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

It's ethical veganism to be pedantic, not all "vegans" are that. The guy who won the case could very clearly show how it affects his daily life. Many, many people are basically just plant based. Eating vegan doesn't make a protected belief.
He didn't even take bus.

The person serving you is on the lower end of the pay scale and they don't have any duty of care and often don't understand the importance to a customer of lifestyle choices, allergies and personal preferences.

They just get paid to take your order and then bring it out.

I would phone and speak calmly to the manager saying that you asked for vegan and did not get vegan and were not happy with the way it was handled when it was discovered.

Here the op clearly says they mentioned it needs to be vegan. That should be enough whatever the menu says. If they can't guarantee that it's vegan (or whatever else the customer is asking for) then they need to say so.

Here the op clearly says they mentioned it needs to be vegan. That should be enough whatever the menu says. If they can't guarantee that it's vegan (or whatever else the customer is asking for) then they need to say so.

I think we all clearly mention a lot of things in restaurants, like items we don't want on a meal because we don't like them and will just leave them. Do they take any notice? Often not! And that is with an extra item that they just don't need to put on the plate. With butter being part of the sauce (no they don't make each portion individually) I think it really does matter whether the meal was described as vegetarian or vegan. Obviously, if OP said her DD was vegan, the waitress should have said it wasn't vegan if she knew, or checked with kitchen if she didn't know. She should definitely write to the manager or just not go there again; her choice.

I think this is as serious as allergies simply because they wouldn't know (I assume) the reason for the veganism, which could well be an allergy or intolerance. My sister often eats vegan due to lactose intolerance and, similarly, I'm vegetarian due to meat intolerances but I don't say it's an intolerance, I just say I'm vegetarian (I do have allergies too and I'm clear that they are allergies).

Regardless, laughing about it is shockingly unprofessional.

I think I'd speak to the manager/owner first to point out how serious it was and ask what they plan to do in the future.

If nothing then I'd go and review.

Trouble is, if the staff get in bother I wouldn't go back there if I were you...

Nerves? Some people do that, bearing in mind she hadn’t cooked it yet was having to deal with it.

Amazed anyone would suggest damaging a business’s reputation over a butter preference

Uh huh, right you are 🙄 Now try substituting “butter” with ‘bacon’ and ‘vegan’ with Jewish. Nice, eh? Not.

This condescending, spiteful attitude to vegans is everywhere on this thread. It’s childish and bullying. I’m not a vegan but I dislike this nastiness. And to whoever, said it was a First World problem, have you not heard of vegan people in other countries, eg some Jains?

The bottom line is that we’re entitled to expect we’re served what we request. This restaurant acted wrongly and unprofessionally.

There's those words OP wrote "We often eat here and know the staff really well. So they know our dietary requirements." so seems like "really well" would mean they know what's allergenic requirement & what's voluntary dietary preference.

I truly hope OP is off having a fun life somewhere & not lurking enjoying the bruhaha she started.

Let's stop comparing food allergies to first world food choices firstly.
Complain if you want but eating butter as a vegan doesn't kill you the way peanuts do for a nut allergy sufferer.

I haven’t got back to answer as I’m at work!

yes it was advertised as vegan. Yes we reiterated vegan diet plus nut allergies. Yes we also asked for vegan mayo.
short of wearing a hat saying vegan, I’m not sure what some of you expected me to do differently?

So what have you decided to do?

Uh huh, right you are 🙄 Now try substituting “butter” with ‘bacon’ and ‘vegan’ with Jewish. Nice, eh? Not.

WTF? How on earth are you comparing those 2 completely disparate scenarios??

Milk and egg allergy can kill or make very ill as well, you know!
They're known allergens.
If you order vegan, you know it has no milk or egg in it.
I regularly order vegan when eating out despite not being vegan for this reason, as I know it's a dish I'll be able to eat.
They definitely need complaining about, as they don't seem to have a clue- you can't advertise dishes as having no milk in if it actually does.

@IBetGordonRamsayDoesntHaveTheseProblems agreed about gluten free. So many people just roll their eyes at the mention of it. People who work in catering are often not clued up or very complacent. The "a little bit won't hurt"/"treat yourself" brigade are really harmful to those of us who medically have to be properly gluten free.

If you are allergic, bloody say it so kitchen can act adequately.
Saying vegan does nkt mean there will be super extraprecautions for croas contamination.

Since people keep pulling religions in, same like ordering chicken will not mean it's not cooked on same part of grill as pork.

Allergies mean different process andextra precautions. Veggie, vegan, etc do not compare.

So many typos

Avocado allergy example pp though has massive case of complaint and I would be reporting the place in their situation
(and yes, why does everything have avocado!)

A person with a religious diet is no different than a person following a vegan diet. I don’t understand why people act like it is special that someone declares they have a belief in a particular deity and decides not to eat a particular food.

since we gave the privilege of choosing our food, we all get to control what we eat, but if it isn’t medically dictated, it is a preference, not a requirement.

The Vegan Society is absolutely fine with products that 'may contain' milk and egg being labelled vegan, but for someone with a severe allergy they may still have an allergic reaction to such an item.

Yes, if labelled "may contain milk" or "may contain egg " t is because it has been produced or packaged in an enviroment that handles milk or egg products so they can't guarantee no cross contamination.
It's not an ingredient in the product though, so can be classified vegan.
This pasta dish had bloody butter IN it, so definitely not vegan, and a a definite ingredient to make people potentially I'll

Potentially ill, not I'll
Stupid autocorrect

The amount of venom on MN for vegans absolutely astonishes me. Why are this people so threatened by others making a kinder choice 🙄🙄

I’d not eat there again OP- I agree, you can’t trust them now.

At first I thought you'd assumed the pasta dish was vegan but hadn't checked but I can see from your posts that you had been clear so I think the restaurant was definitely in the wrong.

I appreciate it's difficult to bring it up with the manager but as you don't have a lot of restaurant choices locally, you will have to mention it if you want to eat there again. It might have been a different chef on duty who didn't understand that that particular dish was meant to be vegan. Although the waitress shouldn't have laughed, at least she told you what had happened so I'd start off the discussion by mentioning that as a positive.

Saying vegan does nkt mean there will be super extraprecautions for croas contamination.
I know, but it's not all about allergies- there's intolerances as well.
I don't usually need extra special super precautions, but when you eat out you expect people in the food industry to have the first clue what they're doing.
If a dish is advertised as not having a main allergen in, then it shouldn't be in there.

Obviously not great, especially laughing, but agree with others it was a preference. And by their reaction seems likely they often give you non vegan....
On Sunday i asked chain restaurant to have maple syrup on side not on pancakes as not sure dc would like it (also can be sensitive to golden syrup for eg). Anyway it came and had dollop on pancakes and rest separately obviously an error.

Vegan and veggies probably have meat occasionally
-genuine errors
-odd spider overnight
-some intentional misleading restaurants
-some lack of accuracy
-some intentional spiking as people dont like vegans etc
But also loads of foods.allow certain amount of bugs in so x amoubt in chocolate.

In terms of trusting others over a severe allergy..
I was at kids activity a d saw epi pen handed over. Later kid querying the choc spread -- it had nuts in like nutella. Completely the leaders error, not reading ingredients. However the child was 7+ could have checked or asked too.

The kid was luckily fine no reaction. But in some respects havin to cater to vegans veggies etc does take focus off life threatening cases.

The vegans could have just had no butter or cheese etc. Not restaurants but say schools and activities i dont think they should try to cater to vegan. That would be up to child or parent and more akin to some kids being so.fussy they dont fancy anything.

Also at a party for y1 the parents served and said on whatsapp beforehand it would be only hotdogs (asked for reply if issues). I got there and 1 parent had veggie/vegsn child who had nothing to eat. Like really not hard to have replied or tsken something. I myself had sausages in bag as thought my dc might not eat them.

Actually another parent at place that just does pizza didnt say beforehand and the host bought kid something from cafe (again veggie kid). Have to say not keen on places like this as loads of kids dont like pizza. ..

It is rubbish i agree but its mire their reaction/obvious distain for food preference.