Who is in the wrong - vegan or manager?

[iloverobbrydon]

A group of friends go into a pub that do food. One of them is vegan. She looks at the menu and sees that there are no V or VE signs on the menu at all. Even for items that clearly veggie and vegan, the pub don't use the signs. However, they do list the ingredients and a description of the meal under the meal title.

There are 2 or 3 vegan options. One of them is a pasta where the ingredients are listed as pasta, tomato, basil etc. And have a little description of the taste. No animal products listed at all so the vegan orders this.

The meal comes out and it has a fried egg on top of it. The egg was not listed in the ingredients so she sent it back explaining why.

The manager who took the order is not happy because she never actually said she was vegan and they arent mind readers. They come out and say if you can't eat certain foods then you need to tell the staff to make sure that those things are actually 100% ok for you to eat.

It does escalate into a bit of an argument because the vegan is saying well if you list your ingredients then how am I to know that you only list some ingredients and not others? Where on your menu does it say how your menu works and that you won't list everything? That's just confusing. Either list everything or nothing. The manager is saying if you need a meal to not have an ingredient you need to tell us.

You can probably work out which one I am but I didn't want to write it one sided, just wanted to explain the situation and ask who you think is in the wrong here?

It’s not the same as not being there at all.
I’m vegetarian and do eat eggs but I wouldn’t eggspect (see what I did there?) to have to move a piece of chicken off my meal to make it vegetarian if the chicken hadn’t been listed. It’s the same with op and the egg.

Try googling pasta “fried egg” and you’ll see it’s a perfectly acceptable thing

Not in any of the restaurants I’ve been to in the UK, thankfully!

And you couldn’t have removed the egg into a napkin I assume?

Tbh this person put an egg onto of tomato pasta, I don't think we needed any more info to reach a solid conclusion

A fried egg on tomato and basil pasta ?? 😬

If they list ingredients they should list them all, especially anything that can cause allergies. But I don't believe your story, because no vegan ever missed an opportunity to tell everyone that they are vegan.

🙄

I haven't read but this first post.
The manager is wrong, wrong, wrong. To not list that there is an egg on top of a dish that usually, in 9 out of 10 places would never be there to start, is just dumb. I am not vegetarian or vegan but I would not, could not, eat a fried egg that showed up on top of my pasta. That's just weird and I would be angry that it was not listed on the menu.

The customer deserves an apology and the menus need to updated or rewritten. If the restaurant has no vegan or vegetarian dishes, they also need to list that so as not to waste the time of others or a table if they have to leave because nothing suitable is offered.

I know; it's not eggsactly difficult to understand, is it?

A lot of pasta is made from egg so I guess anyone allergic to egg would double check pasta dishes and most vegan people would as well. However, a fried egg is pretty unusual on pasta.

What an ignorant comment

I find it odd that the menu doesn't list the fried egg. I love eggs on pasta, a poached egg on noodles with salt, pepper and parmesan is delicious. It seems odd, when the egg is clearly a feature of the dish, not to list it in the description.

Dear lord an egg on the pasta!

I wouldn't assume that a menu which stated a dish contained "pasta, tomato, basil" would have listed all the ingredients. For example, I don't think it would be reasonable to express horror if it turned out to also contain onion, or garlic. Or other minor components of the sauce, like maybe salt/pepper/olive oil/celery/carrot/peppers.

I would be surprised to find a major item like an egg on there, though. Even where an egg would be a normal part of a dish, like maybe nasi goreng or something, I'd expect it to be mentioned. And on a tomato pasta dish a fried egg is just really random and weird.

As a non-vegan, non-vegetarian I'd want to know they served fried eggs on their tomato and basil pasta so I could go somewhere else with a kitchen not run by incompetents.

My understanding is that dried pasta is generally just wheat and water, and it's usually pretty obvious whether a dish is made with dried or fresh - which often contains egg.

Either way, I think that manager had un oeuf. sorry, I'll stop now

It’s not the kind of meal you would expect to find an egg on top of. It seems random and out of place. Why is it there? 😂 I think the manager is unreasonable because the egg is quite a significant part of the meal! It’s not as if it’s a herb or spice that they may have forgotten to list. Imagine it contained an allergen that was overlooked!

I'm a lifelong veggie, and I've never once asked if a dish is vegetarian. If it doesn't list any meat on the menu, then I assume it is.

Restaurant to blame entirely for not mentioning a main part of the dish.

some pasta is but not all. The more ususal pasta is made from flour and water

I have autoimmune intolerance, I never state them even when directly asked because its a rare condition that no one has heard off and no one knows what 'galactose' even is if you just say it. It then takes forever to 'teach' them which is a pain when I know what I can eat.

Allergies etc... are only easy to state if its something simple/obvious like 'egg' or 'nut'.

Since the varient of galactose that causes my condition only occurs in meat products I simply eat the veggie option. No need to waste an hour explaining to a confused and panicking waitress who just wants to serve people not have a biology lesson.

If they label their veggie stuff correctly there should be ZERO risk to me.

Egg is also an allergen. Manager is BU

I will say that if someone is vegan or vegetarian or has a severe dietary restriction, they should mention it. ON vacation my DD ordered a seafood platter and when she started eating part of it, her mouth got itchy/throat scratchy. Come to find out they used coconut oil to fry the scallops and she is allergic to coconut. It should have been listed and she should have asked. Like others have said, it must get tiring to have to list everything and what if the server gets it wrong even after the customer does ask/list the things they cannot eat? There should at least be an ingredient list that a customer can ask to see so they can read it and decide for themselves.

True, but if I was a vegan, I would want to double check.

There is no obligation to mark dishes as vegan or vegetarian but many places do. They do have to provide allergen information.

The pub obviously doesn't like vegans and vegetarians but I would always check when ordering if I had dietary requirements.

I think there is blame on both sides.