To be annoyed that vegan options have replaced vegetarian?

[Sacredhandbag]

It's only a silly gripe in the grand scheme of things but it's bloody annoying.

I've been a vegetarian my whole life but since veganism has become more popular and more and more people are becoming part of the movement (and good on them!) it's like restaurants, cafes and hotels have skipped adding vegetarian options and thought "well vegan options covers both so we'll just add a few of those"

No! I am not vegan. I am vegetarian. I still want my eggs, my cream, my cheese, my butter. I want a stilton and broccoli bake, not a grilled bit of cauliflower!

Afternoon tea (I'm a fan and have one as often as I can) is the worst for it. There's an ordinary menu and then there's a vegan menu and that's it. You order one or the other. I don't want chicken or fish sandwiches but I sure as hell want my scones with proper clotted cream! So I have to be specific about the sandwiches and say I want some from one menu and some from the other. Bloody annoying.

Any other veggies feel the same?

I hate plates coming out with vegan stickers on them and then being looked at like an idiot when I ask for cheese!

This really strikes a chord with me! I often eat vegetarian food because I'm trying to limit my meat intake, and if so I want 'real' vegetarian food, not fake meat imitations. A lot of vegan imitations seem to be very processed, whereas good vegetarian food is often minimally processed.
Agree with other posters that it's a cost-saving exercise but imho it's a crappy one.

Restaurants find vegans the most contrary customers. Whereas vegetarians are very easy to please. I know one chef who's given up on them producing only a couple of dishes a day to satisfy the market. He's happy to offer excellent vegetarian food though. Happy to provide real cheese on dishes.

Totally agree! I’m not totally vegetarian but I often select vegetarian meals by choice . I hate fake meat. And a lot of vegan food is heavily processed.

I want a nice egg pasta with a tomato sauce.

Or a pea risotto made with real Parmesan.

If I’m at Wagamama’s sure I’ll happily eat vegan because that’s the kind of cuisine it suits.

But vegetarian non-vegan food has had a big place in many cuisine long before veganism came along. I miss those dishes!

This really annoys me. I’m not vegetarian but half the family is. Plus I will usually go for vegetarian options but rarely vegan.

Like lots of PPs, I eat meat but love a veggie meal. Really enjoy a good mushroom risotto, love bran burgers. I don't want a vegan risotto with cashew cheese topping as I have a nut allergy and don't eat fake meat as I am allergic to the protein in raw legumes and high amounts of pea protein can trigger my allergy.

Although, I have noticed when reading menus recently that bean burgers appear to be making a comeback.

I am a not vegetarian and also agree. Especially on set menus with just 4 or 5 options. Previously I would often order the veggie choice- a nice risotto or quiche etc. but now the not meat option if often vegan, which is usually just not as appealing. I would some indulgence- cream, cheese, eggs with my vegetables and no interest in the vegan versions of those.

Both groups CAN eat them. Sure. Doesn't mean I WANT to. And if I'm going out to a restaurant to spend money and enjoy myself I want something I WANT to eat
If they were catering to me out of charity or something sort of obligation, sure, give me whatever I CAN eat. But as a paying customer, I don't deserve to be lumped in with everyone else that they consider to be inconvenient and neither does anyone else with dietary requirements outside of the norm.
Especially since vegetarian food can be very appealing to meat eaters too.

To be fair you can get your scones with clotted cream because that's just the "normal" (so to speak) version of the dish. Scones never contained meat.

But YANBU about the main meal dishes. It's annoying. But you can understand why restaurants do it.

I was just telling the OP that it was different in my case. I assume that she would have liked those options, as the restaurant that I was going to has better choices for vegetarians than vegans.

So, there are still restaurants out there that have vegetarian options instead of just replacing them with vegan options.

This is me! I've always cooked meat for my family despite not eating it myself. They don't eat a lot of meat and because I am pescatarian and they haven't grown up eating loads of meat, tend to go for fish options in restaurants if given a choice. But I think people have to make up their own minds about ethical decisions like becoming vegetarian/vegan.

I'm not remotely squeamish about meat as I grew up on a farm (we didn't farm it but were surrounded by it all). I got a lot of stick from the local farming community when I announced aged 13 that I was becoming vegetarian! I did start eating fish (I have anaemia and it helps) but have stuck with for my whole adult life.

I'm a vegetarian. I love fake meat (yes, I know it's highly processed and very unhealthy) but I can't eat vegan cheese. I'd rather not have cheese. As long as the vegan option doesn't come with fake cheese I don't mind.

Maybe slightly off topic but I just had a look at my dc's nursery menu for next month. The vegetarian alternative every single day contains fake meat (quorn or some soya concoction). It is not for the sake of vegans or dairy free kids as the vegetarian menu does contain dairy and eggs so I assume they don't want the vegetarian kids to feel left out but surely eating fake meat every single day can't be healthy?

Dc isn't vegetarian but if they were I wouldn't like them to have fame meat every day. I get an upset stomach if I have too much quorn so it's not even just long term that it's bad.

By the way I don't know any sanctimonious or judgmental vegans but being vegan must be so damn hard that I think they deserve to be a bit sanctimonious and judgmental. Being vegan is obviously the more ethical choice.

The veganism push drives me made - I will happily eat vegan, vegetarian and meat foods but after decent quality products that aren't highly processed.
This is where I like places like wagamamas because they will have a basic meal (ie that is vegan). You can then choose your protein to go with it, thus keeping it vegan, making it veggie or meat of some description. The quality of the food is also excellent.
This means all groups are catered for easily and healthily.

I have a genuine question for vegans , if you are being vegan for animal welfare concerns then what do you think about the palm oil used in a lot of fake meat products? As far is know palm oil production destroys many animal habitats so by eating more of them as veganism gains in popularity are you not then still killing animals but just in a different format by destroying their habitats? Sorry if this is a silly question but I’m really interested in what vegans think to this or if I’m totally wrong which I could be!!

I was talking about vegetarians.

I think it's mostly because restaurants want simple menus and don't want to be messing about with a million different options to suit different dietary needs. Many already are having to have separate fryers and the like for vegan options.
Doesn't make it right, of course. I have a good friend who's coeliac and she can really struggle to find anything suitable when eating out.

YANBU! I'm not veggie but my husband is and he hates this. Vegan cheese is horrible!

This is a weird attitude.

What WOULDN'T a vegan be able to eat? An afternoon tea to my limited knowledge is usually some small sandwiches and cakes/scones.

Do you think vegans can't eat sandwiches or baked goods? Or drink tea?

I find vegetarianism weirdly old fashioned now.

In the old days a lot of people had the rosy idea that dairy came from cows who produced milk without calves, or that all calves and chicks grew up to become dairy cows and egg laying hens themselves, etc

But now everyone knows that's not the case, surely you're either against the meat industry or not bothered by it...but I don't get the halfway house?

That is true BUT from a restaurant's point of view, the 5-7% eat food that the 1-2% don't. So for costs and practical reasons it makes more sense to provide options for the 1-2% that the other 5-7% can also have, rather than making it that the 1-2% can't use their restaurant (or cafe/pub/whatever).

They're not just losing out on the 1-2% if they don't, they're potentially losing out on families with one vegan, parties with a couple of vegans, huge dinner gatherings who have only 1 or 2 vegans but wants somewhere suitable for everyone.

I don't eat meat and I can't say that I have come across this problem. Granted, I don't eat out that often but I've just checked the online menus of the four places I would be most likely to eat at and there wasn't any fake meat in sight and there were plenty of cheesy options. I looked at an Italian run pizza cafe, a Vietnamese street food place, a pricy gastro pub and a chain type pub/restaurant. The pizza place doesn't do fake cheese, but has three veggie pizza options and pasta with tomato sauce for vegans, the Vietnamese place has lots of tofu options, the chain pub had mac and cheese, veg thai curry, cheese and leek pie, veg chilli, a bean burger and a cauliflower cheese tart to go with the carvery. The pricier place had halloumi and falafel as V and VE alternatives to several dishes, mushroom stroganoff, a shepherds pie made with lentils rather than fake mince, a bean burger served with cheese.
The many local curry places always have a paneer option, no fake meat on the menu.
Macdonalds is the only place I've come across fake meat.

Make the whole menu vegan then - I mean, if vegetarians can eat vegan so can all the meat and fish eaters.

Those restaurants either fail or learn to compromise.

There are ways of making a point without sounding so insufferable

Free-from bread -yuk
Dairy-free spread - yuk
Vegan filling - might be OK, might be yuk

Free-from scone - yuk
Free-from clotted cream - yuk