Any vegetarians here have issues eating out?...
I'm personally not a vegetarian so this is more a point of amusement than annoyance for me, but both my parents are and since I still live with them my own diet doesn't contain as much meat as it might otherwise.
We eat out as a family a lot however and one thing that has become something of a sticking point is getting restaurants to understand what vegetarian means. Now in this case my parents are lacto-ovo vegetarians which means they don't eat any form of "meat" be it red or white, seafood or otherwise. Eggs and dairy are fine though. You would think this would make it easy as it's no where near as strict as vegans or other specialty vegetarian diets. But you would be surprised how often restaurants either don't care or don't understand. Ironically Chinese restaurants can be some of the worst, my mother is Chinese and we like to eat Asian food a lot. Chinese restaurants here aren't too bad but if you go to China good luck! It's ironic because Buddhism, which heavily influenced China, is mainly a vegetarian religion (don't harm animals). However years of communism in China has basically whipped out religion there and hardships faced by farmers and villagers there traditionally meant that vegetarianism was a luxury, if you had any meat you ATE it! So on our various trips to China my parents had to settle for "mostly" vegetarian. It was inevitable when they ate in restaurants that meat would find its way into dishes. If you asked them if there was meat in the dish, and said you were vegetarian, they would often say no and just interpret it as no big chunks of meat, and seafood isn't meat. etc... Or they might not even know what you are talking about. In big cities though this isn't so much of an issue now as they are as cosmopolitan as anywhere else now.
What surprises me is how often restaurants here mess up too. Again it's often the details that they don't get. OK there's no chunks of meat in the soup, but the soup is made from chicken broth and smells JUST like chicken, lol sorry that's not vegetarian. Or it used to have meat in it but we picked it all out for this dish, again for someone eating vegetarian for 20 years they will taste that. Or, no we didn't add any meat to it, it's all vegetarian. "Oh by the way is this garnish shrimp paste", Yes why?...
Any vegetarians here have these issues?
= new reply since forum marked as read
I never know what to serve when he is here. Today, he couldn't have Caesar dressing because it might have anchovies in it. When I read through the 900 ingredients in very minute print, sure enough, anchovy paste was the very last ingredient. He settled for plain olive oil instead.
Though close. They definitely will eat just about anything at a friends or family's house so long as they are told it has no meat. They aren't going to go look into what actually went into it, to be nice. But they can certainly taste larger amounts of meat and it makes them feel nauseated. So yeah it depends on how concentrated the flavour is. If it's a strong meat flavour, no they can't eat that. If it's at a restaurant or family/friend's they won't complain unless the above is true, they aren't going to look into the ingredients list.
However when it comes to buying stuff for home consumption, they will turn down anything that has any amount of meat in it, even the last ingredient on the label 
Maybe the difference comes down more to manners?
Which is made of melted down animal parts like bone, connective tissue, cartilage...puke. 
Yeah they never make a big fuss about it like some do. I actually hate people who do. I just find it funny how often some places don't get it.
Indian restaurants understand vegetarian very very well. This is because there are several branches of Hinduism that are strictly vegetarian. And yes most Chinese restaurants here get it. The more authentic the Chinese restaurant is the less likely they will understand though, and as I said go to China and all bets are off
I am a lacto-ovo veg yet I constantly struggle when eating out.
Animal products are hidden in so many places these days, including in vegetable dishes that you normally shouldn't have to worry about. The new thing I am hating -- chicken stock in frickin' mashed potatoes!
"Vegetable" soup bases, sauces bases, desserts -- lard and gelatin and fish sauces -- hash browns cooked on the grill at the same time as bacon/sausage -- ack ack ack.
There are entire cuisines I will either not eat or only eat at vegetarian only versions. Luckily we have several really good vegetarian Chinese restaurants here in SF, and many Mexican restaurants that do not use lard or chicken stock in their red sauce.
One thing that makes me MENTAL is watching cooking shows where they take a dish that SHOULD be naturally vegetarian -- you know, like VEGETABLES -- and throw in animal stock in the cooking process.
that's what is used in many restaurants -- makes for those super smooth "mashed potatoes" that are nothing like our grandma's used to make for us. It's all about saving time -- no boiling, no peeling, no mashing. I love a still-chunky mashed potato with the skin on. 
Restaurants are a problem for even the most omnivorous people out there . As the father and husband of 3 beautiful women who have
what I consider to be the most absurd special dietary needs ----I say fuck it !!!!!!!!
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