To feel that restaurants should provide more vegetarian options ?

[Lovelybangers]

Maybe to some people I am BU - but since quitting meat I have noticed that many menus have a very limited selection of non meat/fish options.

I was out this weekend for a family meal ( restaurant chosen by someone else) and the menu had 6 starters, 6 mains to choose from Only 2 starters were suitable and 1 main course.

I am certain that it can't be so difficult to add another choice - the main course option was very mushroomy - so if I didn't like mushrooms then I would have been going hungry.

DH was happy as he got to eat a big plate of roast beef - despite him being happy to share my veggie offerings at home.

I was just perusing a few local eateries' christmas menus -and many of them don't have ANY option for non flesh eaters.

I am very surprised at bugger on this thread- I'm not saying your way isn't working for you, I'm just surprised you offer no vegan or even vegetarian dishes at all- especially in this day and age (how old did that make me sound!)

I agree, my DD is vegetarian/vegan and also doesn't eat cheese which limits the options even more as a lot of places class cheesy coated stuff as vegetarian

I'm not veggie but my parents are and my husband eats fish but not meat. It's very depressing for them to be offered either pasts or risotto - my mum hates risotto anyway! These are both dead easy to make at home and tbh there is not a lot of thought gone into it by the chef - lazy and uninspired cooking.

Don't worry Bob, we're all older than we'd like to be.

It's a mid-upper range place with only 5 (maybe 7) or so options for each course not a long list. Most people eat 3 or 4 courses. Mains are fish or meat (no veggie). There may be a veg. starter but not sure. We're silent partners and visit rarely as it's a long way away.

The chefs are excellent and could no doubt make an omelette for you but how much could we charge for that? Not enough to make it worth while without making you laugh but you would be sat there at the expense of someone eating a ribeye etc.

There is some delicious veggie food around like daal but cooking 'Indian' food is way beyond the realm of the average British cook. It's an entirely different style of cooking. We wouldn't have such an aromatic dish as it would overpower the entire place.

We have a great thread recently where a lot of us veggies agreed that we were sick to the back teeth of:

• risotto of all kinds, but esp butternut squash (see below)
• goats cheese tart
• butternut squash in everything

Also, a "burger" that is really a mushroom is an abomination and I'm pretty sure actionable under some kind of trade descriptions act.

I do judge a chef by their ability to produce a tasty veggie dish too. All but one of the top 10 meals I've ever eaten as a vegetarian came from places that also served meat. A great chef is a great chef, whether they're dealing with veg or meat - places like L'Enclume and Dinner and the Ledbury will knock your socks off whatever you eat.

also what annoys me is the lack of veggie breakfasts in many hotels and b&bs, there are so many veg sausage options out there now that it is not hard to offer them, some meat eaters even prefer them. Even weatherspoons have a veggie breakfast these days. It just seems normal to me that with so many dietary choices going on that anywhere supplying food should be able to cater for any choice these days.

To give an example of a mid-upper range menu with fabulous veg options - this is from the wonderful cafe Paradiso in cork, charges mid/upper prices, most of their clientele aren't vegetarian, they just produce remarkable food which happens to be vegetarian:

paradiso.restaurant/dinner-menu

I would choose one of those options instead of a steak, because I can cook myself a steak quite easily, and there are things on this list I'd love to try. I think there are many other meat-eaters who would fee the same.

shovetheholly

Judging every chef against those working in 2 Michelin Starred places under Rogan. Hmm. I feel you'll likely be disappointed most times you eat out.

What point exactly were you trying to make?

It just seems normal to me that with so many dietary choices going on that anywhere supplying food should be able to cater for any choice these days.

They can. They just don't care to. This is usually due to maximising profit.

Paradiso looks amazing!

Everything on the menu is adventurous.

Not a mushroom wellington in sight!

appalachianwalzing

Not sure £35 for 3 courses is mid-upper but anyway. They've found a niche and seem to be doing well. It is a niche though, despite what many on this thread would like. You're a minority meaning you have less spending power and will be treated as such. It sounds very harsh but isn't supposed to, just capitalism at work.

Good luck to Paradiso. It looks delicious. It won't become the norm though.

I eat meat but love veggie dishes and will often choose them over the red meat ones, I would love more veggie choice! But I do feel alone in this among all the people I know, so doubt it'd be profitable.. I would love to see more veggie rounds on masterchef too. It's always about big slabs of meat! I love indian veg food

To be honest I'm generally ok with most places. If they only offer 1 veggie dish, it doesn't bother me too much. Disclaimer: I'm old enough to remember when there were no veggie options at all. Plus I've lived in countries where they really don't 'do' vegetarianism. This makes me grateful for anything veggie at all!

What does irritate me a bit is the restaurants who label their veggie dishes on the starter and main menus but not the dessert menu. It's the dessert menu that's actually often the hardest to tell if it's veggie or not!

A restaurant opened near me recently, it's whole menu is vegan/vegetarian friendly and also gluton free.

That's true actually, I remembered it being more expensive so hadn't looked but it's many years since I've been there. However, while they are a niche as a purely vegetarian restaurant, I don't think any restaurant serving one of those dishes as an option wouldn't see sufficient demand.

I also don't think I'm a minority - I'm a meat-eater who enjoys nice food, and will quite frequently have a vegetarian option if it looks exciting. 2/3 meals I eat out I'll go for the veggie option. I'd say it's been many years since I've eaten out in a group of 6-8 people that hasn't featured one vegetarian: be that a work group, old friends, or the people I do a hobby with. I don't think that's an exceptionally high figure for people my age (thirties) though I know it wouldn't be true if people my parents socialise with.

As a result, places having dodgy or limited vegetarian options impacts me because a) it means the list of places I get to eat in gets shorter and b) it means I rarely get to try interesting vegetarian food I haven't made myself.

I think fancy vegetarian restaurants may be a niche, but I stand by my view that a proper and creative vegetarian option would be a significant draw in a lot of restaurants that don't seem to recognise the demand.

It just seems normal to me that with so many dietary choices going on that anywhere supplying food should be able to cater for any choice these days

But they don't want to pander to tiny minorities, and its not good business. Why should they have something on the menu for the vegan-glutenfree-mushroom hater with a peanut allergy? It would be ridiculous

That said, any decent restaurant I've ever been to have been happy to accomodate when asked nicely. Do any of those moaning ever ask the chef to make something off menu?

Pretty sure appalachian isn't a vegetarian, bugger. But even if she was, "there's no point demanding that because there's no demand for that" seems like a bit of a circular argument!

I am really glad to see more and more places putting their menus online. It is very useful for choosing somewhere. Went out with DH recently for an anniversary meal, the kind of thing we were prepared to blow a bit more cash on than usual Wetherspoons fare, and ruled out the first five places we looked at based on veggie options. I don't care if there's only one so long as it's nice - but I am not prepared to pay Fancy Restaurant Prices for "vegetable lasagna", thanks.

For those taken with the cafe Paradiso menu, I think they have cook books. I'd also recommend vanilla black in London, we went there for a celebration once and it was really interesting.

I also agree with the masterchef comments: I find all the sous-vide lamb etc just gets boring after a while. It's hard to get inspiration from someone perfectly cooking meat, however tasty it might be. I enjoy watching cooking shows for flavour combinations and new ideas: same thing I like to get eating out. Would be interesting to see if they did a vegetarian round on masterchef how inventive it would force people to be.

To give an example of a mid-upper range menu with fabulous veg options - this is from the wonderful cafe Paradiso in cork

Fablulous veg OPTIONS? No, its a vegetarian restaurant.

Do any of those moaning ever ask the chef to make something off menu?

No. Why would I, when I can just go somewhere else instead?

Re: asking chefs nicely- I was taken away for a lovely meal by DP once in a fancy hotel with a fancy restaurant. He's vegetarian, and at the time was on a dairy free diet for medical reasons. Gave them two weeks warning of that, they said it wouldn't be a problem.

Out came my beautiful medium-rare lamb, potato dauphinois, stack of vegetables. And our came his.... steamed potatoes and vegetables. Seriously. Nothing else. He wouldn't let me make a fuss because it was my birthday treat, but this was a v expensive meal and hotel, and they basically have him plain boiled vegetables. The worst part was, they did have a vegetarian option on their menu which contained cheese which he couldn't have but could have v easily been adapted to take it out. I can only assume the chef heard 'no meat no dairy' and went 'oh, that basically means no food'. The man could cook some lamb but I still don't think he had the skills to do his job properly if he thought serving plain vegetables was an acceptable main.

No. Why would I, when I can just go somewhere else instead?

And moan about their choices as well? You can't complain you don't get if ou don't ask!

And moan about their choices as well?

Er, no - I go somewhere with better choices. Why on earth would I go to somewhere with bad options and then coach the chef through something better, when I can just go somewhere else instead and order straight off the menu?

Yes, I have asked for alternative vegetarian options (or a vegetarian option at all) to be provided. It's a toss-up as to whether I will get something of a standard comparable to the meat options, or some hastily cobbled together afterthought.

If the venue is my choice, then we just don't go places with crap vegetarian options. But so very often, the venue isn't my choice. And if someone else is paying, it is distinctly awkward and ungracious to ask for the chef to come out and justify their attempt at a vegetarian main course. See: every wedding I have ever attended, with the exception of my own.

There is some delicious veggie food around like daal but cooking 'Indian' food is way beyond the realm of the average British cook
I don't know what kind of cooks you have, but even I can cook an Indian meal It's up to the restaurant what they choose to put on the menu, but it's really not that hard to offer 1 veggie option - especially if it's just a variation on one of the meat dishes (or even something straight out the freezer if you really can't be bothered).

When I was looking for somewhere to book our department Christmas dinner, I found a couple of places which didn't have a non-meat option on their Christmas menu (and our dept contains 2 veggies and someone who only eats Halal meat). Fair enough, but it's them who's going to loose out on our booking.