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On Improving the Vegan’s Restaurant Experience

Ron from Ashland, Oregon happen to write me the day after I had a terrible dining experience at P.F. Chang’s, which is quite vegan friendly and has some great wines. I ordered the always-tasty Ma Pa Tofu, Dave ordered the Buddha’s Feast, and our loser best friends both ate chicken dishes (they did eat–and enjoy–the veggie lettuce wraps and say they’ll get them in the future instead of the chicken ones, so that’s progress, I guess.)

My food came out last and was inedible and covered with finely-ground black pepper for some reason. When the second one came out, everyone else was done eating, and this one was undercooked (read: the tofu was like jello) and covered with salt. So I had a glass of wine and 2 tofu lettuce wraps for dinner. Lucky I’m not all that attached to food. This was just a case of a terrible meal for me (Dave’s veggies were delectable and not overcooked), and I can’t relate it to veganism. Just to a cook who maybe has never prepared Ma Pa Tofu.

Ron’s idea has more to do with a meal I was told was vegan a couple of weeks ago, but had eggs and chicken stock. He has a rubber stamp with red ink that says, "VEGAN FOOD ORDER.  PLEASE ON ANIMAL INGREDIENTS: NO MEAT, NO FOWL, NO FISH, NO EGGS, NO DAIRY, NO HONEY.  THANK YOU." At a restaurant that’s new to him or that has erred before, he stamps the receipt/order ticket. And if it’s all done electronically and no one will see it, he has Plan B: a letter.

Dear Restaurateur:

Vegans eat no animal products in any form or any quantity (no flesh, dairy, eggs, or honey).  We vegans often find it difficult to get our order filled correctly on the first try, no matter how carefully we specify what we want.  On this visit to your restaurant an error was made, and an animal product was included in my order initially.

I want to suggest that you consider offering a separate vegan menu, even if it has only a few items on it.  The benefits are as follows:

1) Saves staff time.  Wait staff need not inquire about whether a menu item is vegan or can be made vegan.  No need to redo incorrect orders.

2) Prevents food from being wasted, saving you money.

3) Gets you more business from vegans (and non-vegans who dine with them).  We are delighted when a restaurant makes an extra effort for us, and will go out of our way to patronize your establishment and tell our vegan friends about the vegan menu. 

A VEGETARIAN MENU, EVEN ONE DESIGNATING VEGAN ITEMS, WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM UNLESS THE DEFAULT CONDITION OF EVERY ITEM IS VEGAN.  IN OTHER WORDS, EVERYTHING ORDERED WITHOUT MODIFICATION ARRIVES AT THE TABLE FREE OF INGREDIENTS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN; THE PATRON MUST SPECIFICALLY REQUEST CHEESE OR SOME OTHER NON-VEGAN ADDITION OR SUBSTITUTION.  OTHERWISE, WE VEGANS ARE BACK TO SQUARE ONE, AS OUR FOOD WILL STILL INADVERTENTLY BE SERVED WITH ANIMAL INGREDIENTS.

Thank you for considering my request.

Wow. Those caps are intense. But the letter certainly makes several valid points. For power of a different kind, I’d attach a copy of my receipt, to prevent accusations that this isn’t some kind of form letter being blasted out to all local merchants. I’d also suggest finding out who the owner is and the manager is and sending a letter to both, using their names and CC-ing the other.

My experience is that I’ve never been in a situation where there’s nothing I can order (sometimes I am relegated to a baked potato and steamed veggies), but that doesn’t mean I enjoy my meal. It’s time to change the quality of my food experience when I eat out, and that’s not going to happen by itself.

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