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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I remember when we all used to moan about the veggie option being a goats cheese tart.

What I wouldn't give to see a goats cheese tart these days. I had a kale risotto the other day. It was rank

Totally agree. We should all be eating less meat, bad veggie food puts meat eaters off reducing their intake as well as being insulting to vegetarians.

Very often I'm sure they just do a batch load of risotto they microwave to order and charge you £15 for, while everyone else has finely crafted whatnots.

I'd have sent back what they gave you. My go-to if restaurant veg options were shit (I'm an ex-veggie) was a couple of sides - chips and salad, or olives and bread etc. Not as nice as a proper main but saves spending loads of money on something crap.

IME quinoa is invariably a mush. So much so I've stopped buying the stuff.
YABU to order it.

So compromise and take it in turns, everyone else in my family likes burgers and pub food (beige food), I like colourful spicy, veggie food. We mix it up a bit, sometimes I go and have a beyond meat burger, sometimes they eat chicken and chips at an Indian restaurant.

If we plan ahead we can usually find somewhere that keeps us all happy. Even in very rural areas (we don’t live in a city, we’re in a small town in a very industrial area so not exactly cosmopolitan).

I just don’t get the complaining, people moaning that you can’t get bean burgers and cannelloni anymore - this is the stuff people complained about for years as being the only thing on the menu for veggies. Options are so much better now than they used to be, yes there are crap places, there always will be, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

Honestly, they do this because they get away with it. Leave a review, "no veggie option and the vegan option is a joke". Then the rest of us can avoid it. I check menus before I go anywhere and generally avoid places like this that are actively taking the piss. Having said that, I am not the only vegetarian in my group of friends - if you are then I can see putting your foot down could be more awkward.

I live semi rurally (and not a particularly posh area) and my local pub has multiple veggie and vegan options, including a very nice cheese dish. They've also got a gluten free menu which allows coeliacs to eat meat if they so desire. It's not hard, as a result I and many others find it very easy to give them all of our money, and it is impossible to walk into this pub at peak eating out times and get a table to eat at without booking.

It's not vegan bashing. It's shite food bashing. Any vegans I know don't want fake meat or fake cheese either.

We'd be a healthier, lower-carbon society if we all went for more plant-bases options.

I'm not convinced highly processed fake meat or cheese is any better from a carbon perspective than locally sourced meat. And it's definitely not healthier than a piece of unprocessed meat or fish.

I struggle too. I do end up with just sides ALOT, everyone in the family starts to fuss and bother “you can’t just have chips”
”is there something for you”

it turns into this big thing and is painful

It's not vegan bashing. It's shite food bashing. Any vegans I know don't want fake meat or fake cheese either.

Plenty of vegans enjoy fake meat and cheeses. And no they aren't all new vegans. Obviously some don't but many do so I think there should be options based on vegetables and one or two fake meat dishes to keep everyone happy.

We have two vegans and two vegetarians in the family, and we aren't aresholes so we always choose somewhere with plenty of options for everyone.

Just an aside, I’m also lactose intolerant and if it’s just the lactose that’s the issue and not dairy there are some decent options out there if you search:

Cathedral City Lactose Free Cheddar
Waitrose Lactose Free Halloumi
Waitrose Lactose Free Feta
Jarlsberg is naturally lactose free
Leerdammer is naturally lactose free
Babybel Light are naturally lactose free
Caprice de Dieux is naturally lactose free

I’ve found all of the real dairy but with lactase added much better than vegan cheese

Vegetarian isnt a thing any more

It's vegan or meat

Vegan "cheese"'is an abomination

I do take your point and should have been clearer

but please note i did not say people who have the occasional vegan meal…loads of people have vegan meals

i said dickheads who say they are vegan once a week

they are not vegans

and again to be really really fair…its not their their fault that the default seems to be fake meat

Does everyone read the veg options to you as if you're blind or lost the ability to read?

And many vegans and veggies would agree. I don't know anyone who likes faux meat.

Oh yes where everyone pours over the menu and starts pointing out options to you so you have to explain in detail why you don't want any of the options and it's this huge big deal so that you almost feel obliged to order a meal you know you won't like for a much higher cost than the side of chips that you would probably be happy enough eating, just so you can make them happy instead of you being happy.

And breathe.... 🤣

Yes in my case 😀

and then look at me funny if i say that the only veggie option is aubergines and i dont like them

i do eat some fish so am actually a pescatarian

I completely agree. I hardly ever eat out now. I used to love having Sunday lunch in a pub with nut roast and all the normal accompanied stuff. Now it seems as though pub chefs have universally decided that vegetarians and vegans don't want a toast lunch. We must now have watercress on a bed of butternut squash or salad. We also apparently don't want protein so while everyone else ticks into a plate heaped with veg and gravy I get to pick spinach from my teeth.

I know I could have just the veg but the gravy is invariably not vegetarian and I want some protein - like a very easy to make nut roast. Or vegetarian sausages, Linda ones would do fine or even a pie (but not cheese and onion because that's weird with a roast dinner). I'm hungry now.

I've noticed this a lot. Vegetarian eaters sacrificed for vegan. But all my vegan friends say the cheeses are poor. So the vegetarian gets left with the vegan option, or no choice at all!

Agree with this! We’re lucky where we live as there are some really good foodie pubs, but I have taken to eating fish occasionally rather than another chickpea curry.

also, for those still saying that there is no difference in environmental impact between eating meat or veggie, here is a screenshot just taken from BBC

That screenshot doesn't include fake meat which is highly processed. Also, it's not as simple as meat vs veg. A locally sourced chicken dish vs an imported, highly processed fake meat dish hasn't the same difference in impact as imported, processed meat vs locally sourced veg dish.

@RufustheFactualReindeer

God yes Butternut squash or flippin' sweet potato or both!

Thank you! This is great advice. We'd tried Philadelphia lactose free and found that was reasonable, but the rest is good to know!

Are you vegetarian? Options are definitely not better than they used to be. Me and DH have been veggie for 40 years. It went from having one or two options (and one would almost always be an awful veggie lasagne) to most places having lots of good interesting choices. Now it is almost always vegan food with fake cheese, fake meat etc. Most of it is vile.

I never complained about bean burgers or cannelloni and would love the choice of a bean burger now rather than the fake meat ones.

We both dislike tofu so that doesn't help but there are so so many nice dishes to make with lentils, chickpeas, beans or just vegetables so why the hell do restaurants not do so?

We rarely eat out now because the food is awful usually and certainly not cheap. I refuse to go out to eat far inferior food to food we can both cook.

We love indian food but don't want to eat it every time we go out plus we cook good indian food at home a lot. Also, as I said, the indian restaurants here are not a patch on the ones in London and Essex and a lot of them use tofu or quorn in their veggie options which we don't want.

All the restaurants we have tried nearby we have been to once, not been impressed and never been back. I have looked at the menus of just about all the restaurants within a 10 mile radius and am amazed how many either have no veggie/vegan option or just have 1.

@ineedsun which Ivy was that please? I've been to three different ones recently that were all good. As an aside, the Ivy and wetherspoons both have a 'beyond burger' on their menu. Of course the Ivy is superior with presentation.

I must be a rarity based on these comments. Of course one random MN user isn't a representative sample but I love faux meat. Yes they're not healthy but in moderation a faux burger isn't going to kill anyone and I'm sure most people cannot claim that everytime they eat something it is purely for health reasons. When I eat out I'm usually on a day off my usual fairly health conscious regime.

I like vegan cheese substitutes too, if someone knows what they're doing with it! I've been to a restaurant in Leeds recently with vegan pizzas and other dishes on the menu, my pizza was fantastic. I'd call it an acquired taste. But the I've been vegan over twenty years and I'm just glad things are so much easier for us now

That said I do feel that everywhere should cater for vegetarians as well as vegans. It isn't going to help any cause having crap options for either, nor will it encourage the economy.

It isn't always a case of being able to pick where you go. Work dos, family outings, occasions organised by someone else, impromptu trips where everyone is suddenly hungry etc etc

Vegan substitutes also help my anxieties about being 'othered'. I find nothing worse than mu food being so substandard that that is looking at it and making 'eew' and 'I feel sorry for you' noises or me having to gain attention to a waitress or waiter to explain my diet and something has to be cobbled together. Much nicer to just ' I'll have that please!' And a normal looking meal appears, if everyone orders burgers or curries I can have one too. I so recognised the situation a pp said where I opt for sides/starters and everyone starts pouring over the menu 'have this!' 'Couldn't you have that?!' 'Do you not eat prawns?!' Etc etc. 🤣