvert, socially extremely anxious and feeling very very out of my depth with it all.

Fade into the background is my main aim..

So, do I order something with meat/fish & just pretend to eat it and be hungry for a few days?

I don’t speak the language, the waiter from last night spoke no English so ringing them to order something else is not an option here at all. (I ended up with an appetiser of grilled asparagus which I couldn’t eat so pushed it around my plate for 40 minutes.

Ive used my emergency pack of biscuits as I was starving.
What would you do in my shoes???

Sorry I couldn't help myself - maybe OP tell us where you are and I will look at the restaurants website and suggest something you can eat?

Short answer: it’s now quite rare for restaurants in France to have no vegetarian option at all—especially in cities—but the quality and variety of those options can still be limited.
What’s typical today
In most urban areas (like Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux), the majority of restaurants offer at least one vegetarian dish.
This is partly because vegetarian cuisine has grown a lot in France, with dedicated veggie restaurants and chefs focusing on plant-based cooking becoming more common
Even traditional or mixed menus often include something like:
a salad or cheese-based dish
a vegetable risotto or pasta
sometimes a proper vegetarian main
Reddit discussions broadly align with this: many locals say “almost all restaurants will have at least one option”, though sometimes it’s basic or repetitive .
Where it’s less reliable
In very traditional French bistros (especially outside big cities), menus can still be quite meat-focused.
In those places:
you might only see a simple fallback (e.g. salad or omelette)
or you may need to ask for an adaptation, which restaurants will often try to accommodate
Big picture trend
France has historically been very meat-centric, but that’s changing.
There’s a clear shift toward plant-based dining, from casual cafés to Michelin-starred restaurants
Entire vegetarian restaurants and even high-end veggie tasting menus are now common.
So—are there many with no veggie dish?
In cities: very few
Nationwide: still some, especially traditional/rural spots—but not the norm anymore
👉 A fair summary:
You’re unlikely to be completely stuck without any vegetarian food, but you may sometimes feel like the choice is an afterthought rather than a highlight.
If you want, tell me where in France you’re going—I can give you a realistic expectation for that specific area.

What’s the country? Surely salads are available?

I think the main issue is that meals are in restaurants that were prebooked by a third party. And for a group.
If I was on my own I would look around for likely places or have a Google for Indian or Italian restaurants which tend to have a choice.
I have a group trip coming up soon and the organisers have said there will be a choice of local dishes including vegetarian...and asked for any dietary requirements. I'd have thought this was standard practice now. But obviously not.

The usual arseholes who can’t say anything nice are out I see! No thank you to any of you, move on as you are offering absolutely zero to this conversation except nastiness.

Huge thank you to those who have been kind and super helpful with your kind advice and wisdom, that’s all I wanted.

Found a shop day 1, stocked up on stuff. Booked breakfast each morning, filling up on that so I’m not hungry. As this has NEVER happened before because I let them know in advance about dietary preferences, as do other colleagues , it’s a first for me.

It will be grand, I’ll find something I’m sure.

I don't eat meat and have had trouble with some restaurants abroad when on work trips when the food has been pre-ordered, and at a couple of conferences in the UK when veggie food has run out before I've had a chance to get any. I've never gone hungry - I've just explained the situation to the conference staff or waiter and there's always been a solution. You're overthinking this massively - just tell the restaurant you do not eat meat or fish. If they can't provide anything then your colleagues will understand why you're not eating and it won't be weird. It does baffle me that you weren't asked to state dietary needs/allergies at the organising stage. If no food can be provided (unlikely in my experience) then buy something after and claim it on expenses. Make sure you feedback to the organiser so this doesn't happen again (I fed back to conference and they thanked me - they now reserve the veggie food for those who have stated in advance that they are veggie and the problem hasn't happened again).

Edited to add - that as a veggie at these things it goes without saying that you don't really get a choice, there's usually one veggie thing and that's it. Except for Sweden - that was amazing as a veggie. Conference buffet was epic 😁

How are you going to a burger place and a steak place that don't do chips or some sort of potato or salad?

If you are in a restaurant and someone else asks for a special request for a dish do you think badly of them and think they are being difficult or rude??

Do you actually think anyone would think you were being difficult or rude if you asked for a vegetarian option? 99% of people would barely even register it and who gives a monkeys about that one percent!!!
You being so awkward and embarrassed about it will make other people wonder what is wrong with you.

You'll be like Pam from Gavin and Stacey in reverse 😂

I think I found an answer to the “chips” question. (3 days ago.)

Yes, I have lost around 18% in 9 months.
Horrendous side effects, nausea being number 1.
BUT my goodness, I have put the work in along side the jabs.
Tracking macros and calories, everything I eat is nutritionally driven, portion sizes and mindful eating.
Zero alcohol, 3 litres of water a day, decaf restricted coffee cups a day.
It has, without a doubt, changed my life.

Oh my Christ boss! I had chips, chips and more chips! It’s all the drama! I just love it!

What kind of restaurants have no sides at all?🤔
Use Google translate and show it to waiters.

When you get back, or now if you can do it by email and have time, log a very strong complaint with your company about the way this has been handled. This can't happen again, to you or anybody else.

I mean this gently, but how have you got to a point where you're obviously very senior and responsible (being sent overseas to look after clients) with such crippling social anxiety issues that you find it impossible to ask about/ find solutions to things like this and need so badly to blend into the background?

I organise client and staff offsites and often use an agency to help with arrangements abroad.

I’d be pissed off you didn’t flag it because it’s valueable feedback on the agency and I wouldn’t use them again if they hadn’t checked such a basic thing.

I suppose steak restaurants and burger restaurants assume that guests will want steak or burgers? And I don't eat veggy burgers that are meaty because they are a strange texture to me.
I will eat a cauliflower steak and resent the price.
But I wouldn't want to go to a burger or steak place anyway.
Im happy to eat all the vegetables and all the bread if that's what's available to me.

I suppose steak restaurants and burger restaurants assume that guests will want steak or burgers?
Sure, but what about things like spinach? Chips? Macaroni cheese? None of this is unusual and burger steak restaurants. Quite a few burger restaurants have quite substantial salads as well.

You can get by but you have to do your research because it’s very common in France for restaurants not to offer any vegetarian options, particularly in the central and southern parts. They’re also often not open to making menu changes and many restaurants only offer a set menu. It would be easy to accidentally book all restaurants without vegetarian options like in OP’s situation.

Salad doesn’t necessarily mean vegetarian. Sometimes it’s a choice of chicken salad or tuna salad! Or duck gizzard salad in France

OP I get you not wanting to make a fuss. And, if I was your manager (even if not on the trip) I’d want to know about it. Frankly I’d be unhappy that one of my team was put in the position that she couldn’t be properly nourished on a trip.

I’d also (as your manger) want to be able to give feedback to the external provider/whoever arranged them as it’s just not good enough. They are presumably a professional organization and it’s their job to ensure everyone is catered for, literally. You keeping quiet about it doesn’t provide the opportunity for the issue to be raised and resolved, meaning it could be repeated.

you can feed it back quietly to the appropriate person without making a fuss. Give them the opportunity to rectify it (or your company to choose not to use that provider again if they actually are a bit crap).

If my colleague was worried about this and struggling to speak up to the wider team, this is the sort of thing I would have zero qualms about trying to deal with for them. Do you have anyone close to you on the trip who could help sort you out?

@Clockinginat2pm people aren't being arseholes for saying you should be capable of raising a very non controversial but important issue with your boss at a work event.

TBF if I was your boss and found out you decided to suffer in silence rather than raise something easily fixed like this with me or someone else with the ability to help you I would think it reflected very badly on you and your capabilties.

Being vegetarian is hardly embarassing or niche is it? I would use this experience to get some help or coaching as you cannot go through life like this.

As a main, yes, but it's very common for restaurants to have a green or tomato salad or something as a side.
It sounds like the OP's work have managed to book pretty crappy places though, if they only offer dry bread with no olive oil or butter.

I agree but usually a simple lettuce and tomato salad is a staple, this is quite unusual if not.

So you’ve got/seen the menus can’t you contact the restaurant/s directly and speak to them 🤷🏻‍♀️. Why do people make life so difficult and complicated when it really doesn’t have to be a big drama? 🤦🏻‍♀️

This is baffling me too. The number of posters saying 'Just eat chips'!
They're not even always vegetarian in this country, let alone one that's quite clearly culturally different and where vegetarianism isn't the norm!
It's an eye opener, just how ignorant so many people are.

I am also aghast at people saying that the OP should be okay with tomato salad.
Wouldn't you be starving if all you had for dinner was a plate of tomatoes? They're 95% water FFS!

Also, the ignorance around MH. I am mostly okay now but for decades I was terrified of eating in public and the thought of any attention on me while I did so, even now makes me clam up.

This doesn't mean I can't do other things! I was a professional pole and cage dancer for a while, performing on stage in front of 100s of people wearing very little. I have been a tutor in colleges, ran social groups, given presentations. Anxiety isn't a binary, linear thing? Do people really not know that?

You could Email the restaurant...assuming there's contact details....and let them know that one guest is vegetarian. Ans specify no meat or fish as often they like to helpfully garnish with lardons and anchovies.
Places want a good review so might be willing to sort something with polite warning.
If not just eat the fries! (Or not)

this is going to be harsh (and i have only read the OP)

You are a grown woman with a responsible job that involves business travel.

Grow up and say something to the organiser.