Vegan restaurants and lousy service
Posted by strummerville on Jun 01, 2008 · Member since Feb 2007 · 5 posts
I am not sure what the cosmic reason is, but for some reason, vegetarian/vegan restaurants all seem to suffer from really slow service. :sleep:
The lone exception I find in San Diego is a place called Sipz, which actually seems to function like a "regular" restaurant, where some one seats you and before long, there are drinks and you are placing an order. I realize that there may be delays in the kitchen especially in small yet popular places where you order and you wait awhile for them to cook it. I am just speaking of the experience between when you enter and when you place the order.
Admittedly, I haven't tried them all, but I will.
do you find the same thing where you live??
Sipz is awesome! Overall I don't think service is any slower in vegan restaurants. Maybe I just never noticed, because I'm so happy to be in a veg restaurant. I thought they were kinda slow @ Veg n Out. Also the girl working there didn't seem to eager to help me & I was the only person there.
The service is slow & the wait always long at Jyoti-Bihanga, but worth it I'd say.
Try Vegan Zone, I thought the service was excellent there. ;)b
Ug - I don't notice a difference in vegan restaurants (especially 'cause we have super swanky Grezzo in Boston), but don't get me started about MooShoes! I went shopping there with Camillus a couple of months ago and the sales SUCKED. It took about ten tries of getting their attention every time we wanted to try something on, and when I finally took a peek to see why the salesperson hung out behind the counter all the time, I saw 3 or 4 IM screens open!! Grrr.... >:(
I can say that all the vegan restaurants I go to do have extreamly slow service--with the lone exception being the indian vegan buffet I eat at--because well--it's a buffet--if the service was slow it would be my fault for not walking to the food fast enough ;D Maybe veg*ns just have a more laid back attitude about service...
There is only one 100% vegan restaurant in Tampa (Grass Roots) and yes, the service is slow, but I think the idea is to get you to relax and enjoy. The restaurant itself is a bit dark inside, there is African inspired jewelry and art decorating the walls, and health and nutrition books and magazines to read while you relax and wait. The people are laid back and friendly and nothing is prepared in advance so it is going to take a bit longer. I don't consider it to be bad service, I consider it to be therapeutic.
I've only eaten in one veggie place...Green's in SA. In there you place your order at a counter, get your own drink and they call you when the food is ready. Maybe it was what we ordered but the food was cooked fast and it was good.
I was at Native Foods in Palm Springs a couple of years ago and the service was REALLY slow. We finally got our food, but we never even got a glass of water to wash it down with. I wonder if all of the Native Foods are that bad? (And the food was just meh.)
I wonder if it's more places that are vegetarian-American, like when you couldn't put them in another category. I haven't experienced really slow service in veg places, but most around here are Chinese, Indian, Hare Krishna or something, where it's a vegetarian group that opens a restaurant, but they're something other than just vegetarianized American food. Although the veg places we always ate in Austin weren't too slow as far as I remember. Hmm, I don't know.
This thread really makes me wish I lived in a place with enough veg restaurants to notice a pattern! Or a vegan shoe store - wow.
I was at Native Foods in Palm Springs a couple of years ago and the service was REALLY slow. We finally got our food, but we never even got a glass of water to wash it down with. I wonder if all of the Native Foods are that bad? (And the food was just meh.)
Really? We love the Palm Springs Native Foods. The staff is always attentive and the food is always very good. Hmmm...it may take a little while to get a food, but it has never been that long.
The Palm Desert location is ok but not great, and the Costa Mesa location is very blah (walk up and order your food like fast food...staff is mostly disinterested teenagers).
We visit Palm Springs once a year. Of course we do other things, but Native Foods is what really gets us excited. Too bad you had a bad experience.
dunno ...
there's a vegan restaurant where i like to eat in Houston, out near the Galleria, and seems service is always pretty good there ...
~ fr
I've only ever been to Sublime in Ft. Lauderdale, but the service was great! Granted it wasn't that busy and I sat at the bar cause I was by myself. I really should try to get out more to veg*n restaurants....
All the places in NYC were soo speedy, but I think it was just NYC
All the places in NYC were soo speedy, but I think it was just NYC
Oh, then you didn't eat at Caravan of Dreams and definitely not at the Organic Grill. Actually, I think the slower-service observation used to o be more accurate in the past when they were generally hippie-type establishments. (Just like many health food stores--not all, but many--used to be dirty, which was my number one pet peeve.) But many of the newer restaurants are more mainstream, and at high end veggies like Candle 79 and Blossom I think the service is very good and maybe even a bit better than their omni counterparts.
The restaurant with the slowest service in the world that just also happens to be veg is Veggie Works, which I think is now called Kayla's Kitchen, or something like that. It is in Belmar, NJ-- an area that has slim pickings for people interested in eating vegetables. It is such a shame, because the food is great, with lots of gluten steaky things and vegan mashed potatoes, etc. But when I walk through the door with my kids, I have to turn around and walk out again because it is very apparent that even though there are empty tables it will be at least 40 minutes until someone takes our order and another 45 minutes or so until our food arrives. It wouldn't matter as much if you were there with friends and some wine (big plus is it is BYOB), because after a couple of drinks you would care less that the wait staff is completely indifferent as to when you get your order, whether you got what you ordered, or if you have any utensils. However, when you go with hugry kids it is very stressful to be waiting an hour and a half for your food . Wait, actually, that's not the stressful part. The really stressful part is dealing with the glaring from your husband who is ticked off that you made the entire family eat there even though you knew it would be a disaster.
All the places in NYC were soo speedy, but I think it was just NYC
Oh, then you didn't eat at Caravan of Dreams and definitely not at the Organic Grill.
Actually, I did go to Organic Grill. It wasn't very slow, only slowest of the vegan places I went. But there was only one guy running the service, so I kind of felt bad...
I've only ever been to Sublime in Ft. Lauderdale, but the service was great! Granted it wasn't that busy and I sat at the bar cause I was by myself. I really should try to get out more to veg*n restaurants....
i LOVE sublime!!! i went there for my vegetarianniversary and it was amazing!! the service wasnt slow, but it was a tuesday night and wasnt very busy. :)>>>
I thought they were kinda slow @ Veg n Out.
well of course, just look at their name!
Veggie Bite in Chicago - slow, crap service, messy, delicious. I hope it stays in business though, I like it even better than Soul Veg. Well, maybe except for the protein tidbits. I like eating in Chicago. I miss when you could actually get full from an entree at the Chicago Diner. Now you ask for a side of vegan mac n cheese, and you get about a heaping spoonful of it. Lame. And even if the wait staff doesn't seem to like anyone at least they're attentive.
I've only ever been to Sublime in Ft. Lauderdale, but the service was great! Granted it wasn't that busy and I sat at the bar cause I was by myself. I really should try to get out more to veg*n restaurants....
i LOVE sublime!!! i went there for my vegetarianniversary and it was amazing!! the service wasnt slow, but it was a tuesday night and wasnt very busy. :)>>>
I think I'm gonna make it up there again....sometime soon! It's sooo much $$ for just me though. :-\
I have only been to one Vegan restaurant when I was in Michigan visiting my fam and the service was great. the guy there was really nice to me and let me sample some of the raw "cheese" also gave me a free smoothie. the food was really good. I will have to find the site and post it.
http://www.myspace.com/magdalenasteahouse
All the vegan restaurants I've been to have been great. Fei's in Albuquerque, NM. is the best. I don't know all the names of places I ate at because I've been all over the US.
There is one place in Rhode Island.. *Garden Grille Café and Juice Bar that gets on my nerves. There's usually only one waitress, one hostess, one girl behind the juice bar, and 2 cooks. When it's packed they are dead slow. I don't mind waiting, but an hour and 15 minutes was ridiculous! They have good food though and the waitress was really nice.
The two veg*n restaurants I've eaten in Asheville had relatively good service as far as quickness. The one place I frequent here is a cafe at the health food store and it's pretty good. I tried the one and only vegan raw food restaurant today for lunch and talked to the waitress about "The China Project" and she never came back. She waited on four or five other tables after me and never came back to take my order, so I got up and left. She probably was scatterbrained by the "busy" lunch hour and wasn't being rude. But after that I didn't want to wait any longer for the food so I just left.
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