3 ms·

It's funny because this is the opposite of my experience. The vegan dishes tend to be spiced better and come with a better variety of vegetables/flavours. But

It's funny because this is the opposite of my experience. The vegan dishes tend to be spiced better and come with a better variety of vegetables/flavours. But I'm also curious to ask: what would you assume about a vegan restaurant?

brigadier132 3y ago
I forgot the name of it but I've been to that famous mexican vegan restaurant in the sf mission and the food was excellent and yeah, my expectation of the food from it is different than what I would expect from a non-vegan restaurant. My expectation from most restaurants serving vegan food is that they are just trying to have something so that vegan people technically can eat there but not necessarily that they will enjoy it.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  Your expectation matches my general experience. I only eat those vegan options, and I rarely enjoy them. It’s not because vegan food can’t be good or because I don’t like vegan food; the restaurants and the people working them simply don’t care to make those options shine like other dishes. It’s not always true. It’s a safe guideline though. I’d say 4/5 cases it’s fair to expect the vegan menu option to be mediocre at best. This varies by locale too, though. It’s a little easier to find okay options in places with more vegan restaurants in general.
  - AlecSchueler 3y ago
    I guess locale is a big part of it. I'm maybe spoiled in the Netherlands where quite a lot of people limit their meat intake and vegan options are plentiful. I'm not sure why my comment above deserved all the downvotes though, I was only sharing my own experience and asking a question.
- kwyjibo1230 3y ago
  Gracias Madre may be the restaurant you're thinking of. I unfortunately heard it has closed recently
the_af 3y ago
A vegan restaurant is fundamentally different from a restaurant that happens to have some vegan dishes: a vegan restaurant specializes in vegan food.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  I understand that. If there was no difference I wouldn't have been curious to ask.
  - the_af 3y ago
    Fair enough. My default opinion of "vegan" items in menus of non-vegan restaurants is that they seem suspicious and are best avoided (I'm not talking about salads, of course). I tend to assume they are second rate meals put in the menu as an option for vegans who are there to dine with non-vegan friends. I have been proven wrong on occasion, as some restaurants do offer decent options for vegans without specializing in it, but as a default intuition it seems more often right than wrong. Vegan restaurants on the contrary can be quite good (again, with exceptions: just as there are bad steak houses or Italian restaurants, so there are bad vegan restaurants!). You just know the vegan items aren't an afterthought because every item is vegan.
belorn 3y ago
In my experience vegan food tend to mostly belong to a single food culture with its own blend of spices, taste and textures. It is as different to meat based food cultures as Indian food culture is to the food culture in Greenland. A typical vegan dish when I see it presented at a restaurant or conference is usually one that is primarily based on beans, chickpeas, lentils, and Couscous, usually with minimal spices. On the side there is usually several dips, often variations of Hummus. There are exceptions. If I see a vegan dish in a Thai restaurant I would assume a different taste and culture, hopefully one based primarily on seaweed and mushrooms.
- seba_dos1 3y ago
  As a picky eater who's not very fond of most vegetables, for most of my life I thought it would be impossible for me to enjoy vegetarian or vegan food just because whenever I'd seen some vegan options available somewhere they were just like what you described. Eventually it turned out that there are many more options out there than what you get when a meat-based restaurant needs to come up with some non-meat dish to not lose some orders and that if you find places where people know what they're doing you can easily discover vegan dishes that you find on par or even preferable to their meaty alternatives merely because of their taste and texture. Turns out there's a variety of "sub-cultures" there, but if you don't actively look for them all you get to see is bland mainstream filled with vegetables that I used to pick out from my plate as a child.

brigadier132 3y ago

I forgot the name of it but I've been to that famous mexican vegan restaurant in the sf mission and the food was excellent and yeah, my expectation of the food from it is different than what I would expect from a non-vegan restaurant. My expectation from most restaurants serving vegan food is that they are just trying to have something so that vegan people technically can eat there but not necessarily that they will enjoy it.

steve_adams_86 3y ago
Your expectation matches my general experience. I only eat those vegan options, and I rarely enjoy them. It’s not because vegan food can’t be good or because I don’t like vegan food; the restaurants and the people working them simply don’t care to make those options shine like other dishes. It’s not always true. It’s a safe guideline though. I’d say 4/5 cases it’s fair to expect the vegan menu option to be mediocre at best. This varies by locale too, though. It’s a little easier to find okay options in places with more vegan restaurants in general.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  I guess locale is a big part of it. I'm maybe spoiled in the Netherlands where quite a lot of people limit their meat intake and vegan options are plentiful. I'm not sure why my comment above deserved all the downvotes though, I was only sharing my own experience and asking a question.
kwyjibo1230 3y ago
Gracias Madre may be the restaurant you're thinking of. I unfortunately heard it has closed recently

the_af 3y ago

A vegan restaurant is fundamentally different from a restaurant that happens to have some vegan dishes: a vegan restaurant specializes in vegan food.

AlecSchueler 3y ago
I understand that. If there was no difference I wouldn't have been curious to ask.
- the_af 3y ago
  Fair enough. My default opinion of "vegan" items in menus of non-vegan restaurants is that they seem suspicious and are best avoided (I'm not talking about salads, of course). I tend to assume they are second rate meals put in the menu as an option for vegans who are there to dine with non-vegan friends. I have been proven wrong on occasion, as some restaurants do offer decent options for vegans without specializing in it, but as a default intuition it seems more often right than wrong. Vegan restaurants on the contrary can be quite good (again, with exceptions: just as there are bad steak houses or Italian restaurants, so there are bad vegan restaurants!). You just know the vegan items aren't an afterthought because every item is vegan.

belorn 3y ago

In my experience vegan food tend to mostly belong to a single food culture with its own blend of spices, taste and textures. It is as different to meat based food cultures as Indian food culture is to the food culture in Greenland. A typical vegan dish when I see it presented at a restaurant or conference is usually one that is primarily based on beans, chickpeas, lentils, and Couscous, usually with minimal spices. On the side there is usually several dips, often variations of Hummus. There are exceptions. If I see a vegan dish in a Thai restaurant I would assume a different taste and culture, hopefully one based primarily on seaweed and mushrooms.

seba_dos1 3y ago
As a picky eater who's not very fond of most vegetables, for most of my life I thought it would be impossible for me to enjoy vegetarian or vegan food just because whenever I'd seen some vegan options available somewhere they were just like what you described. Eventually it turned out that there are many more options out there than what you get when a meat-based restaurant needs to come up with some non-meat dish to not lose some orders and that if you find places where people know what they're doing you can easily discover vegan dishes that you find on par or even preferable to their meaty alternatives merely because of their taste and texture. Turns out there's a variety of "sub-cultures" there, but if you don't actively look for them all you get to see is bland mainstream filled with vegetables that I used to pick out from my plate as a child.