Non meat eater served meat again!

[Hellon]

i stopped eating meat 2 years ago and have been served meat now twice whilst eating out, and both times I have accidentally eaten some meat as I ordered vegetarian food. On both occasions the staff just don’t seem that’s it’s a big deal and just apologised. On the first occasion I had ordered a vegetarian burger and took a big bite only to realise it was a beef burger, I complained to the waitress and they said sorry and brought me a veggie burger which then couldn’t eat as I felt sick. They refunded me the money but it seemed like an inconvenience to them.
the second occasion I was at a wedding and got served a meat and mushroom pie when I had asked for the vegetarian option and the waitress serving the pie said yes it’s vegetarian. Again the staff just say oh sorry I’ll change it for you. Again I had eaten a small piece of meat so felt sick and couldn’t eat the new soggy tart they brought me. I didn’t make a fuss on the day as it’s someone’s wedding and I didn’t want to cause a scene, but they staff just brush it off.
i worked in hospitality for years and when we got something wrong we went above and beyond to make sure the customer left happy. I hate to think what happens when people have allergies, how do they trust a venue will
not kill them.
It is a big deal serving meat to a non meat eater and hospitality staff should start being more sympathetic to their guests! It really does put me off eating out.
Im interested to hear other people’s experiences as I don’t know many vegetarians /vegans

Tell them it’s due to allergies/religion and they’re much more careful. My vegan colleague always mentions a ‘dairy and red meat allergy’ when ordering a vegan burger for example and she’s never had any issues being brought the wrong food because they seem to take it more seriously.

I've been a vegetarian for 40 years and this has never happened to me. I'd be furious if it did.

That is a huge deal and pretty appalling. Not just because you are a vegetarian being mistakenly served meat, but what if they served something wrong to a person with a severe allergy? That could be fatal.

If I were you, I would report both places to Environmental Health at your local council.

My partner is a vegetarian and this is s common, I've become designated taster rather than risk it. Not ideal and sometimes really hard to tell on sight.

What would you like them to say? They apologised and changed it. What else is there to say?

What a fuss. It was a mistake. They gave you a refund and apologised.

The blase attitude by the staff is not on. They wouldn't be so dismissive if it was an allergy mix up - the attitude is obviously that she's just being fussy and awkward, and therefore a mix up (as you also seem to indicate) is no big deal. It is a big deal, and it's also not difficult to just serve the damn dish ordered.

I think feeling sick is a tad over the top for one mouthful, especially as it seems that two years ago you were fine eating meat!

You told the staff, they dealt with it by bringing another meal. At wedding venues they often employ temporary waiting staff who can be unfamiliar with dietary needs. I really don’t know what else you wanted the staff to do apart from offer an apology (given) ,bring a new meal ( supplied). They aren’t going to give you a cash handout for feeling sick.

It is unfortunate, but move on. Unless you have an extreme allergy to meat you are not going to be damaged by eating a mouthful.

Just seen you got a refund for the burger!

That’s what I would expect if they just mixed up a meat order for a meat eater or served carrots instead of peas on a dish, then it’s not a big deal. To serve meat to a mon meat eater can have religious as well as allergic implications. A bit of compassion and maybe some interaction from the manager. Someone taking the time to come and apologise properly and offer “something” goes a long way to making a person feel better. A waitress just saying oh sorry is not an apology imo.

Please don't do this. It makes people take preferences more seriously. But it conversely makes them take allergies less seriously. They assume people are lying. And my nut-allergic child would prefer they took that quite seriously, thanks.

Why would it make them take allergies less seriously? I have allergies and when my colleague said she did this, that didn’t even occur to me. Surely the restaurant she’s told she has allergies would take my allergies just as seriously as they take the ones she told them she has?

I may have eaten meat 2 years ago but I still feel sick at the thought of eating it now or actually eating it. People change and their diets change. Saying that’s a tad over the top is just reinforcing why people in hospitality must have the same attitude as you “who cares”

It’s shit. I would feel so sick too (just the thought never mind that it will potentially make you sick because your body won’t deal well with it). I do not understand how people can make this mistake- they should not be working in hospitality

It does seem a bit OTT and performative to say you felt sick after taking one bite. What exactly did you expect the serving staff to do? Fall on the ground and beat themselves while crying 'mea culpa'? Mistakes happen.

I've been vegetarian for 40+ years and have inadvertently eaten meat several times but have never felt the need to make a big fuss. There's none pious as the new convert!

I was about to make the same point as @MrsTerryPratchett . It is wrong to pretend you have an allergy when you don’t because it is telling a lie, and if people are caught out in their lie it makes everyone else disbelieving or suspicious of other people who say they have allergies, even though most of the allergies are probably genuine and may even be life-threatening. You’d be surprised how many people announce that they are allergic to something and then say "Oh, I’ll just pinch a bit of yours!" from a nice-looking dish containing the supposed allergen, ordered by someone else.

I hear lots of children, and their parents, saying that that the child is "allergic" to a particular food, when all they really mean is that they don’t like it. It devalues the word. It makes people less likely to take the declared allergies of others seriously.

I think it would be better if restaurants just put at the top of menus "We'll do our absolute best to serve you exactly what you asked for, but we serve around 50,000 meals per year and the chances of all those being exactly right is nil. We are human and we occasionally make mistakes. If you feel that the very small chance we might make a mistake will have serious consequences for you, you may wish to eat elsewhere."

Report them to the food standards agency

What's the "something" you want?
Sounds financial?
What was your financial loss?

Ridiculously OTT.

Re the "religious implications": if someone ate a bite of forbidden meat accidentally, I would have thought they would be forgiven by any god worth praying to.

I'm a meat eater and that is horrendous! The way I see it is vegetarians don't want to eat the flesh of a dead animal. A cow or pig corpse for example. Makes perfect sense. I get it. It's like me not wanting to eat cat or dog and if those wait staff had been given kitty or puppy meat they too would be disgusted and wouldn't want to eat something else brought after. They'd kick off.
I hope you spoke to management.

A vegetarian being served meat is not a case of "not exactly right." It's shit.

I'm with you OP. When I went vegan meat became unpalatable to me quite quickly. I've been annoyed when this happens to me though I don't make a big deal of it to serving staff. My son was once given beef after we had double and triple checked the order and he was really upset.

I'd leave a review saying they can't be trusted to give accurate information. Expect to be gaslit and belittled about the whole thing on MN where a few posters love to be shitty to vegetarians for no reason.

I've been vegetarian forever and this hasn't happened often but occasionally it has. It's not worth making a fuss really, some people don't get the importance of being careful and never will. I'd never pretend to have an allergy though, that's crap behaviour.

This happened with my mum recently. She ordered a vegan wellington and was given a salmon one instead. She queried it and was told it was vegan, just a realistic substitute. After another mouthful she knew it was fish 🤢

We told the waitress and she laughed. Said it happens 'all the time', and took it back. Brought it back out after scraping off the salmon pastry and adding a vegan one, still has some sauce/salmon bits on the veggie sides. Then seemed very put out we asked for a fresh plate. Never going back.

"They wouldn't be so dismissive if it was an allergy mix up"

An issue with an allergy could potentially be life threatening. This is entirely different.