May 2010

Following on from our last blog post, we continued to speak to vegetarian restaurants from around the UK about National Vegetarian Week.

Continue reading “Some more great vegetarian restaurants” …

This week is the 18th annual National Vegetarian Week, running from Monday 24th to Sunday 30th. We’ve been busy adding some great veggie and vegan restaurants to our restaurant guide. Along the way, we spoke to a few of them asked them introduce their restaurant and tell us a little about how they are celebrating National Vegetarian Week…

Continue reading “Celebrating National Vegetarian Week at veggie restaurants” …

With around 3% of the population fully vegetarian, and a further 2% abstaining from some elements of the carnivorous spectrum (either just eating fish, or avoiding red meat), vegetarians represent a significant proportion of a modern restaurant’s trade. Whereas eating out as a vegetarian 20 years ago generally meant having a meal “without the meat” and exposing yourself to the relentless “Oh dear, I can’t see any tofu on the menu!” jokes, nowadays it is de rigueur for any self respecting restaurateur to have a decent vegetarian section on their menu, and at least a couple of veggie options on the specials board.

Continue reading “Eating out as a vegetarian” …

We’re incredibly proud to announce that www.thefoodplace.co.uk has been named the 8th most popular website in the Food and Beverage – Restaurants and Catering category for 2009 in the latest round of the Experian Hitwise UK Online Performance Awards.

This is the third year running we have featured in the top 10 sites in this category, and we remain the most popular independently owned (ie: not run by restaurant owners/chefs) restaurant and takeaway guide in the UK.

The annual Experian Hitwise UK Online Performance Awards recognise excellence in online performance through public popularity, awarding websites in more than 60 key industries online.

Few things are as likely to ruin a pleasant night out as the bill arriving and discovering that there is a mix of ‘tippers’ and ‘non-tippers’ in your midst. Attitudes to tipping vary around the world – in the US, it’s ‘the norm’ to tip at least 20%. This is true but many waiters and waitresses in the states earn minimal basic wages. In fact most earn under $3 per hour – that’s about £1.90. The bulk of their income comes from their tips and, when eating out, Americans will factor ‘the tip’ in. This said, many US waiters and waitresses do make a good living – probably earning more than their British counterparts who probably only earn the minimum wage (£4.83 for 18-21 year olds) and get less in tips.

People tend to have strong views either way and – due to the fact that it is a perennial conversation – clearly there is no ‘right’ answer. With this in mind, we thought we’d take a look at some of the arguments on either side of the fence, and put a few of the myths to bed…
Continue reading “To tip or not to tip?” …