Love this!


Exactly!

It's the holier than thou attitude that disturbs me too.

If a die-hard vegan has no choice but to go to that particular restaurant (for instance if it's an outing planned by someone else, such as a business dinner, and they're required to go), then find some things on the menu that are vegan - a plain baked potato, and a green salad with oil and vinegar should certainly fit the definition of vegan. In all likelihood, the bread will probably also be vegan - eat up.

It's ONE meal, you won't starve to death if you don't have an elaborate main dish made from tofu and wheat grass on the menu.

But the salad greens might have seen kept in the same refrigerator as the beef.

I have nothing against vegans, after all, I'm a picky eater too (I don't eat sugar and most starch).

I don't appreciate those who are holier than thou or militant about it.

I don't go to donut shops because other than the coffee, there is nothing there for me.

I have some vegan friends, and we have found a half dozen places where they can enjoy herbivore food and I can enjoy omnivore food.

They have never preached about their choice, and I don't know if it is for ethical or perceived healthful reasons. Plus I don't care.

We are both picky eaters so we find places where we can enjoy ourselves with our diverse tastes.

And if a restaurant wants to offer vegan or not, it's their business choice. If they pick the right menu for the area, prepare it well, and price it accordingly, they should be successful.

There is no "have to" cater to anyone.

They certainly don't sound humanitarian 🤷‍♀️

I thought this was from "The Onion" at first! Good for them. Even big chain restaurants don't have the space or the capacity for seperate fridges and freezers and that nonsense. If I were a small establishment, that's exactly how I'd handle things: "here are our options, take it or leave it." I could certainly offer up suggestions like the baked potato or salad like Calianna suggested, but I wouldn't carry any expensive (and perishable) fake meats or dairy.

I think if the restaurant and kitchen is large enough, and if there are enough vegans to make it profitable, it would be good business to include some vegan dishes.

The reason to be in business is to make money so the owner can feed himself/herself and pay their mortgage and other expenses.

But if there aren't enough vegans to make catering to them profitable, there is no reason to offer anything vegan other than a salad.

At least that's the way I feel about it.

It's this kind of vegan behavior that makes restaurants less eager to make smaller accommodation. I'm lucky in that my gluten-free situation doesn't need dedicated tools or separate prep spaces. I can order something that shouldn't have gluten in it and make sure they aren't using pre-prepped. Then I'm okay.

I'm not asking for anything special, like the vegans are. There are places I don't go because they have nothing on the menu I can eat. I don't go there.

Problem solved.

I volunteer on a committee that provides lunch and so many people were asking for so many different things that they set things up with separate, plain ingredients. Some people make sandwiches, I put the meat & hard boiled eggs in a salad with whichever other ingredients I can/want to eat. It works for carnivores, omnivores, vegetarians & vegans. I've been all four over the last 50 years, but high animal protein, moderate fat and very low carb real foods is what works for me. I only wish I had stuck with Atkins when I first tried it in 1973.

I'm a very finicky eater, plus I'm keto.

That leaves out most Italian and Mexican restaurants. I don't go there.

I wouldn't dream of demanding a keto meal at a pizzeria.

I don't do fast food at all.

And if a restaurant doesn't have something for my tastes, I go somewhere else.

Seems like there are more important things to get upset over.

The nice thing these days is that many restaurants have their menus online so you can check them out before deciding to go there. Or if it is the inviter's choice of restaurant, you can decide if you need to eat beforehand or bring something (eg. salad dressing or sweetener) to help you get through the meal. Often how they describe the ingredients will give you an idea of how careful or lax they are regarding customers' requirements & preferences.

Excellent tip. If I go to a real, but not fancy, restaurant, I can get an antipasto or a fajita bowl.

If everything is prefab it's got gluten. End of story.

I haven't done this since I can just pick toppings of the pizza, but I hear that there are plenty of pizza places (mostly mom & pop type Italian restaurants) that if you ask, they'll bake the toppings on a piece of foil or parchment, or bake them in an oven-proof foil pan. That means there's really no need to ask for a LC or keto meal (and hope they understand what makes it LC or keto). Or if you don't need to avoid any contact at all with gluten, just pick the toppings off the pizza to eat.

There's always key words in the menu description that you can easily figure out refer to sugars or starches - anything served with a "sauce" will almost always be sweetened and/or thickened with some kind of starch. Gravy is obviously thickened with starch. Pasta is obvious. Crispy coating, or crusted - almost always refer to breaded or battered. Breaded - obvious. Glazed - usually sugary. BBQ - in many parts of the country that refers to a sweet sauce. Seasoned can be a bit inconclusive as a description, but if it says savory seasoning, it's usually not sweetened.

This is what makes demanding a specifically vegan meal at a restaurant so silly - find something on the menu that's all plant matter, even if it's just a green salad with oil and vinegar dressing - and there's your vegan meal, no different than if it was listed specifically as being a vegan green salad on the menu.

I get the feeling that a lot of vegans just like he idea of not ever eating an animal product, but don't really understand what is (or is not) an animal product, so they need to have it spelled out for them on the menu.

For instance, I've never seen a seasoned salt that had any kind of animal matter in it - and yet Trader Joe's sells a seasoned salt that specifically says it's chicken-less, even though it's totally unnecessary to state that it's chicken-less when seasoned salt has always been chicken-less. It's as if they either can't be bothered to read the ingredient list, or if they are reading the list of ingredients, they don't know that ingredients such as paprika and turmeric are (and have always been) derived from plant matter.

I wonder if it's something in the processing. The parchment paper we use at work is Kosher-certified. I asked a Jewish friend about that, and we looked it up and it turns out there's a beef derivative used in production.

(Can't wait for some vegan baker's head to asplode when they find that out) 🤯