Meal for 6 vegan restaurant

[Upcyled]

Going out for an evening meal 6 people a week on Friday.
1 person is vegan so has suggested we go to a vegan restaurant.
I'm not against veganism and have family that are vegetarian and vegan which is great their choice.
I am struggling with a vegan restaurant as a choice to be honest. If it were vegetarian I'd be fine with it but vegan seems too much to expect. Obviously the drinks will also be vegan.
I've eaten at great vegan places for lunch not an issue just a whole 3 course meal has annoyed me a bit. Vegan butter, vegan cheese etc (they're not butter or cheese)
So I guess AIBU to suggest a vegetarian restaurant as a compromise?
I guess I don't want to come across as 'the awkward one'

"Plant foods" are not always healthy I did kick off a bit at sainsbury's a couple of years ago for replacing goods in the free from section with plant foods that contains wheat they said its free from meat yes but now I can't fucking eat it! I was told to shop elsewhere so I do 🤷‍♀️ my worst nightmare logistically is a vegan restaurant I can't have gluten including gluten free oats and I can't eat soya either

Lettuce I can eat

I think it partly depends on the occasion. Vegans birthday? Suck it up.

As an unfussy vegan with no allergies, there's been multiple times I've been to restaurants and literally been unable to eat anything off the menu. Independent places are often the worst for this. I've been able to get off menu items with varying degrees of success, sometimes this is a basic (over priced!) larger serving of a side salad with no toppings/dressing, other times it's been amazing. Most recently I went to an independent Italian and there wasn't anything I could eat, not even a combo of sides which is usually my back up option. I asked for a pizza with XYZ removed. It ended up as something like mushroom and caramelised onion with no cheese. Waiter went off and the chef came out to see me. He checked for preferences and allergies then went back off to the kitchen before the waiter then produced hands down the best vegan pizza I've ever eaten. Why they don't just stick it on the menu I'll never know!

I'd love to know what the restaurant is though. If it's the Queen Inn you're being very unreasonable 😆

There is a big difference between a regular restaurant which will likely have 1 or 2 veg/vegan options on the menu and an actual vegan restaurant which will have 10 or more.

Most pubs/restaurants tend to have only 1 or 2 vegan options and they tend to be horrible fake meat or a bean burger or something similar. Go to a fully vegan restaurant and you are likely to get a far bigger selection of actually nice dishes.

Since when does is tofu ‘fake stuff’? Tofu has been a staple in Asia for years.

@ChurchOfSeitan

Can you point out where I said tofu is fake ?

I'm not vegan, not even vegetarian, but I do find it a bit ridiculous how some people get so put out at the thought of a vegan meal and can't even comprehend the thought of a meal without any meat or cheese in it.
There's so much delicious vegan food out there, that people just poo pooh away as soon as they hear the V word, whereas if they didn't know it was half the time they'd love it lol 😁
One meal without meat in it won't kill you.

You said you can’t stand fake meat, cheese or tofu and then go on to say you can’t stand the fake stuff. Sorry if I read that wrong.

Having said that I also hate the term ‘fake meat’. A sausage made of processed, salted and seasoned plants is no more fake than a sausage made of processed, salted and seasoned pig.

I'm not vegan, not even vegetarian, but I do find it a bit ridiculous how some people get so put out at the thought of a vegan meal and can't even comprehend the thought of a meal without any meat or cheese in it.

I agree. I am an omnivore, but enjoy loads of non meat (or even cheese/dairy) dishes.

I've actually read the updates (which I think more people ought to do!) As your vegan doesn't like onions or garlic, I feel as if I now agree with finding the request a bit ridiculous.

I absolutely love vegetarian food, and I am happy to eat most vegan food. Our favourite place to eat (until it shut) was vegetarian with plenty of vegan options. However, it was Indian, and this person says they wouldn't like that.

Have they actually suggested a specific place, or has it been a vague question? I'd have a look at the menu before I said anything, personally.

A vegetarian place seems like a reasonable option as well, as surely they'll have more than the one or two standard vegan options.

If they don't like onions or garlic they are going to struggle. A lot of recipes start of with frying an onion and often include garlic. I imagine onion and garlic would feature even more in a vegan or vegetarian diet.

I have no problem with people choosing to be vegan or vegetarian, but being fussy about food along with choosing a limited diet does make it more difficult.

SIL is vegetarian and the only foreign food she eats is Italian (although she says she doesn't like pasta or garlic ). As a result she eats a very boring, repetitive and bland diet.

Yeah, I agree that a vegan who won't eat onions or garlic and wants to go to an exclusively vegan restaurant is starting to sound like the pain in the arse with childish tastes that no-one wants to eat out with, because what they deem suitable is so restricted and it means that everyone else has to do a lot of compromising even if they are on board with vegan food being normal food and not special weirdy food only attractive to vegans.

Especially when they're insisting on exclusion of the main ingredients that are usually used to make vegan food enjoyable, because they probably don't like spices either if they won't eat onions or garlic.

Sounds like it's time to let the rest of the group pick the restaurant and the vegan can choose between something very plain (pasta and oil, soup, chips, undressed vegetables) or not go.

I was in a similar situation once, with a whiny vegetarian refusing to eat at a long list of nice restaurants that had a good choice of vegetarian food (middle eastern, Indian, tapas) and in the end we ended up in an Italian restaurant where she ordered buttered pasta and tomato salad, which she then pushed around her plate because the chef had put herbs on the food.

So what does your vegan friend actually eat OP?

Re onion and garlic - check the menu of the Indian restaurant. It is actually not completely unusual to find such dishes since Jains don't eat them.

This is the place I referred to earlier. About 2/3 of the menu is vegan and there are a lot of dishes without onions. There is garlic in some, but it's not overly garlicky, but that's probably hard to detect because most things are quite spicy and I assumed that, perhaps incorrectly that someone who wouldn't eat onions or garlic would also be adverse to spicy food.

https://bundobust.com/menu/

Does the vegan friend ever go to places that just have vegan options? If so then I think its your turn to go to a place she likes.

I imagine OP is referring to somewhere like Mildred’s. I’ve been to Mildred’s a few times since it went vegan & the food is very tasty but it’s pretty pricey. I sort of agree it’s a bit annoying for one person in the group to dictate the restaurant based on their dietary preferences but I find it more awkward if the vegan friend ends up with nothing much they can eat.

A good vegan restaurant is an experience. The sheer creativity of the dishes is admirable, and you often get much greater attention to detail and nuances of flavour than you do in a place where animal products do the heavy lifting. That said, I am vegan, and would never impose a vegan restaurant on reluctant friends, so go ahead and suggest your alternative. You friend should be open to compromise. But you might miss out!

I would go with the vegan restaurant, I’ve tied a few and always enjoy trying different flavours and food combinations.

I was in a similar situation once, with a whiny vegetarian refusing to eat at a long list of nice restaurants that had a good choice of vegetarian food (middle eastern, Indian, tapas) and in the end we ended up in an Italian restaurant where she ordered buttered pasta and tomato salad, which she then pushed around her plate because the chef had put herbs on the food

Your post reminded me of when our team went out for a Christmas meal. The extremely fussy vegetarian chose a cheap pizza place in a shopping mall so that she could eat a plain cheese and tomato pizza. She picked the slices of tomato off the top of her pizza because she didn't like real tomatoes!

On another occasion we were out on a work do with the same colleague (work had paid). The restaurant was an Indian one (said colleague wouldn't eat Indian food), but she could have ordered some chips. She sat next to me and sulked all evening because she had wanted a pizza and didn't fancy chips, so she ate nothing at all and ended up with a migraine.

If you are going to choose a diet that limits your options you can't afford to be fussy as well.

It depends on the menu to me and if there is anything that sounds good to me regardless of whether the food is vegan or not.

If you have not looked at the menu and are saying no entirely because it’s a vegan restaurant, yabu.

I don’t know where people are getting the idea that vegan diets are full of UPF! Of course they can be, like any diet, and the vegan option at lower- end cheaper restaurants often is a beyond burger or similar, but at a decent vegan restaurant the menu should be whole foods and plant based. Take a look at the menu for Gauthier for example or a Deliciously Ella recipe book. I’ve been vegan a long time and never run out of interesting and delicious recipes, I occasionally eat UPF like a plant burger but mainly whole foods.
i make my own ‘cheese’ from nuts and it’s so tasty.

Cannot understand why people get themselves so panicked about the prospect of a meal without animals or their secretions in it. Broaden your horizons and try something new!

I don’t know where people are getting the idea that vegan diets are full of UPF!

They are just displaying their ignorance.
I watched The Great British Menu this year, and the overall winner was a chef who cooked exclusively vegan food. His dishes were so imaginative and incredible, that the mentor chef Michael O'Hare scored him three tens!

You can’t define a fussy eater by the fact they’re vegan/vegetarian. There are just as many ridiculously fussy meat eaters who would behave similarly when faced with a new cuisine and it’s entirely due to their fussy eating. They are an absolute nightmare to try dining out with irrespective of vegan/vegetarian/meat eater.

Parents with fussy children tend to feed them before going out, fussy adults need to make similar arrangements if going out in a group!

You can’t define a fussy eater by the fact they’re vegan/vegetarian.

No. DD is vegetarian and eats just about everything apart fom meat and fish, but if you are vegetarian/vegan and a fussy eater then it significantly reduces your options.

You said you can’t stand fake meat, cheese or tofu and then go on to say you can’t stand the fake stuff. Sorry if I read that wrong.

Having said that I also hate the term ‘fake meat’. A sausage made of processed, salted and seasoned plants is no more fake than a sausage made of processed, salted and seasoned pig.

@ChurchOfSeitan

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Yeah I didn't say fake tofu, just tofu.

It is fake meat though. It's produced to look and taste like meat, predominantly for people that don't want to eat meat?!

bacon even gets called facon!