One of the most requested topics in my Vegan How To series is about eating out at restaurants as
a vegan. I can totally relate to your struggles with eating out. Even to this day, I find restaurant
experiences as a vegan can be very hit or miss depending on the restaurant/chef. The good news is that more and more restaurants are becoming sensitive to dietary restrictions and allergies, opening up new options on menus for those who need them. Plus, the more demand there is for something, the more change there will be in the future. I personally look forward to the day when vegan options on a menu are the norm, rather than scarce or uncommon. Oh yes, it will happen!
I’ve put together some of my tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over the past few years. I hope they’re
helpful for you. As always, I’d love to hear your own tips and experiences below!
1. Happy Cow Website
Searching the Happy Cow website is probably my best tip when you are looking for a veg-friendly restaurant in your area or when traveling. You simply type in your location and a list of veg-
friendly restaurants usually pop up. I use this website almost exclusively when I travel or just looking for new options in my own area (of course, asking you on Facebook is always helpful too!). There are also reviews and ratings, so you can read what others are saying about the restaurants. Many times people will write what dish they modified to be vegan or what the chef prepared for them on the spot.
2. Plan ahead and look up the restaurant menu online
Of course, it’s not always possible to eat somewhere that’s veg-friendly. Whether it’s a family gathering or a friend’s birthday, I attend my fair share of non-vegan restaurants. Before I go to a new restaurant I always scope out the menu online to see if there are any obvious vegan menu items. Hopefully, I can find a couple vegetarian menu items that can be veganized, but vegan options are often non-existent on many restaurant menus. If there are a couple vegetarian options or dishes that might easily modify to be vegan (such as removing chicken from a noodle stir fry), I will make a note of them.
3. Call restaurant for options
If there aren’t any obvious meal options on the menu, I will often call the restaurant and ask whether
they can accommodate a vegan. Don’t feel like you are being a pain in the ass because restaurants actually like to get a heads up whenever possible, or so I’ve been told. I’ve never been turned away (not surprisingly), but I have received my fair share of enthusiastic promises (“Oh yes we can make anything you want!!”) only to get there and find out that the chef thinks a small plate of vegetables qualifies as a satisfying vegan dinner. It helps to be specific about what you would like. If there is a dish you have in mind (for example, a pizza or tofu stir-fry) don’t be afraid to ask if they can make it happen!
4. Ask if they have a vegetarian menu
Did you know that some restaurants have secret menus? What the heck! I discovered this only because my friend Heather told me that a local restaurant (Paradiso in Oakville) has a vegetarian menu. But guess what? They don’t even put the vegetarian menu on the table unless you ask for it. The horrors. I was so thankful that Heather told me about the menu because it has several vegetarian options and a delicious vegan option that I order every time I’m there (kinda obsessed with portobello steaks). I realize this isn’t the norm for restaurants to have separate menus, but it never hurts to ask and let them know that you’d love the option!
5. Get creative with sides
Sometimes vegetarian menu items can be made vegan quite easily by just replacing the butter for oil or
leaving off the cheese. If my options are limited I always ask if these swaps can be made. One thing I’ve done in the past is to order a few side dishes (asking them to hold the butter) to create a meal. A few sides of brown rice, beans, and veggies easily adds up to a balanced meal.
6. If you think options will be severely limited, eat beforehand
When I’ve done my research and suspect my options will be severely limited, I usually have a light meal beforehand to ensure that I don’t feel deprived at the restaurant. No big deal.
7. Seek out ethnic cuisines
Many cuisines have a lot of “naturally” vegan options or they can easily be modified. I absolutely love dining at Indian, Mexican, and Thai restaurants because they have so many options for me. Even dishes with cream can easily be made without impacting the overall flavour too much.
8. Try a fun beverage
Treat yourself to a fun non-alcoholic or alcoholic drink. Even if the food options are limited it will still feel
special to have a fun drink you normally wouldn’t have! [Side note: Barnivore is a good site for looking up vegan alcohol brands. Check out the apps too.]
9. Comment card or online review
As I was writing this, I asked myself…do restaurants even do comment cards these days? And then I realized, well, duh, people do online reviews! Silly me. Well, whether it’s a comment card or an online review, they are great ways to let your voice be heard. Feel free to ask for more vegan options – you can bet that most restaurant owners will be reading and taking note of common requests!
10. Don’t sweat it
I generally have low expectations when it comes to dining out at restaurants that aren’t veg-friendly, so I don’t let a less than stellar experience ruffle my feathers. Instead, I focus on the experience itself – the great company – and know that in the grand scheme of things it’s really not a big deal. Cheers to that.
Getting caught up on my How-to series? See these posts: Introduction (Why this series), How to make the transition, Replacing Dairy Milk, Homemade Oat Milk, Homemade Almond Milk
What have your experiences been like eating out as a vegan? I’d love to hear any tips you may have below!
German restaurants are definitelly not vegan friendly. We usually dine at an Indian, a Thai or an Italian place, they all have vegan options for me!
My boyfriend loves wood fired pizza so whenever we go to a restaurant that serves this I bring my own bag of daiya cheese. Provided that the dough is vegan, I will ask the server or the chef if they’d be willing to use the daiya in place of whatever cheese usually goes on the pizza. Occasionally I will get a funny look but I’ve never been turned down! I have also done this at a popular Tex Mex restaurant and they have happily replaced shredded cheddar with daiya.
This is a great list of tips! I am lucky to live in a small town and the chef and cooks at my favorite restaurant have even gone out of their way to whip me up appetizers, entrees and desserts in the past! I’ve discovered that simply communicating with the restaurant staff, even if you’ve never been to that establishment before, is one of the best tools of the trade. I feel like if I am a paying customer, I want my money’s worth (and to leave with a fully belly and maybe even a doggy bag). It’s also great when my fellow diners take a look at my plate when it comes to the table and they say that they’d rather be eating the vegan dish.
Mmmm you’ve just reminded me of that portobello steak at Paradiso! (We should totally go back, by the way!) This is a great list. I agree – it’s all about being prepared. Even though I’m not vegan, I used to feel like I was being a huge pain when I asked for things like cheese to be removed etc. But now I figure that we pay enough as it is to eat out, so you might as well have a dish that you can enjoy all of! I also think it’s really nice to see restaurants becoming more willing to make accommodations now, as more people are turning to alternative diets. I can only hope the trend will keep growing! :)
Agreeing with previous poster re: Asian food. I have a particularly difficult time with Thai food because of the fish sauce. Middle Eastern food, on the other hand, is a vegan dream.
Ha ha! I was just sweating and worrying about an upcoming business dinner at a famous steak and seafood place in Washington DC when I saw this post. Great idea to call ahead of time to see if the restaurant can accommodate vegans. In this day and age, it floors me that better restaurants wouldn’t anticipate at least vegetarians and/or have something on the menu or in the freezer that is veg-friendly or easily modifiable.
I would change #7 to #1. Whenever I am out with non-vegan friends, unplanned and they want to know what is easiest for me– eating ethnic solves the problem every time. It’s good to research, but also nice to know you don’t have to all of the time if you have a consistent plan b in your pocket.
hey there.
just have a look at THIS website also using the same domain name prefix…just a different suffix
http://www.happycow.com.au
the horror!
i wrote to them and told them i was disgusted!
Yikes…I wonder if Happy Cow has a trademark to protect their brand? That is a shame.
they wrote back to me and directed me to their page: http://www.happycow.com.au/recycled-leather-bags-sustainable.
They argue that they are using offcuts, which would otherwise be thrown away, and thus they are cruelty free and not creating a demand. how outrageous. All hides would be thrown away if we had not found use for them. I seriously doubt men first killed animals for their skin. That came later. I dont even know how to reply to him. So sad. thanks for your acknowledgement by the way.
also i think i will write to happy cow and ask if they have a trademark.
I have found the hardest places to find vegan fare is at BBQ/Southern restaurants – the veggies, especially greens are cooked with ham as well as the beans. Very frustrating! Most everything is pre-made, not made to order – so asking for things to be made without butter or meat is a bit of a challenge.
If you’re ever in the London area, you need to come check out Organic Works – I’m actually working there now. It’s a bakery (that supplies GF and vegan bread to places like Whole Foods and Kindfood) and also a cafe that serves both vegan and non-vegan options. I think you’d like it! :D
So I just discovered the VeganXpress app and I’m in love! It lists the vegan options at a ton of major restaurants. In writing this, I’m not sure if it lists Canadian restaurants but it has a ton of US ones and it was worth the $1.99 I spent. It makes travelling and eating at mainstream restaurants soooo much easier. :)
Love these tips!! I might have to try ordering the portobello steaks at Paradiso…I LOVE that place (got their olive oil as a bday present!) but didn’t know about the secret menu. I’ll keep an eye out for you next time I’m there :)
This is a great post and a really important topic for people who are new to the vegan lifestyle. I love the Happy Cow website, and I always find that previewing menus online before going to a restaurant is so, so helpful. Eating at ethnic restaurants generally is pretty successful. Maybe that is one reason why I am absolutely loving Indian food right now.
I really love these posts Angela :)
I have found it surprisingly easy finding vegan options at most restaurants, such that the ones where it isn’t possible are the exception rather than the norm. The nice thing about wanting vegan food is that there isn’t much I won’t want if it’s vegan – compared to being fussy about other aspects of food, it’s easier in some ways. I’ve been out to dinner with friends who are ‘detoxing’ or dieting and they are really limited, whereas I only need 2 vegan options to feel like I have sufficient choice because usually I could happily eat either.
I also laughed at the thought of secret menus. Maybe that’s what has gone wrong at the restaurants that just didn’t seem to have any veg options!
Great post, hopefully this helps people who are considering transitioning to a vegan diet with all that it entails
I’m probably in a worse boat than everyone here (haha) because in addition to being vegan for the animals, I’m also on a low-carb diet. Finding things that are both low-carb and vegan is almost impossible while dining out, so what I do is just order delicious salads everywhere I go. A lot of restaurants in LA have great salads on the menu both as sides and as entrees, and if the salad is non-vegan, I ask for a substitute [olives or avocado or something in place of the pepperoni strips or whatever. They’re always cool about it]
I think salad dressing is sometimes a challenge at a non-vegan place [I’ve actually smuggled vegan dressings in my purse into restaurants, and yea it feels a little ridiculous but who cares haha]
I also order lots of fresh fruit plates and stuff. I love fresh fruit [it’s always lovely in SoCAl with like cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, etc] so if I can have that and nice chilled vegan diet soda or juice or whatever, then I don’t feel deprived at all, b/c I wouldn’t want to be eating chickens fried or whatever my friends are having, and they wouldn’t want to be eating the fruit plate I ordered either
Anyway, it all works out, and no worries, and yea I agree to always be polite to wait-staff and everyone, just in general, and then no problems and all:D
Also I sometimes not only carry salad dressings but also little stuffs like cashews and almonds or roasted squash and melon seeds [whenever I cut open a spaghettis squash, butternut squash or cantalopup or honeydew, I roast the seeds with salt, so delicious!]
So yea, I carry those seeds and/or nuts in my purse too, and snacking on those along with having a terrific healthy salad when I meet up with friends means I’m totally full and not sitting there feeling very hungry and uncomfortable
With how much I love animals, I can’t ever imagine going back to non-vegan foods, I just can’t do it….so maybe part of this is also just having a positive attitude about the whole thing and not getting all irritated and cranky like a mad little steam engine just because they don’t have a specialized vegan menu option everywhere I go and whatnot
Hi, Angela! Same can be said for other dietary restrictions. We are flexitarian with gluten intolerance and need to keep low carb (mostly). It’s quite difficult to accomodate us. And that’s the main reason why I would never go vegan, because life would be far too difficult and when it’s possible to accomodate 1 diet restriction, 2 or more is frankly impossible. The same can be said when you eat at friends/family, who very often cannot think of a meal without a lot of carbs and animal protein.
Since eating out is so very difficult, I began to review restaurants on tripadvisor, lonelyplanet and happycow, expecially when I received excellent service.
I would encourage all your readers to do the same, for 2 reasons.
a) it’s our small way to reward them for the extra mile they went through to provide us with a good dinner. It’s like giving a tip to the whole restaurant and not only to your server.
b) It helps potential customers to make the right choices and avoid bad surprises. This is quite important, expecially if you go abroad and you are not very familiar with the local language/culture, etc
I check out the menu ahead of time and call to verify if the items do not have any animal by-products i.e. chix stock (veg stir fry), butter(bread), whey(smoothies), lard(taco shells)when eating out i bring my own dressing, spinach.
I’ve been vegan and following the Eat to Live plan for 7 months, so eating out can be a challenge. At first I was too timid to ask for anything special, but during one long and hungry day at the Wisconsin State Fair I decided to plaster a smile on my face and ask a steak sandwich concession stand for just the vegetables from a sandwich. The owner just said, “Sure, are you vegan?” and then fired up a clean unused grill to cook some fresh mushrooms, onions, and peppers for me. She piled it all on a plate and even found a fork for me. And charged me less than half price! She said she was thinking of adding the veggie plate to the menu. After that I realized that most places want happy customers. The more we speak up (politely) and request vegan options, the more available they will become…even at the State Fair!
^ That’s awesome. So glad to hear that.
I’ve had many similar experiences here in LA where I’ve asked for only vegetable/fruit sides in unlikely places and the owner or waiter will be like “You’re vegan? My sister in law is vegan, hang on, I think we can do x and y” or whatever.
I agree about speaking up politely–always very politely–and requesting vegan options. If we keep doing this, they’ll eventually be everywhere. [Eternal optimist here hehe:p]
The vegan express app is pretty great when you are in a chain restaurant wasteland. I’ve used it many times when traveling and we are stuck in an area with chain restaurants and nothing else! It has snack foods and alcohol too.