Positive Restaurant Experiences
I thought I would mention this as a companion issue to the bad restaurant experiences thread of a few days ago.
We're on the road right now, and altho I cook in the hotel some, we still end up at restaurants quite a bit, both for social and practical reasons. We're currently in the deep South, where vegetarian is a foreign word, and vegan isn't a word at all ;)
But, I've had two great experiences lately that I wanted to share.
1) We went out for lunch yesterday, and it was a place that only complete meals (no a la carte)- which included a salad bar, a meat, 2 veggies, bread, dessert and drink for a set price. I explained to the server I was a "strict vegetarian" who didn't even want eggs or dairy and asked what side dishes were appropriate. I told him I would give the meat to my DH. When he brought my meal, he had put the meat on a separate plate so it wouldn't touch! And, he had put the roll with the meat because it had butter - without me even asking! :)
2) We recently went to a Chinese buffet, and I asked which dishes I could eat. The Chinese hostess (who struggled with English) walked thru the entire serving line with me, asking "do you eat eggs . . . chicken broth . . . shellfish?" Okay, this has egg, this has broth, this is okay for you, etc. She was so sweet!
Anyone else have good experiences lately?
My mom and I just got back from a drive to Oregon, and we stopped off in Weed, CA. With a name like that, I'm not surprised that we found a veg-friendly place to eat, but nonetheless I was really impressed with the place we went to. It's called the Buddha Belly Cafe, and the menu was the opposite of most places: almost everything was vegan/vegetarian, except for a couple things. I had a sesame tofu salad that was scrumptious. I really liked the atmosphere there too, it was super casual, nothing fancy about it, and the staff was sort of... relaxed. I guess if we had been in a hurry, it wouldn't have been good, but it just fit the whole feel of the place.
Anna1111, it's none of my business, but you've mentioned being on the road a lot before. What is it you do to earn your bread?
It's OK to tell me where to get off, but do it gently if you can. I've had a rough day! I wrote a poem yesterday about the other side of Mother's Day (for those who have no children or mothers anymore) and unwisely shared it with a couple of Internet groups. You'd have thought I was advocating matricide, instead of just expressing how hard it is when you have no kids or no mom. Ouch!
Anyway, if you want to know--I tutor Eng Lit for peanuts and I trained as a translator but not employed for that. (No "plug in" as we say here--it's def. who you know, and I don't know anyone.)
i just went to a totally omni wedding celebration and was given a veggie spring roll to start, gorgous tomato risotto main and an exotic fruit platter as a dessert, all totally vegan, no quibbles, no hassles at an event where i would usually have stealthed a sandwich along to in my handbag!!
i live in london and its easy to go to veg restaurants here, but i tend to find that omni places are quite happy to do what you want if you are clear (and flexible, like tofuttibreak was saying about the diner). however when they mess it up they really do!!
BTW i have asked this before but what does DH stand for? is it someones initials or an abbreviation?
We ate at CiCi's the other day (pizza buffet). Its so cheap (4.99 for all you can eat-including salad). and they will make you your own pie upon request for no extra charge. Anyway, I ordered a half cheeseless-veggie pizza and the other half with very light cheese (for my son-we let him have cheese occasionally) and when the guy brought it out, he said, "I put these on two separate pizzas so that the cheese wouldn't get on this half". I didn't even ask! I try not to be too nit picky when I'm out (I waitress a couple of nights a week!). I really appreciated it. Go Cicis!!!
mellow mushroom
i love it, and they really bend over backwards to help you
--no garlic butter on the crust
no parmaesean
no cheese
instead, since i'm not getting cheese, they've let me sub an extra veggie topping before
or when ordering the subs
they let me sub extra veggies instead of the cheese
and pesto instead of mayo
and...anything else my vegan heart can dream up when mix and matching my tofu/tempah subs!!
yay!
;D
Anna -
I’d be happy to share - tho I’m a little guarded because of the public nature of the internet. It’s my husband’s work that requires us to travel. Because he is traveling so much this year, I’m not working this year so we can be together. I’ll be happy to share more - you can email me if you want - I use yahoo (not the UK one, but the American one), and my name is annaseptember9.
I understand the Mother’s Day thing completely - my Father died when I was young, and I endured a childhood of Father’s Days and Father Daughter Banquets and the like. When people don’t understand things like what you wrote - well, they just don’t get it.
Ginger-
DH means “Dear Husband.” SO means “Significant Other”
We ate at CiCi's the other day (pizza buffet). Its so cheap (4.99 for all you can eat-including salad). and they will make you your own pie upon request for no extra charge. Anyway, I ordered a half cheeseless-veggie pizza and the other half with very light cheese (for my son-we let him have cheese occasionally) and when the guy brought it out, he said, "I put these on two separate pizzas so that the cheese wouldn't get on this half". I didn't even ask! I try not to be too nit picky when I'm out (I waitress a couple of nights a week!). I really appreciated it. Go Cicis!!!
Thanks for the inspiration! tonight we went to a buffet - and at first I thought it was going to be yet another salad-bar-meal (in a state where salad means iceburg lettuce, celery, carrots, and jello!) - but they had pizza - and with your encouragement, I asked for a veggie, cheesless pizza. At first, the cook was stunned, and I thought she was making fun, but the chef motioned to me and said he was making one, just for me. He gave me the whole pie - except it was cut in pieces and moved to fill in the empty spot ;) - somebody was curious!
I only tried cheesless pizza a couple of weeks ago - and found I really prefer it to the cheesey stuff 8)- and I always thought it was the cheese that I loved about pizza - in fact, pizza has been one of my big holdout foods!
Sunday, I went to help my best friend clean out her new space (she teaches martial arts). There were 5 of us there. Three of us are vegan. The other two are not. So we were debating on where to eat. Then the one girl said, "I know of a place!" It's called Glen Mountain Market (Watkins Glen NY). They have vegan and non-vegan options there. I was so suprised to find a place like this! They were very nice about making our sandwiches exactly how we wanted them. And I had the BEST tofu burger that I have ever tasted there.
I always have problems eating out as all of you do. I don't even know any other vegetarians except my cousin who lives 400 miles away. The closest vegan restaraunt to me is like 200 miles. I cook my meals and my non veggie familys meals at home. However, I am on the road alot being a singer/songwriter so I usually take my own food and stop at the grocery along the way for fresh things. A couple of weeks ago, the guys wanted to stop at a restaraunt called the Country Kitchen, after a gig in Dyersburg Tn. I thought I would go in and have my usual , salad and baked potato (my condiments in my purse, ready) When to my surprise, they had a vegan section in their menu. I was so elated to order the baked penne with roasted vegetables and whole grain flat bread. I was even more surprised when I ate it and it was devine. I even talked to the cook and found out that she was vegan and thats why it was added to the menu. My DH and I will be going back there soon. Oh, and the carnivores with me loved their meal also, of course, yuk!!!!!!!!
I mentioned this on some other thread, but I'll mention it here. We have no vegetarian restaurants where we live but Atlanta is only about an hour away. I hate going there but if we HAVE to go to pick up children from the airport or on the rare occasion that we go to the High Museum, we like to go to R. Thomas Deluxe Grill. It is a restaurant for all "persuasions"--omnis, vegetarians, and vegans. All the options are best quality, organic if available. The restaurant is very funky with mobiles and twirly things hanging from the ceiling. Basically you're eating outside (all the chairs are resin chairs) but the "patio" has screening and plastic "curtains" to keep out the bugs, weather, and extreme temperatures. The staff are very nice and helpful and the meals have all been delish. The second time we went, our group included a lacto-ovo vegetarian, two omnis, and two vegans. Everyone was quite happy with their meals. An interesting side note is that they are open 24/7/365. :D
I had my own positive restaurant experience yesteday! ;D I finally got to eat at San Antonio's only fully vegetarian restaurant, Greens. Actually I had lunch and dinner there before we headed back home. They're not open on Saturdays when we usually go to San Antonio but my DH had a job interview and I got to go with. I had their special of the day, Tofu in Mexican mole' sauce, for lunch and a chicken-fried wheat meat sandwich for dinner. Both were very good! The only disappointment was that their side salad was tiny. Just some cucumber slices, alfafa sprouts and a bit of diced tomato. I expected some lettuce! The decor of the restaurant is fascinating. The tables have old photos and memorabilia under glass cover. The first booth we sat at had old wedding photos and congratulatory cards and other wedding related stuff. There was a receipt for $10 for renting a limo for a wedding back in the '40s. The second one at dinner had old photos and postcards of Carlsbad Caverns. The photos on the wall are interesting too. In both restrooms (I have my DH's word on the men's room), they have pictures of the building before it was restored and made into the restaurant . (Not so good when you're waiting to get it and someone's looking at photos.) I didn't ask where they got all the other photos, etc. but it made for an interesting dining experience besides the good food!
I think most restaurants have at least one thing suitable for vegans. Last night we had Itailian & I got pasta with marinara sauce & a side of sauteed veggies. Today at lunch was habaci & they had a vegetarian option. The only places I have problems are bars, seems like there is meat and or cheese on everything except fries!
This isn't terribly recent, but one time I went to France with my family (to the countryside mainly, not Paris or anything), and I was kind of having a terrible time procuring vegan food. Everywhere I went I did get *something*, it was just that it was almost always sautéed potatoes, fries, steamed asparagus, or some combination thereof. We were travelling on the road one day, everybody was hungry, and we stopped over at some restaurant in the middle-of-nowhere by the highway (or whatever you call it in French).
Turns out to be a family-owned place, and more than that, the husband is the (only) chef and the wife is the (only) waitress. And, they're Dutch, and apparently vegans/vegan food is more common there (I had no idea). Anyway, as my kindly aunt was carefully explaining my diet (there is a word for vegan in french , but no one much seems to know it), the lady suddenly exclaimed "Ah! Elle est vegetalienne!", and went off to tell her husband. Ok, I was kind of surprised. Then the husband came out to meet me, because he had yet to meet a vegan in France (a little to his disappointment, I told him I'm American), and was excited because he said he hasn't had the chance to make vegan food since moving to France, because it's not the kind of thing people eat. He plainly asked me what I would like (uhh?), and asking things like if lentils and lima beans and this and that are to my taste (at this point, anything but potatoes and vinaigrette was to my taste).
That guy came out of the kitchen with everyone else's (IMO) boring meaty-meaty-meat food, and with a special lentil/lima/onion/garlic thing sitrfry in a poppadom (sp?), and brought me kiwi sorbet at the end of the meal while everyone else was having glace (ice cream).
Not only was it cool that he went and made something special and actually knew what I was talking about, but he was just so excited to make vegan food. I've never met such an enthusiastic chef in the states.
What a great story, faunablues! It gives me such a great feeling when I meet another vegan or someone who is enthusiastic about it like that. It makes me feel normal for a second!
I think most restaurants have at least one thing suitable for vegans. . The only places I have problems are bars, seems like there is meat and or cheese on everything except fries!
And if they're chilli cheese fries, not even that... :D
Faunablues, your good chef may have been vegan at one time and had to give it up in France...it is near imposs to be vegan in Spain unless you do all your own cooking from scratch.
faunablues, what a great story! What a nice guy.
I just met another friend. Well, she is in my martial arts class with me and my friend (who is vegan). But I had no idea she was. Sunday, she was the one who suggested the place to get vegan food (read my last post). She also brought in muffins on sunday for breakfast. I whispered to my friend "are they vegan?" She said yes. I ate one ... OMG!!! They were SOOOO good. I found out last night that the other girl made them. We started talking in class, and became instant friends. So now, we are the "three of a kind" (as we are known in class now) hehehehe.
I know this has nothing to do with a restaurant (kind of), but I am so excited to meet vegans personally to share recipes and food with. Makes my life easier ;)