Jimmy Spices - anyone had any experience?

[Jiffy]

Looks like I'm being press ganged into one of those delightful dining out experiences, where I'll be the only vegan and will have to endure all the bum gravy that goes with it.

The proposed venue for this gastronomical nirvana is 'Jimmy Spices World Buffet'. Just wondering if anyone had been. I did email them to ask about vegan options.....predictably they couldn't be arsed to reply.

[harpy]

No I've never heard of it before, but I just looked at their website and they seem to be going on about their salads and fruit, and their chefs who cook your meal to order, so I would have thought they ought to be up to a vegan salad at least.

They are also promoting their mother's day offerings, so perhaps the internet isn't their forte and you might get more of a response by phoning?

[Jiffy]

Perhaps they are referring to the USA Mother's Day

[harpy]

That's charitable!

[smallhelen]

I've been to the Jimmy Spices in Birmingham. There are buffets from around the world, and chefs who can prepare other stuff too, like fresh dosas, etc. I piled my plate high with salad, and there were Chinese veggies, rice dishes, and even chips. Ate way too much food! It's not of the highest quality, but it was a nice evening.

[Jiffy]

Oh well, we went there yesterday (Epsom)and it was very much as I had feared.

Plenty of variety there.....if you weren't vegan. Each of the dishes, from which you serve yourself, has a label stating what it is and 'allergy' information. Pretty much everything had the allergy field populated with the word 'Dairy'. There were a few where it simply said 'ask chef'.

This where it got interesting, but not in a good way. All of the staff clearly had English as a second language, not so much broken English as non existent. They really didn't understand what a vegan was and seemed to run away with the idea that I was just allergic to dairy. They did try telling me what I could and couldn't eat but kept directing me to dishes which either had corpse in them or were clearly labelled as containing dairy.

In the end I went for a sweet Thai curry, which only contained cocconut milk, allegedly. It was like a kind of orangey pink soup with various half cooked vegetables floating in it, not all of which I was able to identify. After that I just had some more plain rice and some salad.

I shan't be rushing back there.

[harpy]

Oh dear. Yes the language problem can get in the way can't it? Perhaps we should all start taking the "Vegan Passport" when we go out to eat here as well Glad you got something anyway even though it doesn't sound terribly appealing.