Foods labelled in restaurant as vegetarian....not what it appears

Eviecus

Hi, feel free to move this should it fit better some place else but I wanted to share some info with you all about my disastrous day as a vegan.

Firstly, a local Thai restaurant assured me a few months ago that my tofu & vegetable curry was indeed vegan as they used coconut milk and not regular milk. I decided to ring them today to inquire about times for lunch and the possibility of getting a table at short notice and thought I would be extra careful and ask again about their vegetarian dishes, what was in fact vegetarian and contained no fish stock and what they could make for me, the vegan. I was assured that I could have lots of things and they didn't use fish/chicken or any meat products in their vegetarian dishes.

So I spoke to my boyfriend and friend and we decided to go there for lunch. When I rang back to make the reservation I thought I would ask again, just cos I'm annoying like that. I was speaking to someone else this time. They told me that all their curries have fish stock and in fact ALL their vegetarian dishes (Of which there are 10 or so) have fish stock in them. I was disgusted and physically felt ill at the thoughts of this.

Then to make matters worse I went to a well known vegetarian restaurant and only because I had just had such a bad experience and because I was feeling like I didn't trust restaurants I decided that I would ask what was vegan, even though I've been told many times. They double checked with the chef and it turned out that a dish that I've regularly eaten, having been told it was vegan, had cream in it...so I'm not a happy bunny. I think I'll be eating at home from now on!

sweet-rasmus

I understand. We've all been there. And it sucks.

I was once fed a bolognaise from a jar by someone who swore there was no meat in it. It was a horrible horrible day. After a mouthful or two I didn't believe them, and insisted they find the bottle in the bin. *cries*

*Hugs all round*

AssaultedPeanut

I was given sweets by my friend who said she'd read the label and was positive they were vegan, usually I'd insist on reading things myself but she knows me pretty well and is used to the things i watch out for.
About 2 or 3 sweets later I was like "are you suuuure?.. they seem like the kind that wouldn't be veggie friendly"....

Low & behold, 4th ingredient on the list Pork Gelatine. I nearly gagged just writing that.

lolli

i find that a lot of pasta dishes are marked as vegetarian but they have Parmesan cheese in them which of course contains rennet. So annoying, they should advertise stuff as vegetarian if thats not the case.

Mark Hamill

Eviecus wrote: »

Hi, feel free to move this should it fit better some place else but I wanted to share some info with you all about my disastrous day as a vegan.

Firstly, a local Thai restaurant assured me a few months ago that my tofu & vegetable curry was indeed vegan as they used coconut milk and not regular milk. I decided to ring them today to inquire about times for lunch and the possibility of getting a table at short notice and thought I would be extra careful and ask again about their vegetarian dishes, what was in fact vegetarian and contained no fish stock and what they could make for me, the vegan. I was assured that I could have lots of things and they didn't use fish/chicken or any meat products in their vegetarian dishes.

So I spoke to my boyfriend and friend and we decided to go there for lunch. When I rang back to make the reservation I thought I would ask again, just cos I'm annoying like that. I was speaking to someone else this time. They told me that all their curries have fish stock and in fact ALL their vegetarian dishes (Of which there are 10 or so) have fish stock in them. I was disgusted and physically felt ill at the thoughts of this.

Then to make matters worse I went to a well known vegetarian restaurant and only because I had just had such a bad experience and because I was feeling like I didn't trust restaurants I decided that I would ask what was vegan, even though I've been told many times. They double checked with the chef and it turned out that a dish that I've regularly eaten, having been told it was vegan, had cream in it...so I'm not a happy bunny. I think I'll be eating at home from now on!

If I were you, i would almost want to bring them to the small claims courts. Its a very simple case of false advertising, and if it was of a muslim being served pork, or an allergy sufferer getting something with nuts or shell fish (or whatever else they are allergic to), there would be murder and the case easily won.

Aoifums

Eviecus wrote: »

Then to make matters worse I went to a well known vegetarian restaurant and only because I had just had such a bad experience and because I was feeling like I didn't trust restaurants I decided that I would ask what was vegan, even though I've been told many times. They double checked with the chef and it turned out that a dish that I've regularly eaten, having been told it was vegan, had cream in it...so I'm not a happy bunny. I think I'll be eating at home from now on!

Can you name and shame? I don't want to think of any dishes I like having cream in them!

overmantle

I'm always suspicious. How does anybody know what is what in a restaurant - behind the scenes?

overmantle

I suppose if somebody is not allergic to meat products, they won't kill them but that is beside the point.

Molberts

"Hi, I have a meat/fish/dairy/whatever you don't want to be eating allergy. Can you please double check what is suitable for me to eat?"

If you say you're veggie/vegan - you run the risk of them not giving a sh*t.

If you say you have an allergy, they run the risk of you getting ill in their restaurant if they don't check thoroughly.

Was told that by a chef after getting a piece of chicken in the bottom of my noodles once. I thought it was tofu and I ate it

I also once got garlic mushrooms with a side of FISH PASTE :eek::eek::eek: the lady couldn't understand what was so wrong about that. It looked just like thousand island sauce, so glad I checked before dunking in.
Fish allergies can cause severe reactions - not good

sweet-rasmus

very true