Advertised as vegetarian, cooked on the meat grill

[juniper9]

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.

Go to a veggie restaurant next time.

YANBU, but as a veggie I've always assumed that my veggie meals are contaminated in restaurants. If I found out otherwise, I'd be thrilled. I'm just thankful it's not a food allergy I have, because that's a total nightmare when eating out.

Perhaps veggie-only places would be perfectly reasonable if meat-eaters could fathom, just for one meal, how you can be nutritionally satisfied without eating dead animals? ;)

As others have said. this is standard practice in restaurants.

vegetarian risotto is often cooked with chicken stock too

I live in London (suburbs admittedly) and there really aren't that many veggie restaurants around, plus my friends aren't veggie so I'm happy to go somewhere that serves meat as long as I can have a decent option too. Perhaps there are no veggie restaurants where the OP is?

OK so you're saying that vegetarians should go to vegetarian restaurants if they want 'true' veggie meals. How about the restaurants should be open and honest? I wouldn't drag my dh and ds to a veggie restaurant for two reasons. One, there aren't ANY near where we live, and two, why on earth should I inflict my eating habits on them when they're carnivores?

I've been to places in the past which says 'This blah blah has been cooked on a meat grill' and have been really glad to see such honesty. A veggie can then decide how strict they are going to be.

agree with most posters - veggie/vegan food IS contaminated by meat - they dont wash their hands inbetween meals. toby carvery have a seperate oven forc veggie meals though.

I think that's terrible. I cook for friends who are vegetarian and feel awful cooking in a pot that I also cook meat in so I make sure it's extra thoroughly washed and tell them so, and also tell them it's got a veg stock in not a chicken one. They're vegetarian so to my mind none of the utensils should have touched meat either. When they're round I eat vegetarian too. Must be a strain when you're eating out.

I could see your point if it was being fried off in a pan full of beef dripping but on a searing hot grill the contamination would be minimal at worst and non existent at best. Either way you wouldn't notice. If people without allergies are going to be so narrow minded about what they will and won't eat then they should stay at home and cook everything they eat from scratch or get over it. No one is forcing you not to eat meat. Personally I don't eat fish but that won't stop me eating something non fishy in a fish restaurant because it may have been cooked on a grill with fish - that would be idiotic.

aka - you are rude & pathetic, not op.

If people without allergies are going to be so narrow minded

What? We're talking about vegetarianism here, but does that statement mean you think people with allergies should just stop being so damn fussy yeah, what bloody whingers that lot are.

OP, do you not fear that if you really, really knew the extent of the meat contamination of your veggie food that the range of places you could eat at would dwindle to almost nothing? It's a tough one. I don't want my food cooked in meat fat, but I also don't want to have to stick to salad and still water at most restaurants. I think I prefer ignorance.

AKAK81 Personally I don't eat fish but that won't stop me eating something non fishy in a fish restaurant because it may have been cooked on a grill with fish - that would be idiotic.

Sorry if I've misunderstood but are you comparing the levels of contamination you are willing to accept as a matter of taste with the levels of contamination a vegetarian/Muslim is willing to accept as a matter of principle?

When I was veggie I wouldn't have given a fig.
I'm not saying you're wrong.... but
If you're that strict you are only going to be happy by avoiding a huge swath of foods unless you can closely read the label & supervise all preparation techniques.
Doesn't most wine have fish extracts in it? Never mind the ice cream.

A few odd comments (full moon is it?).

If food is advertised as vegetarian then it should be... all together now... "vegetarian".

You can taste meat on a veggie burger if its been on the meat grill. If you ordered chicken, would you want it to taste of fish?

Hands up all meat eaters who would only eat out in veggie cafes or restaurants if their other half was veggie (bearing in mind I saw a 'veggie' salad presented with lardons (in France).

nicename It should be veggie, but unless it's a veggie restaurant, it's probably not quite as veggie as I'd like.

This would piss me off enormously. I am a meat-eater but can't eat mushrooms. If I thought the mushrooms were cooked on a separate grill, I'd have a burger. And then about an hour later I'd probably pass out. This has happened to me before, on a riverboat cruise with dubious cross-contamination procedures.

That said, I don't mind if they choose to use the same grill/fryer/whatever, so long as when you ask the staff they can find out the answer and tell you the truth, and so long as the menu reflects said truth, e.g. saying "mushroom burger" and not putting a "V for vegetarian" symbol against it.

Oh I get the 'vegetable' or 'vegetarian' difference. Indian restaurants often have veggie stuff under 'vegetables and sides' next to things in oyster or fish sauce.

The thing with the OPs place is that they thought it mattered enough for the halal diet to have a seperate grill, but for vegetarians it didn't matter any more. One one or the other!

Yes, but Horry you have an allergy (or intolerance?) and you can't afford to be wrong in your guess. Of course you need to check and double-check, and that's a serious pain. (My DB is severely allergic to nuts and soy.)

I will, fortunately, not be medically harmed if my veggie burger is cooked on a meat grill. Annoyed, but not harmed.

As a veggie I get this all the time.

"do you want Parmasan with that?". Erm...

Yup, including Michellin starred restaurants. Honestly, I would expect (at their prices) their food education to be 'first class'.

With the grill, if veggie food is not cooked separately, then I won't eat it. And yes, I am expecting special treatment. You are advertising it, I'm paying.

I suppose you could just round us all up and ship us (veggies/allergies/religious) all off to an island where we won't be a bother.

When I complained at Hotel du Vin in Cheltenham that an egg salad wasn't much of a starter ( the publicised beetroot dish was "off") I was told it was my fault as most vegetarians ate fish.

It was the lovely friendliness of the skate at the Sealife Centre that made me become vegetarian in the first place

Yanbu.

I can't believe in the year 2013 that still people don't understand people who are vegetarian,

I eat meat, but i can go with out having meat. When i go out for a meal it just not about the meal ( i don't care where i go) its about the people i am going with.

Was it your fault that 'most' 'veggies' te fish?

Eat fish = NOT a veggie.

cereal When I worked in a restaurant I had to explain to all of the staff (including kitchen staff) why, when our menu changed and on our tasting night, we had to double check with customers if they were vegetarian when ordering set items on the menu which would usually have parmesan in them. Quite a few of them refused to believe that cheese could possibly not be vegetarian and the chef stated that he couldn't be arsed with fussiness so the waiters should lie and claim that we used other cheese