To think that you don't walk into a vegan cafe with a Mcdonald's burger in your hand

[TapasForTwo]

Had a lovely lunch yesterday at a bar that sells outstandingly good vegan food (I'm not vegan, but the food is insanely good).

As we were walking out DD asked if I had seen a family walk in with one of the children holding a Mcdonald's burger in their hand.

a) It is rude to bring your own food into a café anyway
b) It is breathtakingly rude to bring meat into a vegan café!

This place sells the most amazing chips, so they could easily have bought this child the chips instead of a McDonald's.

I expect the owner did. We were just walking out so I don't know what anyone else thought. I must admit that I'm surprised at the number of people who think it is OK to bring your own food into somewhere that sells food.

During the daytime people go there primarily to eat.

I think the parents are on this thread!😀

Yes it's rude. It's goady, disrespectful to the cafe and its guests. You just go somewhere else if you've got faddy kids that only eat junk food. Besides, there's usually plenty of fake meat food that they could have and probably wouldn't notice it was vegan (I had a Gregg's vegan sausage roll for the first time and it was incredibly like the real thing).

*"Surely the child simply won't want vegan food"

Not even plain fries?*

The point is, why should a child be expected to change what they are eating to uphold the moral compass of strangers. Maybe they didn’t want fries. It’s not up to you to say what a person can and can’t eat and where. The owner of the cafe could have asked them to leave on the basis it wasn’t bought there, that is the only legitimate consideration in this non issue.

I find it rude when people bring food from another restaurant/shop in in general - but it’s so boring that a vegan might be offended by it - vegans are welcome to do as they please, but other people shouldn’t have to be particularly sensitive to them, and differing views shouldn’t cause offence.

Can I just reiterate

I AM NOT A VEGAN

"I think the parents are on this thread!"

I think you might be right Honeyroar

The child may have been autsistic with a limited diet.

Breathtakingly rude?I think you are overreacting. Each to their own.

The point is, why should a child be expected to change what they are eating to uphold the moral compass of strangers. Maybe they didn’t want fries. It’s not up to you to say what a person can and can’t eat and where. The owner of the cafe could have asked them to leave on the basis it wasn’t bought there, that is the only legitimate consideration in this non issue.

The child should be expected to change what they are eating to fit the place their parents have taken them to eat, or to finish eating beforehand.

Anything else is rude and puts the restaurant/cafe owner in an awkward and difficult position, and is teaching children that their whims and wants are more important than respect for others.

OK, so I am over reacting.

I wasn't bothered. I just thought it inappropriate.

Not good to take food into any sort of food outlet.

That said, it happens a lot and worse things than eating a burger. Plenty of people go into pubs and coffee shops and treat it like their own front room.

Perhaps the child thinks it rude of the restaurant owner not to give out a Lego Movie toy with the hand-knitted wholemeal mung beans?

The issue here is that being vegan is very often a moral issue not a food choice issue. Vegans see someone having meat as disrespecting them and their beliefs.
If the vegan place didn't want meat being brought into the restaurant they should put signs up to say that.
'No Meat or Animal products allowed in here. Do not have meat on public display in this Restaurant as it offends some diners. Thank you'.

why should a child be expected to change what they are eating to uphold the moral compass of strangers.

It's not really 'upholding their moral compass'. It's avoiding giving offence to people who are trying to enjoy their food in a vegan environment which they've chosen, rather than going to a non-vegan cafe and choosing a vegan option.

Why should the patrons of the cafe be expected to accept something they see as unethical into their environment because a child is too fussy to eat something that might not be his/her first choice?

You wouldn't wander into (say) a Halal cafe clutching a bacon sandwich, would you?

I wasn't bothered. I just thought it inappropriate.

I’m with you. Less on the vegan issue, but bringing food into a cafe/restaurant for anyone over 18 months (and even then you ask permission) is rude and self-absorbed.

I think you should have hung around op, to see what happened.

It's not usually acceptable to bring food into a restaurant/café, but I don't think bringing a burger into a vegan café is any more offensive.
As far as I understand it, vegans choose not to buy or eat animal products, they are not allergic to the sight of them. It is pretty much impossible for a vegan to avoid ever eating or being around people eating meat, so why would the mere sight of a burger be more offensive to them in a café than elsewhere?

Btw I have nothing against vegans or veganism whatsoever.

Several posters have mentioned the vegan activists going into steak restaurants. Please don't fall for the media shit about this, most vegans, myself included wouldn't dream of this. Don't tar us all with the same brush. There are extremists in any group who take any chance to be extreme and put the rest of us in a bad light.
I never pass comment on people eating meat, its up to them what they eat, they have a brain and can work out themselves what they are happy to include in their diet.

The point is, why should a child be expected to change what they are eating to uphold the moral compass of strangers

I guess they shouldn't, but they should be expected to change what they eat based on the establishment their parents choose for the family to eat at!!

JassyRadlett. Ok apply that to something else other than meat.

I don’t like mushrooms. I am not allergic but let’s pretend I am morally opposed to mushrooms. Am I allowed to demand that your child doesn’t eat mushrooms in my presence? Is that reasonable?

Loving how people are comparing an anti-factory farming protest with a child bringing their own food into a cafe.

Whilst a little surprising, it's not for us to decide whether the cafe owners were bothered by this. It might happen a lot, and they're used to it - better to get some trade rather than none. It might be one particular family with whom they've made an arrangement. It might have been exceptional circumstances (e.g. special needs).

I agree that the food shouldn’t have been in the cafe because it was outside food. Not because it was meat. And it seems the owner didn’t even mention it to them, so presumably he doesn’t enforce his morals on to children.

They were possibly making a point because vegans don’t seem to be able to shut up about the fact they are vegan and lord it over the rest of us in the most sanctimonious manner possible.

Possibly have a fussy child who wouldn’t eat anything in the restaurant and didn’t think twice about taking it in there.

I wonder if the responses to this thread would be different if it wasn't a vegan cafe.

I.e. family went into a gastropub and one of the children took in a Boots meal deal with him cos he doesn't like steak and brie baguettes. Would that be equally as acceptable because fuck those pub-owners and dodgy moral compass trying to force all children to eat stinky soft cheese!

They were possibly making a point because vegans don’t seem to be able to shut up about the fact they are vegan and lord it over the rest of us in the most sanctimonious manner possible.

That didn’t take long, did it?

"And it seems the owner didn’t even mention it to them"

I have no idea. We were walking out at the time. They might have done for all I know.

"If the vegan place didn't want meat being brought into the restaurant they should put signs up to say that.
'No Meat or Animal products allowed in here."

They have signs like this in the vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong. I was quite surprised to see them TBH because it would never occur to me to take meat or meat products into a vegetarian restaurant anyway.