Restaurant Dining With Style
No matter how well you plan ahead, there will be times when you’re in a restaurant and there’s almost nothing on the menu that fits your vegetarian needs. That doesn’t mean you should throw a hissy fit and pout; it means that you need to get a little creative.
Scan the menu, and look at what they offer. By examining their menu items, you can figure out what ingredients they use most frequently and ask for something combining those that they have on hand. If they offer spaghetti or fettuccine and steamed vegetables as a side dish, you can ask your server if the chef could put together a vegetarian pasta dish for you. If you’re really stuck, you can make a meal of bread and salad, or ask for a baked potato.
But before you give up and make a meal of side dishes, ask your server nicely if the chef can accommodate a strict vegetarian. Odds are, they’ll say yes. Then nicely tell them what you can and can’t eat. Make sure you specify that you don’t want any animal products, and let them know if that includes fish, cheese, eggs, or milk (surprisingly, even some chefs don’t know what qualifies as vegetarian cuisine). If it turns out that they can’t, thank your server for trying—after all, it’s not their fault—and make do with what’s available.
It pays, however, to understand a little bit about how the restaurant business operates. The waitstaff and cooks at diners and family-style restaurants will be less flexible when it comes to accommodating your off- menu requests. This isn’t because they care less about their customers; it’s because they are, due to the nature of their establishment, less flexible and creative. Ninety-nine percent of the customers who eat in such restaurants order straight off the menu, sometimes asking for simple adjustments like no butter on the toast or a side of sour cream. The waitstaff is accustomed to taking orders and getting food out fast, and the line cooks have mastered the standard menu items and rarely offer off-the-menu specials. Most of the time, the staff members at family restaurants simply don’t know how to accommodate special dietary requests because they don’t get those requests very often.
Fine dining establishments and neighborhood restaurants, though, are almost always better at handling special requests. The chefs are used to improvising and creating new menu items based on fresh local ingredients. The staff knows that customers need to be catered to so they’ll keep coming back; the big chain restaurants care less about cultivating regulars because they know they’ll still get lots of business no matter what.
Another advantage to eating in better restaurants is that, if you know in advance you’ll be dining there, you can call ahead and let them know that there will be a vegetarian in your party. If you have a chance to look at their menu ahead of time, great; many restaurants now have their menus on the Web sites. But you can also call the day before, ask to speak to the manager or the chef, and specify that you’ll be coming in at a certain time and tell them what your needs are. Don’t just say, “I’m a vegetarian.” Tell them that you don’t eat any animal flesh (or eggs, cheese, and whatever your restrictions are), and you can even ask them if they can make sure your food isn’t flavored with chicken or beef broth. For best results, don’t dictate to them what you need; tell them politely, and ask for recommendations. If you’re talking to the chef, he may come up with something terrific that isn’t on the regular menu because it wouldn’t normally sell well to their omnivorous clientele.
Even if something on the menu looks like it’s probably a good choice, don’t be shy about asking how the dish is prepared. It pays to know what certain cooking terms mean. “Au gratin” usually means that it’s topped with cheese, and “scalloped” potatoes are made with a cream sauce. It’s better for you, your server, and the chef if you make sure that you can eat something before you order it, rather than sending it back after it’s been prepared because it turns out to contain ingredients you can’t eat.
Also—remember those foods that often contain animal products like Caesar salad dressing, piecrusts, and tortillas. In restaurants, you’ll also find that vegetables are sautéed in butter, spinach salad comes with bacon bits, split pea soup contains bits of ham, and potato salad has hard-cooked eggs. So ask your server about these things before you order, and then tip them accordingly for going the extra mile to make sure you get what you want!