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???

If you’d asked for olive oil and butter they’d have provided it. Asking the hotel reception to ring the restaurants for you is a good idea, then have something translated on your phone ready to show them when you arrive

What country are you in? If you had a severe anaphylaxis to an ingredient, would you be doing the same?

What I'd do:
-Get google translate on my phone
-Write out the words for 'vegetarian, no fish, no meat' etc on a piece of paper if you prefer to show the waiter that
-IF you can't even get chips or a side in the restaurant then go to a convenience store near the hotel

Quite often they use beef dripping in burger places.

This is ridiculous. Why not just say you don't eat meat and fish? Bread baskets will come with butter or olive oil and vinegar but you have to ask.

This is ridiculous. Why not just say you don't eat meat and fish? Bread baskets will come with butter or olive oil and vinegar but you have to ask.

Hmm, hold on, ive just realised that that doesnt solve the fact that you need to tell them you are veggie eventually or this will keep happening at future events. I think you need to own up here! You will have much more fuss/gossip about you in future if someone figures out you are veggie at a later date.
Ping boss and say 'im so sorry, I forgot to mention this but im actually veggie, so wont be able to join for dinner later but will join for drinks? Totally my fault, should have mentioned before'
(Even though its isnt your fault, not asking people for dietary requirements is basic etiquette with work stuff!)

This is a perfect solution.

I was about to suggest this, ask the hotel to phone the restaurants and arrange a vegetarian meal for you.

If they don't / won't call do they have any vegetarian food you could have in your room before or after the meal?

Being an introvert is different from being a pushover. If you're old enough to have a job, you're old enough to ask for food you can eat.

What sort of cockamamie place is this, anyway?

I'm a vegetarian and am very surprised, the last time I had issues with food abroad was in the mid nineties! You definitely should not order something with meat or fish and not eat it. Tell your boss that there is nothing for you to eat. Tell the restaurant, but you might not be able to trust them - I once made my wishes completely clear, they repeated and understood, then brought me food with ham in! So I would spell it out very clearly.

They know! They always ask. This time they have used an agency to do the arrangements which apparently checked for clients allergies but not staff!

Then surely you say to your boss “, I’m veggie and this has always been sorted before but the agency didn’t check, have you got a contact email so I can ask them to inform the restaurants for the rest of the trip?”

Frankly your head office is rubbish...whoever organised this trip should have checked everyone's dietary requirements in advance.

Raise this with whoever organised the logistics as they made a real mistake here and should not have that responsibility if they can't get something so basic right.

Dietary requirements are really important because people have food allergies, follow religious food requirements or like you have specific diets.

Make it that person's problem to fix this for you.

In the meantime if there is a language issue show the restaurant pics of vegetables, salad and Google translate the word "vegetarian".

3 separate restaurants and not one having anything you can eat at all would be very very unusual. If work know you're a vegetarian then surely you just let them know and they can rearrange to other restaurants? They can't fix it if they don't know there is a problem.

Very frightening that they’ve not checked people’s food allergies either.

There must be some spare time for you to have to yourself. Try to get something to eat then. Fill up at breakfast on breads, fruit, yoghurts, eggs.

Maybe you could ask Google translate/chatgpt to compose a message in translation that you can email to the restaurant ahead of time.

I’d also be suprised that at a burger place there are no chips (or are you concerned about the fat they’re cooked in).

Tell us you’re not vegetarian without telling us 😂 I’m guessing it’s France.

Thank you, you understand exactly where I am coming from with the whole thing.
Head office know that there are a few of us who are vegetarian or vegan. There’s only me on this work trip who is vegetarian or vegetarian this time.
Outside sourced company arranged this trip, I booked my own arrangements many months ago but itinerary was booked by this company.

I have booked breakfast in the hotel each morning so I can fill up and not be hungry.

I’ll order the smallest dish they have and blend in.

I don’t think you nderstand how anxious and what a mess I am in these situations. I’m getting better as I now rehearse questions to ask, things to say, I can barely speak. I cannot cope with adding this stress on top of trying to survive these things. So it’s the quietest, easiest, safest thing to just get through.

Can you go to a shop and get something to eat before the meal, a load of snacks or bread and cheese?

I'm vegetarian and travelling causes me a lot of anxiety for this reason!
I always look up and save phrases on my notes app like "no meat", "without meat or fish" "no animal meat" , "only vegetables and potato/pasta/bread please", "vegan" etc

Use Google translate and show them the words, you don't even need to try to speak it.

Honestly, OP, it is quite difficult to understand that you are able to go on a trip with clients and presumably talk to them at work and over dinner but not able to say “hey, boss, I am a vegetarian and the agency never checked, is there anything that we can do for the meals on the rest of the trip?”

It isn’t making a fuss to say that.

I'd just say that I'm vegetarian , so don't eat meat or fish.
If the restaurants were unable ( or unwilling) to adapt anything on the menu, Id get take away food at the end of the evening to take back to the hotel. No way would I be surviving on biscuits.
Next time, I'd make it clear well in advance that I was vegetarian, so that those planning the trip could account for it when booking restaurants.

Which country are you in?
You need to get ChatGPT on your phone and use it to order potatoes, vegetables, cheese and eggs if possible. Any restaurant will be able to accommodate a plate of those things if you ask. Grab a waiter as soon as you arrive and make arrangements to eat something.

I mean, I agree someone at the OP’s company messed up, obviously, but at the same time, if I were the OP’s line manager, I’d be wondering about whether she was able to do her job adequately, if I found out sh were travelling overseas to do business with clients and was seriously contemplating semi-starving for several days because she is unwilling to take the most basic actions to ensure she has something to eat. Quite apart from anything else, no one is going to be in a headspace to do their job well, if living on biscuits. If she can’t advocate for herself, how will she manage a difficult situation with clients?

(I say this as a longtime vegetarian who often travels in countries where vegetarianism is almost unknown.)

Of course they won’t change the itinerary, but they CAN speak to the restaurant to see if a veggie option is available (they will do this regularly, its a staple of hospitality management). And they can contact the hotel to ensure you have meals elsewhere and during the day so that you don’t go hungry.

It really shouldn’t be a drama - just speak to the wait staff if necessary.