As a vegan or vegeterian, what do you do in this situation?

Question

If you are vegan and you walk into a restraunt and want to know things about what they serve........aka ingredients, oils, ect..................how do you go about asking without sounding annoying or rude?

Sometimes ill walk into a chinese restruant,..........ill ask for yo mein and they thow chicken on the pasta...................what am i supposed to do...............throw it away or remove the chicken peice by piece....

Because wasnt the meat sautted with the noodles to begin with...........?

Ya know............its hard to find a good vegan vegeterian restruant in Austin. I stay at home and eat most of the time thourgh.

Help is much appreciated.................and im not a troll anymore so stop insulting me!

Answer 1

It's a tricky question.

I won't eat food that has meat in it, and will send it back - just be polite and explain that you did not realize the dish had meat in it, and I'm sure they'll be fine. It happens all the time, and if you're nice about it it's not a problem.

To avoid it, always ask what is in a dish if it isn't explained on the menu. When you ask, servers may not know, and they may have to go ask the chef, but it's not a big deal in most cases. If I don't know I ALWAYS ask and I've almost never had problems. It helps prevent a lot of issues. The key is to simply be polite about it, for example saying "I'm sorry to trouble you, but do you know if your noodles are cooked in vegetable oil?"

Answer 2

Well it is not that much as tricky but as a confidence to ask what is in the food just explain to them that you are in fact a vegetarian and do not eat anything with meat in it politely and hope that they will fix the food you order to your likings.

Answer 3

I would choose one or two dishes I like the sound of and ask if they contain any animal derived ingredients or if they are suitable for vegans. Or choose the vegetarian dish and ask for no cheese, dairy, whey etc.

You should say to the person before you order "No meat!"

Ask.

Good luck! It gets easier. :)

Answer 4

If I was absolutely picky about what I would and would not eat I would find out before hand what the options were.   Some establishments are happy to bend over backwards to oblige all customers and others might get testy when something is ordered that is not on the menu.  This is not meant to be a troll answer.  It seems to me to be common sense.

Answer 5

First of all, restaurants are very good about it these days because so many people have weird allergies etc. so they are concerned not about customer service, but about being sued.

I gravitate towards ethnic restaurants because, such as Chinese restaurants (real ones anyway) they know what the word vegetarian means.  So, I usually order, and add, "No MSG, no egg or whatever.  Is what I ordered all vegetarian, no milk, egg, meat, seafood, chicken etc.?" just to make certain.  Other restaurants where I find they are vegetarian friendly are Russian, Middle Eastern, Korean, Taiwanese, Indian, etc.  Basically every culture around the world has mostly vegetarian dishes as animal foods are expensive.

If you go to restaurants, you will have to put up with things such as very low quality food, colours, cheap vegetable oils with defoaming agents etc. added, and on and on it goes.  The whole reason high end quality restaurants cost so much for their food is because they (hopefully) use top knotch ingredients of the utmost quality, organic, nothing from a can, all fresh, etc.

Answer 6

You're not rude if you ask the questions politely. Just say that you're a vegan/vegetarian. Say "No meat, no chicken, no fish, no eggs." I generally don't eat things if I can tell they were made with meat. However, in some cases I just eat around it. It's up to you. If you want to send it back, you can, but there's no guarantee you won't get the same noodles with the meat picked off.

Answer 7

when you ask for lo mein, say politely, please, no chicken on my noodles. thanks!

whe you ask for ingredients, say, i watch what i eat. may i please see a list of ingredients for this entree?

lo mein-i didn't know it was possible to sautee noodles. good luck! hope this helps

Answer 8

You tell them that your beliefs forbid you to eat meat, and ask what non-meat dishes they have.

Example: Tonight I went to a mom and pop Greek restaurant. I had a veggie salad; Pasta with Tomato Sauce and mushrooms; garlic bread; and a glass of wine.

I would recommend mom and pop type restaurants, since most chains don't like altering their menu and half the time the food comes in allready processed off site.

Answer 9

When you are ordering your food, just say, "Okay, I don't mean to be a pain, but I'm a vegan and I can't eat meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, honey, or anything made from any of those."  Then ask either, "Do you have anything here that I would be able to eat?" or "So could I have the [dish] without the [animal ingredient]?"  By chance they will say yes to at least to one of those questions.  If they do say yes be sure to say, "Thank you SO much, and I'm sorry for the trouble."  If they say no to both questions, just say, "Oh, well, thanks anyway," and walk away.

Answer 10

Hey, I'm living in the S.E.Asia and not many of them know vegetarianism (obviously the word VEGANISM). When I begun my vegetarianism, I walked around in the regular foodstalls requesting them to prepare "vegetarian-like" cuisine. (hey!weird to them, but I explained how/what to "exclude" from the food. There were no vegetarian food served those days). It have been 7 years already past now. Today i could see many vegetarian restaurant, hawkers and consumers knew the word VEGANISM. I start to realize that "I'm not alone" in the making. Many vegetarians/vegans are  contributing more than what I do/did to the society.

We act for the purpose of educating and appreciating, not detecting, neither investigating. To be more practical, if we need to influence them, we must mingle among them, guide them passionately.