Dining Frustrations

For my birthday dinner with family last week I decided to go to Ahmets at Southbank in Bris because I'd been there before and knew that they had a few options I could have. Or so I thought. The turkish bread is made with milk (which I know isn't unusual, I was just hoping they served the non-milk option) so I had carrot and celery sticks with two vegan dips as an entree. The waitress was very nice when I was ordering and took time to explain what I couldn't have, why, and double checked with the chef about what the alternative options were. Apparently the lentil soup I had had there before was not vegan (I can't remember why) but she told me the vegetable casserole was (and it was labelled on the menu as being dairy free), but I couldn't have the side rice it came with because they cooked it with butter, so I could have a salad instead. That was all fine. However, when it came out carried by a different waiter, he told me it was not in fact vegan, and contained butter.

I just found this experience so disheartening because sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you try to explain what you can/can't have, and you feel like you have been understood, but in reality it seems like the service doesn't care. I don't know if the first waitress wasn't as knowledgeable about the cooking process of the food as the second waiter, or if the second waiter didn't know what he was talking about, or if the first waitress got sick of running back and forth to the kitchen and just told me it was vegan so she didn't have to deal with me anymore.

I'm a very quiet, shy person, and it takes a lot of courage to even ask about this stuff in the first place, so I didn't end up demanding to know if it did in fact contain dairy or not, or ask for it to be taken away and something that was actually vegan brought out instead, so I just ate it, and cried.

It wasn't a very good birthday dinner, and next year I will force my family to take me to Loving Hut or somewhere, regardless of how much they think they want steaks etc, and from now on I will definitely call ahead and talk directly to the chef.


In other news, I am busy getting myself organised to go to Vienna in five days. It is difficult because my sisters don't know I'm going with them, so I'm helping them pack and weed out things they don't need (they're going backpacking so space is an issue) and all the time thinking I should really start packing myself, but I can't let them see! :) Very excited to get away to the cold, although it does mean spending christmas away from the boyfriend. But because he is working crazy hours throughout christmas I wouldn't see him anyway.