Can Vegans Eat Here?

Eating out at restaurants can be difficult when you have food allergies or dietary requirements. I know with my family going out for a meal can be quite the novel when ordering what we want. Most waitresses now a days are really cool with taking our orders and usually say “oh you are one of ‘those’ families”. So that got me thinking about the chain restaurants and what they had to offer us vegans. Seeing that they are big box restaurants and all of their menus in Canada should be the same, I thought that they would be able to tell me what meals they could offer. So I set off to email 5 major restaurants, Montana’s, Boston Pizza, Original Joe’s, Chili’s and Earls and this is what I wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if you could tell me all of your menu items that do not contain any meat, dairy or eggs. I am a vegan and would love to continue to eat at your restaurant. I understand that you cannot guarantee the cross contamination of the food in the kitchen but I was just wondering the actual ingredients in the meals themselves. Thank you and I look forward to your response.

Kindly,

Nikki Clark Murray

I didn’t know what I was expecting, maybe a them saying that I could safely eat the lettuce and the water and that’s all they could promise me or maybe a detailed list explaining everything. Any route I was just wanting to see what the upper management could tell me about the food that their company sells. And really, I can’t be the first one to email them about vegan food, surely they would already have this question answered. Right?

Well out of the 5 restaurants, I have received  emails back, Chili's still hasn't replied.

And these are their responses:

This is the email that I got from Montana’s in response to my question:

Dear Ms.  Murray,

Thank you for contacting Montana’s restaurants with your inquiry.
All of our allergen information can be found at the website below.http://www.montanas.ca/pdf/nutrition.pdf

Where cross contamination may be a concern regarding allergies, it is
important that you speak with your server at the restaurant so that they
can minimize the possibility of cross contamination occurring in the
kitchen. Please advise them of all allergy concerns you have prior to
ordering to ensure your concerns are addressed.

As well, please be advised that there is always the possibility for cross
contamination to occur and that we cannot guarantee your item will not
come in contact with allergens in our other food items.

We value your patronage and look forward to serving you in the near
future.

Sincerely,
Montanas Guest Services

Miranda

Well the link to the nutritional information didn’t work, but luckily it wasn't hard to find on their website. To access the PDF file you go to the website and click on the menu button, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on nutritional guide. You will get a PDF file which states all of the allergens in each menu item. The only problem with this is it doesn’t tell you what you can have with substitutions. Such as, the veggie burger has cheese on it so it is listed as having milk ingredients, but if I was to remove the cheese would it be dairy free? So this some what helps you in deciding if you can eat out at Montana’s but you are going to have to ask your server when you order. The only things that were safe on the menu was the guacamole, fries, sweet potato fries (if they aren’t deep fried with other meat or dairy), plum sauce, salsa, Thai sauce, and it says that the baked potato contains dairy but that is something I would ask about because it could just that they add sour cream to it. Other than that everything else contains milk, eggs or meat.

This is the response that I got from Boston Pizza

Hello Nikki,

Due to the periodic product substitutes from our suppliers we cannot provide allergen information except at the store level.

Please feel free to contact one of our staff member the next time we visit us and we will gladly provide you with any specific allergen questions you may have. For Boston Pizza locations and contact information please visit us at  http://www.bostonpizza.com/en/locations/

We value you patronage to our restaurants and once again thank you for contacting us.

Kind regards,  

Joe Avila

Guest Services Manager

Boston Pizza International Inc.

I looked on their website and they only have a gluten free menu listed along with the nutritional information. So as it looks right now you need to ask your waitress about what foods you can have and be specific in what you are asking. I had one waitress bring me fries with a mayo dipping sauce because she didn’t know that mayo was made from eggs.

This is the response I received from Earls,

Dear Nikki, Thank you for contacting us about our Vegan options. We understand dining out when you are a vegan can be limiting at times and as all of our recipes are made from scratch, we are aware of exactly what is in each product and all of our Chefs are trained to be aware of specific dietary needs so that we can easily accommodate vegan customers on the spot; however, if you wish to call the head chef of the Earls restaurant in your area, they will be happy to answer specific questions about any menu items and discuss your options for future reference. At this time we do not have a Vegan specific menu on hand but it is something that you will see from us in the future as we do pass all comments about our menu to our Product Development and Menu Teams for their review. We hope to see you in Earls soon! Sincerely, Miko Bryson Earls Restaurants Ltd

This was the response I was hoping for with the previous two restaurants. They are not giving me exact menu items but they are reassuring me that as a vegan I am able to eat there. Also stating that in the possible future there might be a vegan menu is an added bonus because it makes me feel that they are taking into consideration people's dietary need.
Plus I feel that the response wasn't just generated by a computer, it was actually written by a human being, which is always a nice touch. Like when calling a customer service line, you want to talk to a person not an automated answering service. 

This is the respsonse I got from Original Joe’s, by far the best response I received.

Hello Nikki,
Unfortunately we do not have a ton of vegan options available.  I have however, compiled a list of options that you may have with some simple modifications.  Please see the attached word document.

I hope this helps you to still enjoy a meal with us and if you have any other questions please feel free to contact me directly at jbates@franworks.com

Thank you,

Jason Bates |Operations Specialist |Regional Kitchen Manager |Franworks Group of Companies

This is the information he supplies me through a Word Document:

VEGAN OPTIONS

MAIN DISHES
**Dragon Boat Lettuce Wraps – ask for no noodles and no chicken.
Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl – ask for no chicken and no spiced yogurt.
Tomato Basil Linguini – ask for no cheese, bread or panko topping.
*Mixed Greens Salad – ask for no almonds and no cranberries. (cranberries are produced in a facility with milk ingredients)
Spinach Salad – ask for no cheese, bread, almonds or cranberries.
Thai Chicken Salad – ask for no bread and no chicken.
*West Coast Chop – ask for no cheese, bread, cranberries and almonds.
*Veggie Burger – ask for no bread or cheese and choose from the sides listed below.

SIDES
Broccolini – ask for no butter.
*Fresh Veggies & Dip – ask for no ranch, choose a salad dressing from below.
Home Cut Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Sweet Potato Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Mixed Greens – no almonds or cranberries
**Hummus – ask for no bread and have vegetables instead
**Quinoa Salad

DRESSINGS
Oil & Vinegar
Balsamic Berry Vinaigrette
Italian

* I have personally tried them
**my favourites

I don’t know about you but I am super impressed with the information and effort put forward by Jason. Not only did he get back to me within hours of my email, but he typed up a list of everything I am able to eat. Even stating that the cranberries were made in a facility with milk ingredients. This not only makes me want to go back to OJ’s it makes me want to promote them as a business. If only other chain restuarants could have emailed me back with a more indepth email I would feel the same about it. So I gues chalk one up for Original Joe’s!

Hopefully the other restaurant will get back to me soon, when they do I will post their responses!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N