Should we pay less?

[greensgood]

maybe this should be in food discussion however this is a question i think about when eating out at restaurants.
i live in a very non-veg. friendly area and eating out is not very fun. it cannot be avoided sometimes and i question, substitue, and customize pretty much everywhere i.e. bean & cheese burrito w/ no cheese, chinese chicken salad w/ no chkn, pomodoro no cheese or pancetta etc...
at nice places that are not tiny diners or fast food, i sometimes feel like i am not getting my money's worth because i end up paying the same price for less food and cheaper ingredients. i see some menus that charge extra for cheese, sour cream etc. and have different prices for options with shrimp, beef etc., so on the reverse it would be nice to have the price of the cheese taken out of my orders, since it wasn't used.
we go to a really nice italian restaurant that i order a seafood arrabiata linguine with no seafood. the sauce is a perfect spicy (animal free!) masterpiece that they just add seafood to, so i get it w/o all those creatures, but it still costs $20. i don't go there often b/c its so hard to justify that much dough on tomatoes, peppers and pasta....
i am a bit shy in general and more so about my vegetarianism, does anyone else every ask for a cheaper price? as a former restuarant worker, i don't see any problems and i always give good tips so...

[TerrapinTurtle]

I don't ask for a lower price, but I expect it. It's like, a part of the reason for not eating the meat in a dish is so that you're not paying for it and supporting the meat industry. And you know they can ring up an $8 as opposed to $12 salad, or whatever. In the case of the $20 bowl of pasta, I would say something about that. Or, next time you go order fettuccine alfredo or something cheaper, and sub the sauce you like.

[Libera Mentis]

It's about your wording. Next time you go to that italian place, instead of saying "I want the seafood dish without the seafood" say "I want a side or two of pasta with the sauce that is used on this seafood dish on it." That should come out to maybe five dollars, and most restaurants have options for a side of noodles/sauce.

[journey]

Yeah, this really annoys me too. Maybe I should speak up and say something too. When you get a dish without the meat, cheese, sour cream, etc. it really does seem like they should charge you a lower price - after all those are the most expensive ingredients.

I suppose it often depends on asking in a nice way, or maybe talking with the manager in advance (but I really hate calling ahead). Libera's idea sounds great too.

On the flip side, before my husband went vegetarian he used to always be disappointed that I often got more food/cheaper price than his meat dish if I could find a vegetarian dish that could be made vegan (my big pile of veggies vs. his little pile of meat).

But I find so many servers act like either it's a problem to leave the meat off (from dishes that could be easily modified) or they're completely bewildered as to why anyone would want that, you won't like how it'll taste without the cheese, etc., that I'm so tired of having to be so assertive to even get something that I can eat that I don't bother to then also say something about the price.

[cranberryavocad]

When I order something "minus the meat" I ask them what they're going to be charging me. If it's outlandish, I usually make a weird face and say, "Why?" This usually solves the problem.

[karenlovessnow]

I always order sides when available. It's always cheaper than ordering a main meal minus the meat/cheese or whatever.
With the exception of a restaurant in Myrtle Beach where they charge $6.95 for a baked potatoe and $6.95 for sauteed spinach...ridiculous....

[Medesha]

I figure the extra time they take in making a special meal for me is worth whatever money they keep in ingredients. Sometimes it's not as easy as taking out the cheese -- they have to use different equipment, or make something from scratch that normally comes in a bag. Most chain places have standardized assembly-line methods for preparing meals, and anything that disrupts that process takes extra time and effort.

At really fast-food or "build-your-own" places I expect cheaper prices, though. Most places I visit do it automatically (Moxie's always takes a few bucks off for no meat, I know, and Mongolie Grill takes 10% off vegetarian stir-fries).

[KellyBon]

At a chinese restaurant I ordered green bean chicken with no chicken. I paid $8.99 for a plate of green beans. Do you know how many green beans I could have bought for $8.99????

[cranberryavocad]

Right...especially at sit-down places where they're already charging you loads you should be able to expect a discount for ordering a meat dish "without the meat". But if heaven forbid I go to McDonald's and order a burger without the burger or something...fine, whatever, keep the 50 cents or whatever it is extra. I haven't been to a McDonalds in years, though, so maybe that's not the best example. Come to think of it, I haven't been to ANY fast food place in years...lol

[froggythefrog]

It's about your wording. Next time you go to that italian place, instead of saying "I want the seafood dish without the seafood" say "I want a side or two of pasta with the sauce that is used on this seafood dish on it." That should come out to maybe five dollars, and most restaurants have options for a side of noodles/sauce.

If you order a side of something, be sure to tell them you want it on a plate. Seriously! I've had my food brought to me in all these tiny dishes because I ordered "sides".

[Eleven]

It's about your wording. Next time you go to that italian place, instead of saying "I want the seafood dish without the seafood" say "I want a side or two of pasta with the sauce that is used on this seafood dish on it." That should come out to maybe five dollars, and most restaurants have options for a side of noodles/sauce.

This is true. I ordered at a Mexican restaurant:2 sides of black beans, some guacamole, and 6 corn tortillas. Lunch for 2 was $6.90.

[yvettemelissa]

I was once taken to this restaurant where NOTHING was vegetarian..i ended up ordering a burger without the cheese or meat, and this came with salad or chips or something..
so after they looked at me funny, they charged me like..alot less..
haha

[cranberryavocad]

Reminds me of when my friend went to a French restaurant with her family to celebrate something...as she put it, there were eggs in the pasta, dairy in all the sauce, and meat in everything else...Awful!

[The Lurker]

lol, on our wedding night at a local posh hotel we arrived quite late after the reception and I asked the doorman if I could get something to eat. Having explained my vegetarianism he assured me he could rustle something up no problem.

10 mins later and a knock on the door - 2 bits of brown bread and a lettuce leaf in the middle. Because I had better things to do and being near starvation, I wolfed it down . . . as you do.

Paying the bill, I noticed the ****ers had the balls to charge me £10 for this culinary treat!!

[Will Penguin]

I figure the extra time they take in making a special meal for me is worth whatever money they keep in ingredients. Sometimes it's not as easy as taking out the cheese -- they have to use different equipment, or make something from scratch that normally comes in a bag. Most chain places have standardized assembly-line methods for preparing meals, and anything that disrupts that process takes extra time and effort.


That's how I feel. If a place is accomodating about altering their dishes to make them vegan friendly, I'm happy to pay the listed price.

[MoeCiroc]

But I find so many servers act like either it's a problem to leave the meat off (from dishes that could be easily modified) or they're completely bewildered as to why anyone would want that, you won't like how it'll taste without the cheese, etc., that I'm so tired of having to be so assertive to even get something that I can eat that I don't bother to then also say something about the price.

This is slightly off-topic, but your comment made me think of a ridiculous story from my early-vegan years.

I ordered a quesadilla with no cheese (weird, maybe, but it came with a vast amount of veggies stuffed inside). The waiter came back to my table - no exaggeration - 4 separate times!

To make sure I understood that "It's not going to taste right" and "The tortilla isn't going to stick together very well."

:dizzy:

[Moophius]

I figure the extra time they take in making a special meal for me is worth whatever money they keep in ingredients. Sometimes it's not as easy as taking out the cheese -- they have to use different equipment, or make something from scratch that normally comes in a bag. Most chain places have standardized assembly-line methods for preparing meals, and anything that disrupts that process takes extra time and effort.

Exactly. Any modified item takes more time to make than the standard dish, and the more modifiers you tack on, the more difficult it becomes. This slows down the kitchen, and it's therefore not something most proprieters wish to encourage with a discount.

However, a lot of places these days have equal value substitution policies. That is, if it costs two bucks to add chicken to something, and it costs two bucks (or less) to add avocado or mushrooms, you should be able to get a chicken dish with avocado or mushrooms in place of the chicken for no extra charge. It's worth an inquiry.

By the way, this is my first post here, so hi everyone! I'm new to the vegan scene but an old hat in restaurant work, so I hope to contribute at least a fraction as much as I take away from here.

[cranberryavocad]

In my waitress days, there were loads of salads which would have been brilliant without the meat...they were actually easier to make without the meat...there was a separate chef working in the cold salad area, and the hot foods chef had to put the meat on the salad. It was the waitress' responsibility to make sure the hot foods chef put the meat on the salad. It was pretty easy to omit this step if my customer was vegetarian. But I suppose every place is different.