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

It probably has and you haven't noticed.

We went to dinner with a family member and he had veggie lasagne, my DM a normal one.

He couldn't stop going on about how scrumptious it was best ever.
After dinner DM confessed she'd realised hers was full of aubergine and no meat.

We never told him as he hadn't eaten meat since age 3 and we knew it would cause too much distress.

If you are so fixated then may I suggest you look at the food before you eat it. I think it is pretty easy to tell a beef burger from a non-beef burger.

It's highly unlikely and if it had, I would have noticed.

It's happened a few times to me, including an Indian takeaway which included chicken in the veggie dish. Made it even more annoying that I had to drive back to get a replacement but they were apologetic and gave us extra dishes.

I totally understand why it ruined your meal OP.

A lot of meat substitutes look quite realistic these days, especially to those of us who don’t spend much time looking at beef.
A couple of times I’ve double checked with waiters whether it is actually a veggie because they look too realistic 😂

I haven’t eaten meat since I was 15 and have been vegan for almost ten years now. I would absolutely feel sick if I had one bite of meat! Someone mistakenly gave me a dairy cheese sandwich a while ago and it was revolting.

@Raspberryripple11 completely agree. I've even asked my husband a few times to try the thing I'm eating and tell me how close to real meat it is and he's often been shocked at how similar it is. Especially I think if they've nailed the texture, it can be hard when the thing is covered in sauce or marinade and so the flavour is masked.

You can actually get quite sick if you've been vegan for a while and eat meat too.

Luckily, I've never had this happen and I've been vegan for 20 years, but I don't really eat meat/cheese substitutes so maybe that's why.

Yes, I think the blasé attitude often comes from really thinking meat is better so it not really a big deal - and maybe even they're doing you a favour. Sounds ridiculous but you'd be surprised.

It's a big commitment for the vegetarian. For a restaurant, you ordered one of their very nice dishes and you got another very nice dish. But your lifestyle choice doesn't really come in to it for them, it's not really considered. It's not right but we can't always be hyper vigilant of everyone's lifestyle choices 🤷‍♀️

Yes, this kind of attitude is really common. Lots of people even find it quite funny. It might not seem like a big deal to meat eaters, but I'd be very upset (and that's putting it mildly) if I was served meat. It's a deeply held belief for me.

Like some other PPs I've been veggie for a long long time. It confused people in the sixties, fair enough, it was very rare, but there is really no excuse now. I don't eat out often, but last time I ordered a veggie mushroom pizza they sent a chicken one. I phoned and they sent the right one, but there was no apology, in fact I was treated like a bit of an inconvenience. As for what happens when it's an allergy OP, sadly we know that from some tragic news stories don't we?

It’s happened to me so many times
last time I was sick as some meats I just can’t tolerate anymore.

Also OP, you'd be surprised how often meat dishes and veggie dishes are cooked in the same place! I go to a lot of food shows where you can see the vendors cook the food and the number of times I've seen the "veggie" burger being sizzled in the beef fat on the same grill as the beef burgers is insane... I imagine it's often the same for restaurants, we just don't see it (sorry if that's off putting!).

We were at a food show two weeks ago and there was a particularly good smelling burger vendor doing halloumi burgers and I had DH go and have a peek at the chefs cooking (all part of the show) and was very pleased to see them use a separate air fryer! Our local chippy also uses a separate grill for veggie stuff, which is very unusual for fast food places!

Attitude of the staff is pretty bad. My veggie DH would have raised hell and demanded to speak with the manager.

So what do you want them to do/say other than resolve the problem?

Whatever happened to the customer being right? I know a lot of customers are wankers. But it doesn't seem to me to be overly demanding to expect to get the food you've ordered and paid for, rather than something that makes you want to puke.

If you look on the bright side at least for you it is a personal choice, if you didn't eat meat for religious reasons you could be facing eternal damnation for their mistake.

A lot of people seem to flit between vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, no red meat and back again. Maybe the people serving you were food flitters and so didn’t see it as a massive deal.

You don't honestly think that do you? If anyone thinks that because they stop and start with being vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian that means that other people who are vegan/vegetarian don't mind eating meat, then they are utter idiots.

This attitude will kill someone one day

McDonald’s have done this multiple times. Managers and head office couldn’t give a shit. You’d think they’d have better processes in place

I've been veggie for 35 years. I've been given meat accidentally only a handful of times.

I've been vegan for 20 year and vegetarian before that.

I've been served meat twice, once I believe was an accident as the staff were very embarrassed and apologetic. They took my name and address and sent me £100 voucher and a written apology. The other time I think was on purpose but I still got a letter apologising and the offer of a free meal, which I declined, as I wouldn't have gone back.

My niece has an allergy and was given a meal with her allegen clearly visible on top of the meal. Her mum quickly took it away before she ate any thankfully. The restaurant seemed mortified, it was somewhere our family ate at regularly.

I'm really fussy where I eat now, generally only at vege/vegan restaurants and check everything.

I don’t know! I used to get a bit shocked how much people switched, but it has become so common now that I think people don’t take it as seriously as they used to. Maybe because people do it for environmental and health reasons rather than animal loving reasons. I was abroad last Christmas and someone said that they had given up being vegetarian while they were on holiday because it was too hard to find vegetarian food. I imagine if they were a waitress they might be quite blasé about chicken pie.

My DH is a vegetarian and if he gets pie he always cuts it down the middle and checks the contents before he eats it.