work xmas party

R.M.

Hi everyone,
My work christmas party is going to be a meal in a hotel this year. As far as I know theres going to be a set menu. Im not sure if there will be a veggie option available. Does anyone have any advise? I don't really want to make a big deal and tell the person organising it that im a vegetarian. However its expensive enough and i dont want to end up going and just having a plate of meat put in front of me! Its a four course so i'm hoping that there may be a veg soup/salad to start and a roast turkey main course. I would be happy to just get potato, veg and stuff. Would it be a good idea to just go and hope for the best??

edellc

Hotels always have a veggie option , even in their set menus so don't worry about it and enjoy the party

Meant to also say being veggie is not a new thing to chiefs so now adays its a given to include this as an option just like they include celiac menus and all good restaraunts, hotels etc do this

TooManyDogs

If you're concerned at all I'd ring the hotel in advance and ask them what veggie options they provide. I always assumed hotels would be good about veggie options until I got served a bowl of spagetti hoops at a black tie ball :eek:

I always ring now

Slaphead07

TooManyDogs wrote: »

If you're concerned at all I'd ring the hotel in advance and ask them what veggie options they provide. I always assumed hotels would be good about veggie options until I got served a bowl of spagetti hoops at a black tie ball :eek:

I always ring now

What he said. Any chef with self respect will put a bit of effort in.

Tar.Aldarion

Expensive, you have to pay?

I'm just gonna tell the person organizing mine or ring the hotel closer to the time.
I wouldn't just say nothing.

Shenshen

R.M. wrote: »

Hi everyone,
My work christmas party is going to be a meal in a hotel this year. As far as I know theres going to be a set menu. Im not sure if there will be a veggie option available. Does anyone have any advise? I don't really want to make a big deal and tell the person organising it that im a vegetarian. However its expensive enough and i dont want to end up going and just having a plate of meat put in front of me! Its a four course so i'm hoping that there may be a veg soup/salad to start and a roast turkey main course. I would be happy to just get potato, veg and stuff. Would it be a good idea to just go and hope for the best??

Just check with the person organising it. Usually, whenever we had a christmas party with a set menu, we were given a small menu beforehand, to pick which mains we wanted.

I know how it can feel, like you're making a big fuss, but you may not be the only one not wanting meat and the other person could be equally mortified. And the person who organises it will want it to be a good evening for everyone, so you wouldn't really be doing them a favour not telling them, either.

HemlockOption

I just ring ahead to check out the veggie options. I would be surprised if any half-decent restaurant/hotel wouldn't have at least one option. Also - there's increasing awareness that eating meat can have negative health consequences, so I think more and more people are looking at alternatives. Restaurants realise that this is a growing market.

confuseddotcom

Are you paying for your own meal o.p? If you are paying for your own food, I wouldn't even bother checking with the Organizer, just ring the Hotel yourself ahead of time and let them know that you're vegetarian. Just let the Organiser know that you're doing this just to keep everything above board / on the one page. Yer making minimal fuss and you're being pro-active by doing something about it yourself. Top Employee!

flikflak

If you know where you are going then go online and have a look at the menu. If its not online then just give a call.

Tar.Aldarion

I'd say give a call cos the menus online generally dont reflect work xmas party menus! although there could be one up I suppose!

maameeo

we always go to hotels for our xmas partys and there is never a veggie option on the menu but i just ask when the waiter comes round. now in saying that one year i said 'can i get a vegetarian option please?' and she said 'so you'll have the fish?'
if it wasnt my work party id have ran a mile!
took a bit of explaining to tell her i didnt eat fish that im a vegetarian, she was baffled lol

but id say you are safe enough to just ask when they take order, just be prepared for tomato pasta or goats cheese tart lol

R.M.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I was worrying a bit too much about the whole thing!!

Squ

R.M. wrote: »

Hi everyone,
My work christmas party is going to be a meal in a hotel this year. As far as I know theres going to be a set menu. Im not sure if there will be a veggie option available. Does anyone have any advise? I don't really want to make a big deal and tell the person organising it that im a vegetarian. However its expensive enough and i dont want to end up going and just having a plate of meat put in front of me! Its a four course so i'm hoping that there may be a veg soup/salad to start and a roast turkey main course. I would be happy to just get potato, veg and stuff. Would it be a good idea to just go and hope for the best??

Is it a bbq? Dont think ive ever had a plate of meat put in front of me.

tatli_lokma

Slaphead07 wrote: »

What he said. Any chef with self respect will put a bit of effort in.

When it comes to christmas parties, being a 'chef' goes out the window. Catering for large numbers in a banqueting environment means that no one will get a nice dinner! Its throw 'em out as quickly as possible sort of an attitude.

I would do as others have said and phone ahead - don't wait until the actual evening, because if there are 11 veggies at the night and they have only 10 meals, you might miss out and be left waiting for your dinner while everyone around you tucks in. This is one of my pet peeves about being veggie - you often get treated like an inconvenience and end up being served after everyone else so you sit there like a knob end while everyone else is eating. Don't expect anything fancy - as another poster said, probably pasta and tomato sauce or something equally as inventive and exciting. But at least comfort yourself in knowing that it won't be just you who gets a crap dinner - so will everyone else! lol

loveisdivine

I know what you mean. I'm not vegetarian but I dont eat a lot of meat and I dont like to eat meat in restaurants at all. Normally its ok because theres always a veggie option.
Unfortunately this year my mother in law wants to take us out for a pre christmas meal, as she wont be in the country christmas day. She has decided to take us to a GAA club!!! None of us are members so dont even get me started on where this genius idea came from. I know there probably isnt going to be a veggie option and I will be landed with a big plate of meat. Then its awkward cos I wont want to eat it, but because I'm not strictly vegetarian, she will think its rude and odd if I leave the meat.

Ugh.

Jim

Had my work Christmas Party on friday night (in a Radison Hotel). From previous experienced I just assumed they would have a veggie option, which they did, so that was grand. However there was a "starter" and "soup" course before the main, both of which had meat. One of the waitresses of course did the "will you eat fish?" line. However another waitress actually went to great lengths to sort me out. She kept running back and forth from the kitchen trying to sort something out for me even though I had said "It's fine, I'll just have the main" she wouldn't take that for an answer

blatantrereg

work xmas dinner thing is in a steakhouse.
Jokingly remarked it would be in that exact steakhouse before replying to the email saying I would go. Then got reply saying it was in that steakhouse. Blergh.
Vegetable fajitas look nice on the menu, but still.
At least vegetable fajitas are unlikely to have non vegetarian cheese in them etc.

tatli_lokma

but would you trust them to use a different griddle than the meat?
that is always my issue with steakhouses or places that are very geared towards meat. I usually avoid anything fried or griddled as I always wonder how clean the pan/griddle was.
I have seen in many takeaways also, them putting the veggie burger or onions to fry on the same fryer as the burgers. Other than a quick scrape no cleaning is done

schemingbohemia

I don't concern myself with that level of detail re using separate grills/hot plates, I reckon the heat will get rid of most elements of meat and to be honest you'd never eat anywhere other than vegetarian restaurants if that was the case.

tatli_lokma

Perhaps in other restaurants, but I wouldn't trust it in a steak house, particularly when ordering things like fajitas where part of the process of cooking involves charring the food.
It does bother me because I have had occasions where I can definitely taste the meat fat, or where crusty bits of meat were amongst my veg.

I know that it is never totally impossible to avoid unless you eat in a veggie restaurant, but the liklihood of it in a restaurant specifically geared towards meat and griddled or chargrilled meats are quite high I would guess. As a veggie, the last place on earth I would want to eat would be a steakhouse.

blatantrereg

Yes a steakhouse would be the last place I'd choose too haha. At least the fajitas were nice. I would be surprised if the food was cooked completely separately from any meat cooked, but I agree that is usually going to be the case in any restaurant that serves meat.

--LOS--

Well you can ask ahead but still be disappointed, we got served cous cous for our main at tar's work party The starter was goats cheese tart, very typical and boring but fine, then when the waitress said the veggie option was cous cous I was thinking surely it wont be just cous cous on its own but it literally was plain cous cous in a bowl with a few leaves and chopped tomatoes around it Seriously?! Come on, it's bad enough having to sit there taking stick from the meat-eaters for being veggie, but being served that really doesnt help matters. As a result I ate feck all after eating nothing all day, got chips on the way home though

Shenshen

--LOS-- wrote: »

Well you can ask ahead but still be disappointed, we got served cous cous for our main at tar's work party The starter was goats cheese tart, very typical and boring but fine, then when the waitress said the veggie option was cous cous I was thinking surely it wont be just cous cous on its own but it literally was plain cous cous in a bowl with a few leaves and chopped tomatoes around it Seriously?! Come on, it's bad enough having to sit there taking stick from the meat-eaters for being veggie, but being served that really doesnt help matters. As a result I ate feck all after eating nothing all day, got chips on the way home though

At least you had the goats cheese tart!
We had our christmas party on the weekend (not sure I should name the place, so I'll just say it's in Cork and owned by a person who not too long ago joined the mile high club solo), and the vegetarian option was soup, followed by what they called "Filo pastry filled with Ratatouille on couscous". Turned out to be burned, dry, tasteless pastry filled with spinach and feta, on some sort of slimy mush and tomatoe sauce tasting of baby sick.

I ended up nicking chips and veg from my colleagues.
Considering they had been told that 5 out of the 40 of us were vegetarian well in advance, it was rather disappointing.

schemingbohemia

You should name it and possibly also go on menupages to shame them!

My do was in Camden Kitchen in Dublin, delicious wild mushroom soup for starter followed by butternut squash risotto (definitely no chicken stock flavour).

Yum!