To not want vegetarians to decide where we eat on holiday!

[indiestarr665]

Myself and a group of friends go on an annual city break, usually to somewhere in eastern europe, and this year’s trip is coming up. Two of our number are vegetarian, and they tend to dominate the decision making when it comes to where we eat. My issue is that this is often at the expense of ambiance and so on - what usually happens is we traipse around, they will look at the menus and reject anywhere that doesn’t have about half a dozen veggie choices, even if it looks really nice and there are one or two options they can go for. We often end up forsaking the most interesting restaurants for places that are mediocre but have numerous veggie options. Worse, they make a beeline for vegetarian or vegan restaurants, the argument being that the rest of us (who are the majority) can eat anything on the menu whereas it doesn’t work the other way round.
I do appreciate that they have less choice, but when visiting a new city I do feel a bit annoyed at not being able to go to places with, say, a great atmosphere, reputation, view, etc etc because the priority is always whether the veggie menu is extensive.
In anticipation of this year’s trip I’ve sent round a list of suggestions of places that are meant to be good and that are ‘vegetarian friendly’ in the hope that we choose restaurants that suit everyone, not just them. But my message has been met with ‘I’m sure we’ll be fine, there are bound to be plenty of places’ which makes me think we’ll end up doing the same old thing of traipsing round. I’ve jokingly said that I don’t want to go to any vegan places, but actually I’m not joking, I really don’t want to! Am I being unreasonable?

Ooh MidCenturyVintageWoman we found the most fabulous restaurant in Krakow. Proper fine dining, elegant service, €30 each including delicious wine. Damned if I can remember the name but I could probably find it again.

Maybe vegetarian restaurants should have a couple of token meat dishes?

Seriously though, what dishes would vegatarians/vegans like to see on menus in say mid-range restaurants? I cater for vegetarian family and friends quite often and always try to do something that isn't mushroom risotto (even though mine is delish ).

New Zealand lamb is often halal but it is compulsory for it to be stunned first. Don't believe peop.e who tell you halal is never stunned, they don't know what they are talking about.

Yanbu. Maybe they pick a couple of meals but certainly not all. Or you could split up for a few meals. Compromise is key I think.

Seems like the traipsatarianism is more of an issue than the vegetarianism. Veggies who aren't completely ridiculous are perfectly happy to research suitable and inclusive places in advance.

The closest I have ever been to doing physical harm to anyone was over this. A few years ago a friend who's veggie and I went to Paris. When we were looking for restaurants we couldn't find anywhere that did anything veggie apart from mushroom risotto. We traipsed around for about 2 hours before finding a veggie restaurant that had more options. I was happy to do this as understood how hard it was for her, until we sat down, and she ordered the mushroom risotto. I actually felt a twitch in my arm as i was thinking about stabbing her with my fork

Ijustdontcare

I would have smacked her in the face with her mushroom risotto

Ijustdon’tcare I’d have snapped and stabbed!

Trip advisor is my favourite/ fabulous for this. I put in Evening meal, posh or most expensive (yes it really does classify it as such) vegan, and then I read all the reviews. Email ahead. Easy.

We (same group) have had the most fabulous meals recently in: Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Krakow, Riga, Moscow, Kiev.

I’ve been to several restaurants in the past where there is no choice, they cook what they cook and you eat it or not. And others with maybe 3 choices per course. It’s quite normal

So have I. That is not the type of restaurant the OP is talking about here.

OP describes traipsing around looking at many restaurant menus with multiple items on them. In that context the "vegetarian option" tends to be tomato pasta, indeterminate risotto, the aforesaid boiled vegetables and their ilk not small establishments with a set lunch or dinner.

I’m vegetarian and think they are being a bit ridiculous. Given how popular being veggie or having meat free days is these days I’ve never had a problem eating out. Most restaurants have at least a couple of veggie options.

Don’t let them override where you want to go. If they are that pedantic about it then I’d just make them eat by themselves- it’s your trip too after all. I don’t see the harm in compromising on where to eat and neither should they 😊

In the time that it took you to write that post, you could have researched why your friends are choosing to be vegetarian. If they are vegetarian and not vegan then my question would be - what's the point? If they are vegetarian for health reasons then they need to research how unhealthy dairy and eggs are, and if they are vegetarian for ethical reasons then, again, research would show them that the dairy industry is even more horrific than the meat industry, so they are helping no-one unless they are vegan. My suggestion to you is, do some research and stop being part of the sociopathic cruelty that society normalises, and be aware that your lifestyle choices are causing devastating climate change that affects all of us.

Go to Greece next time, veggie paradise! We went on holiday to a tiny little very very Spanish fishing village place a couple of years ago; touristy with about 12 restaurants and literally the only vegetarian thing on the menus was asparagus. So for a week I ate nothing more than asparagus at night and bread and salad in the day! That was a low point.

Splitting up seems very fair, it's sad for you to miss out on places you want to go

YANBU.

I admire people of principle who are prepared to live by those principles. But if anyone has to suffer because of those principles it should be the people of principle and not everyone else!

i would be finding the restaurants i want to try and saying im going here or here if you want to join me cool, but also cool if you want to go somewhere else... we can all meet up at the hotel after dinner... if they want to walk about for 3 hours finding something with 9 million different brussell sprout dishes more power to them, but you dont have to go with them

Theo32
maybe she doesnt give a fuck why someone doesnt eat meat and maybe she likes bacon enough to ignore your shit too

I'm vegetarian and I'm fond of a march around on holiday to find something interesting and local to eat. I'd limit this more with friends, but I'd also expect friends to understand that one vegetarian choice isn't a great choice of restaurant. Often on holiday it can cycle between the same 2-3 dishes being available and this can be a drag. Anecdotally I've found that restaurants that serve local food but with more variation/veg choice tend to be better anyway as they are more creative.

There's a middle road though. After looking at 3-5 menus it's time to start making a choice, and I'd never expect friends to eat in a purely vegetarian restaurant. We're all on holiday to enjoy local food, so in the same way we wouldn't eat in a McDonalds we wouldn't eat in a vegetarian restaurant serving international food.

I am vegan and you can almost always find something on the menu to eat. I would be happy to eat in meat restaurants most nights on the condition that the party at least try one vegan restaurant over the course of the trip.

What I find is that meat eaters are amazed by the food when they eventually do eat in a vegan restaurant .

Ijustdontcare - I'm amazed you DIDN'T hurt her after that! Did you at least say something? I'd have had to!

I don't see why the OP should turn this into a platform for ecological environmental damage.

Sure, it would be better if EVERYONE was vegan and there were many less animals (and humans) in the world but that just ain't gonna happen so there's extremely little point in the OP wasting her time "researching" that when she just wants to not have to traipse around for a couple of hours to find a restaurant that suits more than just the 2 veges on her trip.

Before you go on your trip google restaurants and check the menus. All restaurants have vegetarian courses nowadays and some are obviously better than others.
I just usually google top 10 restaurants in wherever. The guardian also does great reviews of the best restaurants in major cities etc. and I look menus up from the links on there.
My daughter is vegan, I'm a meat/fish eaten.
We've just been away for a weeks holiday and did exactly this. Fantastic meal every time that suited us both.
All your vegetarian friends need is one meal on a menu that suits them.
Wandering the streets looking for somewhere sounds miserable.

The proportion of vegetarians in the UK is 7 per cent and vegans make up 1.16 per cent. That is a very, very small tail wagging a very large dog.

YANBU to be cheesed off with this self centred attitude but if you look at the above statistics you can see that self selecting food fanatics have also chosen to crank up the volume to bend others to their own selfish preferences.

They are responsible for messing your holiday up but are also trying to destroy the wonderful food culture of this country, and, along with it, the food economy. They are trying to ban meat when it is easy and logical to produce animals on a rain soaked land covered with pastureland which preserves wildlife. Vegans are extremists, some of whom raid restaurants and commit other semi and actual terrorist type attacks.

I attended a funeral lunch ordered by vegetarians for 30 plus people. They selfishly ordered only vegetarian food and it was nearly all left it was so poor and unappetising.

Vegetarianism and veganism have, in the absence of religious faith, become surrogate belief systems like climate change, health fanaticism and the poverty agenda. Sensible, normal people need to resist them firmly.

However, I am as bad as the next person. I am too polite to demur or complain in public. I am like the ‘shy Tories’, too intimidated by vociferous haters to speak up for sense and decency.

But I am determined to keep eating an omnivorous diet, I will drive my car forever if I can, I will keep washing, I will drink whatever alcohol I want and make cakes and eat sugar. To hell with the new Puritans.

OP, don’t eat with the veggies. Find other nicer places and go yourself.

The proportion of vegetarians in the UK is 7 per cent and vegans make up 1.16 per cent. That is a very, very small tail wagging a very large dog.

Where are those stats from?

@Teacher22 Amazing amount of conspiracy theories there. climate change as a new religion? Wow. Just wow.

Are vegetarians trying to ban meat? That's news to me. I'm just trying not to eat animals. Also very interesting you see not eating animals as the 'selfish preference'. But then you're a climate change denier so normal rules of logic don't apply.

Not sure what your comment on alcohol is about, but I suggest you have a drink to calm down.

Why are you traipsing around? Why don't you find places to eat that suit everyone online by checking out the menus beforehand and agreeing, and then save time so you can go to a bar/cafe with great views/atmosphere/reputation after the meal. Your friends being able to eat well is more important than you having a nice view. Or you could eat separately and meet up again later?