Stuck between a Hard Rock and a bacon salad.
I had lunch at the new Hard Rock Cafe in Glasgow yesterday. I won't be back. I was dubious about the place as I had looked at their menu and couldn't see much that was vegetarian. However, my work has a birthday lunch tradition and the new Hard Rock Cafe was the chosen venue.
I had previously tweeted my impression of the menu when the place opened and got several replies from the venue trying to tell me that they did do vegetarian stuff and that I could ask my server about them. I'm not very impressed with places who do not list vegetarian options as part of their normal menu as it gives the impression that they do not do vegetarian food and that they are really not interested in doing any. I don't want to turn up and have to dig for information on what they can cook. Asking me "What would you like?" is not very helpful as how am I supposed to know what they have in their kitchen? This sort of thing usually leads to the really ignorant "We have fish" comments which shows that they haven't a clue, nor do they care.
So, getting back to the Hard Rock Cafe. They apparently don't do the full menu at lunchtimes so all the options they had tweeted at me were not available except for the veggie burger. The two starters were both salads so I asked the server which one was vegetarian. She told me one had Parmesan in it so I went for the other one (due to Parmesan being made with animal rennet).
The salad arrived, it looked good and I began eating. Until I tasted something salty and suspicious. On investigation I discovered bacon sprinkled all through it! What sort of fool puts bacon in a salad? I called the server, asked if what I had found was in fact meat (because not eating it means I do not always recognize it). She went off to the kitchen and came back to confirm that it was. She was extremely apologetic and brought me a fresh salad but the notion had worn off me.
Then it was on to the main course. The veggie burger. Now, I'm a vegetarian because I fundamentally do not like the taste, texture and smell of meat. I should have been vegetarian since birth as I have never liked meat. My parents always had huge battles with me to get me to eat the stuff and when I was old enough to make my own decisions I went vegetarian.
So the Hard Rock's veggie burger was an extremely good effort on their part to pretend to be meat. It smelled like it, looked like it, and tasted like it. There are vegetarians who would probably appreciate that. But not me.
The Hard Rock Cafe was as big a disappointment as I had originally thought it would be. All their tweets about what they could offer vegetarians came to nothing as they weren't offering those options at lunchtime. I'm not impressed.
I had previously tweeted my impression of the menu when the place opened and got several replies from the venue trying to tell me that they did do vegetarian stuff and that I could ask my server about them. I'm not very impressed with places who do not list vegetarian options as part of their normal menu as it gives the impression that they do not do vegetarian food and that they are really not interested in doing any. I don't want to turn up and have to dig for information on what they can cook. Asking me "What would you like?" is not very helpful as how am I supposed to know what they have in their kitchen? This sort of thing usually leads to the really ignorant "We have fish" comments which shows that they haven't a clue, nor do they care.
So, getting back to the Hard Rock Cafe. They apparently don't do the full menu at lunchtimes so all the options they had tweeted at me were not available except for the veggie burger. The two starters were both salads so I asked the server which one was vegetarian. She told me one had Parmesan in it so I went for the other one (due to Parmesan being made with animal rennet).
The salad arrived, it looked good and I began eating. Until I tasted something salty and suspicious. On investigation I discovered bacon sprinkled all through it! What sort of fool puts bacon in a salad? I called the server, asked if what I had found was in fact meat (because not eating it means I do not always recognize it). She went off to the kitchen and came back to confirm that it was. She was extremely apologetic and brought me a fresh salad but the notion had worn off me.
Then it was on to the main course. The veggie burger. Now, I'm a vegetarian because I fundamentally do not like the taste, texture and smell of meat. I should have been vegetarian since birth as I have never liked meat. My parents always had huge battles with me to get me to eat the stuff and when I was old enough to make my own decisions I went vegetarian.
So the Hard Rock's veggie burger was an extremely good effort on their part to pretend to be meat. It smelled like it, looked like it, and tasted like it. There are vegetarians who would probably appreciate that. But not me.
The Hard Rock Cafe was as big a disappointment as I had originally thought it would be. All their tweets about what they could offer vegetarians came to nothing as they weren't offering those options at lunchtime. I'm not impressed.