I want Vegetarian choices, not just Vegan!

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

For 25 years I have eaten a vegetarian diet. I am vegetarian because I don't enjoy meat or fish.
I like eggs, cheese and all other dairy products. So I am not vegan.
This summer has shown to me that increasingly restaurants and supermarkets are making their vegetarian dishes vegan. So using substitute milks, cheese etc. I do not want substitutes. I am not vegan. I do not like any of the substitutes (I have tried them as I had a dairy free son for 3 years).
What can be done to protect those who are vegetarian? I am actually genuinely concerned about how places are doing this. It's much more common than people probably even realise (unless you're a vegetarian!). I want food choices when I eat out.

It doesn't need to be fair it needs to be profitable

That was my point. Most of the excessively processed stuff also has a ridiculous mark up.

The amount thrown away in restaurants is irrelevant to the price of a jar of mayo on Tesco shelves.

I was veggie for 15 years in the pre quorn days so most dinners would be vegan anyway - or my faves were - veg/chickpea curry, 5 bean chilli, bean and veg stew but I would have desperately missed eggs and cheese... 'Roast dinner' with the main part being leeks or cauli in cheese sauce, or a Linda McCartney lasagne - that was lush! But I'd still like to polish off a pizza from time to time. I used to buy powdered soy that you were supposed to make in to burgers or sausages... used only on hungry days!

I'm rambling, so the gist is - eggs and cheese can make a huge difference to a vegetarian diet flavour and enjoyment wise.

That said these days I do love a medium sirloin. We tend to eat a lot more fish now, nothing worse than somebody proclaiming to be vege and tucking into a badly sourced endangered species of fish though.

Gosh lots of opinions here. I could have written 75% of the OP myself. I've noticed we've suddenly gone back 25 years in terms of vegetarian options. But here's some things to note:

A lot of restaurants will substitute the vegan option for vegetarian e.g. Pizza Express will use dairy mozzarella on a vegan order if requested.

They cater for lots of diets nowadays but you can't please everyone! If you're going out for food choose somewhere that caters for your tastes. If you're going out for company do just that, you still have plenty of choice.

Neither a vegan or meat diet means healthy or unhealthy, both can be either. And you can choose any, it's your choice.

I am presently doing the 22 day vegan challenge and I must say it's opened my eyes in terms of choice and the farming industry. I ask you not to turn a blind eye to that and at least find out a bit more.

Please remember your opinion is not everybody's, no matter how strongly you feel about it. Forcing opinions and slamming people down will only achieve the opposite of what you intended. That's to vegans and omnivores.

I have never read so much uneducated nonsense in one thread. The idea that coconut cheese is worse for you than dairy is quite laughable. I should really be dead by half of the standards on here haha

Is anyone saying it's worse for you, or that it doesn't taste anything like cheese, is highly processed and has a shitload of food miles attached to it?