If you are a vegetarian.......?!
If you are a vegetarian.......?
do you often struggle to find something to eat ona restaurant menu? and have you ever been to an entriely vegetarian restaurant?
Answers:
Yes, frequently. I'm so fed up with being given a choice of pasta, pasta or pasta.
Yes, there is (or was, it's been a few years since I was there) a great little place in Ambleside in the Lake District. I can't for the life of me remember the name of it though! It was absolute bliss being able to look at the whole menu and not have to search for the little bit of heaven that was "Vegetarian Corner"!
By the way, Foxy - I love your answer, it's hysterical and brought a warm flush to my own pale & ghostly complexion!!!
Yes to both. It's even more of a struggle for me because I'm a vegan, but salvation is at hand in Bath, UK at Demuths. It's the most amazing vegetarian and vegan restaurant in the country and serves amazing food including a vegan chocolate fudge cake and ice-cream to die for! Pubs and Restaurants are getting better at providing a bit of choice for Vegetarians but they still struggle with Vegans, so cooking from fresh most nights and making it all a little bit special is the order of the day for me.
There's a very good cafe in Stroud called Angel Cafe and they always cater for us as one of the owners is a vegetarian and used to be a vegan so knows what she's doing - been there a few times, valentines day was the best.
Hope this helps.
Yes! OH bloody YES////and No
well yes, beacuse often in all resturants and fast food resturants have meat....no vegetables...well like only side dishes.I have been to resturants that the only thing they give you are vegetables, greens.
Being a Hotelier and that also in Goa, I find many Guests who face this problem. Specially Beacuse the Mindset of the Restaurants as well as of the maximum visitors is to Try Sea Food.
Usually I suggest all the Guests who are vegetarians that if they dont mind eating in a Restaurant which also serves Non Veg. Its advisable not to make up there mind by just looking at the Menu Card.
ASK --- That is one of the best of way of getting what you want. My Chef and I am sure that Chefs and Manager at any Guest Friendly Restaurants will surely meet up with you and try to churn out something mouthwatering in vegetarian food to suit your tastes.
So , Dont worry about the Menu Card and dont waste time in searching for a Vegetarian Restaurant ASK, may be if they cant then you can surely try another one. But in 90% case you will get what you want in first 2-3 Trys.
yes! am no longer a veggie, as i got so bored with veg risotto, musroom stroganoff, veg lasagne!
Londons the best place to get veggie food.
There was/is a veggie place in plymouth called veggie perrins, that was good, and lots in london..
But finding decent nice veggie food is hard.
and them veggies who eat fish.. its an animal.. hows that veggie then>?
Well, naturally, you've chosen a lifestyle where thats going to be difficult. Fast food is pretty much off the market for you, unless you get a bean burrito, or something equally less satisifying.
Fortunately, the food world is starting to recognize your lifestyle, and a lot of menus in nicer resturants are opting to have vegitarian selections.
A good place to look for this would be chinese resturants, i dont know where youre located, but in minnesota, they all have a vegetarian option. And now, we have several vegetarian and vegan resturants across the state.
If you look into any newsprint containing information about events and resturants in your location, it will have those options.
other than that, you should know that being a vegetarian, you chose to have that complication to your life. Its the price you pay for not eating meat, its harder to find some place to go.
I've been a vegetarian for years now and yes I do often struggle to find vegetarian options. However, more and more options have been available in the last few years. Thai, Mexican and Lebanese restaurants have great vegetarian options. However, its important to find out whether their dishes (such as refried beans, rice, soups) have been cooked in any animal products such as chicken stock. I have been to a few entirely vegetarian restaurants. Most college towns and big cities have these kinds of restaurants.
Going to an entirely veggie resturant is the only safe option
Its shocking how many chefs and cooks know so little about the food they use to cook with.
ask them about cheese, sauces, wine, stock....they just look at you stupid.
If it hasn't got legs most of them assume its veggie.
Keep away, its the only safe choice your have. Imagine the crossd contamination in the kitchens...
and the phrase "vegetarian option" is laughable when there is one item. Do they understand the English language at all ?
I blame the star-rating people. In order to get stars the resturants have to offer at least one veggie option. So most of them do it just to satisfy the inspectors, they have no interest in serviing veggies and so careless about the source of the ingredients nor cross contamination.
contrary to the answer ( 2 above ) a Chinese is a really BAD place to start - most of there stuff has fish or fish oil in it.
However, if you stayed at our Veggie B&B we'd look after you !!
Whoosher ( below ) Are you thinking of Lancrigg ?http://www.lancrigg.co.uk/
Its a great veggie country house. A bit pricey, and you have to be careful with the beers and wines, but great food.
yeah, it is a struggle finding foods on restaurant menus. i'd be perfetcly okay with eating at home but the rest of my family eats meat so they prefere to go out. the only vegie friendly dish applebees has is their vegie pizza (bluh! it was horrible!) which took me ages to find on the menu. i havn't been to an all vegetarian restaurant but i'm sure it would be nice.
saxyphone, it is almost impossible to find vegan items on a menu because most restaurants want to server well balanced meals. Eating a diet lacking in complete proteins can cause nerve damage. I was just reading an article in one of my medical journals about the dangers associated with cult diets like veganism, etc..
I have been to an all vegetarian restaurant with my mother-in-law. It was easy to tell it was an all vegetarian restaurant just by the pale faces of the people who were eating there. A diet lacking in B12 can produce and ghostly complexion.
It depends. If I am going out for a meal that someone else has arranged then it can sometimes be hard as they may not have considered whether there were many veggie options on the menu, and there have also been many occasions when I've been in an unfamiliar location (e.g. on holiday, particularly when abroad) when I have had to trail round several restaurants to find one with a decent veggie option.
However, most of the time it isn't that difficult. These days almost all restaurants in this country (the UK) have at least one vegetarian option, and many have a very good range for vegetarians. Certain kinds of restaurants seem better for veggies, for example Indian restaurants usually have lots of choice, as do many middle eastern places (one of the best vegetarian meals I've had recently was in a local Lebanese restaurant). Italian restaurants are pretty good too as long as you don't mind eating pasta (although they often do veggie risottos too), since in italian meals the meat is traditionally served as a separate course to the pasta dish, therefore there are many meatless dishes. Most good quality restaurants of any type will cook something for you (its a good idea to phone in advance though, just in case). I have actually had the opposite experience of Chinese restaurants to one of the other answerers - many apparently veggie dishes have oyster sauce in them, and I have been in one Chinese place where there was NOTHING vegetarian on the menu at all, and the waitress just seemed really confused when I asked if they could do any vegetarian dishes! Having said that some other Chinese restaurants have catered excellently for veggies, so I suppose I can't generalise!
I'd imagine eating out would be more difficult if you are a fussy eater. I love most kinds of food & like to try new things, which I think makes it easier to eat out! Also, the quality of the restaurant makes a big difference; a lot of places don't really have proper chefs & just churn out very basic dishes on a kind of "production line", or even just reheat things from frozen (many pubs in this country are guilty of this, although there are a lot that are very good too), and you can't usually expect anything much more exciting than lasagne in those kinds of places! By quality I'm not just talking about price - some restaurants offer really good value for money and still manage to cater really well for veggies, whereas some expensive restaurants are rubbish!
The internet is an excellent source of advice on eating out, there are loads of sites with general information about & reviews of all sorts of restaurants, and there is often info on what they are like for vegetarians. There are also many sites specifically aimed at veggies - have a look at the "Happy Cow" site (http://www.happycow.net), for example, which has worldwide listings of veggie restaurants & health food stores, and is extremely handy for finding out where to eat both locally & when away from home.
I have been to several entirely vegetarian restaurants, which have all been really good. Its nice to go somewhere and be able to eat anything on the menu, although since I'm used to having much less choice it can be difficult to decide what to eat!
I was raised a vegetarian during a time when "sprouts" were considered weird! Now, at 42, it is much more common. I honestly have never found it difficult not eating meat. There is ALWAYS plenty of "other" food around for the offering. I honestly think the difficulty comes more by choice than by option.
mb
I don't out to restaurants too often..only because 1) waste of money and 2) who the heck knows what goes on in the kitchen. When I do go, I usually eat Thai food (they have vegetarian food) or Italian (I go for Pasta)
some Yes to first question, I end up getting a salad. and No never totally veggie restaurant. But I also eat poultry and fish. No pork or red meat.
P.S. My Dr. says I'll out live him,lol My stats are awesome. I also never eat fast food or fried
There was a fabulous place in Norwich where there is only around 8 items on the menu but 4 veggie, 2 vegan, and the menu is locally sourced and organic where possible so it changes frequently.
Mostly having one option is normal in England, but if you don't like to eat too much dairy i t can be hard. In mainland europe it's more difficult too, I often had to have them make up a salad specially for me when on holida, and if I didn't want salad the pizzeria was mostly the only place we could go!
I am not vegetarian but I do love vegetarian food especially from Food for Thought and World Food Cafe both in Covent Garden, London.
I attach two links:
(1) For Food for Thought which then takes you on to a vegetarian dining website.
(2) World Food Cafe
I once had to get an appetizer at a restaurant because all the other meals had meat in them!
But I have eaten at an entirely vegetarian restaurant before. It's called The Great Sage. After being vegetarian for 4 years, it's so fun to know that you can eat everything on the menu!! :)
To find vegetarian restaurant near you, go to this web site: http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/us...
Then click on your State,
Then click on your City
Yes and yes. It's particularly hard in the United States where salads are only salads if they include some form of meat. I have found that "ethnic" restaurants like Mexican, Indian, and Chinese are more kind to vegetarians than any American restaurants.
I was out of town, away from home for 2 weeks, and there is nothing, nothing I can eat anywhere, I go to steak and shake, and I got a mikeshake, I don't drink milk or icecream!@!!!!!! but I had to eat something, and I had a fries, cost me $6 but is ok,
I go to buffett, I eat some old bad tasting veggs and fruit, and rice, and lo mein, cost me $7!!!! bad bad, in the end of the 2 weeks, I end up eating only 1 meal aday and I felt like crap cause I didn't eat right, I didn't get to eat at all, part of it was my fault, I was too tired from working to go food shooping, and the food shops don't have the types of food I eat.
now the good news, I luv entirely vegg resturant, they have fake meat food, and I had chinese mogolian beef, it was pretty good, my bro had some chicken with vegg, very good, the uncooked spring roll is good, oh man, I need to live next to a vegg resturant
Yes, it's a real pain in the proverbial! I find it's always the same thing on offer.
I'd love to visit a vegetarian restaurant but they're thin on the ground here.
And to the person who said Chinese restaurants would be the safest option - uh-uh, no way! They hide all sorts of meaty or fishy things in their dishes. I've found bits of ham in "vegetarian" garlic mushrooms, and prawns and/or fish sauce in all sorts of food. So I steer well clear, I'm afraid.
Yes, I do struggle, but thankfully it's getting better. The problem seems to be that restaurant owners think that we don't need any protein, or stodge, and that we're happy to pay the same price for a teeny tiny dish as meat eaters pay for half a plate of steak!
I've been to two particularly good veggie restaurants - Greens, in south Manchester, and a wonderful bistro in, of all places, Ironbridge. Both had wonderful food, at reasonable prices and I'd be happy tp recommend both of them.
"do you often struggle to find something to eat ona restaurant menu?"
-No.
"and have you ever been to an entriely vegetarian restaurant?"
-Yes.
At times I have struggled, with some seemingly well thought of places offering 'grilled Sea Bass' etc on the 'Vegetarian Options' part of the menu. Crazy.
I used to live in Birmingham (the original one in the UK), where there were - up until a few years ago, this is, only three Veggie restaurants! Not bad for a city of about a million people!?!
But I live in The Southwest of England now, and the town of Totnes (population 10,000) has at least that many alone!
Okay, so I used to work in one of them - 'Willow' - so I may be a little biased - but the food is great!
I recall one couple who were regulars - they came in every Saturday for lunch - and often in the evenings too.
One Saturday they asked me if I could be certain of the veggie nature of the items marked 'V' on the menu, as their daughter was comming to stay and she was veggie. I pointed out the the 'V' meant Vegan - everything the restaurant offered was totally vegetarian!
They were shocked - the more so for having eaten there regualrly for four years or so!
So I guess that, on some level, it is all down to what you are prepared to put up with. If the restaurant gives you shyte, give it back!
YES! Ugh I wish I lived in a bigger town where they recognize that some people are vegetarians! We have NO vegetarian restaurants anywhere near me, although there are a few where I can actually find a vegetarian option on the menu... though it's rarely spelled out as such. I love Olive Garden because their cheaper pasta dishes come meat free anyway... it costs more to get it "with meatballs" for instance. I just wish they'd make those "baked ravioli" appetizers with cheese ravioli instead of beef! Those things were SOOOOO good (when I ate meat). Anyway... yeah.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went on a Royal Carribean cruise to Mexico. They had both a vegetarian AND vegan option on their menu every night (and always something different). I'm sincerely hoping my upcoming Alaska cruise will be the same way!
not really.
No and No.
I find many restaurant chains are OK and label Veggie main courses. Oddly a lot don't bother labelling desserts which is a real pain!! Smaller places you sometimes have to explain fish isn't a vegetarian option - these I never visit twice!
Generally if I am eating out I aim for Italian (and avoid the Parmesan, especially Parmigiano Reggiano because of the rennet) or Indian.
Luckily there is a decent Chinese vegetarian restaurant near me (in Milton Keynes).
Like others I have enjoyed Demuths in Bath - great to be able to eat somewhere you can order anything on the menu!
.
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
I find it fairly easy in London, most restaurants and pubs have 2-4 veggie meals and they tend to have V's on them. It's safest to opt for things without cheese though, as they aren't always sure about retin.
I find it much more difficult in America- I grew up there, and go back often to visit my family. It's getting better but I still often find that I have one option, if any, at restaurants. But the Americans are very service orientated so they are usually willing to make something that isn't on the menu.
I love going to veggie restaurants, and getting to pick from the entire menu!