We Vegetarians / Every day

Eating out and asking well

Options have improved and the questions still matter.

Vegetarian options in restaurants have improved considerably in most places, and the remaining difficulty is that a dish described as vegetarian may include stock, fish sauce, rennet in cheese, or gelatine, particularly in cuisines where those are standard background ingredients rather than notable inclusions.

Asking specifically works better than asking generally. A question about whether a dish contains fish sauce or chicken stock gets an accurate answer far more reliably than asking whether it is vegetarian, since staff interpretations of the term vary.

The most productive time to ask is when booking rather than at the table, particularly at smaller places, because a kitchen given notice will frequently cook something considerably better than the one option on the menu.

For anybody with an allergy rather than a preference, none of the above applies and the conversation is a different and more serious one that should be conducted directly with the kitchen.

It is worth adding that asking about ingredients is easier at quiet times. A question at the start of service gets a considered answer; the same question at the busiest moment gets whatever will end the conversation, and that is a reasonable response from somebody under pressure rather than an indifference to the request.