Some people don’t realize that for something to be vegetarian, it doesn’t have ANY meat products…and that includes fish and seafood. Redditor u/Blaise242 recently discovered that the bistro where they work puts oyster sauce in a number of their “vegetarian” dishes and is now debating quitting.
“Full disclosure I am vegetarian so this does hit close to home for me. This may be a controversial post but I would like to start off by saying I don’t despise, judge, or hold any ill-will towards people who eat meat, its just not for me,” they wrote.
“One of the reasons I started this job is because they catered so well to vegetarians and even vegans. They offer tofu options for everything and we serve a large number of vegetarians and vegans. That was actually one of the things that helped me stand out as a server because I could help meet dietary restrictions.”
They continued, “Well, I was trying to improve my skills and learn exactly what goes in every dish here. That’s when I discovered that many of the dishes I order and suggest are made with oyster sauce. I double and triple checked the brand and ingredients. It definitely has both oyster products and fish products. In hindsight it makes sense, these dishes always mess with my stomach. However, I assumed it was because they are rich or have a lot of oil. But I’m very upset that I was misled and served meat and I’m even more upset that I served it to other vegetarians.”
“I don’t think it’s intentional. I once went over to the owners house and they know I’m vegetarian and they made me a dip made with imitation crab (they thought because it was imitation is was vegetarian, it’s not). I assumed they messed up because this was a chill environment. But I had confidence that they knew what they were doing in the kitchen,” they stated.
“Obviously I should talk to them about it. I’ve waited a couple of days since discovering mostly because I had such a visceral emotional reaction and I didn’t want to do anything rash. But I am not confident that talking with them will do anything. They shoot down every idea, plan, and criticism. For example they opened a bar for the restaurant and they refused to even order lemon juice because it’s ‘unnecessary’ for drinks.”
“I’m just at my wits end here and I don’t know what to do. I honestly want to quit. This isn’t the main reason it’s just the straw that breaks the camels back. I mean best case scenario is that they are just grossly incompetent. What would you do? Am I overreacting? Thanks for once again listening to me rant lol” they ended their post.
Redditors told u/Blaise242 they should absolutely inform their bosses…and maybe quit because this doesn’t sound like a great place to work.
