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.!
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.
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