I am a fairly strict vegetarian- I don't eat rennet or gelatine etc.
There's a burger restaurant that I visit fairly frequently which sells a mushroom burger. The menu states it's vegetarian, but I still asked if it was cooked on the same grill as the meat. They reassured me that it's a separate grill.
We moved mouse recently and are now not near the restaurant. A few weeks ago, I went to another branch of the same, small chain. Their menu is slightly different in that they also have Halal meat. I asked the waiter if the burger is cooked on a vegetarian grill. He went off to ask and then said yes. I wasn't massively convinced by him, but he reassured me he'd asked the chef.
When I went back, I asked a different waitress who said the Halal burgers and the vegetarian burgers are cooked together. The burgers are still advertised as vegetarian on the menu. Consequently I ordered a salad.
I emailed them to complain, and the response was basically that the grill gets hot enough to burn off the meat fat, therefore it's fine. The replier said they'd discussed the economics of having three grills and decided against it, so they knew that it might have been an issue.
Obviously everyone has their own version of vegetarianism, but if they're claiming a burger is vegetarian when it's cooked on the meat grill, then surely this is misrepresentation?
Also, if they're so sure that the meat juices are burnt off, then why bother with a separate grill for Halal?
I'm not going to eat a burger cooked in meat fat, but AIBU to think that their menu is misleading? They should let people make their own choice about whether or not they're ok with the burger sharing a grill.