The Bride visited a Hotel here in Brisbane today for the break up of a group she is involved with that helps out young mothers, she is a vegetarian and ordered accordingly and waited for her meal to come out.
It was in a function room and so it was catered, not prepared off the menu.
Surprising as it may seem, the Hotel had no idea what a vegetarian is.
Entrée was first up, others on the table had mushroom risotto and also a bruschetta plate, I ask you here, are these not meat free?
Then the vegetarians’ entrée’s came out to the table and the meal comprised lots of lettuce leaves, thousand island dressing, two cherry tomatoes cut in half and about half an orange cut up on top of these ingredients.
Wow, crazy vegetarian entrée right there!
The Best Vegetarian Restaurant in Brisbane? A Strawberry’s not a Vegetable….
Next up, the main meals, this got a little better for the six vegetarians in the restaurant.
There were steaks on a bed of mash with brocollini and also a chicken thigh with carrots and potato medallions coming out for the normal eaters.
She and the troop of other vegetarians had a vegetarian pasta dish with a tomato based sauce, zucchini, squash and a covering of parmesan cheese this time which was a lot better than the vegetarian entrée or the non vegetarian entrée’s that were vegetarian if that makes sense.
The mother load of vegetarian clinchers came when the desserts rolled out.
All the other people at the table were getting normal meat laden desserts, you know the types chilli chocolate tarts with a squirt of mock cream from a can on top and a firm lychee mousse.
Now this is where the perception of vegetarians was a little skewed, these desserts, I ask you are they meat desserts?
Not unless pork chilli chocolate or beef infused lychees are on the market currently.
The waitress came out and asked who the vegetarian’s were.
Now at this point all the others except for six ladies are eating sweets, now vegetarians are people that don’t eat meat, correct?
Vegetarians still have sugar, chocolate and ice cream, of that I’m sure.
And lo and behold, this is when a platter of fruit came out for each of them.
Don’t get me wrong I was told, the fruit was beautiful and was extremely well laid out on the plate, but it just wasn’t what the others were having.
The Bride asked while pointing to the dessert sitting next to her, “Is there any more of these chilli chocolate tarts out the back, I may be a vegetarian but I still eat chocolate”
She got the reply “I’m sorry we didn’t know what allergies you have”
Ummmm, silence….
The Best Vegetarian Restaurant in Brisbane? A Carrots not a Fruit….
I think it maybe time for a few Brisbane Hotels to start having a think about catering for the vegetarian’s that walk amongst the humans currently.
Maybe Hotel’s should think about hiring vegetarian consultant’s that could give them advice on the ways of being a vegetarian and also teach them what is and isn’t a vegetable.
This could be a new career for somebody in the know.
You would think that a Chef these days would know the difference between meat and mushrooms, bruschetta, chocolate and lychees.
I’m not into naming and shaming, but if I get asked, I probably will tell you which establishment it was.
I thought I’d share my perception of The Brides experience if only because I thought it was funny.