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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect pubs to serve a decent vegetarian meal?

350 replies

Allshallbewell2021 · 15/12/2023 01:21

Three pub meals over the past three months have been dire or inedible. One risotto (rice not cooked) one bean/taco meal (clearly from a tin really grim), one Xmas dinner butternut squash thing (clearly from the freezer, slimy and disgusting).
And not cheap either.
Tonight I had chips, peas and battered halloumi (too much straight cheese for anyone) but quite nice.

Is a good vegetarian pub option not economically viable?

OP posts:
EtiennePalmiere · 15/12/2023 08:31

It does depend on your idea of nice, I wouldn't like halloumi chip and peas.

I agree the rise of veganism has brought upon some really horrible foods, I looked at ingredients for fake cheese once and they're often just pure coconut oil. Ugh ! Also oat.milk can have palm oil, sugar and emulsifiers, how is this more healthy than plain meat and dairy.

alwaysmovingforwards · 15/12/2023 08:38

Mirrormeback · 15/12/2023 02:56

You choose the Pub / restaurant that serves the food you want

It's a bit urm entitled to expect the pub / restaurant you choose to go to to serve the food you want

You're the one choosing so just go somewhere else

They can cook and serve whatever they want it's their establishment

Agreed.
They choose what to offer.
Customers choose whether to eat there or not.

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 15/12/2023 08:40

Thanks for the feedback.

These recent pub meals have been group/work-arranged gatherings outside my control. So it's not just me being stupid.
I work in retail and I expect things to be fit for purpose and worth their price. Not the case with veggie pub food.
When I choose a restaurant I find out how good their veggie offer is.
Complaining is hard at a group meal as many find it excruciating if someone sends their food back; I have known people feel you've ruined something - so I try not to do so.
This week when I had a meal of a warmed up patty of slime butternut squash and tasteless freezer burn cheese cake, I told the guy at the till that it was all inedible and he didn't charge me.
I generally avoid pub food like the plague if I have any influence over the choice of venue.

OP posts:
HoneyButterPopcorn · 15/12/2023 08:42

I usually stick to Italian, Indian and Persian food.

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 15/12/2023 08:43

EtienneP, I wouldn't choose chips and halloumi ever usually but last night I got from work very late, had had a tiny lunch, walked to the pub to meet friends and was too hungry for a salad! The chips are delicious at this pub and the mushy peas weren't great. The halloumi was also grim but I wanted a meal. I won't order that again! The choice is painfully limited.

OP posts:
DiaNaranja · 15/12/2023 08:43

catscalledbeanz · 15/12/2023 01:33

Sadly I think vegetarians are done dirty by vegans and allergy. They shouldn't be. It's genuinely not hard to accommodate the three. BUT restaurants club them together and fail all three. Mark of a bad restaurant if you ask me (who will inevitably order a steak so rare a good vet could get it going again) I love meat, eat meat and yet before I go anywhere I check that the vegetarian menu is great . Meat is easy to offer great, it's meat. You've got to be good to offer veg great .

This! Now wherever we go, the few veggie options, are usually made vegan too, and let's face it, vegan cheese is gross. I definitely get the need for vegan options, but veggie options should be completely seperate. Things such as a pub we used to go to did a great veggie breakfast, but now the veggie breakfast is vegan, so if you want an egg, you have to pay for it separately, making it more expensive than the normal breakfast, and they did away with the veggie sausages completely as they weren't vegan (probably had some egg binder in) and the vegan sausage is just chopped up peas and carrots. I'm not veggie, but my young DD is, and it's really hard to find places to eat out that do nice veggie foods that kids will eat. Eating out isn't really a treat anymore for her, as the kids veggie option is always tomato pasta or if we're lucky a Margherita pizza, they haven't decided to make vegan, so it still has real cheese!

cristokitty · 15/12/2023 08:44

Some pubs are better than others. I went for a Sunday roast somewhere in Cirencester when visiting family. Their veggie roast was the usual veg and an extra large dish of cauliflower cheese. I love cauliflower cheese so it was brilliant (and all freshly made, not frozen).

The option I find the most depressing is the chickpea curry. In a country with thousands of fantastic Indian restaurants, why would I go to a pub for a microwaved chickpea curry?

I can't complain too much as it could be worse. I lived in France years ago. A lot of restaurants didn't have a vegetarian option back then and most chefs used to make me a salad when I explained I was vegetarian. I can only think of two that I genuinely enjoyed. I'd take almost any other option, no matter how bland, over a salad.

DiaNaranja · 15/12/2023 08:45

Oh and once she ordered the tomato pasta (standard) as was the only veg option... It was spaghetti hoops in sauce out of a can, I shit you not.... £7.95 pleaseeeeee!

Newuser75 · 15/12/2023 08:47

I completely agree. I'm vegetarian and so often all that is on the menu is mushrooms (I hate mushrooms) for a starter and main meal or else those horrible vegan burgers with vegan cheese.

It seems unfair when often there are pages full of choice for meat eaters but then one poor option for vegetarians. Surely there should be a couple.

EtiennePalmiere · 15/12/2023 08:55

Allshallbewell2021 · 15/12/2023 08:43

EtienneP, I wouldn't choose chips and halloumi ever usually but last night I got from work very late, had had a tiny lunch, walked to the pub to meet friends and was too hungry for a salad! The chips are delicious at this pub and the mushy peas weren't great. The halloumi was also grim but I wanted a meal. I won't order that again! The choice is painfully limited.

Ah got you, best of a bad bunch.

Also, I think restaurant food has gone downhill after covid which doesn't help the situation.

Caerulea · 15/12/2023 08:57

On the vegan 'cheese' (though Asda's own grated is very very good) & vegan meat alternatives like burgers etc, they are MUCH more expensive to buy in than their ordinary equivalent. If it's a small indie place they are probably paying the same price as you would from the supermarket - and that doesn't work from a business POV at all. Same goes for oat milk. Vegans can be much more expensive to cater for if you're trying to do like-for-like without any creativity.

Avacardo2023 · 15/12/2023 08:58

Totally agree with you. I've been vegetarian forever and there used to only be one vegetarian option when I went out, and that was lasagne, salad and chips. All festive meals used to be nut roasts. I used to get sick of it but would be happy for that option to return, sadly as PPs said, they are catering to vegans and also nut allergies so the vegetarian options are usually awful. I've lost count of the amount of times I've had jacket potato with salad for dinner in pubs.

eggandonion · 15/12/2023 08:59

My ds was out at a very upmarket Christmas do last night and I had a snoop at the menu. Lots of fabulous sounding complicated food...and mushroom risotto. At least nut roast can have a few cranberries in it and have sides.
My dh wants to take me to a recently refurbished restaurant for dinner...where my starter would be mushrooms and my main course would be mushrooms.
I don't hate mushrooms as a side dish. I would prefer a portobello mushroom as a burger...as a pp said the fake meat gives me the boak.

reesewithoutaspoon · 15/12/2023 09:00

Im not veggie, but my sister has been for 40+ years and this is a real bug bear of hers, she said veggie food was just starting to get better in restaurants and then vegan came along and ruined it. She doesn't want fake meat or sheeze. They are ultra processed and full of crap.

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 15/12/2023 09:00

Caerulea, are there solutions that you can see that pubs could try? My sense is that a broad veg/vegan/allergy aware offer is not economically viable however you cut it.

OP posts:
EtiennePalmiere · 15/12/2023 09:04

Mildreds' menu is really nice, even the desserts

RufustheFactualReindeer · 15/12/2023 09:06

Grapefruitsquash · 15/12/2023 05:50

I hate there's very few veggie choices now in favour of vegan. Why can't there be both? I asked for normal (not vegan) cheese on a veggie burger recently. The waitress said they couldn't do that because then it wouldn't be vegan. I explained I'm vegetarian not vegan and want proper cheese. But no, not allowed as it's a vegan dish. Ridiculous.

Yes this

and i honestly and truly don’t believe this change is down to more veganism especially as masses of ‘vegan’ food is fake meat in a lot of these pubs/restaurants, i think its places leaping on the band wagon of meateaters doing veganary or saying they eat vegan food once a week or they are trying to be healthier

obviously this isn’t bad in and of itself but it has meant that for vegans and vegetarians who don’t want fake meat that your choices are even more curtailed than they used to be

pubs who are struggling to survive should make decent meals whether meat, veggie or vegan….i personally don’t understand why my meals come out lukewarm at best, i rarely have to cool my food down anymore

KimberleyClark · 15/12/2023 09:07

EtiennePalmiere · 15/12/2023 09:04

Mildreds' menu is really nice, even the desserts

No use if you don’t live in London.

RufustheFactualReindeer · 15/12/2023 09:07

Though actually shout out to Greens in Winchester

they swapped out the vegan cheese in a panini for me and took the bacon out of a panini when I went back

RufustheFactualReindeer · 15/12/2023 09:08

which I appreciate is no good if you don’t live in Winchester but is an example of a restaurant being helpful

madeinmanc · 15/12/2023 09:09

I just can't fathom why vegetarian options have been eliminated in favour of vegan when vegetarians are a far, far larger group!

There really should be both vegetarian and vegan options.

And the quality of vegetarian options has severely declined, in my opinion, over recent years 😔

Also, why do pizza places- the one place that can soooo easily offer decent vegetarian options without affecting their costings etc.- always make the vegetarian option roasted vegetables? What if I want olives and artichokes? But it's always roasted vegetables.

AgnesX · 15/12/2023 09:11

My DH is gluten intolerant and even good places seem to struggle sometimes. I do think if you're in a minority group you're badly served. There's a woeful lack of effort/imagination out there.

oldcrinkle · 15/12/2023 09:15

I'm vegan and I vote with my feet and take my friends and family with me. If they don't cater well for vegan or veggie then they lost the business of all of us.

madeinmanc · 15/12/2023 09:17

At this point can I also just say that risotto should be banned!

SurelySmartie · 15/12/2023 09:18

Oh yes good point re nut allergies (although sympathy to sufferers). You take out the cheese, eggs, nuts and flour and what do you have? They’re not being replaced with the creativity and possibly expense and time to make really decent food.