Sat, Feb-03-24, 20:05
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Senior Member
Posts: 1,919
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Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
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Progress: 50%
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Kristine
^I agree with the previous observations.
My bold. An important point about a vegan restaurant is the nature of the substitutions. It's not like, say, a really successful Middle-Eastern/Mediterranean restaurant chain here in Ontario called Osmow's. Their food is great, and the meats are Halal. I bet most customers don't care, but if that theoretical group of people is looking for a restaurant, your Muslim friends/family/coworkers would. Based on my observation of grocery store prices, there's probably only a marginal price increase because of the Halal certification. (ETA - they also have vegan options.)
OTOH, when you replace meats with soy, gluten, corn, legumes and other plant products, that's a real no-go for people like me. A lot of us are tuned in to allergens these days. There's a reason almost all chain restaurants have a .pdf on their website telling you what ingredients are in which of their foods. I don't care if my chicken is Halal or not, but I sure care if I'm eating seitan or a random corn/legume brick.  The walk-outs aren't just walking out because they're 'not that into' vegan food. |
Combine that with the next post about the death threats and 1 star reviews because the vegan restaurant owner has dared to add meats to his menu - I think this is the whole vegan-restaurant problem in a nutshell:
The middle eastern restaurant is catering to their middle eastern clientele, but not in a way that excludes everyone who is not middle eastern or doesn't eat halal. Those who do not require halal will gladly eat there too, because the food is downright GOOD. The halal meat is an extra feature of the restaurant, not something that excludes 90% of the population. By offering vegan options too (which are also ok for muslims to eat) it's a win for everyone who enjoys Middle Eastern cuisine.
If the vegan restaurants had not labeled themselves as a vegan/plant based restaurants and had simply offered a menu that consisted of fruit, veggies, nuts, grains, and beans, seasoned and served in creative and delicious ways (without fake substitutes for meats, cheese, etc), I doubt there would have been nearly as much backlash when they started adding meat to the menu. You can do a lot of creative things with the edible parts of plants that don't involve using animal products or trying to make them look or taste like animal products. There's so many things they could have on their menu that are naturally vegan and have always been vegan (such as peanut butter, tomato soup, fruit salad, etc) - they just weren't specifically called vegan until recent years because people simply thought of them as the normal version of that food.
Of course if a restaurant offered all vegan food but didn't advertise themselves as being plant based or vegan, the hard core vegans would probably give them one star simply because they weren't screaming that they were vegan. So I don't know - I don't really think they can win, especially since they've already labeled themselves as vegan, and are now backing off on having a strict vegan menu.
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