Vegan MoFo: An inexplicable policy
Last night I was all set to have dinner with a good friend at a new restaurant. I had always been intrigued by Iberia, a Spanish tapas place in Menlo Park, but hadn't seriously checked it out, because I assumed it wouldn't be veg-friendly.
But when my friend suggested it, I checked out the menu online and saw a long list of vegetable tapas dishes that looked very veg-friendly indeed. So, I said, "Let's do it!"
I got there before my friend and sat down with a menu. A menu that didn't have any of those vegetable dishes listed. In fact had only one item on the entire menu that was vegan: Gazpacho Soup. There was only one other dish that was even vegetarian.
I called over the waiter and told him I had seen this long list of vegetable dishes on their web site, and he told me "those are only served in the bar". I explained to him I was a vegan, but my friend was not, and couldn't I order off the bar menu, so that we could sit and have a nice dinner in the dining room? No. I could not.
Then what would he suggest I eat?
Gazpacho.
Sure, and what else? Seriously, can't I order off the bar menu?
No, I could not, but oh, yeah, they could make me a vegetarian paella. No chicken stock, he assured me.
So, that is what I did. I suppose if they hadn't had the paella I would have asked to talk to the manager or asked my friend if she minded moving. But I decided to settle for the paella, which was pretty good.
Although if there's ever a next time, I would sit in the bar, there were a few cute little tables there. Don't know, however, if a next time is in order.
A letter to the restaurant? Maybe.
