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?

@Octoberfest I find it really difficult to eat out gluten free. A lot of places have "gluten free" menus but just cook everything together so it's contaminated. Doesn't justify a lack of lactose/dairy free options but gluten free really is not easy. Gluten free vegetarian is harder still.

I'm vegan and I hate fake meat and most fake cheese (there's a couple of expensive nut based ones that are lovely).
I don't know where you're eating but there are loads of places that still do cheesy eggy things, halloumi seems to be the most popular thing at the moment. Pubs love a cheese pie, a cheese sandwich, egg sandwich. Can never get a vegan sandwich in a cafe or restaurant. Occasionally something with houmous.
Generally we eat Japanese, south asian, mexican or middle eastern if we go out as there are a much wider range of dairy free options.
I am continuously baffled by the inability to get a vegan salad in any cafe or restaurant. I make salads all the time at home with loads of brilliant things.
I suspect anyone who is looking for a non meat option always feels they don't have enough choice, but I don't agree that cheese and egg have disappeared from menus.

I get why they do it tbh , I eat plant based diet in summer and eat cheese etc in winter months
many of my friends are 100 percent vegan
I find it easy to cook for them,
next weekend I have vegetarians staying
im totally stumped menu wise , they don’t do lentils or pulses etc
basically cheese egg bread kinda folk
restaurants need to cater for so many options
it’s impossible to stock for everyone and make a living.
so much more expensive and possible waste etc

Vegan bashing again.

75% of soy production is for animal feed. The vegan population is tiny, reduced even further is the number of vegans who eat faux meat regularly or at all.

I will eat what I like, thank you.

Why don’t you just ask for normal cheese with it then?

And yes, this. I take a lysine supplement but that's to avoid coldsores mainly!

I completely and utterly agree - things have gone backwards in that there used to be a selection of lovely vegetarian options on many menus and they have now narrowed due to vegan options. A local cafe now serves a meat breakfast and a vegan one, with awful fake meat sausages and no egg.

A cafe I used to love now has no veggie options in sandwiches, only vegan and they refused to substitute real cheese for the vegan cheese in a sandwich with roasted vegetables as they 'can't substitute items'.

It basically means that I often have a miserable lunch or dinner when eating out now, if I can't choose the venue. I've been veggie for over 30 years and things had hugely improved over that time but in the last few years they have gone back to the bad old days of limited options.

I get you a bit but I’m not veggie, or vegan. I have a lactose intolerance and for Xmas we went out for lunch. Set menu. No option to swap between menus. I wanted beef. But the regular menu had cream based deserts. The vegan menu was not what I wanted as I wanted meat. But yes there was a meat option and a vegan option and then a gluten free option. I didn’t even check the gluten free option.

I used to stage dairy free when I went out for meals however I’d often end up with melon balls for starter and then fruit salad for desert. So I’ve actually given up stating dairy free. As I’ve got an intolerance I can actually eat things like cooked dairy - so cakes etc -and I’m ok with custard however ice cream makes me really ill. I’m ok with some chocolate but not loads. Overdoing it seems an issue. I can’t drink cows milk or have it on cereal but can have a splash in my tea. Once I had scrambled egg somewhere that put cream in rather than milk and although they were delicious I did have a bad stomach that day. But generally I can get around it.

Absent any allergies, vegans very much can eat ALL food.

They obviously choose not to eat any meat or animal products - as they have every right to do - but it's still a choice that they make; just like the choice that many omnivores make to enjoy meat and other animal products as a normal, frequent, routine part of their diets.

This is absolutely true. I'm another lifelong vegetarian, and I don't want fake meat or ultra-processed rubbish.

I have 100% solved this issue by reading menus ahead of time and only choosing places that serve food I want to eat.

If I have no say in the venue and it serves nothing I want I'll usually eat first and just go for dessert and/or drinks.

Seems... I don't know, less futile?... than hoping every venue will cater to my individual preferences and getting upset when they don't.

If you search the internet hard enough you'll also find a link between eating red meat and dementia.

www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000210286

I've been a vegetarian for 23 years. I also eat vegan alternatives if they are not fake meat based. I try and have weeks where I avoid dairy, for health reasons.
But real cheese and butter. Yes please.

So your answer to all the vegetarians on the thread is also ‘well you can eat the meat option, you’re just choosing to moan about the vegan option’?

Might as well close the thread now you’ve sorted out the solution for everyone.

Quite. Futile addition to the thread. How far do you go with that? Well yes you can eat dairy/meat/eggs, it'll just make you a bit ill! To someone with an intolerance. Well yes you can eat pork, it just goes against your religion/philosophical belief? You can drink alcohol, it'll just mean you might lose your job/make yourself ill/reinstate your addiction.

Bore off.

Yes, restaurants will have just one 'one size fits all' option. Vegetarians can eat vegan dishes but the reverse is not necessarily true so restaurants will just provide one option which 'ticks all boxes'. I agree that it can be annoying.

I’m not vegan or veggie but we do try and only eat high value meat, so often used to go for veggie option and I agree OP! Have had some lovely vegan food as well but in restaurants it quite often seems to be fast food style which I’m less keen on.

I'm actually quite interested in this so I am going to keep looking at menus as I go about things as I eat out quite a lot. Going for lunch today so currently looking at where to go. I will report back!

I eat low carb high protein mostly at home (I work out most days, run/lift). So when I do go out, I'm on a 'day off, so I'll be happy as long as something is on the menu that I find interesting enough and appealing. I obviously don't pay much attention to things I wouldn't eat. I will do from now on.

YANBU. I'm not veggie but I choose vegetarian options quite a lot.

I’m a veggie and support vegan ideology so I’m glad there’s lots of vegan options. Everywhere I’ve been have been happy to put actual cheese on instead of vegan cheese if asked (husband doesn’t like vegan cheese). I’m more annoyed about fake meat being the default, it’s processed and lazy.

Ermmm? The vegan food I make is not ultra processed. It's all cooked from scratch. I'm not vegan by the way but like vegan food. Only some vegan food is ultra processed such as the fake meats and cheeses. It's perfectly possible to be vegan and avoid ultra processed foods.

Slightly different angle on the issue but I don't like the taste/texture of cheese or scrambled egg so one of the benefits of going vegan from being vegetarian was that I could escape all the cheesy or eggy veggie options.

Only now they've put vegan cheese or egg on a lot of them 🤦‍♀️ Nooo!

Totally agree. I wasn't in the trenches of trying to be vegetarian in the 90s, including on holiday in France and Italy, only for me to be denied cheese in the 2020s.