My Raymond Blanc saga

[Eileen Dover]

Hi
Well...yet another 'dining out as a Vegan' disaster.

In brief ..a big dinner party/farewell do was arranged from work for 25 of us. It was decided that as it was a big occasion we would pull out the stops and go to Raymond Blanc restaurant for a treat. The booking was made and the menu circulated. Predictably nothing for me on there at all. So I rang in advance of the day to see what food could be arranged for me. I was pleasantly surprised when I spoke to the receptionist and she put me immediately through to the chef. He patiently took me through the menu working out what he could adapt and what he could create for me. He assured me that they catered for 'all sorts' and that he regularly had Vegans dining in the restaurant.

So I hit the restaurant in fairly confident manner being assured of a risotto starter, and a non-egg pasta creation with a Vegan sauce,mushrooms, tomatos, walnuts etc. He assured me he would find an acceptable dessert for me and to leave it with him.

The first course was largely a success, a very tiny but very pretty risotto arrived and was consumed.

As the main courses started to be dispatched I noticed that mine was strangely absent. I waited, and waited, and waited some more by which time all the other diners were half way through their meal but the waitress assured me that 'chef was working on it'. It then arrived.

I was presented with a very LARGE bowl packed with pasta shells in tomato sauce no concession to imagination or taste in sight. I handed it back to the waitress remarking that it was devoid of walnuts or..well anything really. She scowled and glared and remarked that 'chef had been very inventive and there was no Vegan cheese' I told her that I had not been promised cheese, did not expect cheese but would like something superior to what I could knock up for lunch at home.!:rollseyes_ani:

She took the plate away and was gone another fifteen minutes by which time every one of the party had finished eating. My plate returned along with a stony faced waitress. It was the same pasta with one mushroom cut in quarters poked into it and three thin apple slices. She then returned and slammed down a pot of broken walnut pieces and said 'you wanted walnuts'.

I gobbled up my pasta quickly aware that everyone had now finished. While attempting to eat without causing too much of a hold up I then faced a barrage of questions about Vegans including a classic comment whispered loudly 'cant she even eat the ham hock then?'

Dessert arrived for the rest of the party in the form of elaborate fondant swirls and home made biscuits to ohhs and ahhs from everyone. Mine arrived last of course. Giant( and I mean giant) chunks of under ripe pineapple and melon decorated with two grapes. The fruit was hard and flavourless. My friend commented on 'the lovely dessert' they had gone to the trouble of preparing for me . I replied that I could not even cut it and was risking choking by putting chunks whole into my mouth and that reminding her that fruit is not much of a treat to people that eat fruit instead of meat anyway!!!!!!

I will not be throwing my money down that particular drain again.

[Clueless Git]

So, you drew a bit of a 'Blanc-été-Blanc' there then, my sweet?

[Eileen Dover]

So, you drew a bit of a 'Blanc-été-Blanc' there then, my sweet?

Yep..I should have listened to you and not ventured outside of the asylum :heart:

[Andy_T]

Eileen,

be sure to give them a glowing review on their inventiveness on any review site you come across...

Best regards,
Andy

[tickled onion]

aww, what a shame it spoiled your evening, I hope you didnt have to pay fancy pants prices for your very basic food!

[harpy]

Grr, how annoying for you. Are you going to write and tell them why you won't be going back?

[Eileen Dover]

Unfortunately I did have to pay full price as we had already 'paid up' in advance into a kitty which included drinks so I felt a bit churlish making a fuss !!

Secondly I will be 'waxing lyrically' about how unimpressed I was on their review site and any other site I get an opportunity to discredit them on!

AND ..thirdly I intend to write to them at length about my experience and if they offer me a complimentary meal voucher thank them kindly and ask if they could make it out to 'The Veggie Chef' instead !:thumbsup:

[harpy]

Good idea about the meal voucher! :D Personally I might wait for their explanation (in case the chef you spoke to had been taken ill etc between your phonecall and the meal) before reviewing them on other websites, but maybe that's unduly charitable?

[Blueberries]

There are few things that bother me more than having to pay full price for a bad meal that I'm expected to be grateful for. Rather than just admit that they have limited cooking skills chefs like that blame us for being vegans and make us horrible food out of spite for hurting their feelings! :)

[Clueless Git]

Eileen and myself have been caught out on this before ..

As a treat we booked a decent hotel for a night having checked that they could cater for vegans in advance.

On arrival; No standard arrangements for vegans whatsoever and absolutey no effort to get anything vegan in for our arrival either. No non dairy mlk or 'butter'. No vegan options. Not even a chef on site when we booked in, as it happens!

All we got offered was "when chef turns up he will tell you what we have in our kitchen and you can tell him what you would like cooked from there", kinda thing.

I wuz mightily pissed that Eileen wouldn't let me bring down the fires of hell on them for that.

This is the problem, imho. Taking the P out of vegans is easy because vegans make it so.

By my book the first time anyone who wants the vegan dollar tries it on then they should immediately suffer an experience that they will NEVER want to repeat. :evil:

[Astrid660]

That must have been so frustrating. Hell..How can people (chefs!?!?) not know how to prep a proper meal without butter or eggs, milk or meat?! Spices, people.. it's not that hard....... :|

[Clueless Git]

There are few things that bother me more than having to pay full price for a bad meal that I'm expected to be grateful for. Rather than just admit that they have limited cooking skills chefs like that blame us for being vegans and make us horrible food out of spite for hurting their feelings! :-)

Answer to that is simple: NO GOOD = NO PAY!

[micthemini]

I have just returned from a few days away in Shropshire. We went to Ludlow, food town, hmmmm. And I've had difficulties with chef and waitresses who don't get vegan.
One hotel/pub said they could do me risotto which had cream in it, was that okay? Errr, like, no. And who puts cream in risotto anyway.
Another we tried had tuna salad under the veggie options, that was enough for my (omni) hubby to drag me out of there (he hates the fish as veggie thing).
We eventually ended up in a tapas restaurant, and I have to say, it was brilliant. The waitress and chef were ace. Understood veganism, catered for me, were the best. Not cheap but I'd rather that than any messing.
Oh, other good experience, the hotel in Bishops Castle. Bar staff there enquired about food for me and were helpful too.
This is why we always go self-catering.

[Eileen Dover]

Good idea about the meal voucher! :D Personally I might wait for their explanation (in case the chef you spoke to had been taken ill etc between your phonecall and the meal) before reviewing them on other websites, but maybe that's unduly charitable?

I always admire your even handedness on the forum (its a genuine compliment dont look for a punch line!!:p) and you got it about right too.

I wrote a long letter of complaint and the main body of the response is printed below. My email was responded to in half an hour, and allowing for the fact that she cannot risk bad publicity ( and that she is omni of course) I found this quite an acceptable response.


Thank you for your email following your visit to Brasserie Blanc

I very much regret to read of the disappointing experience you received on what should have been an enjoyable time and I would like to offer my apologies for us not meeting your expectations.

I have taken on board all of your comments and the lady you spoke to on the phone to is on holiday at the moment but from investigating on my side where it went wrong was bad communication between the managers and chef, which i apologize for.

we pride ourselves on good food and service and to cater for everyone and not a boring salad or fruit salad because of being vegan.

i Would like to thank you again for bringing these issues to our attention as we appreciate all forms of feedback.

I would like to invite you and a guest back in for a meal so i can show you what we can do and that we can cater for all requests

once again sorry for the disappointing food that we served you

Kind regards

[harpy]

Thanks Eileen - I only said that because I have had similar experiences with restaurants in the past (i.e. talk to someone on the phone who knows all about vegan food and then when you get there nobody's ever heard of it or you) ETA and (I meant to say) it always seems to boil down to lack of communication rather than bad faith on the part of the person you originally spoke to. Of course, lack of communication is a problem in itself.

She does sound genuinely apologetic - are you going to take her up on her offer? Hope you do as am dying to hear what happens :o

Good for you for pursuing it anyway.

[Eileen Dover]

Thanks Eileen - I only said that because I have had similar experiences with restaurants in the past (i.e. talk to someone on the phone who knows all about vegan food and then when you get there nobody's ever heard of it or you) ETA and (I meant to say) it always seems to boil down to lack of communication rather than bad faith on the part of the person you originally spoke to. Of course, lack of communication is a problem in itself.

She does sound genuinely apologetic - are you going to take her up on her offer? Hope you do as am dying to hear what happens :o

Good for you for pursuing it anyway.

Yes I do intend to take full advantage of the offer and will be curious to see how they 'pull out all the stops' !!!! Will keep you posted.

[harpy]

Hurrah, can't wait to read about it! Can you still get that vegan caviar? :)

On a related theme, I have just been having a phone conversation with a Well-known Arts Venue about whether they could make a vegan picnic - that was quite interesting as well, as the woman, though eager to oblige, had no idea what some of the food on their menu was (I had to break the news that Taleggio is a type of cheese, for example). She is going to talk to the chef, but the last time I spoke to one of their chefs the conversation began "Can you eat crab?" :rolleyes: I think I may end up taking my own picnic, which is kewl actually.

[micthemini]

Harpy, is crab not vegan then :lol2:
Amazing eh!
And Eileen, do let us know how you get on. Is Brasserie Blanc in MK? One place for me to avoid when I come over.
I must get to Veggie World, but we tend to always end up at MiiandU

[Clueless Git]

Little update ...

We celebrated Eileen's birthday at the "nothing on the menu is labelled as vegan because everything on the menu is 100% vegan" 222 Restaurant (http://www.222veggievegan.com/) in Kensington yesterday.

Loosely the plan (my plan) is to take one of 222's menus to Raymond Blancs and say something like "Here is a menu prepared by a proper chef. It's a present for your cook."

Eileen has a slightly different plan though, I think. A plan wherein she will take someone more appreciative of pasta shells in tomato sauce than I to Raymond Blancs and leave me safely at home :(

[Blueberries]

Little update ...

We celebrated Eileen's birthday at the "nothing on the menu is labelled as vegan because everything on the menu is 100% vegan" 222 Restaurant (http://www.222veggievegan.com/) in Kensington yesterday.

Very nice :) What did you have?

[micthemini]

Little update ...

We celebrated Eileen's birthday at the "nothing on the menu is labelled as vegan because everything on the menu is 100% vegan" 222 Restaurant (http://www.222veggievegan.com/) in Kensington yesterday.


That looks rather good. Will have to go there.
Did you go for the 'all you can eat' menu?

[harpy]

Harpy, is crab not vegan then See me after class! 222 is great, and it's my local in a manner of speaking - would be even better if was local-er though

[Clueless Git]

Very nice :) What did you have?

I had these two dishes ...


Hearts Desire (http://www.222veggievegan.com/?page_id=70) Specially selected artichoke hearts sautéed with fresh aromatic herbs served on a bed of rocket leaves with a roasted pepper sauce.


Oyster Mushroom & Spinach Raclette
(http://www.222veggievegan.com/?page_id=84)
An original combination of spinach and tofu cottage cheese on a bed of roast potatoes, topped with sautéed oyster mushrooms and a light creamy sauce.

Eileen had these ...


Lentil Peak (http://www.222veggievegan.com/?page_id=70)
A Mediterranean-style dish with oven-baked ripe tomatoes stuffed and topped with seasoned green lentils. Served with leek and carrot.



Vegan Roast (http://www.222veggievegan.com/?page_id=84)

Hearty vegetarian roast with potato and parsnip mash laced with fragrant herbs. Served with onion gravy and steamed french beans.



- - - Updated - - -


That looks rather good. Will have to go there.
Did you go for the 'all you can eat' menu?

I didn't know there was 'an all you can eat' option there, mic.

If you do go there be aware that it is a bit of a 'Bear Garden' ambience wise, mind. Crowded, cramped and VERY noisy.

Defo worth a visit though!

We got absolutely stuffed to the gills, including a couple of drinks each, for just £50.00 including a 10% tip.

[Eileen Dover]

Eileen has a slightly different plan though, I think. A plan wherein she will take someone more appreciative of pasta shells in tomato sauce than I to Raymond Blancs and leave me safely at home :(

Firstly...you are not safe anywhere thats just establish that.

Secondly..I will be taking you. This is my battle and I have no intention of losing the day. I therefore intend to be armed to the teeth and flanked by my best men. :cool:

[harpy]

Good plan, Eileen! Let's hope they get it right this time, but if they don't I'm sure they will the time after :)

222 has an all-you-can-eat buffet at lunchtime, but table service in the evening. Both seem very good value, especially for a place that's so central. ETA it isn't always crowded but it's advisable to book anyway.