Vegans and carnivores are battling each other out in an online forum now that an Australian chef has banned all vegans from his Perth restaurant. The UK-born chef, John Mountain, turned to Facebook to air his grievances after he had a run-in with a vegan customer who complained about her meat-free meal and wrote a bad review of his popular restaurant Fyre.
On Facebook, Mountain posted a warning message to all vegan and non-meat eaters that said, “Sadly, all vegans are now banned from Fyre for mental health reasons. We thank you for your understanding. xx”
Mountain owns and operates his restaurant Fyre out of a Perth suburb called Connolly. His Facebook message further explained why he had come to the sweeping decision to ban all vegans from his restaurant.
The celebrity chef wrote, “A young girl reached out to me and said she was coming to the restaurant… and asked if there were vegan options. It was my only shortfall… I said I would accommodate her, I said we had gnocchi, vegetables… and that was that.”
On the day the vegan woman was due to arrive, Mountain completely forgot about her additional accommodations. He had been wrapped up cooking for a busy catering event that was being held at a private party. His sous chef was angry at Mountain for “not telling them about the vegan customer.”
Only one day after her visit to Fyre, the vegan customer took to Facebook to send a direct message to the Fyre account with her complaint about the vegan offering.
“My only option was the vegetable dish… it was okay but not that filling… and I was shocked to see it was $32,” she wrote, according to PerthNow. “I think it’s incredibly important nowadays that restaurants can accommodate everyone, and to not be able to have actual plant-based meals shows your shortcomings as a chef. I hope to see some improvements in your menu as I have lived in Connolly for quite some time and have seen many restaurants come and go from that building, and none of them last. If you don’t get with the times, I don’t hold out faith that your restaurant will be the one that does.”
The restaurant shared a response to the vegan’s complaint, letting her know that her dietary habit is a minority in the location where the restaurant is stationed.
“As for vegans/vegetarians being a very low minority, especially in the northern burbs’ I try to accommodate everyone else,” the restaurant wrote in reply. “Thanks for your negative review… please feel free to share your s**tty experience, and I look forward to not seeing you again. How very childish. You and all your vegan mates can all go and enjoy your dishes in another venue. You are now banned.”
Mountain doubled down on his vegan ban by replying to another disgruntled customer on Google.
“But if you beautiful vegans want to join together and slag off my business, then good luck, keep going, let’s see what my customers think,” he wrote. “And from now on, ALL Vegans are now banned from my restaurant. Thank you for your disgusting review, and please enjoy the Currambine.”
Mountain told PerthNow, “F*** vegans, seriously… I’m done. At the end of the day, it’s not what I want to do; they can f*** off.”
