el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
Risotto, the Vegetarian Lasagna of the 21st Century.
Vegetarian Meals In Pubs
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hiraethified
And I imagine the pub will be rated accordingly. When I see a decent sized pub only offering risotto as a veggie option, I rarely bother ordering anything there.
Thimble Queen
Called away to another place
Also veggie options are *always* smaller than meat options 
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Or vegetarian fucking lasagne, which has (often to the point of still being cold in the middle) patently obviously been pulled from the back of a freezer.
I used to be quite pleased to find goat's cheese tart on a menu, but that's become the default veggie option, too.
What I would really want to see would be:
- Choice. Don't just give me one option - I might come to your pub more than once in a couple of weeks, and - unless your 3- bean chilli is absolutely amazing, I probably don't want to eat the same thing twice.
- Variety. Change the bloody tune! There's nothing to make this veggie feel like a second class citizen than going to a place a few months later to find that the meat eater's menu has been very interestingly rotated, but there it is - the same old mushroom stroganoff/veggie lasagne that's been on the bloody menu for the last 3 years, still there.
If you're going to bother putting veggie items on your menu, have some imagination, and don't just look for a way of producing some kind of veg-based "meat equivalent", because you'll be boring the ethically-sourced bamboo fibre socks off your vegetarian clientele.
And remember that vegetarians have lots of friends because they're nice people, even if those friends aren't also vegetarian. So if you want to fuck off your vegetarian clientele, do feel free: just remember that they'll be taking the 7 or 8 meat eaters who were also going to be joining the party with them. To your competitor.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
Glad to see hardly any suggestions with aubergines or courgettes in them. They sully most vegetarian dishes in most places I go to.
Veggie bean chilli has the advantage of being suitable for vegans, the lactose-intolerant and the gluten-intolerant too. Plus it's kosher and halal and low GI, I think. Also damn tasty.
If you do meat Sunday roasts then adding a veggie version would get me in the door. Even just veggie sausages and veggie gravy with all the Sunday roast trimmings would do, though obviously nut roast would be better if you can do a good one.
Baked potatoes may be reheated and therefore low quality, but they're handy to have on a menu for people with really restrictive diets or bland tastes.
Veggie bean chilli has the advantage of being suitable for vegans, the lactose-intolerant and the gluten-intolerant too. Plus it's kosher and halal and low GI, I think. Also damn tasty.
If you do meat Sunday roasts then adding a veggie version would get me in the door. Even just veggie sausages and veggie gravy with all the Sunday roast trimmings would do, though obviously nut roast would be better if you can do a good one.
Baked potatoes may be reheated and therefore low quality, but they're handy to have on a menu for people with really restrictive diets or bland tastes.
shakespearegirl
just worked out taglines
Battered halloumi 'fish' and chips (*the one they serve at Terre a Terre in Brighton is awesome -
I have to say this is probably one of the tastiest veggie dishes i've ever had. Sadly, Mr Shakes seems to have lost the war with lactose so these type of dishes are off the menu.
I have to say this is probably one of the tastiest veggie dishes i've ever had. Sadly, Mr Shakes seems to have lost the war with lactose so these type of dishes are off the menu.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
I can appreciate that as a problem, but it is difficult when it is made into the customer's problem. The constraints you describe shouldn't, in my view, be an excuse for promising (by including it on the menu) vegetarian parity with the rest of the menu, only to find that the food is significantly substandard, or that the vegetarian customers are treated as something of an inconvenience, which is rather too often the case.
Businesses like that will lose my custom after the first visit, and I shall make it my business to ensure that they will lose the custom of my friends, too. At least if a business is honest and upfront and is prepared to say "Sorry, we don't cater for vegetarians" (there's quite a few here in West Wales), I know who to avoid without a) wasting my money, and b) getting pissed off enough about them to slag them off to my (non-vegetarian) friends.
shakespearegirl
just worked out taglines
How about polenta chips with a nice tomato sauce. You can keep the chips made in the fridge for a couple of days and fry them up to order
fredfelt
Mostly unknown member
Stop right there. Aubergines are fab for veggie dishes. They have a deep taste and a great texture. Aubergine parmigiana for a start!
fredfelt
Mostly unknown member
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
We went to a pub in Pembrokeshire one Sunday, "Do you do a vegetarian option for Sunday lunch?", quoth I. "Yes", said the barman, so I ordered one beef Sunday lunch, and one vegetarian (same price), and paid.
They arrived. Mrs E had a plate overbrimming with very good, decently-cooked beef, all the vegetables, stuffing, and all the trimmings. I got a plate of vegetables, swimming in gravy. I enquired, "so where's the vegetarian option?". "That's it", he told me, "Everything except the meat". "And this gravy's vegetarian, is it?" "Well, it hasn't got any actual meat in it".
If I had had my way, we would have demanded our money back and flounced. Unfortunately, Mrs E was hungry and enjoying her lunch far too much, and clearly did not want me to have a big punchup with the staff, who refused me a refund. So I contented myself with hungrily pushing my disgusting gravy-soaked vegetables around the plate until they disintegrated, and compiling a mental list of the several hundred people in the locality whom I might gratifyingly libel the Boar's Head Pub, Templeton to.
I was very pleased when, some time afterwards, I noticed it had closed down.
It's reopened under new management in the last couple of months, so I hope they've upped their game on the veggie front.
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
Yea, the battered halloumi is something I've wanted to try for ages and would definately make me want to go to the pub.
cyberfairy
http://unicycle-emptiness.co.uk/
One good veggie option sounds a good idea but my partner is a veggie and can't eat mushrooms which are so often the focus of a veggie meal. Also, it is nice to have a choice, preferably one not easily made at home in ten minutes, heavily based on pasta and the ingredients costing a quid. And as already mentioned, if there is just one veggie thing, going out for a meal, the same as the last meal makes you feel somewhat unadventurous.
I walk out of anywhere that has fucking risotto. Every mouthful is the same and there is generally nothing on the side to cheer it up. It is eight or more quid for a bowl of often bland starchy stodgy disappointment which cost fuck all to make and is easy enough to do.
I like to eat something that is not on the daily list of dinners at home (chilli, lasagne etc) or if it is, is better than I would make at home. Had an amazing cheese souffle the other day which is something I would fail at cooking so was delighted to eat it out. I am confused as to why so many easy but inventive veggie options are never utilised by pub chefs (and including wanky 'gastro' in this. Why not aubergine parmigiana instead of goats cheese something? Why always goats cheese and mushroom?
I walk out of anywhere that has fucking risotto. Every mouthful is the same and there is generally nothing on the side to cheer it up. It is eight or more quid for a bowl of often bland starchy stodgy disappointment which cost fuck all to make and is easy enough to do.
I like to eat something that is not on the daily list of dinners at home (chilli, lasagne etc) or if it is, is better than I would make at home. Had an amazing cheese souffle the other day which is something I would fail at cooking so was delighted to eat it out. I am confused as to why so many easy but inventive veggie options are never utilised by pub chefs (and including wanky 'gastro' in this. Why not aubergine parmigiana instead of goats cheese something? Why always goats cheese and mushroom?
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
^ this. Who fucking decided veggies have to eat goats cheese? Do meat eaters actually like this stuff?
or is it just carnivores' way of punishing veggies?
kittyP
Pluviophile
So places should either have a menu that is totally equal for veggies and meat eaters or not cater for veggies at all and be honest about it?
That seems a bit odd.
Surely some places it's clear that there main focus is meat but they feel they should put something on there for veggies to.
Jeff Robinson
Marxist-Lentilist: Jackboots and Jackfruit
I was in a French resturant with my GF, she ordered steak and I had the 'vegeterian option' as part of a set three course menu. Both the same price and both came with veg and roast potatoes, but instead of steak I got plain rice. Had to be the crappiest veg sub ever.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Excellent
Well, there isn't actually anything wrong with frozen lasagne. Provided it isn't the usual collection of chunky flavourless vegetables and Chernobyl sauce.
I cook a spinach, walnut and lentil lasagne that freezes excellently and is dirt cheap to make. It probably scores rather high on the faffiness count (though if you're making meat lasagnes at the same time, it's not really much more hassle)
Another dish I do that I think would adapt well to a catering environment would be walnut balls, served in a soubise sauce (béchamel sauce with finely diced onions).
A lot of vegetarian options are clearly made from a meat-eater's perspective, and lack that kind of umami mouthfeel that it takes a little more skill to achieve in vegetarian cooking - those chillis and tomato-based pasta sauces can be massively improved by slightly charring the vegetables, and/or giving the base sauce a good dollop of tomato puree which is then sizzled over a low heat before the main liquid and ingredients are added - there's nothing worse than a chilli which is clearly mostly beans, TVP, and a slightly watery sauce running out of it.
Those are a few ideas, anyway...
ETA: somebody mentioned aubergine parmigiani, too - excellent "meaty" veggie dish.
And remember - lots of meat-eaters like veggie food. There is scope for making the vegetarian option the "with" for the meat dishes. I imagine a steak with an aubergine parmigiani side would make a rather interesting dish, for example.
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
for pubs not enough notice is taken of veggies wanting to match food/drink.
If you were drinking cider:
Macaroni cheese, or some form of cheesy bake (nb. not goat's cheese)
leek/mushroom stuff
Veggie sausage/mash
Guiness:
Veggie stew and dumplings
Veggie sausage/mash
Lager:
Veggie Curry + rice
Red wine:
Something cheesey and tomatoey - with olives maybe
If you were drinking cider:
Macaroni cheese, or some form of cheesy bake (nb. not goat's cheese)
leek/mushroom stuff
Veggie sausage/mash
Guiness:
Veggie stew and dumplings
Veggie sausage/mash
Lager:
Veggie Curry + rice
Red wine:
Something cheesey and tomatoey - with olives maybe
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Veggie sausages/nut loaf/walnut balls/an interestingly savoury combination perhaps of peppers, lentils, reasonable spices, etc.
And - most definitely - no sense of being a nuisance or a second-class citizen
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
I'm wary of pub curries and chillis as there is too much room for it to be underwhelming. But battered and deep fried halloumi is gunna be good even if poorly executed.
Also veggie options are *always* smaller than meat options
Haha - aren't they? We always have a laugh at this - it's like everyone thinks 'they must be faddy eaters, those veggies, so they won't want much'. In fact, it's the opposite.
existentialist said:And - most definitely - no sense of being a nuisance or a second-class citizen
You are the sort of pest who wants cheese in a sandwich not bacon
Seriously? Why would someone be a pest? A Sunday roast (London pubs) is gonna be £8+ and drinks on top. No pub or chef should care a jot as long as you spend. Might as well make it something worth having.
kittyP
Pluviophile
Excellent
Well, there isn't actually anything wrong with frozen lasagne. Provided it isn't the usual collection of chunky flavourless vegetables and Chernobyl sauce.
I cook a spinach, walnut and lentil lasagne that freezes excellently and is dirt cheap to make. It probably scores rather high on the faffiness count (though if you're making meat lasagnes at the same time, it's not really much more hassle)
Another dish I do that I think would adapt well to a catering environment would be walnut balls, served in a soubise sauce (béchamel sauce with finely diced onions).
A lot of vegetarian options are clearly made from a meat-eater's perspective, and lack that kind of umami mouthfeel that it takes a little more skill to achieve in vegetarian cooking - those chillis and tomato-based pasta sauces can be massively improved by slightly charring the vegetables, and/or giving the base sauce a good dollop of tomato puree which is then sizzled over a low heat before the main liquid and ingredients are added - there's nothing worse than a chilli which is clearly mostly beans, TVP, and a slightly watery sauce running out of it.
Those are a few ideas, anyway...
Tbh that is all Gastro pub territory
spawnofsatan
Down by the river
Cheese and onion crisps, bag of nuts.
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
Which is why some kind of hearty bean soup is great
You can shove soup up yer bum.
I require tasty treats when in the pub. Soup + beer? Nah.
