It's funny because this is the opposite of my experience. The vegan dishes tend to be spiced better and come with a better variety of vegetables/flavours.
But I'm also curious to ask: what would you assume about a vegan restaurant?
But I'm also curious to ask: what would you assume about a vegan restaurant?
My expectation from most restaurants serving vegan food is that they are just trying to have something so that vegan people technically can eat there but not necessarily that they will enjoy it.
It’s not always true. It’s a safe guideline though. I’d say 4/5 cases it’s fair to expect the vegan menu option to be mediocre at best.
This varies by locale too, though. It’s a little easier to find okay options in places with more vegan restaurants in general.
I'm not sure why my comment above deserved all the downvotes though, I was only sharing my own experience and asking a question.
A typical vegan dish when I see it presented at a restaurant or conference is usually one that is primarily based on beans, chickpeas, lentils, and Couscous, usually with minimal spices. On the side there is usually several dips, often variations of Hummus.
There are exceptions. If I see a vegan dish in a Thai restaurant I would assume a different taste and culture, hopefully one based primarily on seaweed and mushrooms.
My default opinion of "vegan" items in menus of non-vegan restaurants is that they seem suspicious and are best avoided (I'm not talking about salads, of course). I tend to assume they are second rate meals put in the menu as an option for vegans who are there to dine with non-vegan friends.
I have been proven wrong on occasion, as some restaurants do offer decent options for vegans without specializing in it, but as a default intuition it seems more often right than wrong.
Vegan restaurants on the contrary can be quite good (again, with exceptions: just as there are bad steak houses or Italian restaurants, so there are bad vegan restaurants!). You just know the vegan items aren't an afterthought because every item is vegan.