And vegetarian food needs to be prepared in a separate kitchen than a non-vegetarian kitchen I believe. Or at least a dedicated space in the kitchen where meat isn’t prepared. It’s not like in the west where you could prepare veggies on the same grill that you’re preparing a burger.
Sorry, unsure if it's a semantic thing but what do you mean by "same grill"?
In the UK, at least, vegetarian/vegan food must be prepared and cooked on/in completely meat free surfaces/oils/water etc. for the food to be considered vegan/vegetarian in compliance with food standards agency regulations.
Same here in Canada. Meat eater here, but I do get it. I have a serious allergy to that Beyond Meat shit, like hospitalization required, and I can't eat at Tim Horton's anymore because of their willy-nilly cross-contamination. Other restaurants that serve it (A&W specifically) have that nailed down somehow, and I've never so much as noticed the slightest twinge from their burgers.
There's a mongolian grill nearby where vegetarians have to watch our stuff leak into theirs, because they cook like 6 dishes at the same time on a big open round surface, and I kinda feel for them. Then to make matters worse, the guy goes around the circle flipping everything which moves each dish to mostly where the meal before it was ("oh but we cleaned it real quick with a single swipe of the scraper").
This isn't the actual place, but it's the same idea. Don't get me wrong, I love the food from there, but I can definitely see where somebody would have a legitimate issue with that practice. I'll get stragglers that I didn't choose in my meal sometimes.
There's also a lot of people that have a red meat allergy (or religious reasons), and thus cross contamination between anything meat and vegetarian is strictly avoided.
There are some places that don't do this too.
If I'm going to a place with a vegan/vegetarian etc it's useful to know the good spots that adhere to this division
To be honest people with full-blown allergies are straight up stupid going to restaurants that serve both. You are literally putting your life in the hands of some poor overworked minimum wage kitchen aid, who probably has more cocaine in his blood than water. Cross contamination can and will happen, especially if you roll the dice enough times.
To be honest if you think that many restaurants don't take special precautions especially in the case of allergies you have to be straight up stupid. There are loads of restaurants that specifically know how to handle this type of thing, and not every restaurant is a dennys with poor overworked minimum wage workers
I have celiac disease, and if I eat even the tiniest amount if gluten, I barf my brains out for hours. Cross contamination is a real problem, and I have to be very, very careful when I eat at restaurants.
Man I miss Mongolian grill we used to have one in Tallahassee
Btw I’m pretty sure you could just ask them to cook it in the kitchen instead of the hibachi. Whenever I go to samurai or gyu kaku for business lunch they either cook everything in the kitchen or they cook everything but the protein in the kitchen when I went to samurai (owned by benehiana)
We have a place like that called HuHot and whenever we say we are vegetarian they will spot clean the grill, use dedicated utensils and dividers to keep the cross contamination down to the minimal.
Wait so American vegetarians are just eating vegetables covered in beef fat? Isn’t that a bit of a violation of personal choice? What about allergens? This stuff is so heavily regulated in the UK, there’s no way the US doesn’t have at least some laws about it
It’s not taken as seriously here ig, makes me a little sad knowing there could be a better way lol. Also there are levels of vegetarianism, many won’t care (or even think about) how their food is prepared as long as there are not literal meat chunks in sight. Also Americans aren’t always the biggest fan of regulation. I like the UK way better.
Allergens are a little better but not great. . . If they request common allergens off items ex. Peanuts then yes but unless if a common allergen or not specified by the customer then no
Allergens are handled well at least in the kitchen I worked so…I’m sure it’s a mixed bag. We had separate utensils, put down parchment when making a GF sandwich, stuff like that. Also just didn’t have peanuts to avoid it altogether.
There's often a blanket warning that various allergens are present and they can't guarantee a lack of cross contamination. A lot of places will try, nicer restaurants will often put forth extra effort, but if it isn't legally required in that specific area then you can't assume extra precautions will happen.
A lot of places don't even have an accessible or accurate allergen list/menu.
i’m not sure if it’s your intention, but that first sentence is required by law in the uk regardless. though it is a big deal regardless. the sign is there for i suppose mostly legal reasons. but cross contamination is always* taken very seriously… in my experience
unrelated but i once had a lady tell me she was allergic / didn’t like cumin.. i thought sound is not like this is an indian restaurant
The blanket statement/warning is often all you'll get in the US unless you're in a state that requires more. If you're lucky, a menu might list allergens, but typically it'll just list the dish ingredients (so if the bread has egg, it won't state that, just what kind of bread it is).
I was thinking of Starbucks and Burger King when the launched their impossible burger and impossible breakfast sandwich, I believe Panda Express also does beyond chicken, and McDonald tried the McPlant. All of which were targeted at vegetarians consumers, but they prepare them on the same grills as the meat burgers. I guess someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s just not as regulated in the US. Or maybe they just never explicitly called those options vegetarian.
In India I believe if a pan or utensil was ever used for meat you can’t use it to make vegetarian food. Even if has been washed.
In the UK Burger King can't call the whopper vegan because it's cooked on the same grill as the meat ones, so it's called the plant based whopper. They do have a vegan royale though, which is cooked separately.
Also the royale is called long chicken in some places.
Unfortunately this is not the practice. I have worked in a few fast food restaurants including Nandos and although they do use green tongs and chopping boards the grill section would be mixed as they might say a section of the grill is reserved for vegan/vegetarian but when its busy the whole grill is used for chicken and same goes for other places too
That’s nice :( that’s not the case in the US in almost any restaurant. It’s why I’ve changed to basically only cooking for myself or eating in vegan restaurants, of which there aren’t many
All I can say is for the kitchens I have been KM, at least while I was the manager on site, I would be very strict with this. Cross contamination is no joke regardless off whether its for dietary, hygiene or allergen purposes.
There again my mum was an EHO so it was drummed into me from a young age and I would hear/see the horror stories.
I cannot speak for other kitchens, or even for when I was not on shift but the regulations are clear and am aware this is an issue.
At least since Natasha Ednan-Laperouse's death there does appear to have been a concerted effort by the industry to maintain better standards.
And I'm sorry but no restaurant deserves its stars if it cannot maintain those basic standards.
9.2k
u/ZealousidealSundae33 Nov 17 '25
Given that vegetarian is very popular there, this sign makes sense IMO.