Vegetarians: vegetarian or normal restaurants?

Cafe Society
1

So I’ve often heard the argument that non-vegetarians cooks can cook a better vegetarian meal than vegetarian chefs because they’re focused more on making food delicious rather than restricting themselves to a dietary principle so I have a couple of questions:

Was the best restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant?
In your experience, does the average vegetarian restaurant produce a tastier meal than the vegetarian option at an average normal restaurant?
Was the worst restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant?

Was the best home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian?
In your experience, on average, have the home cooked meals cooked by vegetarians or non-vegetarians been tastier?
Was the worst home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian?

If you’re vegan, replace the words as appropriate.

2

Boy, lotta questions. As it happens, I don’t know any vegetarians enought to be invited into their homes for dinner. It also happens that none of the home cooked meals I’ve been invited to have ever been vegetarian. I think in the old school Chicago circles I run in, serving an entirely vegetarian meal to guests is looked on as at best, eccentric, and at worst, inhospitable.

I have, however, been to several vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants. I have to say the best vegetarian meal I’ve had was at an Ethiopian restaurant called Ethiopian Diamond which serves meat and vegetables. Their vegetables served on injera bread are to die for, collard greens, lentils, potatoes, the works. Extra, extra yum.

As for worst vegetarian, I don’t believe any such meal I’ve had was actually repulsive. Mostly they were just forgettable. I will say what I found most disappointing at a wholly vegetarian restaurant, which I will not name. If I go to a fully vegetarian restaurant, I expect at least some of its dishes to be happily and honestly vegetables. Every single one of this place’s offerings featured some kind of meat substitute. I ordered one of their faux-beef bbq skewer dishes and it was okay. But I don’t go to vegetarian restaurants to eat fake meat. I go to eat vegetables, hopefully done up in interesting and tasty ways. The meat I can eat elsewhere.

Whoops, upon rereading the thread to check your questions, I see you were asking only for the opinions of vegetarians. Sorry. Since I typed all this, I hope you won’t mind the opinions of one omnivore. If you do, please disregard all this with my apologies.

3

Was the best restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant? Vegetarian restaurant
In your experience, does the average vegetarian restaurant produce a tastier meal than the vegetarian option at an average normal restaurant? Yes, the veg restaurants generally do a better job.
Was the worst restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant? Not really at a normal restaurant, but produced by the hotel I was doing a trade show in.

Was the best home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian? A veg.
In your experience, on average, have the home cooked meals cooked by vegetarians or non-vegetarians been tastier? Vegs
Was the worst home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian? Non; hint: cottage cheese is not a viable substitute for ricotta when making lasagna.

I’ve been a vegetarian for about 19 years now, and the worst meal I’ve ever been served, and it happens once every year or two, is for some hack chef to boil a handful of asparagus, those little yellow squashes and baby carrots, load it up with MSG, and then try to serve that shit to me as a “vegetarian meal”. I’m serious. 6-8 stalks of asparagus, 2 squash and 4 baby carrots. Boiled into cardboard tasting craptacularness. Meanwhile, the people around me are being served rice and potatos and half a chicken or a 10 oz. prime rib. But because I’m a veg, somehow I’m supposed to live on rabbit-sized portions of boiled MSG.

Worst home-cooked meal? I went to meet my GF’s parents and her mom made dinner. She knew I was a member of the Wopadago Tribe, so she made lasagna. As I take my first bite, I realized that something was wrong. “Wow, that’s really interesting,” I said. “What’s in it?” This girl’s mom was so proud: “I’m so glad you like it! I didn’t know where to get the ricotta cheese the recipe called for, so I just used cottage cheese instead!” I banged my GF in both their La-Z-Boys that night. Never saw her parents again. We broke up a couple days (a week?) later.

I also think that whoever is telling you

is some nutter who has no idea what they are talking about. I’ve never once heard that argument or claim, and people feel all kinds of need to discuss someone’s diet once they find out it’s voluntarily different from their own.

4

Cutting some corners here - I am a vegetarian, but I can’t remember the last vegetarian restaurant I’ve been to or when that was. It’s been many, many years.

I also do cook omnivorously, just leaving out the meat in my food.

That being said, I agree with Snowboarder Bo’s assessment of your thesis. I’ve been to a number of omnivore restaurants where it seems like chefs have no idea what to do with vegetables and treat them as filler. A lot seem content to just mix up some pasta and marinara, or make a vegetable sandwich/portobello mushroom burger (the latter of which are inevitably poorly constructed/cooked so that they drip everywhere and spatter your clothes), and figure that’s “good enough.” Well, at least it’s not lettuce in a bowl, but it’s unimaginative and often barely flavorful. It’s at the point where I’m almost happy when someone can make a non-soggy sandwich.

Also, many omnivorous cooks are stuck on the idea that you need meat of some kind. I’ve had some put meat of some kind, usually meat-based broths, into my food because they think it’s required for me to be healthy.

Worst homecooked meal was by a non-vegetarian, same with best if you don’t count my cooking :smiley: - I don’t eat at a lot of vegetarians’ homes as I don’t know many who live near me.

Worst restaurant meal: barely-cooked or uncooked vegetables on a plate, plain. Like slabs of carrot and zucchini, that kind of thing. Seriously. I was at a fancy private club for an event, and either the event booker on my end didn’t say anything until we got there, or the kitchen forgot, or something. At least, that’s the only gracious explanation I can come up with.

I have had some awesome vegetarian meals at omnivorous restaurants - Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill and Paul Virant’s Vie, both Chicago-area restaurants, are examples of ones that have done amazing things with vegetarian food. I also went to a meal recently at the Tap House in the Chicago burbs where it was a beer pairing event, with reps from the New Belgium Brewing Company and the restaurant’s chef (Todd Davies), presenting a multicourse tasting meal and each course paired with a different beer from the brewery. The chef makes a special meal for vegetarians at these events, and from my husband’s opinion (who had the meat version of the meal and ate little bites of mine), he often liked the vegetarian options better. They were absolutely delicious to the point where I was literally gleeful throughout the whole meal and gushed my praise to the chef when he came around to our table.

5

Was the best restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant? Vegetarian, vegan actually. (Hooray for Native Foods and Buddha’s Veggie!)
In your experience, does the average vegetarian restaurant produce a tastier meal than the vegetarian option at an average normal restaurant? **Yes, although I have frequently had excellent veg meals at omni restaurants, especially Indian or Ethiopian. **
Was the worst restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant? Normal. Flavourless marinara sauce served on undrained spaghetti.

Was the best home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian? Vegetarian.
In your experience, on average, have the home cooked meals cooked by vegetarians or non-vegetarians been tastier? I don’t live in an area with many other vegetarians, so I haven’t had much experience with vegetarians cooking for me.
Was the worst home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian? Non-vegetarian. She adapted her famous sausage breakfast strata by removing the sausage, and thus the flavour. It was edible (and I ate it without complaint, of course) but it was pretty terrible.

It has been my experience that vegetarians are substantially more adept at creating tasty veg meals than omnis, simply by benefit of experience. There are lots of omni chefs who make great veg meals, too (like my mom), but it does take more effort and education. That being said, I am always grateful whenever anyone, be it restaurant or home cook, makes the attempt, even if it doesn’t turn out all that well.

6

Oh, good point - I realize I didn’t make that clear in my response. Good vegetarian meals usually aren’t an omnivorous dish minus meat. (In fact, I was wondering about this at the tasting dinner I went to, as the very first dish was minus the meat of the regular dish, and I saw how this could create problems as the meal went on, but then things changed with the other courses.) They also aren’t necessarily an omnivorous dish plus a fake meat substitute. You need to balance seasoning, texture, “fillingness”, all sorts of things. This can be very complicated. In many ways, it can be easier to create a vegetarian dish - if you understand cooking without meat - rather than adapt an omnivorous one.

I agree with the commentary that Indian and Ethiopian restaurants really tend to just nail vegetarian cuisine. Chinese and Thai food can as well. Maybe it’s just that cuisines with traditions of vegetarianism and of lack of meat tend to have these methods of cooking satisfying veg food integrated into them, and those chefs who don’t adopt the “meat=everything” attitude can work with this tradition.

7

As a non meat-eater (14+ years) who generally LOATHES “vegitarian” specific restaurants, in addition to Indian and Asian cuisine, Italian food is almost always a good bet for several delicious, satisfying non meat options, though for those who dont eat dairy (e.g. cheese) it is often a bit more limited…

8

True, though I’ve found sometimes this can mean you’re stuck with pasta marinara or perhaps a pasta alfredo/primavera. At Italian restaurants I don’t like paying too much for a bit of dry pasta and a simple sauce, so I prefer ones that will do something interesting. At least a stuffed pasta of some kind, maybe gnocchi. Risotto is nearly always done with a meat-based broth, and I don’t blame the restaurant for that - it’s such a labor-intensive dish - so I usually avoid it.

9

Let’s see … (BTW I am a vegetarian)

Was the best restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant? Non-vegetarian, actually … a Thai restaurant.
In your experience, does the average vegetarian restaurant produce a tastier meal than the vegetarian option at an average normal restaurant? I don’t know the average vegetarian restaurant, but it’s true that some of their meals are a little odd. However, vegetarian restaurants are almost invariably better because you have more than one or two non-meat options (two would be one entree and one appetizer).
Was the worst restaurant vegetarian meal you’ve ever had at a vegetarian or normal restaurant? Does a McDonald’s egg biscuit with no sausage count?

Was the best home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian? **A vegetarian, I think. I don’t usually rank people’s meals as best or worst, though. **
In your experience, on average, have the home cooked meals cooked by vegetarians or non-vegetarians been tastier? Vegetarians’ meals, because I can eat them. In my experience, non-vegetarians do not cook vegetarian meals, nor do they know how.
Was the worst home cooked vegetarian meal you’ve ever been invited to cooked by a vegetarian or by a non-vegetarian? It was cooked by a non-vegetarian … my mom. She used beef broth in the stuffed grape leaves (which she said were vegetarian). When I expressed that I couldn’t eat them, my sister guilt-tripped me because our mom had “bent over backwards” for me.

10

The best vegetarian meals in a restaurant are at my favorite vegetarian restaurant, Sunflower in Vienna, VA. Their food is awesome.
I don’t know what the average vegetarian restaurant is. They’re all different. They’re few and far between. I think of them as individual places instead of collectively.
The worst non-vegetarian restaurant meals have been in non-vegetarian restaurants, by far. When the cooks are like they can’t be bothered to cater to your scruples and throw something together desultorily. These places were in Europe. Here in America, the Thai restaurants are awesome and plenty of yummy vegetarian meals are available.

The best home-cooked vegetarian meal was by vegetarian me, of course, I’m the best cook I know!
I am the one who prepares all the vegetarian home-cooked meals, and I excel at it.
I can’t think of many examples of vegetarian home-cooked meals by other people I’ve had, but none of them are as good as me.