Eating out as a vegetarian. Aaaaggggghhhhhh!

[Neolara]

Once again I've come back from a meal out and my food has been terrible while everyone else has had great food. Every. Bloody. Time.

This time, we were at a nice pub. There actually weren't any vegetarian options. The only option was vegan. Could I swop the coconut feta for normal feta? No, unfortunately you can't which (according to the waitress) is a shame because they get asked that a lot...

When it arrives, my dish is a plate of lettuce with about 10 small diced pieces of aubergine (maybe a third of an aubergine?) and a scattering of coconut feta. It tastes ok, but it's really just a starter, bulked out with a lot of lettuce. The lettuce is covered in a very dressing that is so sweet, I didn't even manage to eat all the lettuce. It costs £15. Everyone else (meat eaters), talks about how full the are and how good the food is. I've come home after spending £50 on two drinks, a starter and a rubbish main meal, and made myself a piece of toast because I'm still hungry.

If it was a one off, I wouldn't mind that much. But it's every time. The rise of veganism has been an absolute disaster for vegetarian.food in restaurants. Eating out is very rarely a pleasure any more.
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Agree re the Vegan stuff, it’s mainly highly processed and not good for you at all.

I’m pescatarian so that I can go out and enjoy a nice meal. There’s always a nice fish/prawn dish. (Sorry that doesn’t help vegetarians!)

So with you on that! It’s painful to have to sit and say how good the food is at places when you’ve been given once again the one vegetarian ‘option’, most likely mushroom stroganoff. It’s seen as fine because it’s a choice and you can just eat meat if you want but I’ve not ate meat in 25 years so surely we should be able to go out for dinner without having to go home hungry or awkwardly have to make our way through a horrible dish we’d never even attempt to eat at home 🤦🏻‍♀️

I agree regarding chains. Much more varied for both vegetarian and vegan. I'd love to support local businesses but I'm not paying £20+ for a plate of pasta with tomato sauce or the dreaded mushroom risotto. And this obsession with cauliflower don't get me started on that!

Even cheap chains have several options to choose from that are as substantial as the omni menu. I'd rather support a family business morally, but you only live once and if I'm eating out I want to enjoy my food.

You're going to the wrong places. Have you said anything to your friends about how bad the places you're going to are for you as a vegetarian and would they mind going somewhere else? They may not realise.

It's only really 'British Pub' food that's shit for vegetarians, plus probably French and maybe Chinese, but just about everywhere like Indian, Middle Eastern, Greek, Mexican, Thai, Spanish, Italian and probably a load of other places will have a wide selection of naturally vegetarian food made from real ingredients like vegetables, pulses, grains, eggs, dairy, herbs, spices, bread etc and presented as appetising and substantial dishes.

Another thinly veiled vegan bashing thread. Great. 😅

You’re not wrong OP, I’m not vegetarian anymore but was for years and still love the veggie options when eating out but now they are all vegan which I generally don’t want to eat! I don’t want fake cheese, I want the real thing.

Absolutely agree. I dont understand why we are treated this way. I once paid 18 quid for 2 burnt zucchini on a bed of tomato passata with a decorative parsley. The menu said slow roasted zucchini in tomato almond sauce and feta. There was no feta as they ran out of it and the zucchini was burnt on top and raw on the bottom.

Yanbu. I was vegetarian until about 4 years ago. The disappearance of vegetarian options for vegan, man-made crap was a massive factor in giving up

It’s been around a fortnight since the last one so we’re about due I think.

I have plenty of vegn friends who also hate the fake cheese/fake meat trend. It's not vegans that are the problem, it's the flexitarian/veganuary nonsense involving people who are so wedded to meat they have to eat fake stuff.

The restaurants that are good for vegetarians (e.g. indian) tend to also be good for vegans.

It’s not vegans, it is lazy chefs catering to omnivores doing Meat-Free Mondays by swapping a burger for a beyond meat burger, and calling that done (instead of coming up with an actual vegetarian or vegan dish).

I don’t know any ethical vegans who want to eat fake burgers. It’s highly processed, not very nutritious, and if you don’t want to eat meat for ethical reasons, you probably don’t enjoy eating pretend meat much either.

That’s a shit restaurant and the meat and vegan versions were probably also shit. Nothing personal to vegetarians.

The prices I agree with but in fairness in a restaurant most of what you pay for is overheads not ingredients.

Sympathise OP. I’d say your best options are ethnic cuisine restaurants including Italian. Stay away from pubs as much as possible

I live in an area not known for brilliant eating out options, yet vegetarian DD always managed to get a meal she really enjoys. She checks menus online before we book anywhere.

Why don't you chose places to eat based on vegetarian options on menus rather than just turning up hoping for the best.

Well precisely, but then people would have nothing to moan about 🙄

I think you should start suggesting better restaurants to your friends

Meat eater here but I used to choose the vegetarian option as it was often more what I fancied eating. I totally agree.. I don't want fake synthetically made cheese.

Have you, as a meat eater, ever actually been to a restaurant wanting to order real meat and been told no, we only have plant-based meat substitute available?

Wow, you clearly feel very strongly about "dickheads" that try to eat less meat and fewer animal-based products. Surely it's better that they're doing something rather than nothing?? We'd be a healthier, lower-carbon society if we all went for more plant-bases options. No need to be all or nothing.

I completely agree. I especially hate the fake meat stuff. I recently went out and the only thing on offer was mushroom risotto. Only it wasn’t that it was rice with mushrooms on top - they had been cooked separately.
The Ivy has a completely different menu for vegetarian and vegan food which is great.

This doesn't make sense. Surely if your only qualm is ethical then meat substitutes should be fine? Unless it's not an ethical decision at all, and you don't actually like meat, which is a totally different issue.

I know quite a few vegans, all of them eat meat substitutes happily - they're vegan because they think the meat industry is cruel, not because they dislike meat itself.

Pubs aren’t usually great for vegetarian meals. You need to look at the menu online if possible before going out for a meal. If you are going somewhere with no veg option I would eat before and just get a side dish.

I'm vegetarian and I had a (smallish chain) restaurant refuse to serve me real cheese, paid for and on a separate plate because 'the vegan food has to stay vegan.' Someone else on the table had to order me the cheese.

It was too bonkers for me to actually get annoyed enough to complain. They then happily brought me non-vegan mayo for the same dish.

I went last week and it was fucking awful. They gave me a prawn curry instead of vegan to start with and then the rice wasn’t cooked when they brought the replacement. Almost all the vegan dishes had random fruit added. I would never go back and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. DH asked for medium steak and it came blue - literally cold in the middle as it was so raw.

This is like me saying to you, "If your only objection to eating dog is ethical, then surely you should be happy with being served highly processed fake dog?"

Just because someone has ethical objections to eating meat doesn't mean they want to eat crap food. And fake meat is crap food.