If you are a vegetarian.......?

Question

do you often struggle to find something to eat ona restaurant menu? and have you ever been to an entriely vegetarian restaurant?

Answer 1

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!!!

Answer 2

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!

Answer 3

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!

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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!

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Answer 6

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/usa/index.html
Then click on your State,
Then click on your City

Answer 7

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!

Answer 8

Sometimes i find it easier that there are fewer options - i'm not too fussed what i eat, and i hate having pages and pages of things to choose. Plus it means if there are only 1 or 2 veggie meals on a menu then you can try something you might not normally try. Although if the only veggie option is chips then that's not so great. Have been to a few pure veg restaurants (though mostly in india!), they're good but i'm generally happy to go to a 'normal' place as my non-veggie friends can get meat deprivation!

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

I am a vegetarian and yes I struggle to find food - its bizaar that there are 1000s of recipes and yet impossible to find any one willing to put edible vegetable food on the menue. the final insult was a christmas and this restraunt had a christmas menue and one for vegetarians and on the menue was Greek salad, vegetable pasta and fruit and ice cream a very boring menue in comparison to the meat eaters. there are vegetable loaves and bean goulash and mushrrom strudel to mention a few. Harry Krishna restaurants are realy amazing with the most amazing cuisine and vegetarian chinese is also good