When you're a vegetarian, you often make concessions. A busy day with limited lunch possibilities may indeed mean fries. There may be no salad option on the menu and there may be no chance of going elsewhere. Like most vegetarians, I make concessions and accept a lot I shouldn't have to.
In the last few months, however, I have been repeatedly ticked off by one experience I keep having at so-called 'family' businesses. You may order from a menu, you may go through a line but the basics are that for $8,99 or so, you get two small servings of vegetables and a large serving of meat -- maybe a chicken breast and another piece of chicken (like a leg or wing), or some ribs.
If you're a vegetarian, you know the drill, you ask for a third vegetable. So they give you a little cup of a third vegetable and then they still charge you $9.99.
Let's be really honest here, those green beans they serve? From a can. Oversalted in the cooking. Those mashed potatoes? Instant. You're third vegetable most likely came from a can as well. And those little servings which are either half a cup or one cup of vegetables cost them probably $2.50 -- maybe a little more than that since some are very heavy on the salt.
They're not making a profit off of us, they're gouging us.
And let's point out something else to those lovely 'family' restaurants: Lettuce is more than iceberg and lettuce you serve isn't supposed to be brown. Here's another tip, iceberg lettuce and a slice of tomato isn't a salad, isn't a salad, it's a garnish. You've "dressed up" the plate, you've "framed" the plate, you've "plated" the food but unless we've suddenly dropped back to 1939, you have not made a salad.
I'm a vegetarian and have been all my life. Our numbers are increasing. In addition, there are people who aren't vegetarians but choose to eat an all vegetable lunch to cut calories or to diet. By ripping off customers and providing them with such awful offerings, these restaurants are only hurting themselves. When Wendy's has two different meatless salads on their value menu, people aren't going to keep paying $9.99 for three small servings of over-salted canned vegetables for long. They'll simply stop visiting your place of business.