Vegan given butter in restaurant

[Loveanavocado]

Went out for dinner this evening with dd’s.
dd1 has been a vegan for years. The rest of us are vegetarian, although I’m verging on veganism too tbh.

we went for dinner this evening, to our local. We often eat here and know the staff really well. So they know our dietary requirements.

this evening we ordered a dish and were all eating it. The waitress came over laughing and told us it had butter in it!!

dd1 was horrified and began to get upset. The waitress took the dish away and went to the kitchen. She returned and said “the kitchen are making another but they’ve got cross with me and asked why I told you it had butter in it!’

this has infuriated me!! Firstly given butter when told vegan. But even worse..told by the waitress that the kitchen would’ve not told the customer it had butter in it!!

AIBU?? What if dd had an allergy????

my dd2 has severe allergies (has had anaphylaxis a few times now!) so how am I ever going to trust them now??

I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to make a fuss as it’s our local in a very insular community

Joking about there being butter in a vegan dish is appalling, let alone the fact that it happened, and I speak as an omnivore.

Just leave a bad review but don't expect to be welcomed there again.

Actually since January 2020 it was ruled that veganism is a "classified belief" which is one of the 9 protected characteristics listed under the 2010 equality act.

Only 'ethical veganism' and this is nothing to do with that. OP isn't even dietary vegan.

If the kitchen can’t handle it then they shouldn’t offer the option. They did offer it.

That's not the same thing at all, and presumably you inform waiting staff of your allergy every time.

A drop of butter won't kill an otherwise healthy vegan!

Well, yes, all of the above is what I would expect.

OP. For the laughing, not the mistake, I’d report this to the council who do their food inspection. It’s not just about having a clean kitchen, you have to demonstrate how you are taking responsibility for potential allergens.

I’d definitely leave a bad review for their poor attitude in dealing with this. They’re risking losing business by doing this. I wouldn’t want to eat there.

Same here. I'm not keen on paying for food that often leaves me in pain.

I wouldn’t want to either. I often eat with a coeliac friend. An accidental whoopsadaisy, there’s bread crumbs in this would make her ill for days.

Stop giving this place your money.

The waitress seems to be completely lacking the required skills for her job.

Laughing can be a sign if nerves. Maybe she was nervous having to tell you.

As a previous owner/manager of a hotel/restaurant, I would absolutely want to know of your experience, not just as a valued customer but due to the potential legal implications of getting dietary requirements wrong. Allergens and other food requirements were an important training aspect for all of my team and I would be horrified if: 1 they made a mistake (which I know can happen as we're only human and 2 for laughing about it so nonchalant given how serious the consequences could be, it should matter not one bit whether it is an allergy, lifestyle choice or religion belief. Their attitude towards their mistake is awful.

Please email the manager or owner directly to let them know what happened during your visit, hopefully it can be remedied with a big of training, but would totally understand given your allergies if you never wanted to eat there again.

Am shocked by the response to this!

I think the restaurant have behaved really badly. It was a bad mistake, but compounded by an appalling attitude. A restaurant which is so flippant about someone's diet is not somewhere I would want to frequent. Would they laugh about feeding pork to a Muslim? I'm not surprised at all this makes you nervous OP with severe allergies in the family.

I think I'd have to say something to them.

It's not up to restaurant staff to decide whether or not the dairy-free meal they agreed to provide was actually free of milk products. They can't play Russian Roulette with customers' health.

I do think it's worth reporting to your local health department. With this attitude, they might end up killing someone, like that restaurant that intentionally gave peanuts to a peanut allergy sufferer.

Misogynistic abuse isn't a hate crime but veganism is under the Equalities Act? Wow.

However, OP, you didn't get what you asked for so you make the decision what you want to do about it. Don't eat there again, post a review, complain in writing. BTW laughing is often a nervous thing so I wouldn't be too focused on that.

Only 'ethical veganism' and this is nothing to do with that. OP isn't even dietary vegan.

Its OPs daughter.

The vegans I know are all ethical vegans.

I would email the manager and say how upset you were. At the very least, they need to have a discussion about how to make sure it doesn’t happen again to anyone.

Disgusting for them to have laughed about it! It shows they’re not taking it seriously. With that slapdash attitude, I wouldn’t trust them at all. People are vegan for all sorts of reasons, including religious. It’s not up to the restaurant staff to judge whether a dietary preference or need is justified or not. If they advertised this dish as vegan and it wasn’t, they could be prosecuted by trading standards.

Quite apart from that, it’s a very poor attitude to take. I’d leave a review to warn others.

I know better than a lot of folk, the magnitude of food allergies. I have a severe nut allergy

But you dont have a butter allergy right?

What did it say on the menu? Did it denote this as a vegan meal?

So those who are commenting that they do not feel that serving someone something they did not order, just because it is a preference not an allergy, is something to make a fuss of. I wonder how they would feel to find out that they had been served horse/dog/cat instead of the lamb/beef/ pork they had ordered, as the meat they had ordered is surely just a preference, not an allergy, so no harm done.

You all survived it so I don't think it needs to be made into a massive drama.
Complain to the pub manager. It's disrespectful of them.
Staff need training.
You don't trust them now so don't go back.

It's difficult to eat out with dietary requirements. I know. Do you remember Gordon Ramsay giving a vegetarian meat and just laughing?
Some people don't understand what vegetarianism and veganism actually is. I went to Holyrood House Palace and there were menus in the dining room from a state dinner held the night before. The vegetarian option was fish. 🙄

Meh…. She wasn’t allergic to butter so can’t see the issue.

I was thinking this, I laugh with nerves and I can’t help it.

As I said earlier, is it ok to give a Muslim customer pork, or a Hindu customer beef? No. Quite obviously that is not ok. As a vegan, if a restaurant offers vegan food (and of course they are under absolutely no obligation to do so- but if they don't, I would choose to not eat there), I would expect that food to be vegan!